Mad Max & the Wild Ones are a family rockabilly band made up of Mad Max (Dad) and his three sons; Wyatt (age 18), Cole (age 14), Duke (age 9) and mom Angela as Band Manager. They love rockabilly music, old cars, old motorcycles, old STUFF in general! The family does almost everything together. They travel all over the country and even over seas to play music. They are genuinely amazing artists and humble people that we are glad to know. These are good people.
(Click Here for a video from a Wild Ones show in New Zealand)
Everywhere they go they are always searching the thrift shops, junk yards and small towns for old 'treasures'.
On June 20, 2010 (Father's Day) they were driving back to Utah from Idaho where they had been performing at a music festival. They had decided to take the long way home and go through a little town called Kemmerer, WY where Max & Wyatt had bought an old 1950's motorcycle last year. They had really hit it off with the guy who sold it to them. They had spent hours talking about old cars, bikes, etc. They thought it would be a fun Father's Day activity to go "treasure hunting" and see if this fellow had any more old cars, etc. They arrived at the town around 5:00pm. They parked the motor home they were driving at the park in the center of town. Angela (Mom), Cole, Duke and Jessie (Wyatt's girlfriend) stayed at the park while Max and Wyatt began to walk around town trying to remember where the guy's house was.
They walked up one street and spotted a couple of old cars in a field. They walked up to the house on the property to inquire about the cars. They knocked on the door. They could hear sounds coming from inside the house but no one came to the door. So, they walked back around the block and as they were passing the property again from the back a man came from the direction of the house. They thought it might be the owner, looking for whoever was knocking. They walked toward him and called out, "Excuse me sir!" The man looked at them, turned around and ran away. Max and Wyatt were a little confused about this. They followed the man through the field to the front of the house, but he was gone. At that moment a police officer drove up, got out of his vehicle and began to shout at them. "What is your business in this town?!"
They explained to the officer what they were doing. He demanded their information. They gave it to him and he ran it through his computer. As neither of them have a criminal record, nothing came up. The officer returned from his vehicle and the man who had run away before came walking up in a big hurry. The other man began shouting, about an inch from Max's face, "I saw you f-ing trespassing on that property!" They told him they were only trying to get his attention.
The policeman informed them that this man was an off duty Sheriff's deputy and the one who had called the police. (What kind of Sheriff's deputy, off duty or not, runs away from someone?! What if they had been asking for help?) Wyatt asked if it was against the law to walk on the sidewalk? The officer said, "If we don't know you then yes it's against the law." Both the police officer and the "off-duty sheriff's deputy" continued to bully them and curse at them for several minutes. It seemed that the two men were trying to get them to start a fight. They were told repeatedly to "get the f*** out of MY town" and "get the f*** off of MY sidewalks!" Max calmly told the officer that "where we are from we don't treat visitors to our town this way." The officer came very close to Max' face and said, "Well, you're not at home anymore. You're in Kemmerer, Wyoming and if you don't get the f*** outta here you're gonna wake up somewhere you don't want to be." The other man told them, "We don't like strangers in our town."
The officer kept one hand on his gun and the other hand on his taser the whole time. At one point he told Wyatt, "Keep your f***ing hands out of your pockets unless you want to get 'accidentally' shot!" Max and Wyatt realized that there would be no winning this argument with this kind of people. So, they turned to leave. Max turned back to the officer and requested his badge number. This infuriated the officer. He yelled, "If you don't f***ing get back to your motor home and get out of town you are going to jail!" The two turned and walked back to the motor home where they re-told the story to Angela and the other kids.
When Angela heard about the way they were treated she was furious! Call it a mother's protective instinct or whatever, she did not like someone abusing their position of
power and intimidating her son and husband that way. She felt it was almost a civic duty to file a formal complaint against the officer. Maybe that might keep him from treating other people this way. They drove to the court house/police station/jail which was right across the street from where the whole thing had happened. After trying the front doors and finding them locked she started walking around the sidewalk to the back of the building. The police officer drove up next to her and shouted out, "Do you people still have a problem?" She said, "Yes, I have a big problem with the way that you spoke to my son. I am going to need your badge number." He shouted out, "I don't have to give you sh*t! And you can't file a complaint anyway because there's nobody in that building today!" She simply said, "We'll see" and turned away from him and continued to the rear entrance of the building.
