Threatening Email or Profanity Laced Ranting

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Wy

Just a simple question.
Would you consider this email I received as a threatening email or a profanity laced ranting email??

First some background which is mostly useless and very long winded but it adds some information. In late 2005 I graduated in the area of computer software programming and analyst with very high marks. The bottom fell out of the IT market and I had to work labor on graveyards for under 9 an hour in a warehouse. I found an ad in the paper for a software developer in late 2006. I sent an email resume. I was contacted back with a link to the software company website and a phone number. It was a work from home, provide my own computer, provide my own development software, and he verbally said 50 an hour cash. Ya I know that should of been a high sign to walk away but times were tough and I needed better income. When I got started to develop he says no I had to bid on each piece of code and get approved for that dollar amount and chunk of code before I start. This was nonsense since their is no way to know how long it will take for coding. I told him I could not work under these conditions and that I felt he changed the method of pay. Emails went back and forth for a few days with him threatening lawsuits for possible future piracy of his software. He continued arguing about his closed source code. It was open source such that it was interpreted by the machine and not compiled. Anybody installing it had access to the code. Since I graduated nearly straight A's every semester and refused to work under his modified pay schedule I think he was simply mad and ranting legal trash threat talk. I had returned all his disks and paperwork via signed FedEx.

Three and half years later I received an anonymous message in my mail box at school with a case number and a link to pacer.gov which you all know what that is. The note said they worked with me in my past and wanted me to have a heads up on this guy. After checking out the case number at pacer.gov I found between 100 and 200 pages of court case documents for over a year period of him being sued for software piracy. The lawsuit alleged he removed the copyright, put his company name on it, changed some of the code around, and resold it to other city governments for use on their computers. I sent him two emails asking him about any similarities to what he wanted me to work on. I was trying to find out if there were any laws broken. He never replied so I sent a third email and included the name of the software company who filed the lawsuit against him. At that point he sent an email threatening to take legal action if I ever revealed to anybody that he had been sued. Interesting threat since pacer is publicly available to anyone. He also threatened again with lawsuits for possible future piracy of his software. I was considering libel or slander but that is probably very thin at best so I just let it go. So that was the end at that point.

Here it is late 2012 I had long since forgotten this person. My very young son and I had just finished having some dinner in the mall. We walked in the mall for a few minutes and low and behold there was this guy again walking right in my path towards me. Just as I passed him I said software piracy suit. Within a couple of seconds he turns 180 degrees and proceeds to come after me and my son. I look back and he is walking fast. We walk a little faster and he then walks even faster. We head to the right path in the mall away from him and he heads to the right behind us moving faster. An operation had left me semi disabled with meralgia paresthetica in both legs. There is no way I could outrun this guy. Feeling threatened by his continued fast pursuit especially for my son's well being I stopped and pulled a folded knife out of the case on my belt. He instantly stops and goes back the other direction. I contacted mall security, and spoke with all the stores in the area hoping maybe a camera was pointed in that direction. Most of the stores cameras are on their product and cash register areas. Only one store may have video but their cameras pan and there is only a slim chance of catching an event that lasted about a minute or two. They said they could not release any information except for a court order assuming anything was taped.

The following is the email I sent to this guy after we got home that night. I will use ~HisName~ in place of his name, ~ThirdPartyNameHere~ for the software company who sued him, and ~MyEmailAddress~ for my email address.

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Subject: You scared an 11 year old child in the mall today ~HisName~

I walked passed you in the mall today. After recognizing your face I said "software piracy suit" as I walked past you. You turned and came after me and an 11 year old child who is relation in a fast, aggressive, and threatening manner. The 11 year child was terrified of the look in your face and how fast you were moving towards him.Threatening a child in any manner is very serious ~HisName~. There were witness, several cameras were pointed in the direction showing you turning and coming after me and the 11 year old child in a fast and threatening manner. The 11 year child pointed you out in an online picture half an hour after we got home with no problem.

