The Wyoming Bar should be accountable to voters

Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

The Wyoming Bar Association seems obsessed with overruling Cheyenne voters. Special Counsel, W. W. Reeves, not only filed highly disputed charges against the elected Laramie County DA, Leigh Anne Manlove, he continues to hinder her from mounting a proper defense. 

Most recently, Jim Angell reported that the Bar’s “Board of Professional Responsibility” (BPR) imposed an October 22 deadline for her to complete the discovery portion of her defense. But that same Bar has stalled and limited her ability to interview the seven judges who sent a letter to the Bar last December.

Stephen Melchior, Manlove’s attorney, explained that the deadline “is prejudicial to (Manlove) and does not provide her the time necessary to complete discovery in this case, and is further prejudicial in limiting her to the taking of 10 depositions, especially since 7 of the depositions are of the judges who waged the initial complaint in this matter, and since it is apparent on its face that both present and former employees of the DA’s office, and others, have information that is relevant to the allegations made in the formal charge.”

Leigh Anne G. Manlove

Reeves retorted that Manlove should have been preparing her defense since she “saw the seven judges’ letter in December of 2020.” This is a revealing claim. There is nothing on the December 21, 2020, letter to indicate that Manlove even got a copy. Why should she be expected to retain counsel and prepare a defense to a letter?

This mystery is partially solved in that, on the very next day, Wyoming Bar Counsel, Mark Gifford, filed a 48-page “Petition for immediate suspension” of Manlove’s license to practice law. You read that right. Seven judges conspired to submit an “unprecedented letter” against her on Monday, and immediately the Wyoming Bar filed an apparently pre-written petition to disbar her. 

While this explains how Manlove learned of the letter, it also raises many questions about how the seven judges and the Wyoming Bar were colluding behind the scenes. Who drafted the letter? Who reviewed, edited, promoted it, and solicited the signatures? Who, at the Wyoming Bar, was communicating with the judges, and what private information was being exchanged? These and many other questions should be answered under oath. 

Barely a month after the Bar’s petition was filed, the Wyoming Supreme Court rejected its bid to suspend Manlove’s license. Let me say that again. The Wyoming Bar has already had the chance to argue its case before the Court. On January 26, 2021, less than a week after Manlove presented her defense, the Court vindicated her. It wasn’t even close.

So, again, why should she spend any resources defending herself after the Supreme Court tossed out the charges? On June 11, 2021, we learned that only days after losing its case before the Supreme Court, the Wyoming Bar assigned Special Counsel Reeves to drag her before the BPR on many of the same charges. And those charges were not made public until months later when Reeves filed the Formal Charge.

That sure sounds like double jeopardy to me. But if the case is to be tried again, Gifford and all seven judges are material witnesses to the facts. When Manlove asked the Bar for permission to depose these witnesses, the Bar denied her request, gave her only restricted access, and did not leave her enough time to act before the October 22 deadline, at any rate.

You might wonder how the Wyoming Bar has the power to restrict witnesses in a case where it is, itself, the plaintiff. Those are the rules of the Wyoming State Bar. They do not have to follow the same rules as state courts. They are a private club that does its work behind closed doors.

Private clubs are entitled to do as they please, but this private club is trying to overturn a public election. On November 6, 2018, 21,083 voters in Laramie County elected Manlove to be their District Attorney. And yet, within months of beginning her tenure, the Bar began working behind the scenes to take her out. Next, it tried to suspend her law license. Now, it is re-trying her case “in-house.” 

Manlove’s thorough response, filed on July 20, shed much-needed light on the Wyoming Bar’s relentless attack on the voters of Laramie County. It is available at LA4DA.com. The Wyoming County and Prosecuting Attorney’s Association and the Wyoming Attorney General have registered their own objections to the Bar’s actions, as well.

The voters of Laramie County elected Manlove by a supermajority (67%), but the Wyoming Bar does not care about the ballot box. After nearly three years of unrestricted lawfare against an elected official, perhaps it’s time they did. The unaccountable power that the Bar has over elected officials is unhealthy. It needs to change. 

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, November 12, 2021, and the Cowboy State Daily, November 16, 2021.