Politics

Government & Politics

Mark Gordon 2023 inauguration

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Governor Mark Gordon's State Of The Union | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Gov. Mark Gordon is addressing the Wyoming Legislature via Wyoming PBS

Governor Mark Gordon's State Of The Union

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

Prosecutors claim that a Fremont County BLM law enforcement officer accused of killing another man during a January bar fight didn’t act responsibly to protect others, and instead “advances like a predator” before applying a deadly chokehold.

That characterization of how Richard “Deak” Dollard acted on the evening of Jan. 9 during a brawl at the Maverick Bar in Lander is included in a Thursday prosecution response to a motion from Dollard’s attorney to dismiss the second-degree murder charge he faces.

The June 8 motion filed by Casper-based defense attorney Ryan Semerad argues Richard Dollard can’t be prosecuted “for his proper use of reasonable defensive force to protect others.”

Those others include Dollard’s brother, Justin, and nephew, Jesse, who were both involved in a physical fight with 38-year-old Evan Denevan.

Denevan was fighting with Justin when Richard came into the room and pulled Denevan off his brother, putting him in a restraining hold that prosecutors refer to as a “chokehold” in court documents, but the defense adamantly denies any choking pressure was applied.

What both sides seem to agree on is what was captured on multiple cellphone videos and bar surveillance is Richard holding Denevan around his face and neck area for about 30 seconds, then putting him on the floor.

He died at the scene, according to court documents.

In his motion to dismiss, Semerad argues that Denevan was the aggressor and that Richard acted calmly and with restraint to protect his brother and others from danger.

Only after someone at the bar called out multiple times for Denevan to stop “did Richard step in, taking hold of Evan to pull him away from Justin, the woman, and the crowd of bar patrons standing within punching distance,” the motion to dismiss says.

“I don’t believe my client was angry or emotional,” Semerad told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “I think he saw the situation and his mentality was not anger or emotion, it was, ‘How do I protect everyone in this situation from being hurt.’”

That’s not what the evidence and witnesses show, prosecutors allege in their response.

“The defendant advances like a predator — he appears to know his goal when he enters the room and he advances unchecked upon the same,” according to the response. “He advances intentionally and deliberately.”

Semerad called the description of his client as a “predator” in the response as “pure rhetoric” and an attempt to “try to characterize this encounter” as something it wasn’t.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Reasonable Force’"}]

That Richard Dollard only applied a non-lethal hold on Denevan is clearly “not the case” based on video and other evidence, prosecutors say. Most notably, if the hold was non-lethal, why did he die?

“Although the defendant’s claim is that he gripped the decedent in a non-lethal hold meant to control the situation, the video makes it quite clear that this is not the case,” the response to the motion to dismiss says.

“The hold is lethal by self-definition of the circumstances,” the document adds.

Conversely, Semerad said it’s murky at best about what caused Denevan to die that night, as there were other potential health issues that may have contributed to his death.

“There seems to be some kind of disconnect” in what really caused his death, Semerad said. “He perceived the decedent attacking his brother … and there were people in harm’s way. 

“He came over to protect everybody with the use of reasonable force.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"That Night"}]

An evidentiary affidavit by a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent filed days after the incident in Lander Circuit Court describes a brawl which at one point contained eight to 10 people, unfolding at the Maverick Bar around 11 p.m. on Jan. 9.

A 911 caller beckoned Lander Police Department officers to the scene at around 11:15 p.m. 

The caller indicated “we have someone down at the Maverick Bar, he’s not breathing, he’s all purple,” says the affidavit.

LPD officers arrived and found Denevan lying on his back near the pool tables with bystanders trying to help him, the document says.

Officers began life-saving measures, but later noted that the man’s face was “slightly purple in color” and they weren’t able to find a carotid pulse. Fremont County emergency medical personnel arrived as well to help, but “Denevan was determined to be deceased,” says the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"LPD secured the bar as a crime scene."}]

Initial witness statements reportedly describe a fight between Denevan and the three Dollard men.

Justin Dollard in his interview with LPD detectives confirmed he was involved in the fight.

Denevan had previously said he would “whip” Justin, the latter reportedly said, and had threatened to fight both Justin and Jesse Dollard.

Denevan had yelled at the Dollard father and son, “If you come over here, I will kick your ass,” the affidavit relates.

Then, according to Justin’s interview and Jesse’s separate interview, Denevan removed his hat and glasses as if preparing for a fight.

Justin Dollard told detectives he approached Denevan, who came back and hit him, “and the fight broke out,” the affidavit relates. 

Along with Richard facing a charge of second-degree murder, Justin has been charged with accessory before the fact to second-degree murder, and Jesse with accessory before the fact to manslaughter.

If convicted, Richard and Justin face 20 years to life in prison, while Jesse could get a maximum of 20 years in prison.

All three have been set for a combined trial that’s scheduled for eight days beginning Nov. 2.

Dollards and Maverick bar 2 3 26

<title>Lander Man Wants Murder Charge Dismissed, Says Force In Bar Fight ‘Reasonable’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Lander man facing a second-degree murder charge for a fatal January bar brawl wants the charge dismissed, saying he used “reasonable” force. Prosecutors disagree, saying he “advances like a predator” on the victim in a Thursday response.

Lander Man Wants Murder Charge Dismissed, Says Force In Bar Fight ‘Reasonable’

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

For much of the week, the southeast corner of Wyoming sat beneath a series of severe thunderstorm and tornado watches as forecasters warned of damaging winds and isolated twisters.

For many Wyomingites, especially those living around Cheyenne, the warnings were nothing new.

While tornadoes often grab the headlines, longtime residents know another summer menace can be just as destructive: monster hail.

The southeast corner of Wyoming has earned a reputation for storms capable of dropping baseball-sized chunks of ice, shredding roofs, smashing windshields and turning an ordinary June afternoon into an insurance adjuster's busiest day of the year.

Meteorologists say that's no accident. Wyoming's unique geography helps create some of the nation's most favorable conditions for severe hail-producing thunderstorms.

Cheyenne meteorologist Colby Goatley said June marks the beginning of Wyoming's most active severe weather season because warm, moisture-rich air from the Gulf of Mexico finally pushes far enough north to collide with colder air arriving from Canada.

[{"type":"text","text":"That combination creates the unstable atmosphere thunderstorms thrive on."}]

Meteorologists begin each morning searching for the ingredients that could transform an ordinary summer afternoon into one filled with severe weather warnings.

Moisture near the ground, colder air aloft, an unstable atmosphere and shifting winds at different elevations all help determine whether thunderstorms are likely to become severe.

"June is an active month because the warm, moist air primarily from the Gulf ... is finally able to start intruding into this region," Goatley said. "Combined with the colder air we're getting from the north, it helps fuel thunderstorm activity."

[{"type":"text","text":"Justin Ochsner has spent years watching what those storms leave behind."}]

The Cheyenne roofing contractor with Residential Roofing LC said southeast Wyoming is so prone to damaging hail that people in the industry simply call it "a hail market."

"The general lifespan of a roof in Cheyenne is about eight years, just because of weather — between wind and hail," Ochsner said.

Elsewhere in the country, asphalt-shingle roofs often last 20 years or more. In southeast Wyoming, intense ultraviolet rays, relentless winds, freeze-thaw cycles and frequent hail dramatically shorten that lifespan.

"We do live in what we call a hail market because we get hit with hail so often," Ochsner said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Some years produce relatively little damage. Then the cycle flips."}]

"We might have a drought for three or four years, and then we'll get hit two or three years in a row," Ochsner said.

He points to Aug. 1, 2025, as one of the worst recent examples, when baseball- and softball-sized hail battered parts of Cheyenne. The phones started ringing as homeowners discovered damaged roofs across the city, he said.

Even homeowners who invest in impact-resistant shingles aren't always spared.

Fresh hail damage often appears as dark bruises on shingles, Ochsner said. Over time, Wyoming's intense sunshine eats away the damaged asphalt until the fiberglass mat underneath is exposed, eventually leading to leaks if the roof isn't replaced.

For lifelong Cheyenne residents, severe summer weather is simply part of living on the High Plains.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, remembers destructive hailstorms in 2018 and again last Aug. 1. But the city's history with violent weather stretches back much further.

As a child more than 30 years ago, Brown remembers tornadoes touching down around Cheyenne. His parents still talk about the 

 and the August 1, 1985 flood, which killed 12 people. The flooding claimed lives in what is now Brown's legislative district.