Consider this a legal and binding CEASE AND DESIST. I am DIRECTLY ordering you to NEVER go anywhere near me and NEVER go anywhere near any of my family members EVER again. Especially in a threatening manner like you did in the mall today. I will file a lawsuit against you if it ever happens again ~HisName~.


BTW, I received links and data to the publicly available case files in my mail box on the lawsuit against you about one or two years ago in school. I am referring to the one about the software piracy suit filed by ~ThirdPartyNameHere~ several years ago. I saw the scanned evidence in the lawsuit documents in addition to the other evidence in those online files. A very good long read and in my opinion the evidence was overwhelming against you ~HisName~. In my opinion it would not look good to anybody that would read it from start to stop. I do find it odd that you would FALSELY claim I would pirate your software ~HisName~ after reading the case against you.

Once more consider this a legal and binding CEASE AND DESIST. I am DIRECTLY ordering you to NEVER go anywhere near me and NEVER go anywhere near any of my family members EVER again. Especially in a threatening manner like you did in the mall today. I will file a lawsuit against you if it ever happens again HisName.

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Now his return email which I would like to know if it would be considered a threatening email or a profanity laced ranting email. I should note in his second paragraph he claimed I hassled him for 8 years. I have only known him for 6 years. The claims in his second paragraph are all false. In my defense it sounds like desperation on his part since he should of never pursued me and my son in the mall. His email was received after the mall incident of less than 24 hours prior. It is full of very bad words so I will use a code. I will use ~HisName~ in place of his name, ~ThirdPartyNameHere~ for the software company who sued him, and ~MyEmailAddress~ for my email address.

BLANK1 is where he used the F word.
BLANK2 is where he used the A word.
BLANK3 is where he used the P word.

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Subject: Re: You scared an 11 year old child in the mall today ~HisName~

You are such a BLANK1ing Liar. You and your boy knows exactly what you said. The boy even laughed at it. Have some balls and if you want to call someone a name .... back it the BLANK1 up.

Listen you '~MyEmailAddress~" (I thought I blocked you) or should I say Corn Dog cooker. You have been hassling me for about 8 years, you have sent emails to my work, you harass me on my email, you call with threats, you BLANK1 with my house and vehicles and the only thing I did to you is fire you from my company when you were acting like a flake on dope. I know that's not the first time you were fired, so what's the big deal.

As for the lawsuit we had settled over 13 years ago that states we cannot talk about it and neither can ~ThirdPartyNameHere~, but if you have been talking about
it with ~ThirdPartyNameHere~ that is real interesting. I don't give a BLANK1 what you think about that lawsuit or my company but the harassment of me and my family ends yesterday.

I also don't give a BLANK1 what your son thinks of his BLANK3y Dad hiding behind him in the mall. But if you ever pull a knife on me again I will stick it up your BLANK2 and turn you into a pop sickle. Yes, the Mall does have you pulling the knife on camera and asked if I wanted to press charges. I said no because of you hiding behind your son, your boy was the only thing that saved you from getting a strong talking to by me.

In the future you better keep your mouth shut when you see people that you don't like or someone is going to teach you a lesson about calling people names.

I will block this e-mail again and in the future do not contact me again in
any way shape or form!!!!!!!!!

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Mall security and one of the security person in the store said I should call the police and report the incident especially since there was a child involved. They highly recommended to give them the email.

I think you should avoid this guy, and not egg him on when you see him.

- - - Updated - - -

p.s. what is a corn dog cooker? He totally lost me there.

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Quoting mmmagique

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I think you should avoid this guy, and not egg him on when you see him.

- - - Updated - - -

p.s. what is a corn dog cooker? He totally lost me there.

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I agree about that. He has some issues. I think when he gets caught at something he will rant on quite a bit. I had totally forgotten him for several years. I wish I had seen the pacer file before ever applying. I had never heard of pacer.gov until I got the message in my mail box. That type of lawsuit is a bad situation to get involved with as a new college graduate. I am not sure what a corn dog cooker is either. He lost me their as well. More ranting maybe.:p

Too bad. I even did a google search thinking it was some sort of new fangled insult. Hmmm...maybe I'll start using it! *lol*

It sounds like you scared an 11 year old child in the mall. It also sounds like you pulled out a weapon, then gestured with it in a threatening manner. Had he stayed, you could have been arrested.

