Wyoming Supreme Court disbarring former DA voted top story of 2023 by WTE staff
Dec. 30—CHEYENNE — The relationships between Laramie County residents and their government were tested this year.
From the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees to the county District Attorney's office, controversial government issues topped the list of major stories covered by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in 2023. The stories were voted on by WTE staff.
A common theme among the stories this year were three major killings in the city, all involving the deaths of teenage girls. Some of these stories, like the murder of 19-year-old Phoenix Cerenil, brought issues of violence against women into the spotlight, forcing the community to confront uncomfortable and tragic aspects of the justice system and the culture at large.
Several local government issues also made it onto the list this year, as issues like the disbarment of former Laramie County DA Leigh Ann Manlove, a controversial school district book policy, the prospect of a horse racing track at Frontier Park and a small-town showdown involving the Burns Town Council landed in the top 10.
Three slots in this year's list were tied, with two stories tied for second place, two stories tied for fourth place and two stories tied for eighth place.
1. Former DA disbarred by Supreme Court
Ranked the highest by WTE staff, former Laramie County DA Leigh Ann Manlove made major news in the city this year. Her disbarment marked the end of a long and arduous investigation by the state Bar Association.
The order to disbar the former DA was issued by the Wyoming Supreme Court in April and took effect on May 5. Manlove was previously the subject of an eight-day hearing in February 2022 by the Wyoming State Bar's Board of Professional Responsibility, based on charges that she mishandled several cases and created a hostile work environment in the office. More than a year later, after she had stepped away from the position by not seeking re-election, she lost her ability to practice law in the state.
Five attorneys left Manlove's office at the end of 2020, objecting to her management and the work environment she created, court documents showed. Several attorneys in her office were concerned about the "mass dismissal" of cases while Manlove was in office.
"The Court held Manlove's actions were 'a complete refusal to perform the duties imposed on her as the district attorney," the State Bar wrote in an order issued in April.
Sylvia Hackl, the current DA, ran unopposed in 2022 for the position and took the office earlier this year.
2 (tie). A 16-year-old girl is shot and killed
Angelina Harrison, a 16-year-old girl, died on Jan. 9 after a gun went off in a car traveling on Dell Range Boulevard. Her parents, David and Amanda Harrison, spoke to the WTE several times about the indescribable heartbreak and trauma they went through with the passing of their young daughter. In several interviews, they described how that pain was magnified through issues with the DA's office and the victim services advocate there.
The Harrisons said that they often struggled to feel heard, had to put in extra work to find out when hearings and updates in the case happened and were ignored by the government when they presented evidence they thought was relevant to the case. They couldn't just sit with the grief from the loss of their daughter, they said, as the case against three co-defendants that all contributed to their daughter's death consumed their life.
The three co-defendants were Sarah Heath, 26; Tirso Munguia, 19; and Cody Nicholson, 19. All three of them were sentenced by November. The incident brought the issue of gun violence to the spotlight early in the year, starting a dialogue about access to firearms, gun safety and shaking the community with a homicide so early in the year.
Munguia, the man who shot Harrison with Nicholson's gun, was sentenced to 15 to 20 years imprisonment. Initially, law enforcement was told that the shooter was at large, covering up Munguia's culpability. Law enforcement, and the family, chased down false leads until Nicholson was later found. He had fled the scene, worried about an active warrant.
Court proceedings later revealed that Heath, the driver, and Nicholson both conspired to lie about the incident. All the while, Angelina Harrison was bleeding out and was not taken for medical treatment. Medical professionals later told her parents that the teenager could have survived, if not for the delay in her care. The judge found that the conspiracy, showing a lack of care for the girl's life, played an instrumental part in how she died. Heath was sentenced to 32 to 36 months of incarceration in August, and Nicholson was sentenced to up to three years in prison.
The Harrisons went on to establish the Angelina's Dream Foundation, an organization they founded in their daughter's honor to support local youth. Their daughter would have graduated in May. Instead of seeing her grow up, they had to watch her classmates graduate high school while an empty chair was left for her. After graduation, she would have gone to Cheeks Beauty Academy, they said. So, they founded a scholarship through the foundation to pay for up to $2,500 to attend the school in Angelina's memory.
