Wyoming committee advances domestic violence proposal

Nov. 18--CHEYENNE -- Wyoming lawmakers unanimously advanced a proposal Thursday to tighten loopholes in the state's domestic violence laws and add two crimes to a list of violent felonies.

The bill presented to the Legislature's Joint Judiciary Interim Committee in Wheatland is the most recent attempt by lawmakers to add strangulation of a household member, and a third or subsequent domestic battery conviction to a list of violent crimes.

Under Wyoming law, felons are not automatically barred from possessing guns. Only "violent felons" convicted of crimes such as murder, manslaughter, robbery, first- or second-degree sexual assault and aggravated assault are prevented from owning or possessing firearms.

Violent felons also aren't eligible to have their records expunged.

"I was very surprised two years ago when I looked at our strangulation statute and it wasn't classified as a violent felony," said Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie, who has worked as a criminal defense attorney.

Pelkey said strangulation of a household member -- applying pressure to an intimate partner's throat or neck and/or blocking their airway -- is an indicator that a domestic partner could be more violent in the future.

Accor-ding to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic violence victims are 10 times more likely to be killed by their partner if they have been strangled in the past.

The proposal also would increase penalties for strangulation from a maximum of five years to 10 years in prison.

"We don't take (family violence) as seriously as we do drug offenses, as we do some other things," former Natrona County prosecutor and attorney Brett Johnson said.

But Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, said he worried there weren't any safeguards in the bill for people who could be wrongfully convicted.

"That's something that's a theme as we continue to increase the penalties and the jail time, the misdemeanors, the felonies the outgrowth in this," he said. "Once in a while, we get this wrong, and we ruin someone's life."

Lawmakers also discussed portions of the bill that would add crimes such as unlawful contact, strangulation of a household member, kidnapping and false imprisonment to a list of domestic violence offenses that could lead to enhanced penalties.

In Wyoming domestic violence statutes, the first domestic battery offense is considered a misdemeanor. A person will likely get a harsher misdemeanor penalty if they are convicted of another domestic-related offense within five years.

It becomes felony domestic battery if the person is convicted of at least two other domestic violence offenses within 10 years.

When lawmakers overhauled domestic violence statutes in 2014, unlawful contact was left out, leaving a loophole for people to plead down from domestic battery or violence to unlawful contact, said Laramie County District Attorney Jeremiah Sandburg.

"(And) we've always wondered why strangulation wasn't part of it," he said.

Lawmakers also struck down a provision in the bill that would have expanded the definition of domestic assault and added a crime of false imprisonment in the presence of a child.

Committee head Sen. Leland Christensen, R-Alta, said he worried it would be too difficult to pass the law during a short session with the completely new language.

He imagined floor arguments and concerns about creating new crimes.

"(The expanded definition) seems to feel like a lower threshold and a wider loop than we've had in the past in Wyoming," he said. "Is there really evidence we need this?"

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