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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Consider this a legal and binding CEASE AND DESIST. I am DIRECTLY ordering you to NEVER go anywhere near me and NEVER go anywhere near any of my family members EVER again. Especially in a threatening manner like you did in the mall today. I will file a lawsuit against you if it ever happens again ~HisName~.


Once more consider this a legal and binding CEASE AND DESIST. I am DIRECTLY ordering you to NEVER go anywhere near me and NEVER go anywhere near any of my family members EVER again. Especially in a threatening manner like you did in the mall today. I will file a lawsuit against you if it ever happens again HisName.

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Cool story Bro! For the record...your cease and desist is close to worthless. Parts of it are neither legal nor binding. You can tell him not to contact you but you can't forbid him from coming anywhere near you or your family. Only a court of law can put that kind of restriction on someone's movements. It's called a restraining order/TPO/whatever your state uses and private parties can't just hand them out willy-nilly.

And yes, he could have pressed charges against you for pulling the knife on him. There are very strict rules on when you can bring a deadly weapon to a party and your situation ain't it. Would the charges stick? Who knows but it still would have caused you a lot of grief.

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Quoting free9man

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Cool story Bro! For the record...your cease and desist is close to worthless. Parts of it are neither legal nor binding. You can tell him not to contact you but you can't forbid him from coming anywhere near you or your family. Only a court of law can put that kind of restriction on someone's movements.

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Thanks for the info. I was not sure as I have heard of other people giving verbal warnings with the cease and desist words on them. I guess if it has little to no legal value then others I have heard about who use it are also wasting the words. I expected a harsh reply email from him on this issue but I did not expect one filled with so much profanity, violent threats, and false statements mixed with partial truths. He seems to have a very short temper even violent threats in this case whenever you call him on an issue.

I did contact the mall security the next day. I spoke with them for a while about this issue. I was told to contact them if he comes near me again in the mall. They also informed me that I was the only person who reported the incident. So his email reply that claims the mall had asked him if he wanted to press charges sounds like false statements. If charges were pressed it was self defense since I could not outrun him and he continued pursuing us around the corner in the mall. That part I am not worried about. Also the only cameras were in one store and I was told they pan left and right. They can only release video information with a court order. Their security said they would label the videos if they find anything just in case. This guy sounds to be stretching the facts out of shape in his email reply. To be honest I did not expect him to pursue us the way he did in the mall.

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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I did contact the mall security the next day. I spoke with them for a while about this issue. I was told to contact them if he comes near me again in the mall.

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That's what you should have done the first time. If he continues to be a problem, they can ban him from the mall.

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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So his email reply that claims the mall had asked him if he wanted to press charges sounds like false statements.

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Kinda like yours about it all being on video and having witnesses huh?

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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If charges were pressed it was self defense since I could not outrun him and he continued pursuing us around the corner in the mall. That part I am not worried about.

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You should be worried. It's not self-defense to pull a weapon on someone who is unarmed, especially when you had many other options: Going into a store and asking for security. Going to security yourself. Screaming at the top of your lungs "Stop following us. You are scaring my son" which would get security's attention.

If he had been carrying a firearm when you drew the knife, he could have shot you dead in front of your son. He would have a much better self-defense claim than you.

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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Also the only cameras were in one store and I was told they pan left and right. They can only release video information with a court order. Their security said they would label the videos if they find anything just in case. This guy sounds to be stretching the facts out of shape in his email reply. To be honest I did not expect him to pursue us the way he did in the mall.

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You don't need video to press charges. It helps but is not necessary. It is simply a "he said, he said" case. You stretched your facts too ya know.

But legalities of his and your actions, I agree with mmmagique...just steer clear of the clown. Don't bother him and he won't bother you. Speaking of which, you kicked off the whole confrontation with your smart remark to him.

I too am curious about the corndog cooker thing. Maybe he was trying to say something else.

