CHEYENNE, WY. — A 67-year-old man from Bend, Oregon, has been found guilty of assaulting a Yellowstone National Park employee with a dangerous weapon after an incident in a construction zone last fall.

David Tyler Regnier was convicted by a federal jury on May 21 following a three-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin. The conviction stems from a September 18, 2024, altercation at Canyon Junction in Yellowstone, where park employees were managing traffic around a road construction project.

According to trial evidence, Regnier was driving a Jeep and attempted to bypass a line of waiting vehicles by driving the wrong direction on the road. When Yellowstone National Park employees instructed him to stop and reverse, he reportedly expressed frustration and then accelerated into one of the workers holding a stop sign. The impact pushed the employee backward before he managed to jump out of the way.

Park law enforcement officers later stopped and arrested Regnier.

“Our office will take a strong stance against the frequent acts of violence directed at public servants who are merely doing their jobs to protect the community,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie I. Sprecher in a statement.

Regnier is scheduled for sentencing on August 7, 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, and a $100 special assessment.

The case was investigated by National Park Service law enforcement and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook.