Update: This story has been updated to reflect a post-publication interview by Cowboy State Daily.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office is investigating bribery allegations after a Teton County Republican Party leader handed out checks to lawmakers on at least one legislative floor of the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne on Monday.
Rebecca Bextel, who is state committeewoman for the Teton County GOP, and who was credentialed to attend the legislative session as a member of the media, handed checks to state lawmakers on the House of Representatives floor just after adjournment Monday.
That was the first day of the legislative session.
The controversy erupted Wednesday when Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, urged his colleagues not to vote for introduction of a bill Bextel championed that seeks to curb affordable housing mitigation policies like those prevalent in Teton County and its seat of Jackson.
Voting for that bill two days after receiving checks from Bextel on the House floor would bring bad “optics,” said Yin.
The bill passed introduction. Every House member who would later be implicated in the incident voted in favor of introducing it.
House, Senate Act
But after a unanimous vote, the House launched its own investigation into the matter Thursday.
And on Friday, the Senate unanimously condemned the act.
Now law enforcement is involved.
“Throughout the last week I’ve received a lot of citizen complaints about what was going on,” Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak told Cowboy State Daily in a Saturday phone interview, adding that he’d also been reading about the incident in the news.
“I reached out to some of our partners in law enforcement to see if there were any investigations pending,” Kozak continued. “There were not. So I decided to launch one.”
The Wyoming Highway Patrol runs Capitol security. Kozak said he conferred with that agency as well as others.
Kozak said he seeks to “come to the bottom of it for any criminal issues that may be there, or to clear people who are innocent.”
The House’s internal investigation, run by a seven-person committee House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, appointed, is slated to unfold publicly this session. But that’s an internal, administrative investigation, Kozak noted.
Kozak’s investigation is into the criminal allegations. It can include review of security footage and interviews with people involved — and potentially warrants, he confirmed.
A Warning
Yin said his Wednesday announcement on the floor was not a direct accusation of bribery, but a warning about appearances.
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, countered at the time that it was “defamation” and that passing out checks on the House floor "essentially would be bribery and unethical."
That was hours before Bextel confirmed via Facebook that she had been handing out checks on the House floor. She said she was delivering lawful campaign checks on behalf of a Teton County donor, as she happened to be in Cheyenne.
Bextel said Thursday during a podcast on her webpage The Open Range Record that people have found the act distasteful because it reminds them that money is part of politics.
She also theorized the people who oppose this act, “I think, are people that would have a problem with any check being written to a Freedom Caucus candidate” - and that the outrage has to do with her efforts to end housing mitigation fees.
While Brady and McCann are clearly pictured in a photograph of the incident Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, shared with Cowboy State Daily, it is unclear where the other implicated lawmakers were at the time.
Provenza’s photograph’s timestamp says it was shot at 5:23 p.m. Monday.
Interview
The donor, Don Grasso, told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday that he intended the checks for Republican Reps. John Bear (Gillette), Marlene Brady (Green River), Gary Brown (Cheyenne), Christopher Knapp (Gillette), Tony Locke (Casper), Darin McCann (Rock Springs), and Joe Webb (Lyman), as well as for Neiman and Republican Sen. Bob Ide (Casper) and former Rep. Mark Jennings, of Sheridan, who is running for office this year.
Each was for $1,500, he said.
Grasso said he and Bextel were discussing candidates "we should be supporting" back in December.
He said he supports Freedom Caucus candidates and the free market, "And I'm delighted to help people. Some of these legislators don't have a lot of money or resources. And I'm happy to help."
Later, he said, his assistant sent the checks to Bextel, believing Bextel would mail them.
He said he disagrees with how Bextel handled the checks on the floor, and he reiterated that he decided to write them weeks before the legislative session opened.
Grasso lamented that the issue has exploded into controversy: "I wish someone had just called me from the floor and said, 'What’s this?'"
He also said he's happy to testify if called. "I'd love to just clear the air," he added.
Grasso also donates to non-political causes, such as the pavilion over Teton Village and the Western Art museum.
The Committee
Bear chaired a House Appropriations Committee when the House adjourned Monday. The interval between adjournment and that meeting’s start is also unclear at this juncture.
Bear did not immediately return a Saturday voicemail request for comment. He told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday text message that he did not receive a check on the House floor, or accept a bribe.
Neiman declined Saturday to comment on the events of that evening, saying he wanted to allow the special committee — of which he is not a member — to conduct its investigation.
“The committee is made up of trusted legislators from every political disposition, and I trust that it will return with appropriate results, whatever those may be,” he said. “I am confident in the committee’s ability to conduct a transparent, honest, and open process.”
The lawmakers implicated in the check incident are all aligned with, or members of, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
The House’s committee contains one confirmed Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River.
The committee’s formation stems from a motion Provenza successfully advanced Thursday to form the committee and keep its proceedings public.
She stipulated, and the House agreed, that the committee should contain at least one Democrat.
Neiman chose Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, to fill that seat.
The other members are Republican Reps. Marilyn Connolly (Buffalo), Martha Lawley (Worland), Justin Fornstrom (Pine Bluffs), Art Washut (Casper), and Reuben Tarver (Gillette).
Washut is the committee chair.
The committee members discussed their approach Friday, but did not officially convene, Neiman told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview.
Once it convenes, it will have four legislative days to produce its findings for the House. It can also call witnesses, giving them 48 hours' notice and the choice to bring legal counsel.
“I’m going to put my trust in them to do a great job,” said Neiman. “I heard a lot of good reports from the members, that they felt like that was a very fair and balanced committee people could trust to be objective, look at the evidence and render a fair decision.”
Wyoming Constitution On Bribery
The Wyoming Constitution bars bribery in strong terms and devotes multiple sections to it.
Legislators who offer their votes in exchange for any thing of value are to be expelled from the Legislature for life.
Such legislators, as well as any person, offering a bribe to any executive or judicial officer or member of the Legislature to influence him in his duties shall be disqualified from holding “any office or position of honor, trust or profit in this state.”
Wyoming’s laws describe the crime of bribery as offering to confer any pecuniary benefit, testimonial, privilege, or personal advantage upon a public servant as consideration for the latter’s vote, exercise of discretion or other action in his official capacity.
From the public servant’s vantage, state law describes bribery as soliciting, accepting or agreeing to accept any pecuniary benefit, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage upon an agreement or understanding that his vote, exercise of discretion or other action as a public servant will be influenced by that.
From either vantage, the act is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
Senate
The Senate rules committee convened two short-notice meetings Thursday and Friday to condemn the incident and propose a new rule to the body.
The rule proposes to ban senators from knowingly soliciting legislative campaign contributions or accepting them “by affirmative act” on any day during which the Senate is in session.
Another section of that rule would ban any person from knowingly soliciting, offering, delivering or accepting by affirmative act any campaign contribution in areas the Senate president controls.
Senate rules define those areas as parts of the Capitol “as are or may be set aside for the Senate or its officers.”
Meanwhile on the House side Thursday, McCann said he wanted to "own" the bad optics of the situation, but maintained he did nothing wrong.
“Since you’re all talking about me, I welcome this,” said McCann. “The optics is bad, I agree absolutely. But I did nothing wrong — I did not accept any bribe or anything like that.”
He continued: “If this had happened at a motel, would we be having this conversation?”
It happened on the floor, McCann added. “I made a mistake. I’ll own it, and I’ll abide by whatever the committee comes up with. Thank you.”
Brady issued a similar statement, saying, “I think I’ve been implicated here, and I encourage an investigation.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
