Wyoming

ICE detention center proposed for rural Wyoming town with no immigration attorneys

A private company has proposed to build an immigration detention center outside Evanston, Wyoming—a town that reportedly has no immigration lawyers and is more than an hour away from the nearest immigration court in Salt Lake City. The jail proposal is from the Management & Training Corporation, a Utah contractor…

Jan 9, 2018 11:42 AM CST

Law school had asked students to watch for ‘suspicious’ grad who later opened fire on deputies

Officials at the University of Wyoming College of Law had asked students to be on the lookout for one of its graduates, Matthew Riehl, less than two months before he opened fire on several deputies in suburban Denver. Officers killed Riehl, a 37-year-old Iraq war veteran, after he opened fire…

Jan 3, 2018 1:07 PM CST

When a mental health emergency lands you in jail

Early last year, two suicidal patients showed up at a hospital emergency room in Pierre, South Dakota, seeking help. Although the incidents happened weeks apart, both patients ended up in an unexpected place: jail. Across the country, and especially in rural areas, people in the middle of a mental health…

Sep 25, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Inmates’ escape par for the course in private prison transport industry

The private prisoner transport company whose van was stolen by two inmates last week in Oklahoma — precipitating a national manhunt that remains underway — may be feeling a sense of deja vu. The company has suffered at least half a dozen other escapes in the last five years. Inmate…

Sep 1, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Wyoming magistrate censured, but not removed over refusal to perform same-sex marriages

A Wyoming magistrate who in 2014 told a reporter that her religious beliefs would prevent her from presiding over same-sex marriages was recently publicly censured by the state supreme court. The court did not adopt a Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics recommendation that Ruth Neely, who is not…

Mar 13, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Wyoming law school ends out-of-state tuition—for three students per year

Corrected: In-state tuition will be offered to three nonresident students per year at the University of Wyoming College of Law, its board of trustees decided last month. Annual in-state tuition at the law school is approximately $16,000, according to the Wyoming Business Report. Previously, annual out-of-state tuition at the Laramie…

Feb 6, 2017 1:15 PM CST

Hit by budget cuts, state crime lab can’t always process evidence in time for trial

The State Crime Lab in Wyoming has cut employees and stopped processing certain types of evidence as it copes with an increased workload and a reduced budget. The workload has led to a slowdown in evidence processing that has the potential to compromise justice, according to Laramie County District Attorney…

Dec 14, 2016 4:12 PM CST

Lawyer is censured over $71K legal bill that included $30K in interest

The Wyoming Supreme Court has publicly censured a Cheyenne lawyer who charged a client $30,000 in finance charges on an unpaid legal bill of $41,000. The court adopted a report by the state bar’s Board of Professional Responsibility and censured (PDF) lawyer Bruce Asay on May 11 in connection with…

May 18, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Punitive verdict for carbon monoxide poisoning was ‘excessive and arbitrary,’ 10th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has embraced a 1-to-1 ratio of compensatory-to-punitive damages in a Wyoming renter’s lawsuit over a brain injury due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The April 1 decision by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cuts the punitive verdict for Amber Lompe from $25.5 million against…

Apr 5, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

Coal company asks court to strike protest song lyrics from activists’ lawsuit

“It’s a song,” according to coal-protesting plaintiffs suing Peabody Energy. “A song can’t hurt Peabody.” More specifically, it’s a John Prine song, and Peabody Energy says it has no place in a complaint filed against the company by two activists who alleged Peabody had a role in their unconstitutional 2013…

Aug 6, 2015 8:32 AM CDT

Judge temporarily blocks rules for fracking on federal lands

A federal judge in Wyoming has temporarily stayed new federal rules governing hydraulic fracturing on public lands. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl of Casper stayed the rules to allow the U.S. Bureau of Land Management time to provide more information about how it developed the standards, report Reuters, the Casper…

Jun 24, 2015 1:57 PM CDT

New Wyoming law turns environmental activists into criminals, law prof says

A new Wyoming law that makes it a crime to collect “resource data” from open land is so broad that it could criminalize taking a picture of a geyser on public land, according to a University of Denver law professor. The law bars the collection of environmental data from open…

May 11, 2015 2:14 PM CDT

Federal judges OK same-sex marriage in Arizona and Wyoming; SCOTUS declines Alaska stay

Barriers to same-sex marriages were removed by federal courts in three more states Friday. Federal district judges struck bans in Arizona and Wyoming and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a stay of an earlier ruling by a federal judge in Alaska, Reuters reports. Assuming a temporary stay in…

Oct 17, 2014 5:25 PM CDT

Dick Cheney’s unedited bio stirs controversy among Wyoming lawyers

The Wyoming State Bar is reconsidering its policy of running unedited biographies for meeting speakers amid a controversy spurred by the upcoming appearance of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The bar used an unedited Cheney bio that criticized President Obama in its registration materials for next week’s annual meeting, report…

Sep 5, 2014 8:00 AM CDT

75-year-old woman gets life in prison for 1970s slaying of her then-husband

A 75-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after she was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1970s shooting death of her third husband. Prosecutors in Laramie County, Wyoming, had requested a sentence of up to 26 years in prison for Alice Uden, but Judge Steven Sharpe…

Aug 26, 2014 5:37 PM CDT