There was a locked door with a buzzer and speaker. She pressed the buzzer. A woman's voice said, "Can I help you?" "Yes," Angela said, "I have a problem with one of your officers out here and I need to speak to someone." The woman stated that they were the Sheriff's department and had nothing to do with the Police Department and that she would have to wait until Monday to speak with the Chief of Police. Angela explained that they were from out of town and would not be there in the morning. She asked the woman to get someone on the phone. The woman refused to do that. Angela said, "I am not leaving here until I talk to someone. There must be someone in there that can take down some information." The woman must have felt that she meant it, she buzzed open the door and said "Wait just a minute." Angela, Duke and Jessie (Wyatt's girlfriend) went inside to a waiting area. After about five minutes two Sheriff's deputies came out to talk to her. She explained to them the details of what had happened. They listened, without commenting, until she finished. Then they informed her that they had no authority over this officer, nor did they have the authority to take an official complaint.
During this time, Max, Wyatt and Cole had gone back around to the motor home. Max had decided to take a picture of where this incident had happened in case he might need it for the future. He stood on the sidewalk in front of the court house and took a picture of the house across the street. At that moment the officer came up and told him to put his arms behind his back. Max asked, "Am I under arrest?" The officer told him that he was. "For what?" he asked. The officer replied, "For trespassing and being a 'pain in the ass'." He began to walk him toward the jail. Cole picked up the camera and took several photos of the policeman taking him away. As they were walking Max asked the officer to read him his Miranda rights. The policeman stated, "I don't have to read you your rights because you don't have any."
Meanwhile Angela is getting no where with the Sheriff's deputies. Cole came knocking on the glass saying, "Mom! They arrested Daddy!" Angela turned back to the deputies and asked them what was going on? They didn't have an answer. She demanded to know what he was arrested for and to speak to the officer. The two deputies said they would see what they could do and disappeared into the back. While waiting for the policeman to come out and speak to her, Wyatt comes to the door. The officer had apparently come back out of the jail and told Wyatt that he needed to "get his Dad's medicine and bring it to the lobby!" As Wyatt is explaining this paramedics are seen entering the jail area behind the glass. The two Sheriff's deputies return and tell them that Max has somehow 'passed out' and become unconscious and they are taking him to the hospital. The family becomes very upset, Angela tells them that she needs to see him. They tell her that she can't. She asks if she can go to the hospital to see him. They tell her, "no, you're not allowed to go to the hospital and see him." She repeats incredulously, "You mean I CAN'T go to the hospital to see my husband?!" They tell her "no". She tells them that the keys to the vehicle are in Max' pants pocket and she needs them. The deputies tell her that she will have to wait until "he wakes up and gives permission for you to have them." It was surreal!
So, she goes out to the motor home with all the kids. Fortunately it wasn't locked up! She phoned the hospital to find out where it was and if they could give her any information on Max' condition. The woman who answered the phone thought it was very strange that she had been told she couldn't see her husband. She explained where the hospital was, so Angela, Wyatt, Cole, Duke and Jessie walked about five blocks to the hospital. When they arrived, the kids were taken into a waiting room. Angela saw Max lying on a bed. The police officer was standing in the emergency room. The doctor came over and explained that they did not know what was wrong. Max was completely unresponsive. They had shone light into his eyes~his pupils did not respond, they had stuck needles in his arms but Max didn't even flinch. He looked as if he were asleep, except she noticed that his hands and feet kept twitching. The doctor asked if he had fallen or hit his head. She told him that he hadn't, but asked the doctor if he could check to see if he had been hit in the head. He stated that he was going to send him in for an MRI and that they had called for a life flight helicopter to take him to the University of Utah.