2 (tie). School board passes controversial book policy
Tied for second place on the WTE list, a controversial book policy by the LCSD1 Board of Trustees divided the community, as culture war political issues made several board meetings tense throughout the year.
The book policy was intended by the board to restrict schoolchildren's access to "sexually explicit" materials in school libraries. When it came time for the board to vote on the issue, which passed with only two trustees dissenting, more than one board member was in tears.
The public had a wide array of views on the subjects, with some people supporting the policy because they felt people should have control over the content their child had access to. Others, however, expressed more extreme views, with some people going as far as to say that sexual content in books and schools constituted "grooming" by administrators and "normalizing pedophilia." More than one person who spoke on the issue used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, saying that students should not have access to materials that "promoted" LGBTQ+ people or "gender ideology."
There were many critics of the policy, as well. Some people said that the current opt-out policy worked fine and that the new process — a four-option opt-in policy — would convolute things. Other people who condemned the bill said the issue was based on a false premise and showed that the public, and board members, did not trust librarians and educators. Many parents, as well as current and former teachers, got emotional about the subject, and felt attacked by the suggestion that they were harming children with school books.
The policy entered a 45-day public comment period, which ended in late November. Analysis by the WTE showed that, of more than 1,500 responses, 77% were against the policy. It still passed, though. Critics of the policy said that, given the widespread condemnation, the board's vote was in "open defiance" of public opinions. Supporters, however, said that they were the silent majority on the issue and that the roughly 1,500 replies did not speak for the whole community.
4 (tie). Two teens arrested for second fatal shooting of teen girl
On the last day of April, just a few minutes past midnight, the second fatal shooting of a teenage girl, 15-year-old BayLee Carabajal-Clark, took place.
The girl was with her family and friends playing a late-night game of basketball in Lincoln Park when a black car drove by. Members of Carabajal-Clark's family said that people in the car opened fire on them, killing the girl.
Two teens were arrested in the case, Johnny Munoz, the now-convicted shooter, and Julian Espinoza, who allegedly drove the vehicle by Lincoln Park. Both of them faced conspiracy charges, and Munoz was charged with first-degree murder. A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, not finding sufficient cause to determine premeditation, in early December.
The Munoz trial, which began more than six months after the incident took place, brought to light new details in the case that were not initially revealed in court documents and early hearings. Before the jury trial, court documents and hearings painted the picture that Munoz intended to shoot Carabajal-Clark's cousin, Joey Carabajal, and killed her by mistake. The Munoz defense also revealed that multiple young men present with Carabajal-Clark that night had weapons, and that some people present that night were concerned that the girl was killed, on accident, by someone in her own party returning fire.
They also presented evidence that showed that police mishandled the crime scene, in the chaos of the incident, with some officers suspicious that shell casings had gone missing. One officer, quoted by defense, called the scene a "shitshow."
Munoz is awaiting sentencing.
4 (tie). Teen strangled by boyfriend
The year already felt marked by tragedy in June, when news broke that a third young woman from Cheyenne was murdered. The girl, 19-year-old Phoenix Cerenil, was strangled by her boyfriend, Charles Karn, 19. The man was charged with first-degree murder, along with other domestic violence-related charges.
Cerenil was sorely missed by her family, and her father and stepmother spoke with the WTE just weeks after she died. They remembered her for her love of cooking and her relentless devotion to her family. Like the two young women who were killed earlier in the year, the tragedy was magnified by the fact that her family could never watch the girl grow up.
Karn pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge at his arraignment. While the plea agreement did not come with a sentencing recommendation, it came as a surprise to the Cerenil family. Just minutes before the hearing, an assistant district attorney told Cerenil's father, Refugio Cerenil, that he was unsure what would happen at the hearing.
So, why was there a plea agreement the family hadn't even heard of? This led the family to stage a protest outside of the county courthouse in October, asking for the harshest possible sentence for their daughter's killer. Along with the Harrison family, the Cerenils had pointed criticism for the DA's office and its victim services advocate.