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Quoting free9man

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Kinda like yours about it all being on video and having witnesses huh?

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Good point. But then I did not know the other store cameras were panning left to right until after I spoke with the security person in the store. They are behind the dark hemispheres and one way glass. So yes, I spoke to soon in my initial email, I certainly agree with that.

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Quoting free9man

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You should be worried. It's not self-defense to pull a weapon on someone who is unarmed, especially when you had many other options: Going into a store and asking for security. Going to security yourself. Screaming at the top of your lungs "Stop following us. You are scaring my son" which would get security's attention.

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Unfortunately no mall security was in that area. I never thought about screaming super loud at that very instant. That actually may have deterred him from continuing his pursuit. I was more concerned with getting away from him in that very instant but he continued to move faster when ever we moved faster. I am simply not physically capable to get away from him. I was attempting to avoid him by moving at my best speed. As he got closer I pulled a folded knife from the carrier sheath on my belt and it was enough for him to stop his pursuit. He turned back to his original direction walking away. I placed the folded knife back in the carrier sheath on my belt. We did not pursue him at all but rather continued in the same direction away from him into the store with many cameras under hemispheres and one way glass pointing to the mall area. I am reasonably certain even with the cameras panning they had to of taped us in the store. We used the bathroom and stayed in the store for a while to make sure he was not around. So nope, I am not worried in the least about a self defense issue in this case. I did the right thing by trying to evade him first and when that did not work I stepped up to self defense mode showing that I was armed.

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Quoting free9man

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But legalities of his and your actions, I agree with mmmagique...just steer clear of the clown. Don't bother him and he won't bother you. Speaking of which, you kicked off the whole confrontation with your smart remark to him.

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I never thought about this guy until that point. I had not talked with him in years. And yes. the software piracy remark was a bad thing on my part. I should of not said it. I honestly did not expect him to get so angry and chase after us in a mall for saying three words. I think he has a very short fuse and maybe some anger issues if three words can set him off.

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Quoting free9man

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I too am curious about the corndog cooker thing. Maybe he was trying to say something else.

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Still no clue, I also searched it and only got actual corn dog cooker for sale links.

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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Still no clue, I also searched it and only got actual corn dog cooker for sale links.

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Maybe he thinks you work somewhere making corn dogs? :confused:

Ewwwww.....I found some slang terms based on corn dog that he may have been referring to. Google "corn dog slang" at your own risk.

Honestly....

you instigated the possible confrontation.

It reminds me of a little boy taunting another kid, then running to the principal "Jimmy followed me! Make him stop! Wah!".

You have a child. So act like an adult. If you see this guy in the mall or someplace, just turn and walk the other way.

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Quoting PandorasBox

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Honestly....
you instigated the possible confrontation.

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As I said before the software piracy remark was a bad idea on my part. I really did not expect him to get so fired up in anger to chase us in the mall. I expected a hard email reply from him but not one with so much profanity and threats of physical violence. In my opinion this person has a short fuse and some anger issues. I had only met one other person in life who was extremely old. Almost anything you said to him would fire him up instantly to much profanity and open violent threats.

Yep, I agree to avoid this person at all times is good advice. He could be dangerous to me physically especially since he is about 100 pounds heavier and about 6 inches taller than me.

You never know how short a fuse a person may have, or if they may be armed. Better to avoid a confrontation when possible :)

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Quoting PandorasBox

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You never know how short a fuse a person may have, or if they may be armed. Better to avoid a confrontation when possible :)

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Good advice.:)

thanks,

I did let my son read the email reply. He had to know about this person. My son said his claim about him laughing was not true. My son also said he did not hear me say anything to him. Maybe because it was very noisy. At the time we were there in the early evening. There were a lot of teenagers in the mall and it was very noisy. I guess this guy could have been mistaken or maybe some false statements. who knows.

Lots of advice and comments so far. Thanks to anybody who posted. I would still appreciate opinions if anybody posting here would give their opinions. Would his email reply be considered a threatening email or just a ranting email.