"Lots of stuff has happened here," Brown said. "We have such a unique setup here that a lot of people don't realize just how unique Cheyenne is."

That history has shaped how residents react when severe weather is forecast.

"If they know it's happening, they try to go find a place to go," Brown said, referring to moving vehicles under cover. "But there's also people that just ... know that it's part of living in Cheyenne, that we're going to have hail-damaged cars for a while."

While this week's storms have passed, Brown said nobody in Cheyenne believes the season is over.

"Frontier Days is always the time that we get one or two good storms," he said.

For Goatley, Wyoming's reputation for unpredictable weather is well earned.

Within the weather community, he said, forecasters know just how active the state can become during the summer.

[{"type":"text","text":"The public, perhaps, not so much."}]

"People are looking at the Plains," Goatley said. "But we're where the storms like to start."

[{"type":"text","text":"The answer, in large part, lies in the Rockies and the Laramie Range."}]

Storms frequently develop along Wyoming's higher terrain before drifting east onto the plains, where atmospheric conditions become especially favorable for hail growth.

"The mountains themselves serve as a great initialization for storms," Goatley said. "You'll see them form off that terrain and then move eastward."

Many of those same storms continue marching into Nebraska and Kansas, but southeast Wyoming often experiences the earliest and most explosive stages of their development.

[{"type":"text","text":"As Goatley puts it: \"We're where the storms like to start.\""}]

Goatley said Wyoming residents — particularly those living east of the mountains — are more likely to contend with hail and damaging straight-line winds than tornadoes.

[{"type":"text","text":"For newcomers, that's one of the first lessons summer teaches."}]

"Definitely the hail," Goatley said when asked what people moving to Wyoming should know. "Especially east of the mountains."

Although tornadoes do occur in Wyoming, he said residents shouldn't expect the giant, long-track twisters more commonly associated with the Southern Plains.

"It's definitely something to at least be aware of," Goatley said. "But definitely don't plan on any Oklahoma-style monster tornadoes."

Instead, Goatley said Wyoming weather demands respect because of its variety.

"Wyoming's weather is wild and wonderful," he said. "You get a little bit of everything. If you're bored of one season, just wait for the next."

Storm clouds over cheyenne 6 26 26

<title>In Wyoming's 'Hail Alley,' Giant Ice Balls Falling From The Sky Are Normal  | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For much of the week, the southeast corner of Wyoming had a series of tornado watches and warnings. While tornadoes grab the headlines, residents know the real menace is monster hail. "We're where the storms like to start," said meteorologist Colby Goatley.

In Wyoming's 'Hail Alley,' Giant Ice Balls Falling From The Sky Are Normal 

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, June 26th.  I’m Mac Watson

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Idaho is switching from lethal injections to firing squad executions on July 1st. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming won’t be changing its execution methods any time soon. 

“This does not affect Wyoming right now, because we don't have anyone on death row, and we rarely execute anyone. We haven't executed anyone since 1992 but it came up in 2014 when Dale Wayne Eaton was on death row before he had, before his death sentence had basically fizzled on appeal. We didn't have a gas chamber, which is our fail-safe method if lethal injection is unconstitutional, and the lethal injection drugs were scarce nationwide, and so Bruce Burns, who was a state senator at the time, was like, What are we going to do here if we can't get the drugs and we don't know the gas chamber, and so he made a bill that would have if the lethal injection wasn't available, that would have allowed for firing squad. That bill tried twice to get into the legislature and failed both times.”

Idaho is spending $1.2 million to retrofit an execution chamber for its new firing squad method, the 

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A sex solicitation sting in Cheyenne led to the arrest of two men last weekend. Cowboy State Daily’s Kerry Drake reports that Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says it’s the beginning of a new effort to stop human trafficking that has been ignored for too long by law enforcement.

“Sheriff Kozak says that for too long, Laramie County, and particularly Cheyenne, have been a safe haven for sex trafficking, and he said it's going to stop now. This is the first operation that they've had in many years with the Laramie County Sheriff when he was the chief of police in Cheyenne about 10 years ago. He said he wanted to train everybody, at 240 people on the staff, including civilians, and he wanted everybody training, and so they've brought in experts from around the country to do that, and they had one here yesterday.”

