The coming Wyoming Legislature, with its large cadre of first-time lawmakers, will consider significant reforms to the state’s justice system. While much remains to be seen, WyoFile is watching four areas in particular where next year’s policy-making could most directly impact policing, courts and government accountability. Among those measures are several bills the Joint Judiciary Committee crafted over the last 10 months. Testimony by subject experts has informed those pieces of legislation, but several remain controversial. And every bill, even those worked by interim committees, will be subject to new hearings once the session begins, where fresh opposition or support can emerge. Squatter removal: a need or an overstep?  The committee spent considerable time since the last session on draft bills to create new enforcement mechanisms for the removal of squatters. The key piece of legislation, Senate File 6 – Residential property-removal of an unlawful occupant, would make squatting that involves property destruction a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.  The bills have drawn skepticism, however, over how prevalent a problem squatting really is in the state, and whether current law is sufficient to deal with those instances that do arise.  “The controversy there is whether the existing remedies of trespass and eviction are sufficient or need to be enhanced to give more protection to property owners,” Rep. Ken Chestek (D-Laramie) who voted against the bills’ introduction in November, said. The committee ultimately voted 10-4 to introduce the legislation.  Weighing in on high court rulings Two other judiciary bills drive at core questions of criminal investigation and prosecution. Both arose from Wyoming Supreme Court decisions that worry prosecutors and law enforcement chiefs. Now it’s up to lawmakers to decide if and how they want to respond.  House Bill 53 – Governmental claims-negligent investigations roots stretch back to a controversial 2019 Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation raid on a hemp farm, and the failed prosecution of the farmers for marijuana trafficking that followed. One of those hemp farmers sued the state for damages caused by the investigation, and in March, the state Supreme Court ruled 3-2 that Wyoming law enforcement officers have a legal duty not to conduct “negligent” investigations.  The Wyoming State Supreme court in Cheyenne. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile) The ruling has sheriffs and police chiefs concerned that the threat of more lawsuits in that arena could make investigators skittish when it comes to solving crimes. “We have operated under the belief that we’re liable for any issues that we cause,” Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police director Alan Thompson told WyoFile. “We just had no idea that a negligent investigation was one of them.” The draft bill would explicitly state that Wyoming police officers are not liable for damages from negligent investigations.  Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police has emerged as a chief proponent of the bill, while the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association stands ready to lobby against it. The measure squeaked into its committee sponsorship with an 8-6 vote in November, and is likely to remain contentious however far it goes in the legislative process.  House Bill 52 – State’s right of appeal in criminal cases has similar roots, but perhaps broader impacts. The Wyoming Attorney General’s office asked the Judiciary Committee to take up that bill after the state Supreme Court limited prosecutors’ abilities to appeal judges’ rulings on their cases. The court came to that conclusion after prosecutors appealed a judge’s decision to suppress evidence that ended a prosecution in Sheridan County for misdemeanor marijuana possession. The AG has asked the Legislature to give prosecutors the right to appeal 11 distinct types of rulings that can halt a prosecution — such as a finding that someone is incompetent to stand trial or an order granting a new trial.  Those bills start in the House. The Senate will take up a third bill that touches on the government’s liability to citizens it has wronged. Updating the government’s liability The claim limits set by the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act have remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1979, putting the funds available to victims of governmental harm out of step with inflation. In October 2015, a fire burned across 16 square miles, destroying 14 homes after igniting in a landfill run by the city of Casper. Despite millions of dollars in property damage, the 22 harmed parties who filed claims were forced to share a $500,000 payment — the maximum amount allowed under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act.  The judiciary committee-sponsored Senate File 35 – Governmental claims-maximum liability amounts would increase the sum for all claims arising from a single event — like the multiple homes destroyed by the Casper dump fire — to $1 million. The bill would also double the amount one claimant can get for a single incident from $250,000 to $500,000.  A payment of $500,000 in 1979 would be worth more than $2 million today, according to a Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association report in favor of higher caps that was presented to the Joint Judiciary Committee during the interim session.  The Local Government Liability Pool, which insures hundreds of government entities across Wyoming, opposes the measure and has warned lawmakers that raising claim limits could increase insurance costs for towns and cities. The bill’s proponents push back on that argument.  In a conservative state like Wyoming, where lawmakers champion small government and individual rights, this bill will be an interesting one to watch.  “It’s pretty much put your money where your mouth is,” said Patrick Jaicomo, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a nonpartisan, nonprofit law firm that litigates against government abuses across the United States. “If you think, ‘Oh, we care a lot about people’s individual rights, but if it costs us [money] to protect them, we’re not going to do it.’ Then I don’t think you do.” Hardliners’ wish list bills Eliminating abortion access, restricting transgender rights and mandating local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities are all priorities of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which holds a majority in the House for the first time, and other Republicans.  While lawmakers have announced their intentions to bring bills addressing these goals, the drafts have not yet been introduced. Depending on how they’re worded, such legislation could raise complicated questions for the state’s law enforcement officers and prosecutors. The Wyoming Capitol building during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 budget session. (Ashton J. Hacke/WyoFile) Rep. Martha Lawley (R-Worland) has announced she’ll bring a bill restricting people’s use of private spaces in state facilities — such as locker rooms and restrooms — to correspond to their biological sex. She told WyoFile her bill would be enforced in the courts, not by law enforcement officers, by giving individuals legal standing to sue a public entity for noncompliance.  Other bills on that topic are likely waiting in the wings, and what enforcement strategy they’ll employ is yet unclear. Thompson, the law enforcement advocate, said he’s been keeping an eye peeled for such bills to see what they may ask of the state’s sheriffs and police chiefs.  “We’d be prepared to have a conversation and see where our membership stands on it,” he said. Meanwhile, political tension over the Teton County Sheriff’s perceived lack of cooperation with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has driven calls on the right for a bill banning sanctuary cities and counties.  Teton County is not a sanctuary county in any technical sense: Local elected officials there have not sought to prevent the sheriff from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. But that doesn’t seem likely to stop lawmakers from trying to force the sheriff there, or anywhere in the state, to work with ICE in anticipation of the promised immigration crackdown under the new presidential administration.  In December, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus unveiled its first five priorities for the session, which included a fresh effort to localize federal immigration enforcement and make the state unfriendly to undocumented immigrants. The caucus’ “five and dime plan” includes a measure that would make driver’s licenses other states issue to undocumented immigrants invalid in Wyoming. “We heard you say that open borders and states that cater to illegal immigrants should not dictate how we do business in Wyoming,” Rep. Scott Smith (R-Lingle) said in a Freedom Caucus video outlining the plan. Other bills that led to hard-fought battles in the Legislature in years past have not yet surfaced this session. There is no bill, so far, to repeal the state’s death penalty. Nor is there any public effort to try and legalize or decriminalize marijuana. But with weeks to go and Legislative Service Office attorneys hard at work drafting legislation, those bills, and just about any other, can still surface.  Tennessee Watson contributed reporting. The post Wyoming justice and policing issues to watch this legislative session appeared first on WyoFile .