Thanks in advance

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Quoting free9man

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Maybe he thinks you work somewhere making corn dogs? :confused:

Ewwwww.....I found some slang terms based on corn dog that he may have been referring to. Google "corn dog slang" at your own risk.

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hahaha! Here is my favorite definition!

"you know what, all of you guyz are weird and perverted beacause corndog isn't only this sexual term. Just because this is an urban dictionary, doesn't mean that you can put these whack perverted definitions. A corn dog is a hot dog on a stick with this corn bread wrapping often sold at carnivals, street fairs, amusment parks, and hot dog trucks.

Kid(8 years old): DADDY!!! I want a corn dog really bad!!!!!
Father: Okay-
(passing perverted teen): No kid, you do NOT want a corn dog. You are a bad bad father, you are!!!"

Your original post said this: "Just as I passed him I said software piracy suit."

At this point, you both are in the same mall. You can pass by each other without saying anything or acting threatening (AKA...be adults). If it is a random occurrence....the police aren't gonna do anything. Same town, same mall..you both have the right to be there. Now if he's there everytime you are (and vise versa)...ok, now we have an issue called harassment, possible stalking. SUGGESTION: If you're at the mall and he is...you can leave, or go to a store at the opposite side of the mall.

Next:
I don't see where he really threatens you. I see how if you pull a knife on him again, he will take action, but not arming himself with his own knife. He's not threatening to come to your house and kick your ass, he is not threatening to stalk your every move.

Listen: You have a kid to think of. Be an adult, lead by example. I have a few people in this world I hate with a passion...if we were to be in the same store, I would just walk by and ignore them. That simple.

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Quoting PandorasBox

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Your original post said this: "Just as I passed him I said software piracy suit."

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I think I understand where you are going with your words. You seem to be trying to show that you that could not see any threat. The fact is we gave him every opportunity to quit tailing us. Every time we changed direction he changed direction. Every time we increased speed he increased speed. This happened several times. He was following our every move in sync. I felt threatened and my son also believed the guy was a threat to us. He was about 100 pounds heavier and 6 inches taller than me giving him an advantage in strength and speed. After multiple attempts to avoid his advance I pulled my foldable knife out of the sheath. At that point revealing it was proof that it was not concealed but of course it was visible in the sheath. He stopped and went back to his original direction. The knife went back in my sheath and we continued into the store away from him. I did not need to use the knife for self defense in this case. Simply put I believed the man was a threat to me and my son. My action convinced him to stop advancing in our direction. Problem solved. Common law.

I have read several of the state self defense laws and the federal law. None say I can only swing a club to defend against another swinging club. None say I can only block with a two foot stick if they block with a two foot stick. The state and federal laws I have read stated as long as I felt threatened or I feel another individual is threatened are the only requirements. If you know of some laws that are more specific with details by all means please post the links. I enjoy reading laws. As far as Wyoming knife laws I do believe that there are no knife laws in Wyoming that limit the blade size or how you carry it. In fact I believe you can carry full length samurai sword across your back with twine, a huge bowie knife juggling in your hands, a long hunting knife on your waste, and in my case a folded knife in a sheath on my belt. Many types of knifes like mine are sold in that mall. There may be some concealed weapon laws in Wyoming.

Thanks for your post. I was actually asking for those to post opinions on the email reply itself. Do they believe the email reply from him was a threatening email or a ranting email. That is the original title of this thread. Thanks

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Quoting EliteProgrammer

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Would his email reply be considered a threatening email or just a ranting email.

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A rant. Very similar to yours, in fact.

He replied to your email. It was not a threat at all and does not appear to fit the definition of any criminal act in WY or elsewhere. He was saying he wanted you to leave him alone, too. This sounds like it is all said and done unless you keep stirring the pot. Let it go, it's done.

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Quoting cdwjava

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A rant. Very similar to yours, in fact.

He replied to your email. It was not a threat at all and does not appear to fit the definition of any criminal act in WY or elsewhere. He was saying he wanted you to leave him alone, too. This sounds like it is all said and done unless you keep stirring the pot. Let it go, it's done.

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Thanks much for your reply. Appreciated.