Wyoming’s Supreme Court has rejected a request to remove the name of a law enforcement agent from an order censuring a former Laramie County deputy district attorney.
Justices, in an order responding to the request from Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill, said the attorney general’s office was part of the censure of David Singleton, so it has no standing to ask for a change in the final order.
“The attorney general, as a non-party, does not have standing or party status to challenge the ‘Order of Public Censure’ at issue,” said the order signed by Chief Justice Michael Davis.
Hill asked the court earlier this month to remove from the censure order the name of Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Jon Briggs.
The censure stems from Singleton’s behavior when charges were brought against Laramie County hemp growers Deborah Palm-Egle and her son Joshua Egle for raising marijuana.
According to the order, Briggs made incorrect statements during a hearing in the case that Singleton failed to correct.
Briggs’ actions were not the subject of disciplinary action, Hill said, but by including his name and the allegations against him in the censure order, the Supreme Court has in effect punished him.
“The Board of Professional Responsibility, the Wyoming State Bar and this court’s jurisdiction … was limited to disciplining a member of the Wyoming State Bar — David E. Singleton,” Hill’s motion said. “While the this process did not impose ‘formal discipline’ against Agent Briggs, the report and recommendation and subsequent press release approved by this court have accomplished the equivalent of formal discipline.”
But justices found that because the attorney general was not involved in bringing the request for Singleton’s censure to the Supreme Court, it has no authority to ask for changes in the resulting order.