Sheriff Kozak tells Cowboy State Daily that the department has noticed an increase in trafficking, particularly in Cheyenne, because of Cheyenne Frontier Days, and the amount of interstates that run through Laramie County.

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President Trump announced Thursday he will attend the July 3 fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore, commemorating America's 250th. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the event also marks the return of fireworks over Mount Rushmore for the first time in six years.

“Trump coming to Mount Rushmore is a big deal in South Dakota. There will be tight security, a lot of security. Roads will be closed, and the last time he came in 2020 there was quite a protest by the Native American community who contend that Mount Rushmore was never there by permission, and the Black Hills belong to them. President Trump was personally invited to Mount Rushmore for this Fourth of July holiday by South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden. Trump will also be at the opening for the Theodore Roosevelt National Library in North Dakota a few days prior.”

The announcement was made on the Freedom 250 website and confirmed in a statement released by South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden.

Wyoming lawmakers met in Lander on Thursday to address School Finance Recalibration. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that they repeatedly  promised a crowded room that they would fix a $3.9 million decrease in public school sports and activities funding.

“The school districts as a whole are facing like nearly $4 million in activity shortfalls. The brunt of that is actually on the high school side, whereas middle school and elementary are actually gaining money. And so the high schools are bearing this huge activity shortfalls, and that affects different schools and districts differently. So, lawmakers of the recalibration committee faced a crowded room Thursday in Lander of people who were lamenting these losses, and they promised, ‘Look, we're going to fix it, but we don't know how yet.’”

Committee members and staffers floated multiple different strategies for fixing the problem. The committee meets again Aug. 25 in Cheyenne.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A Texas man is accused of exposing his penis in the parking lot of a busy Mexican restaurant in Jackson on Tuesday evening before driving away intoxicated. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that if convicted on all four counts he could face up to 3½ years in jail.

“Police were dispatched to a Mexican restaurant in Jackson called El Abuelito just before 8pm after a Texas man had allegedly exposed himself to the public. One witness at the scene recorded part of the incident with her cell phone, she gave that over to police, so that they could review the video. Police could see him kissing a woman, and then he unbuttoned his pants and exposed himself. They arrested him under suspicion of driving under the influence when they took him into custody and took an inventory of his truck. They also found psilocybin mushrooms, along with a little bit of marijuana and a grinder.”

Durkas appeared Wednesday in Teton County Circuit Court, where he was arraigned on one count each of public indecency and driving under the influence, along with two misdemeanor counts of possessing controlled substances.

Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that here in Wyoming, emergency measures are on hold.

“I reached out to a couple people in Wyoming. Well, two of our biggest reservoirs here, Boysen and Flaming Gorge, they said, ‘Our water’s down, but we're not, we're nowhere near that level.’ The guy at Boysen told me that Boysen is still 73% full. But our picture is far from rosy. There's a million acre feet that are still scheduled to be pulled out of Boysen, or pardon me, Flaming Gorge Reservoir to replenish the really hard shortage of water they're having down at Lake Powell.”

Fisheries management coordinator Mark Smith tells Cowboy State Daily that some of Wyoming’s larger reservoirs have conservation pools, or “dead pools,” to act as buffers for fisheries when water is running low. He also added that Game and Fish is watching closely for a “tipping point” that might warrant a change in fishing regulations.

Rep. Harriet Hageman is vowing to continue the fight for her bill which mandates country-of-origin labeling for beef. But Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that’s despite the Senate Ag Committee's failure to include it in the Farm Bill. 

“Hageman pushed for this amendment in order to allow American consumers to understand where their beef comes from, and she saw it as a way to give ranchers fair competition. Other people, including ranchers and others in the beef producing industry, do not support this because they say it just adds too much bureaucracy, and there is no clear direction as to who would pay to monitor for this, and it's just one extra step with government that we don't need.”

Had the bill become law, it would require meat labels to clearly state where an animal was born, raised and slaughtered. 

Police say two Cheyenne men looking for “more privacy” wound up in the Crown Bar's employee-only basement. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that’s  where one “donkey kicked” a locked liquor room door and then stuffed three bottles of tequila in his pants before they were caught.

“23-year-old Casey Fox and 18-year-old Carlos Glaub were making out in a bathroom stall when they decided to go find some privacy, so that's how they ended up in the basement when Glaub reportedly donkey kicked the door open so that they could get into the liquor shed, where he was reportedly putting the tequila in his pants.”

