Wyoming

Lawmakers approve bill to allow Wyoming law enforcement to remove squatters – WyoFile

Published

1 week ago

November 12, 2024

Lawmakers approve bill to allow Wyoming law enforcement to remove squatters – WyoFile

It may soon be easier for Wyoming property owners to obtain local law enforcement’s help removing squatters.

The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee voted 10-4 on Thursday to sponsor a bill creating a process for property owners to request law-enforcement assistance in removing unauthorized occupants from a residential property. The bill also creates additional criminal trespassing offenses.

The committee worked the bill throughout the Legislature’s off-season, also known as the interim, after hearing concerns from property owners, including one Casper woman who described hitting a dead-end with police after finding six squatters on one of her properties.

The squatters eventually left, but Sen. Jim Anderson (R-Casper) told the committee the incident highlighted a gap in the law and that legislation was needed. Lawmakers obliged, formed a working group and drafted legislation largely resembling a Florida law enacted this summer.

The final legislation sponsored by the committee would make squatting that involves property destruction a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Most of the lawmakers’ discussion on the bill Thursday involved amendments, but the committee’s two Democrats voiced concerns that the bill needed more work and could cause more harm than good.

“I like limiting this bill to squatters. That’s perfect. That’s a good thing. That’s one of the big improvements we made to this bill,” Rep. Ken Chestek (D-Laramie) said.

Trespass and eviction statutes already on the books are sufficient, Chestek said, “and those remedies incorporate due process and have real judges deciding who has rights and who doesn’t have rights.”

Rep. Ken Chestek (D-Laramie) during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 budget session. (Ashton J. Hacke/WyoFile)

Chestek and Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie) voted against the bill alongside Freedom Caucus members Reps. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) and Mark Jennings (R-Sheridan).

Discussion

While working the bill throughout the interim, the committee heard conflicting testimony from law enforcement on its necessity.

“We hear from some who say the existing trespass statute works most of the time for most of the circumstances,” Rep. Art Washut (R-Casper) said at Thursday’s meeting. “And we hear others who say, ‘No, we need some changes.’ And so it’s interesting as we hear these different opinions about what the law needs to be in order to achieve the goal that we’re looking for here.”

Converse County Sheriff Clint Becker told the committee trespassing laws already on the books have been sufficient in Douglas for dealing with squatters, but that might not hold true elsewhere.

“I can’t talk for the larger cities,” Becker said.

Evansville Police Chief Mike Thompson, on the other hand, said he had concerns about the bill being limited to residential properties.

“Squatting isn’t, it isn’t just to residential dwellings. It can be any particular property. And so that’s part of the mud of this,” Thompson said. “You take like a camp or a tent or like an RV bus. Those can be considered, you know, residential dwellings, in a sense, by law.”

Rep. Ember Oakley (R-Riverton) discouraged the committee from widening the legislation’s scope.

“My thought on this bill is we’re trying to keep this specific and narrow,” Oakley said. “[It’s] not about renters, not about tenants, not about eviction. This is a specific, narrow [bill] about people squatting in a house.”

Rep. Ember Oakley (right), R-Riverton, and Rep. Art Washut, R-Casper, listen to testimony during the House Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday, March 11, 2021, inside the state Capitol. (Michael Cummo/Wyoming Tribune Eagle/Wyoming News Exchange)

As the bill proposes, a property owner can ask local law enforcement for “the immediate removal of any person unlawfully occupying or possessing the owner’s residential dwelling” if two conditions are met.

For one, the person requesting the removal must be the property owner or “the owner’s authorized agent,” the bill states. Secondly, the “‘unauthorized person’ means a person who is not authorized or is no longer authorized to maintain presence or residency in a residential dwelling.”

An earlier draft of the bill included a third requirement that the property owner first ask the squatter in person or in writing to vacate, but the committee agreed with Rep. Barry Crago’s (R-Buffalo) suggestion to strike it.

“I know based on previous testimony we heard at our prior meeting that that particular person was brave enough to go ask [squatters] to leave, but some people shouldn’t be brave enough to go ask them to leave,” he said. “I think there could be some situations where that ends poorly.”

Additionally, the bill requires law enforcement to “verify that the person who submitted the complaint is the record owner of the residential dwelling or the authorized agent of the owner.”

The committee also amended the bill’s definition of an “unauthorized person” and specified that the definition does not include a current or former tenant.

That was a much-needed adjustment, according to Allen Thompson, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

“I would say that our membership … would be very appreciative of this tenancy issue being put in here, because that was our concern from a liability standpoint,” Thompson said. “If someone had been a tenant and were afforded rights as a tenant, and we got in the middle of that process, regardless of if the law allows it, I think it would bring liability on the law enforcement.”

In Wyoming, sheriff’s offices usually deal with evictions, and less so municipal officers. The bill would authorize both kinds of law enforcement to remove squatters. That was a concern for Rep. Provenza, who insisted the bill still needed more work.

“We’ve done good work today, committee, on cleaning up this bill, but golly gee, it used to mean something that a bill wasn’t ready for prime time,” Provenza said.

Ultimately, the committee voted 10-4 to sponsor the bill.

“Thank you for your efforts on that bill, committee,” Sen. Bill Landen (R-Casper) said following the vote. “Still some work to do, perhaps, but glad we’re able to continue on.”

The general session begins Jan. 14.

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to WyoFile. Our work is funded by readers like you who are committed to unbiased journalism that works for you, not for the algorithms.

Source link

Wyoming

Spring registration open at Central Wyoming College

Published

47 mins ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Spring registration open at Central Wyoming College

JACKSON, Wyo. — Central Wyoming College (CWC) spring registration is now open!

CWC offers in-person and online Associates, Bachelors of Applied Science and leadership programs. CWC gives students the opportunity to pursue higher education while developing skills that will allow them to transition into meaningful careers.

From the creative to the curious, CWC provides diverse programs in high-demand fields such as business, hospitality, culinary, outdoor education, science, nursing and English as a second language. Browse courses here.

Fascinated by shows like CSI and NCIS? Interested in learning more about the art and science of criminal investigations? Criminal Investigation I (CRMJ-2130), is co-taught by Michelle Weber, Chief of Police for the town of Jackson. Open to those interested in pursuing work in the field of law enforcement and for those curious about forensics, interviewing and interrogation, surveillance and more.

Interested in pursuing a career as a writer? Andrew Siegel, a MFA student in creative writing from University of Wyoming, will teach Creative Writing: Fiction (ENGL-2050) in the spring. ENGL-2050 is open to students who have taken the prerequisite (ENGL-1010) and anyone with a college degree (Associate’s, Bachelor’s, or Graduate).

Interested in enrolling? CWC is an open-enrollment school, which means all students are accepted once their application has been submitted. Apply below today:

Source link

Wyoming

Wyoming governor pledges to appeal after judge blocks pro-life laws

Published

8 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Wyoming governor pledges to appeal after judge blocks pro-life laws

By Kate Quiñones

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 06:00 am

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Wyoming judge blocks state pro-life laws

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court after a county judge blocked two pro-life laws in Wyoming. The judge blocked the Life Is a Human Right Act, which protected unborn children except in cases when the mother’s life was at risk or in cases of rape or incest, as well as a law prohibiting chemical abortions via abortion pills, a law signed by Gordon in March 2023.

Gordon said on Tuesday that the ruling was “frustrating” and that he instructed his attorney general to prepare to appeal the decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens ruled on Monday that the two laws violated the state constitution by restricting medical decisions. Owen has blocked Wyoming abortion laws three times since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Now that the ruling has been struck down, abortion is legal up until fetal viability in Wyoming.

The plaintiffs included Wyoming abortion clinic Wellspring Health Access, two obstetricians, two other women, and the Wyoming abortion advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund. Following the ruling, Chelsea’s Fund stated on Tuesday that it “will do everything in our power to uphold this ruling in the Wyoming Supreme Court.”

Montana judge blocks licensing law for abortion clinic

A Montana District Court temporarily paused the state’s recent health department licensing regulations for abortion clinics amid pending litigation. House Bill 937 required licensure and regulation of abortion clinics and included rules for sanitation standards, emergency equipment, and hotlines for women who are coerced into an abortion or are victims of sex trafficking.

Two abortion providers, All Families Healthcare in Kalispell and Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, and an abortionist sued over the regulations, saying they would have to close if they were implemented. Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Chris Abbot ruled in their favor, saying that H.B. 937 was a shift in “the status quo” that abortion providers “are not generally considered health care facilities subject to a licensure requirement.” Montana voters approved Initiative 128 on Election Day, enshrining a right to abortion in the constitution and allowing abortion after fetal viability.

Virginia bishops condemn fast-tracked right to abortion proposal

Two Virginia bishops recently opposed a proposed amendment granting a right to abortion, which was fast-tracked by the state House Privileges and Elections Committee. Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond in a Nov. 13 statement called the proposed right to abortion “a fundamental tragedy.” Virginia law currently allows abortion up to 26 weeks and six days and allows abortion after that in certain cases. Burbidge and Knestout encouraged Virginia to “work instead for policies that affirm the life and dignity of every mother and every child.”

The bishops also opposed a fast-tracked proposal to remove the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman from the state constitution. The bishops noted that they “affirm the dignity of every person” and “affirm too that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman.” Following the election, the bishops encouraged “deep engagement in decisions” that are at “the heart of who we are.”

Kate Quiñones

Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.

Source link