(Lander, WY) – Following the March 4 resignation of Fremont County and Prosecuting Attorney Patrick LeBrun, the Fremont County Commissioners convened today, April 15, to hear from the three individuals chosen by the Fremont County Republican Party as candidates for the position. The applicants included Micah Wyatt, Jason Gay, and Kelly Owen.
After a round of questioning for each applicant, the Commissioners unanimously selected Micah Wyatt. Wyatt has served as the Deputy Fremont County and Prosecuting Attorney for over six years, and has been filling in as interim County Attorney since April 1, the official last date of LeBrun’s tenure, which is scheduled to last through December 2026 in conjunction with that year’s election.
“I’ve been a Wyoming resident (most of) my entire life,” the Sheridan County-born Wyatt shared in his opening statement to the Commission, noting that he had a “six-year stint” out of state, but was eager to get back to Wyoming and “give back.”
“(I’m) really grateful for the opportunity to do that here in Fremont County. Since then… I’ve found I’m amenable to prosecution and working in county government. That’s the foundation for why I feel I’m more than suitable for the job.
The first question came from Commissioner Clarence Thomas, who asked how well Wyatt works with work law enforcement.
“My general principle with respect to law enforcement, is my door is always open, my phone is always on and they can always ask me a question,” Wyatt replied. “I think that over my stint so far here in Fremont County, serving both on call and being available during the day for law enforcement questions, has been the best way to build a good rapport with them.”
“I think our office could do better,” Wyatt added in terms of instances where the Attorney’s Office disagrees with law enforcement and how those situations are handled. “But I always try to contact the officer and have a discussion with that individual or deputy depending on where it came from, sometimes trooper too, because it’s important that they explain to me what their thoughts are.”
“Secondly, it’s really important that I’m able to explain to them my position, what it is I need to look for, and what was maybe deficient in what was presented. Apart from those times where we do disagree, I think I have a really good rapport with law enforcement in the county.”
“In your past positions with the prosecution, under the Prosecutor, have you worked with the Tribes in any capacity?” Commissioner Thomas followed.
“I’m currently working with them in probably the most important capacity, and that’s with children,” Wyatt answered. “In that capacity, I’ve found… a great amount of trust in the Tribes in being able to prosecute cases that are involving Native children in the county. The kinds of cases I’ve dealt with are both delinquencies where crimes committed that (are not) on the reservation, and sometimes child-in-need-of-supervision actions where (there are) a different set of circumstances we have to prove.”
“I think the place where I work most collaboratively is probably the child-in-need-of-supervision. I’ve got several cases open currently with both the Northern Arapaho Department of Family Services and the Easter Shoshone Department. I think those cases go well. I try to listen to what’s needed and be respectful of the recommendations made by the various workers.”
“I’ve also been involved in some non-juvenile prosecution that involved… Tribal Members,” Wyatt added. “What I have found fascinating about those cases is to learn… about the real intricacies of the familial relationships among witnesses and defendants, and being able to tiptoe through those grasses such that you’re still proving your case, but trying not to offend the family ties.’
“It’s a pretty delicate balance. But in those capacities, as far as the prosecution is concerned, I have been Tribally involved to a great deal.”
Commissioner Mike Jones went on to ask Wyatt the question that seemed to draw the most consternation from each applicant: “How do we lower the crime rate in Fremont County?”
“I get a unique vision being a juvenile prosecutor,” Wyatt answered. “The hardest but most simple answer is that we promote families and we get people to take responsibility for their children and their family members, and we teach them a better way to live. But that probably involves social engineering that none of us have control over.”
“The best answer to that, that’s not changed people’s actual minds, is to continue to cast a broad and effective net and to provide consequences that are keyed to the individuals and to the crimes committed,” Wyatt continued. “I think we can probably work better with Wyoming legislature to alter some sentencing options for certain crimes. But my true belief is that I think a promotion of better family values is how we reduce crime in Fremont County across the board. That’s what I see more often than not.”
Commissioner Ron Fabrizius later asked for Wyatt’s thoughts on property rights and public access to lands.
“I think there’s still good Wyoming law to create that sort of access, be it by prescription or through some other method,” Wyatt replied. “But I think the most effective way is honestly building good relations with landowners, bringing them to a table for negotiations such that you could negotiate a right of way or an easement of some sort across property to be able to accomplish that.”
“The reason I prefer that is that I think, in respect of property rights, it’s better for a government entity to be able to treat property owners as partners rather than as the opposition. I think that, ultimately, good outcomes can be made in those circumstances.”
Commissioner Larry Allen later asked what Wyatt’s thoughts are on plea-bargaining, because the Commission “gets a lot of concern, a lot of questions and comments” in that regard. This prompted Wyatt’s most lengthy answer.
“I’ve seen those same concerns, I’ve seen them come up in felony cases I’ve been involved in,” Wyatt replied. “I think that you have to separate them into a number of different levels. The first is probably actual justice itself. From the standpoint of prosecution, we have an ethical duty to enact justice, which means a lot of things. It certainly means bringing those people responsible for crime to justice so that they can be tried, or so that they can plead guilty and be sentenced.”
