(Lander, WY) – Following the March 4 resignation of Patrick LeBrun and the subsequent selection of now former County Deputy Attorney Micah Wyatt to fill the position to term, Wyatt was officially sworn int as Fremont County and Prosecuting Attorney Tuesday morning, April 22.
The swearing-in ceremony was conducted by Jason Conder, the Honorable District Court Judge to the 9th Judicial District, at the Fremont County courthouse in Lander.
Judge Conder began by recognizing some of those in attendance, including Fremont County Commission Chairman Larry Allen, Co-Chair Mike Jones and Commissioners Clarence Thomas and Ron Fabrizius, Clerk of District Court Amanda Sanchez, Treasurer Jim Anderson, and President of the Wyoming State Bar James Whiting.
Wyatt was also joined by parents Robert James and Dianne Wyatt, in addition to friends, family, co-workers, and even a few of his Atlantic City neighbors.
“As George Washington said in his ‘Rules of Civility,’ ‘Superfluous compliments and all ceremony of affection should be avoided,'” Judge Conder remarked in his opening statements. “‘Yet when they are due, they should not be neglected.’ Here, they are certainly due.”
Judge Conder then went on to offer Wyatt “a few words of advice (and) a few simple things to remember.”
“First, remember the hallmarks of a Wyoming lawyer. No matter the stakes or the difficulties involved, Wyoming lawyers are renowned for their ability to work hard, zealously advocate for their clients, yet at the same time, they do so with respect and dignity towards opposing counsel and candor to the court,” Judge Conder advised. “You’ve always exemplified this and I have no doubt you will continue to do so in your new role.
“Second, a lawyer’s stock and trade is his time and advice,” Judge Conder continued. “Very few people will ever know the time, effort, energy, toil, (and) sleepless nights it takes to simply perform for a one-hour hearing, let alone a trial, or to simply provide advice to your client. And very few people will ever appreciate the advice you give them, especially when it’s something they don’t want to hear. Remember the lawyer’s creed: ‘Find your manners. Tell the truth. Know the law.’
“Finally, never forget the United States Supreme Court’s admonition in Berger v. United States when the court stated: ‘A prosecutor is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all. And whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law. The twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor. Indeed, he should do so. But while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about justice.'”
“So, Mr. Wyatt, congratulations. The people of Fremont County are very lucky to have you,” Judge Conder concluded before bringing Whiting to the podium to speak.
“Obviously, Mr. Wyatt has big shoes to fill,” Whiting began. “Mr. LeBrun and others before him have done a wonderful job for our county. So now that burden shifts. It’s a heavy burden on to the shoulders, but I believe those shoulders are equal to the task.
“I have spent for what seems like the last six or seven years almost every Tuesday in this same room with this red carpet, with this judge, and this prosecutor,” Whiting continued. “And I’m here to tell you that he does strike hard blows, but he does not strike foul blows. As the judge indicated, I think we are in very good hands.”
“His Honor knows me so well, he brought me a pen,” Wyatt joked when it was time to sign the official documents after Judge Conder swore him in.
Wyatt then addressed the attendees, and shared that his grandfather first came to Wyoming in the late 30’s while working for the Forest Service in Albany County, and that his family ultimately “implanted roots” in Wyoming.
Wyatt said he continued implanting those Wyoming roots after he bought his property in Atlantic City back in 2018.
“That’s how I came to be here,” Wyatt told those in attendance. “Seems like a comedy of errors to myself. I’ve never been much of one to pick my own path. I just end up in the places where I am and do the best that I can while I’m there.
“I took on this job as juvenile prosecutor, having really prepared in no way for it except for to have read the law,” Wyatt continued. “I was schooled as an estate planner like my father. I worked in contracts and trusts and probate and the like before I came here.
“But I found a real love of sitting specifically in this chair,” Wyatt added, gesturing toward the seat where the prosecution sits in the courtroom, “and doing the work of the State of Wyoming, trying to show people a different way in the way that they learn.
“I really hope that my experience as a juvenile prosecutor and my experience working in civil law, will present well for this place that I find myself in now and this path that’s been presented to me.”