As the doctors took Max away for the MRI the police officer walked up to Angela, acting as if he had never yelled at her out on the street about an hour before! He said, "Was your husband acting normally earlier? She told him that he was. He then said, "because when I talked with him he was quite agitated." She said, "Was that before or after you told him to get the f*** out of your town?" He said, "I never said that." Angela said, "Yes you did. My son told me everything you said. You are a bad person." He just ignored everything she said and went on to inform her that he had called the judge and had a release order signed. (What?! On a SUNDAY?! Suddenly you CAN get someone to do something on a Sunday.) He also said that Max would have to come back to court on July 12 to face the charges against him. "Good" she said, "I hope you're going to be there too. That will be a good day!" He didn't say anything, just turned and left. About 5 minutes later he returned and dropped the bag with all Max' personal belongings at her feet. Again, he said nothing. After about 30 minutes the doctors returned Max to the ER from the MRI. They said that it hadn't shown anything injury or signs of a stroke. At that moment, he opened his eyes and started to scream, "Angela! Angela! HELP ME!! They tried to kill me!!" Then he caught sight of the police officer and said, "HE tried to kill me! Help me!" The doctors and nurses all held him down as he was struggling to get away. They gave him a shot of something that made him go almost instantly to sleep, then they stuck a big tube down his throat and sent him on the life flight helicopter.
Angela and the kids got in the motor home and drove the 2 1/2 hour drive to the University of Utah hospital. When they arrived at the U of U, Angela went in to the emergency room. Max appeared to be asleep, but his hands and feet were restrained. They explained that when he would wake up he was extremely terrified and trying to pull out the tube in his throat and IV's in his arms. So, they were keeping him sedated. The doctor asked why he had been intubated (the tube in his throat). Angela stated that she didn't know. He asked if Max had quit breathing or was having trouble breathing. She said no, that he had been breathing fine. She explained how he had started yelling and how the doctors in Wyoming had put the tube in. The doctor stated that that was "highly unusual". They kept him sedated for the rest of the night.
The next morning when he started to come to, he didn't know where he was. Angela explained to him that he was back in Utah at the hospital. After the doctors took the tube out of his throat he began to recount what he could remember of the events. After the officer placed him under arrest he was taken into the jail and told to undress. He told the officer that he wasn't feeling well, that he was diabetic and might be getting a low blood sugar. He was told that he was fine and to empty his pockets. Max did everything he was told. He told the officer again that he wasn't feeling well and to please call a doctor. The officer refused. He was told to stand with his hands on a counter and his feet spread apart. The officer was behind him with his hand on the back of his neck. The policeman kicked his foot, as if to make him spread them farther apart, and everything went black.
The next thing he became aware of was voices around him. He could hear them talking, but he could not move or speak. He was trying to yell out to them. They were saying things about him as though he were some homeless vagrant that had wandered through town. He was obviously in a hospital. They were making jokes and laughing. He heard someone say "just put him with the others". One woman joked about cutting off his foot (because of some diabetic issues that he has with his feet), she joked about naming him "Stumpy". He felt them sticking needles into his arms and wrists, but he could not move. He heard the woman say, "Well, his blood sugar is so high we could always just say it was keto-acidosis." He heard Angela come in and talk to him, but he could not speak. He began to be very afraid that he would never wake up. At some point he heard the officer come into the room and say, "The judge says get him outta here now!" He did not remember waking up and screaming, he did not remember the helicopter.
A strange burn mark was found on Max' back, right between the shoulders. His back teeth were broken. His lips were cut. He has bruises on his torso and legs. We believe some sort of stun gun or taser was used on him that caused him to go into shock. We believe that there is something illegal and evil going on in this town. The police and the sheriff's office are guarding this house for some reason. They must have thought that Max and Wyatt saw something and tried to scare them out of town. I can't think of any other reason for this bizarre attack on an innocent man and his family.
Not only has this caused serious injury to Max and trauma to his wife and children, but now they are faced with at least $150,000.00 in medical bills with no insurance, and who knows how much in legal fees! Please pass this story on to everyone you know! We must stop these people. This should not happen in the United States of America! If anyone has any information, advice or knows any way to help our family fight this injustice please contact us!
Please donate to the Mad Max & the Wild Ones Medical/Defense fund.
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