“The question of a plea bargain itself arises when there’s a defendant who is willing to admit their wrongdoing. I know what often happens is that our office will send an offer to a defendant, and that defendant can accept or reject it. But we do those more applicably in situations where the settlement, number one, will still address that person pleading guilty and taking responsibility for the crime that they have committed. And two, to expedite the bringing about of justice. Defendants can sit for an awfully long time waiting for those things, constitutionally. I think prosecutors, though it appears contrary sometimes to people receiving the sentence that maybe the public thinks they should receive for a particular crime, that the swift, exacting of justice, in many cases, is something that our office has to be responsible for.”
“There are other circumstances that play into plea deals,” Wyatt continued. “Some of those things involve us simply looking at what’s come before. Similar crimes that have happened in the jurisdiction, similar crimes that have happened in Wyoming, and what people have received as a sentence for those things.”
“There’s a sense of economy in being able to look ahead in the future and determine, every time this crime has been charged, it’s between six and 10 years or nine and 13 years, so we’re going to pick something in that realm, and that’s how we’re going to make our offer. The ability to do that saves the county expense in trying a defendant because, more than likely, even if we go through a trial process where we bring in jurors and where we have to go through a trial process three days to five days in length, and then continue to house the defendant while there’s a presentencing investigation done and the like, those things take their time and they cost their money.”
“If we can sort of circumnavigate that by saying, we’re only going to get this based upon precedent with respect to that particular crime and how it was committed, I think we owe the county that duty to attempt at least to save that money. There are other costs to taking everything to trial. That includes housing defendants long term. Our current detention facility is pressed to its walls under certain circumstances. If we took everything to trial, we also are tasked with keeping defendants until we get there. Constitutionally, everybody has a right to a speedy trial, and we want to make sure that we’re avoiding circumstances where just the docket size itself is pressing us into constitutional limitations with respect to speedy trial.”
“There’s an unseen aspect of what we do with respect to plea deals that I don’t think gets mentioned,” went on to explain. “We do have in our office two victim witness workers, and they are tasked with contacting victims of crimes and working with them as the prosecution process goes forward.”
“In those circumstances, if we’re going to make a plea offer, we talk to the victims first. If the victims are not on board with that offer in general, we don’t make it or we alter it such that they are in approval. The reason being, is that we owe those victims a particular duty to be able to include them in the process and make sure their voice is heard.”
“I think, finally, this is just what I’ve witnessed in my own time at the County Attorney’s office, there’s something that has to be considered and that’s that trials themselves are taxing on prosecutors,” Wyatt concluded. “You’d be amazed at the reasons we end up in trials. It’s not always because it’s a fight.”
“One of the felony trials I took to trial was a stalking case, and it was simply a matter of this gentleman wasn’t going to admit what he’d done, and even if he was, he wasn’t going to admit that that was stalking, and we had to go through a four-day trial so that we could prove those things. In a situation like that, he did not take any plea deal offered. He sat for a good long time because it happened during COVID and eventually was actually out on bond when we did the trial. But we prevailed, and it was upheld by the Wyoming Supreme Court. If our prosecutors are always in that situation, I think then we have to examine the fact that they’ll probably burn out faster than if we balance out those things that we take to the mat, so to speak.”
Commissioner Allen then asked Wyatt how to handle the situation of repeat offenders, especially in terms of drugs, DUI’s, and violent criminal activities.
“I was shocked myself with a particular aspect of this,” Wyatt replied. “There’s a statute that allows someone who’s been convicted a certain amount of times of possession of a controlled substance to be prosecuted on subsequent indictments, or there are times they are brought before the court for possession as a felon. I noted in the case I was involved in tangentially because of juvenile proceedings that the prosecutor had not chosen to do that. I asked Mr. LeBrun at the time what our policy was with respect to that.”
“A part of the issue is that that’s a prosecutorial discretion,” Wyatt continued. “If the new possession is low-level something, a smaller amount of the substance, it’s not a requirement that that be prosecuted as a felony. In other words, it’s a ‘maybe’ rather than a ‘shall be.’ If you give an attorney a door to walk through, they’ll probably walk through it seven or eight times because that’s just the way that attorneys end up working.”
“A lot of what is viewed as lenient sentencing can certainly be attributable to prosecutorial discretion. I do want to push that a little bit if I’m given this position because I’ve noted a number of those complaints from the public in various public spheres. I do think that some of that can be better. I think our office could do a little bit better in trying to get those sentences increased and maybe we use our discretion instead of walking through the easy door by walking through the hard door. However, some of those issues are also legislative, so we can always advocate with legislators to work to increase those sentencing limitations.”
Wyatt was also asked if he would run for the position in the 2025 election, to which he replied, “Absolutely.”
“I don’t see myself leaving. I’ve got property up in Atlantic City. My family’s got property here in town that we’re developing and I intend to stay. I think that somebody who’s here for the long haul can serve this office better at this point in time. I’m ready to give as many years as the people would elect me.”
Wyatt will be officially sworn into the position at a date to be decided.
While this article does not include every question asked of Wyatt, you can view the full meeting with all of his questions and answers, as well as those fielded to the other applicants, in the video embedded below.