In November, Karn was sentenced to life in prison. The family said that was the best possible outcome, given the charges. At the sentencing hearing, Karn's public defender said he came to her ready to plead guilty from the start of the case and wanted to spare the family further trauma from a trial.
6. Conflict over Cheyenne Animal Shelter contract
The Cheyenne City Council approved a three-year contract with the Cheyenne Animal Shelter for $2.55 million. That contract did not come easy, though, as the efficacy of the contract was debated for months before that.
People at the shelter were caught off-guard in March, when the city announced that it would not renew its contract. City and county officials, at the time, cited a lack of transparency, higher budget requests and communication issues when they announced their decision.
The city went as far as to secure a location for their own planned animal shelter on South Greeley Highway. Soon after the decision, shelter staff met with members of the City Council and Mayor Patrick Collins to discuss contract renegotiations, which eventually bore fruit.
Under the new contract, the animal shelter will received $800,000 for fiscal year 2024 (instead of the $1.2 million it initially sought), and that amount will increase by $50,000 a year for the following two years.
7. Teton County judge halts two abortion bills
Disputes over access to abortion in post-Roe v. Wade Wyoming continued in 2023, as Gov. Mark Gordon let two anti-abortion laws take effect in March. One bill passed by the Legislature during the 2023 general session contained his signature, while the other didn't.
Those laws continued a lengthy legal battle that began last summer, with the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The Wyoming Legislature passed a "trigger" law in March 2022, a law preemptively set to ban abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned. A lawsuit in Teton County blocked that legislation, asking for a stay on the ban while litigation was pending.
By the time the 2023 legislative session came around, the stay was still in effect. That was when two more laws were proposed. One was a reworking of the 2022 bill, called the "Life is a Human Right Act," and the other was a ban on chemical abortions, such as pills.
A new lawsuit, also filed in Teton County, stayed the decision on abortion once more, effectively allowing abortion to remain legal in the state indefinitely until the cases are settled.
In December, a separate suit to allow some lawmakers and interest groups to intervene in the case and present evidence was heard by the Wyoming Supreme Court. The intervenors are awaiting an opinion on the matter.
In Teton County, parties in the lawsuit are awaiting a ruling on whether there will be an evidentiary hearing.
8 (tie). LCSD1 Superintendent Crespo steps down
In early August, Laramie County School District 1 Superintendent Margaret Crespo resigned, but the reasons for her resignation are still unknown.
The district held a special meeting on Aug. 4, intended to discuss "personnel" matters. During the meeting, the board unanimously accepted her resignation and named Steve Newton the acting superintendent.
Since May, the district had received multiple complaints about the now-former superintendent, which a third-party investigation later concluded were unfounded. Among those complaints were allegations that Crespo participated in sex discrimination and created a hostile work environment.
Newton is now the interim superintendent for the district.
8 (tie). Burns Town Council clashes with restaurant owner over lease
The spotlight was brought onto the small town of Burns when reports emerged that the owner of a local restaurant, The Rustic Plate, was having a contract dispute with the town's council.
The owner of the restaurant was given notice in early October that she would be evicted from the town-owned community center building because she did not sign a new lease. She objected to the terms of the new contract, saying that the town was not giving her the leasing terms she wanted and was promised.
As tensions rose, the case ended up in Laramie County Circuit Court. There, a judge issued a Writ of Restitution, allowing the town to evict The Rustic Plate over the dispute.
10. Horse racing at Frontier Park riles up neighborhood
In late November, tensions rose in the city of Cheyenne when a meeting was held to discuss the possibility of a live horse racing track being installed at Frontier Park.
Many people who live in the neighborhood spoke about concerns like traffic, safety, noise and pollution. Some people also opposed the idea of gambling in the city altogether.
Soon after, a poll was circulated among community members that implied it supported the development. The "push poll" was actually intended to make community members opposed to the project by implying that it would cause people in the area to lose their homes via eminent domain.
Shortly thereafter, the company proposing the project asked the Laramie County commissioners to postpone a decision on its license, citing the need for additional time to address community concerns.
Samir Knox is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice and public safety reporter. He can be reached by email at sknox@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3152. Follow him on Twitter at @bySamirKnox.