Fox pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal entry, which is a misdemeanor. Glaub is facing a felony count of burglary, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 26 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 26, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Friday's headlines include:
* Firing Squad Is Back
* Trump Will Go To Rushmore
* Cheyenne Is Human Trafficking Haven

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 26, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily political columnist, Rod Miller.

Rod Miller

Opinion

CSD Columnists

They shouldered their way into Wyoming politics a few years ago, proclaiming a gnarly populist gospel of “grassroots” change as preached by a national organization from back East. They gained control of the Wyoming House while we weren’t paying attention. 

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ two years in power have exposed their fumbling ineptitude, their disconnect with the values of Wyoming citizens, and their continuing lust for power. Their performance has doomed their movement and, after 8/18/26, they will be nothing more than a minor footnote to Wyoming’s political history.

When its members gained a majority in the Wyoming House in 2024, the Freedom Caucus took control of the legislative committees that map out the future of our state. They introduced a legislative agenda intended to transform the Cowboy State into the Biggest Booger Farm in the World.

Had they succeeded, the “Welcome to Wyoming” signs that greet visitors at our borders would have been replaced with rusted cars on cinder blocks and bathtubs full of empty beer cans.

The Freedom Caucus frittered away the first season of interim committee work crafting legislation addressing the pressing problems of UFOs and chemtrails (henceforth, they shall be known as the Chemtrail Caucus) and boneheaded ideas to sell our state land for a dollar an acre to latter day homesteaders.

They had a plan to “Nickel and Dime” our small, remote communities into subservience to central control in Cheyenne. Rep. John Bear, a Chemtrail Caucus poster boy, even said that he wouldn’t be heartbroken if small towns in the Big Empty simply dried up and blew away.

From banning books to keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, the Chemtrail Caucus’ vision for us resembled nothing so much as the Sharia Law of the West. They even tried to cut $40 million from the University of Wyoming, home of the Cowboys, simply because they didn’t appreciate the rigorous intellectual inquiry that occurs at a major institution of higher learning.

[{"type":"text","text":"But wait, there’s more! "}]

The Chemtrail Caucus even managed to have campaign checks hand delivered to themselves on the floor of the Wyoming house by Rebecca Bextel on behalf of a rich donor from Teton County in the “Checkgate" scandal. There is an ongoing criminal investigation into that hilarious debacle. 

[{"type":"text","text":"How’s that for Wyoming Values?"}]

When their legislative agenda was thwarted by the Wyoming Senate or the courts, the Chemtrail Caucus whined like a gutshot goose, and called their opponents RINOs or “leftist activist judges," and now they are trying to take control of both. They go so far as to say that the Wyoming Supreme Court should be reduced to three black robes instead of five, presumably so the court can be more easily manipulated.

The current gang-warfare style of our politics, whereby we are told to think of ourselves less as Republican and Democrat neighbors and more as the Crips and Bloods fighting over turf, is about the only tangible Chemtrail Caucus gift to Wyoming. And, if I am reading the political tea leaves correctly, I think the good people of Wyoming are getting sick and tired of Chemtrail Caucus bullshit.

Good, solid Wyoming citizens are rising up to run against Caucus incumbents this election season. 

The real grassroots of Wyoming seem to be pushing back against the herbicide that the Chemtrail Caucus is spraying on us. Folks are seeing through the smokescreen

The Chemtrail Caucus Ministry of Propaganda, that handful of shrill media outlets, isn’t matching its noise level with numbers. The flagship of this media “empire”, funded largely by Rebecca Bextel of “Checkgate” infamy, boasts of a whopping 250 subscribers. Cowboy State Daily, which you are reading now, has over 110,000 subscribers. 

The right wing "media" in Wyoming defines “echo chamber.” They represent a paper-thin slice of our state - the same angry voices, bouncing the same goofball rhetoric off the same narrow little walls. Nobody is paying them much attention.

In the competition for Wyoming’s eyes and ears, the Caucus is sucking hind tit.

For these and many other reasons, I think this will be a tough year for the Chemtrail Caucus. I’m comfortable enough in my analysis to have serious money out on the street, betting on the outcome of the next election. And I’m always willing to make more wagers with new suckers. 

