Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock was arrested Wednesday on felony charges, the local jail has confirmed.
Her attorney, Ryan Semerad of Casper-based Fuller and Semerad LLC, also confirmed she’d been arrested Wednesday morning.
She also had an initial appearance in court Wednesday, after which she was released on a $3,000 signature bond, a jail deputy said. The Newcastle Circiut Court confirmed those details.
Hadlock faces two felony charges, Weston County Sheriff Bryan Colvard told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
One is violation of the election code by an official, and the other is falsifying election documents. Each is punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Her case is ongoing.
Semerad, who is working in an unrelated felony trial this week, declined to comment in addition, though he confirmed that Hadlock is still set for a civil trial to begin Monday in Weston County District Court over whether the Wyoming Attorney General has grounds to remove her from office.
Citing a conversation he’d had with the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office, Semerad told District Court Judge Michael McGrady last week that he had anticipated her arrest on felony charges related to a post-election audit she filed following the 2024 general election.
The Natrona County District Attorney’s Office is the special prosecutor over the felony case, the filing says.
That same office is prosecuting Hadlock in a criminal case from last year, accusing Hadlock of committing a misdemeanor by not appearing for a legislative subpoena at an investigative committee meeting held in Casper in late September.
Meanwhile, Civil Case
Meanwhile, Hadlock is slated to defend her fitness for office in a civil trial starting next Monday in Newcastle.
Wyoming does not allow recall elections for county officials. Rather, electors of the relevant county may call for the governor to investigate certain officials for misconduct or malfeasance in office.
If the governor sees enough evidence, he will forward the investigation to the attorney general, who may in turn decide whether he has grounds to prosecute for removal.
It’s a civil proceeding, not criminal, so that effort doesn’t involve putting someone in jail.
It could complicate the civil trial, Semerad asserted in his filing, saying news that the local county clerk has been arrested on felony charges could taint the jury pool in Weston County.
Not You, Not You
For the civil trial, Semerad tried to subpoena the lawmaker who subpoenaed Hadlock for a legislative proceeding last September: Rep. Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette.
Semerad also tried to subpoena Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, who had called publicly for Hadlock to testify the day she failed to appear for the subpoena.
The Wyoming Constitution doesn’t allow that, McGrady ruled in a Tuesday order exempting Rodriguez-Williams and Knapp from having to appear for the trial due to “absolute legislative privilege.”
“The Wyoming Constitution provides that legislators ‘shall not be questioned in any other place' for any speech or debate in 'either house,'” wrote McGrady.
Wyoming courts haven’t given extensive interpretation to that clause, but it matches the federal speech and debate clause.
“Under that authority, legislative immunity extends to acts falling within the ‘sphere of legitimate activity,’” wrote the judge, adding that includes shielding legislators from the burdens of being required to defend their legislative conduct.
The legislative subpoena Knapp issued to Hadlock and the activities around it “fall squarely within the sphere of legitimate legislative activity.”
It was a point Semerad had resisted in motions before McGrady’s order emerged.
Semerad has asserted in this case, and in Hadlock’s misdemeanor case regarding her failure to appear for the subpoena, that the Management Audit Committee, which Knapp chairs, exceeded its authority to summon her as it did.
Gray Subpoenaed
Semerad’s other subpoenas appear viable, having not been blocked as of Wednesday afternoon.
He’s summoning Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a legislative staffer and other county clerks.
Gray has been arguably Hadlock’s most vocal critic, telling legislative committees on multiple occasions that he believes she either lied to his office about conducting a post-election audit, or she misrepresented the results of that audit.
Her first post-election audit missed 21 flawed ballots out of 75, detecting no errors instead, court documents say.
These 17 Months
Stretching across 17 months, numerous news stories, one legislative investigation, a misdemeanor case, a civil removal case and now a felony arrest, Hadlock’s case is a familiar one in Wyoming political circles.
Semerad in a motion to dismiss the civil case called the saga “tortured and petty.”
He challenged whether Hadlock’s failure to appear for the legislative subpoena could comprise misconduct or malfeasance “in office” under Wyoming’s removal-from-office mechanism.
McGrady declined Tuesday to dismiss the case, saying the state’s petition to remove Hadlock is at least substantial enough to vault the case to a trial.
“The Court concludes that the Petition is legally sufficient,” wrote McGrady. “The State alleges that Defendant engaged in conduct relating to the administration of the 2024 election, including ballot-related issues, the submission of a post-election audit later alleged to be inaccurate, and failure to appear in response to a legislative subpoena.”
Hadlock has made headlines since November 2024, when she reportedly allowed faulty ballots to mingle with proper ballots in the general election, skewing two uncontested races and raising questions about whether her post-election audit was done in good faith.
“Prior to submitting her post-election audit,” says the attorney general’s petition to remove her, “Hadlock was informed that the anomalous undervote reported in the House District One race was likely due to ballot errors.”
Still, the petition adds, she submitted a post-election audit to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office, showing no errors affecting any of the 75 sample ballots audited.
That same day someone emailed her to confirm that faulty ballots mixed into the race had produced the inaccurate results.
“Hadlock acknowledged the error but did not withdraw or correct her audit at that time,” says the petition. She later agreed to a hand count, and the election results were correct by three days after the election, Nov. 8, 2024.
The petition says that by Nov. 9, however, Hadlock “still had not withdrawn or corrected” the audit.
She addressed those issues Nov. 12, by submitting a corrected audit — this time showing 21 errors affecting the 75 ballots, all owing to the faulty ballots that had been mixed into the election, the document adds.
Some Weston County residents filed complaints asking Gov. Mark Gordon to remove Hadlock from office.
She’d done a poor job but didn’t show the misconduct or malfeasance to vault the state to that level, Gordon countered. Gordon did not consider the questionable post-election audit Hadlock had filed, because the people qualified to bring the governor’s investigation complaints didn’t raise that point, his office later told lawmakers.
Gray had raised that complaint, but he wasn’t a qualified elector of Weston County, so he couldn’t ask for the governor’s investigation under the relevant law, Gordon’s office noted last year.
So Weston County residents filed another batch of complaints, this time including the post-election audit concern.
Gordon announced Jan. 7 that the broader body of evidence was sufficient to recommend Hadlock for removal and turned the question over to Attorney General Keith Kautz.
Kautz, along with four attorneys working in his office, filed a petition in February in Weston County District Court calling for Hadlock to be removed from her post.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
