Boner, victims’ families push for tougher stalking laws

Following intense publicity surrounding a Converse County case involving an adult stalking children, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee agreed to draft a bill that would create felony penalties for an adult convicted of stalking a minor.

However, the state senators and representatives on Aug. 12 also voted to table an accompanying draft bill that’d establish a law against grooming a minor for a sexual offense.

Though the draft bill on stalking (26LSO-0078) was passed in committee this month, it will be considered again during the next committee meeting in November. If the committee approved the bill a second time, it’ll then become a topic of debate during the Legislature’s budget session in February, when it must obtain a majority vote in both houses and be signed by the governor before it becomes law. It could theoretically go into effect July 1, 2026.

The bills were drafted by Glenrock resident Cathy Holman, who has worked with state Sen. Brian Boner, R-Converse/Natrona, CyberWyoming Executive Director Laura Baker and legal experts in an effort to update Wyoming stalking laws. About a dozen Glenrock residents arrived at the meeting Aug. 12 to show their support.

Holman and another Glenrock mother, Brandi Sorenson, began work on the bills early last spring after their teenaged children were stalked for more than a year by a 41-year-old Glenrock woman. Marcie Smith pleaded no contest to stalking of the two minors March 19 in Converse County Circuit Court and was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and $1,390 in fines. The two mothers felt this misdemeanor conviction was a lack of justice.

“We will not benefit from this,” Holman said after the committee meeting. “Our trial is done. It’s done, it’s over for us. What we’re doing now is about making Wyoming better and ensuring that other families don’t go through what we’ve been through.”

Under the current draft bill, an adult convicted of stalking a minor would face a felony and a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. Other amendments were proposed during the meeting by Holman and Boner, who both testified in support of the bill.

One amendment was to include cyber methods of stalking like artificial intelligence to the bill. Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Laramie, vocally supported this addition, but Sen. Barry Crago, R-Johnson/Sheridan, commented that the additional parameters could create loopholes for attorneys. Rep. Art Washut, R-Natrona, agreed that the bill should be kept as simple as possible before Singh withdrew his recommendation for the amendment. The committee members further decided not to include an amendment that would clarify electronic forms of stalking.

The committee decided to remove a line from the bill that specified an offender had to be three years older than the victim for the charge to apply. It was also suggested that a $10,000 fine was added to the penalty, but this wasn’t approved.

Holman said she thought the meeting was successful despite the missing amendments she’d suggested.

“A lot of people get attached to the bills they write and every single detail but to me it’s about the bigger picture thinking,” she said. “We’ll worry about the electronic (clarifications), artificial intelligence (clarifications) later. We can worry about the $10,000 fine later. Let’s get it so an adult stalking a minor is a felony.”

GROOMING A MINOR

The House draft on grooming laws (26LSO-0079) would establish grooming a minor for a sexual offense as a criminal charge, separate from laws against the sexual exploitation of children.

The bill defines grooming as “behavior that seeks to prepare, induce or persuade a minor to engage in sexual conduct or exploitation, even if no meeting or sexual conduct is completed.”

Legislators agreed to table this bill as they didn’t agree with how some of its language could be interpreted by courts. Crago, for instance, noted that this bill would make the instance of an 18-year-old high school student romantically texting a 17-year-old a felony charge.

Members suggested that more clarifications be added to the next draft. Then the committee made the decision to table it.

“We’re not done yet, we can’t stop talking about this yet,” Holman said. “So please just help us keep on pushing for this. It’s not done until February when that vote, hopefully, is in our favor.”