So vote your conscience on 8/18/26, and peel an eye for my column on 8/21/26, where I’ll either eat crow or gloat in front of 110,000 people.

Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com

Rod miller headshot scaled

<title>Rod Miller:  A Bleak Future for the Chemtrail Caucus | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Rod Miller writes, "The Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ two years in power have exposed their fumbling ineptitude, their disconnect with the values of Wyoming citizens, and their continuing lust for power. Their performance has doomed their movement."

Rod Miller:  A Bleak Future for the Chemtrail Caucus

Kerry Drake

Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says stopping human sex trafficking is a new agency priority because for too long Cheyenne has been a “safe haven” for this form of modern slavery.

An undercover operation in Cheyenne led by two detectives resulted in two arrests for soliciting acts of prostitution last weekend. Kozak said the effort is the first in many years for his office, but he promised there will be more.

“People come to Cheyenne to make those (prostitution) arrangements because everyone knew there was no enforcement,” Kozak told Cowboy State Daily.

“But it’s a hard thing to recover women in the trade. Because there’s so much pressure on them, whether it’s drug addiction or physical abuse. Actually the situation that they’re in, sometimes it’s better than their real home life.”

Kozak said that 10 years ago, when he was Cheyenne police chief, his department began undercover operations to arrest human traffickers when he noticed the online activity was extremely high in Cheyenne.

“I went to my sergeant who ran the undercover unit and told him I wanted them to all go to human trafficking training because I think we have a problem in Cheyenne,” the sheriff said.

Kozak said the sergeant didn’t believe him until he did some research and looked at Craigslist and some other sites. 

“He said, ‘Oh my God, we do have a major spike here',” he recalled. “We started to make some great cases against traffickers, or what the industry might call a pimp.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"A Costly Operation"}]

It takes lots of time and money for law enforcement to try to stop human sex trafficking, which is rarely prosecuted in Wyoming. Often the crimes are charged as sexual assault or child abuse.

In addition to overtime, the department had to buy cameras for undercover operations, have “buy money” available for stings, and create ads online. 

“Then the investigations themselves can take us out of state as well,” Kozak said. 

Successful results are difficult to gauge.

Kozak said his office was successful in helping some women leave the sex trade, but it didn’t happen until after investigations were completed and the women came to them.

“We have the resources to help them, we have housing, and that’s the goal for these operations,” he said. 

He said the police stings ended when he left the Cheyenne Police Department because the next administration didn’t make human trafficking a priority. 

“As sheriff, I’m bringing it back again,” Kozak said.

He said trafficking spikes during Cheyenne Frontier Days, which typically brings about 200,000 visitors for the 10-day event.

“During this first (sheriff’s) operation we focused on demand reduction, or what you would call ‘johns', because it’s easier than recovering men in the sex trade,” Kozak noted. “The detectives learned a lot and will change some things when they do that type of operation.”   

But the focus will shift soon to trying to find women and young girls in the sex trade as well, Kozak said, by using "reverse stings.” Undercover officers will pose as men wanting to pay for sex acts.

“We’ve trained every single person in the sheriff’s office; all 240 including the civilian staff, have all been trained in human sex trafficking,” Kozak said. “I wanted them to know that was our goal, to reduce the problem here.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"All Personnel Trained"}]

Instead of sending a few detectives to training sessions, Kozak said experts came to Cheyenne. One such session was Tuesday, where assessments were made about what went right and wrong during the first sting.

“What we’re planning to do is take the money we’ve received from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and roll it back to pay for the human-trafficking enforcement,” he said.

The sheriff’s office under Kozak’s command signed controversial agreements with ICE last year to deputize local law-enforcement agencies to perform duties otherwise conducted by federal immigration agents. That included arresting and holding people in the county jail until they’re moved to a federal detention center.

In the future, undocumented immigrants arrested through agreements with ICE might be in jail in Cheyenne with sex traffickers who were captured by local law enforcement using funds from the federal agency.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming sued the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office in May, contending the agency didn’t follow Wyoming law when it signed the agreements.

A sex solicitation sting in Cheyenne led to the arrest of two men last weekend. Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says it’s the beginning of a new effort to stop human trafficking that has been ignored for too long by law enforcement.

Governor Mark Gordon's State Of The Union

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