Agency Overview
In 1981, the Wyoming State Legislature created the Office of the District Attorney in each judicial district in which any one county’s population reached 60,000 or more. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-1-801. Since 1983, the First and Seventh Judicial Districts—encompassing Laramie and Natrona Counties, respectively—have elected a District Attorney. Laramie County District Attorney Leigh Anne Grant Manlove was elected in 2018 as Wyoming’s first female District Attorney and took her oath of office on January 7, 2019. The duties and functions of the District Attorney’s Office are statutorily outlined in Wyoming Statutes §§ 9-1-801 through 9-1-811. The District Attorney’s Office is further required to comply with the Victim’s Bill of Rights, as outlined in Wyoming Statutes §§ 1-40-201 through 1-40-213 and the attorneys employed in the Office are further obligated to abide by additional professional rules specific to prosecutors, as outlined in Wyoming Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8.

 

The District Attorney’s Office is currently comprised of the District Attorney, one full-time Deputy District Attorney, nine full-time Assistant District Attorneys, seven full-time Legal Assistants, two full-time Victim/Witness Coordinators, one full-time Office Manager, one full-time Investigator, and two full-time Receptionists.

The salary of one attorney and one legal assistant is presently funded through an annual HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) drug prosecution grant. These positions will continue to be paid out of the annual HIDTA grant for the immediate future. This grant is a cooperative program between the District Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office for prosecuting large scale drug traffickers within Laramie County given its geographical proximity to two intersecting interstate highways, making it easier for individuals to traffic drugs through the State of Wyoming at several points, including Laramie County. The District Attorney’s Office receives funding by way of the VOCA and VAWA-P Grants, paid out on a monthly basis, to fund one full-time Victim Witness Assistant and one full time Attorney, required to handle the prosecution of domestic violence cases.  The salaries of the remaining individuals are funded through the General Fund.

Agency Background and Structure
The District Attorney represents the State of Wyoming in all of Laramie County’s juvenile cases of abuse/neglect, delinquency, and child in need of supervision cases, misdemeanor cases, and felony cases. The eleven-member attorney team, including the District Attorney, is responsible for staffing seven courtrooms at any given time with four District Court judges and three Circuit Court judges. Five attorneys are dedicated to carrying felony caseloads, four attorneys are dedicated to carrying misdemeanor caseloads, while the remaining two attorneys handle the entire juvenile docket. Attendant to these responsibilities, the District Attorney’s Office works with treatment courts, treatment providers, and community partners to provide services to both victims and defendants. Beyond the court room, the District Attorney advises law enforcement agencies on procedural and legal matters, reviews investigations, and assists in providing training to local law enforcement agencies and state-wide agencies through partnership with the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy. The District Attorney, specifically, is statutorily mandated to sit as a member of the Child Protection Team, the Children’s Advocacy Project, CHINS staffing committee, Community Corrections Board for the Community Alternatives Center, Juvenile Planning Commission, and the Adult Protection Team.