EXhibit Anthony T. Wendtland Phone: 307.673 .4696 tony@wendtlandlaw.com March 15, 2017 SENT AND DELIVERED VIA PREPAID FIRST CLASS CERTIFIED U.S. MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED RECEIPT NO. 7016 0750 0000 5956 6920 Ms. Joan Tellez 1380 Gladstone St. Sheridan, WY 82801 Ms. Tellez: It has come to my attention that on March 6, 2017 during a Sheridan County Commission public staff meeting, you falsely accused me of acting in a manner incompatible with my profession as a licensed Wyoming attorney. Speci?cally, you stated as follows: ?We were denied a hearing by the DEQ. Now the DEQ, can anyone tell me what the DEQ does, who they represent? Anybody? Don?t they represent the whole public? Aren?t they a federal entitylandowners wanted to have a meeting with them and we were denied, where do we go next? It?s like, you know . . . they shut the door in our face. Well, I think there?s part of a reason there. Because, it?s my understanding that there is somethink there?s some con?icts of interest within that . . . the DEQ person that we wrote our letters to, his name is Kyle Wendtland, his brother is an attorney for Ramaco Mine. 1 don?t know if that has anything to do with it, but it sure does raise suspicions.? (My emphasis added). I provide this quote to you directly from a CD recording of your public statements at that staff meeting that I have obtained from Sheridan County. This public accusation that you have now made against me stating that I am somehow engaged in a ?conflict of interest? with my brother Kyle Wendtland at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality concerning the pending Brook Mine/Ramaco mine permit application is patently false. You appear to have made this false statement, at least in part, to try to harm my professional reputation as a part of your stated opposition to the Brook Mine/Ramaco coal mine permit application with the DEQ. Your false statements constitute defamation per 53 that is actionable without proof of special damages. Hobfyn 12. Johnson, 2002 WY 152, 11 41, 55 P.3d 1219, 1232-33 (Wyo. 2002) and additional cases and authority cited therein. Had you bothered to call the DEQ prior to defaming me, you would have learned that my brother, Kyle Wendtland, has been totally recused from the Brook Mine/Ramaco permit matter since the moment he began working for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality in 2015. I am informed by Mr. Allen Edwards at the DEQ that the Brook Mine/Ramaco permit matter has always been administered by Allen Edwards and Mr. Todd Par?tt in the Cheyenne, Wyoming, office of the DEQ not by Kyle Wendtland. I am also informed, as you could have been had you checked before you defamed me in public, that the sole reason that Kyle Wendtland?s name was included on the comment notice for the Brook Mine permit comment period was because state statute mandates that his name was included because he is the Director of Land Quality at DEQ. Similarly, had you bothered to call and ask me about any of this before you publicly defamed me on March 6, 2017, I could have and would have informed you that while I have advised and represented Ramaco with regard to other matters in Sheridan County, I have never appeared for Ramaco in any Brook Mine/Ramaco mine permit application proceedings before the DEQ or in any related proceedings on that permit application before the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council. In fact, I have intentionally avoided those proceedings and will continue to do so. Your false public statements made against me personally on March 6, 2017 are actionable as slander per se under Wyoming law. You need to fully retract and correct them immediately with the Sheridan County Commission and anyone who you made them to right away. I also ask that you provide me with a signed written apology for defaming me personally and professionally. Sincerely, A Anthony T. Wend -l ATW/bnd cc: Jay Gilbertz, Esq.