Judge declines to hold Laramie County Sheriff Kozak in contempt, but sets deadline for records dispute

A judge denied Monday a request to hold Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak in contempt of court in a lawsuit concerning immigration arrest records.  

While acknowledging that Kozak and his counsel, Laramie County Attorney Mark Voss, didn’t fully comply with a court order requiring them to produce immigration arrest records, Laramie County Judge Robin Cooley wrote in her decision that there wasn’t clear evidence showing their noncompliance was willful. 

A Colorado law firm requested records from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office related to a deputy’s April immigration arrest of Mario Fabian Valenzuela-Robles, a Mexican national with three children who are U.S. citizens. The legal practice, Lichter Immigration, is representing Valenzuela-Robles in ongoing immigration proceedings, and the evidence is vital to his defense in federal court, the firm has said. 

Alleging that it faced barriers to obtaining certain records, Lichter Immigration, represented by former Wyoming GOP Chair Drake Hill, sued Kozak and his office in July. Later that month, Cooley ordered Kozak to provide additional records concerning Valenzuela-Robles’ detention. 

But Kozak and Voss didn’t fully comply with that order, missing the agreed-upon deadline by two days. Some documents were in a format the plaintiffs couldn’t open or read. Kozak’s office didn’t provide a log explaining why certain documents were withheld. Because of these shortcomings, Lichter Immigration requested Cooley to hold Kozak and his office in contempt of court. 

But noncompliance alone, Cooley wrote in her decision, “does not establish civil contempt.” 

“Plaintiffs have not proven by clear and convincing evidence that the failure to comply was willful,” Cooley wrote. Kozak also noted this point. “The law says you have to willfully, you know, withhold the evidence, and so of course we didn’t do that,” he said in a phone call to WyoFile. 

That being said, Cooley continued, just because the defendants’ noncompliance wasn’t willful “does not make it acceptable.” 

She noted that the defendants helped draft the terms of the order compelling production of records. Cooley also pointed out that Hill had asked Voss in an August letter to address concerns about the records. 

The defendants’ failure to address those concerns “prolonged a dispute that should have been resolved without the necessity of further Court proceedings,” Cooley wrote. 

While declining to hold Kozak in contempt, Cooley ordered the sheriff and Voss to provide within 10 days a log explaining why certain records were withheld, records in a readable format and written explanations addressing each of the alleged missing records the plaintiffs had identified. 

Kozak said he had talked with Voss and expects to comply with the order in the next couple of days.

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