A winter street in downtown Jackson, Wyoming, with the ski runs of Snow King Mountain above the rooftops — Downtown Jackson, Snow King behind · Circuit Court and District Court are two blocks east · Photograph: Aaron Herzberg

Assault and domestic violence · Wyoming state court, Teton County

Assault and domestic violence charges in Jackson Hole.

A domestic call in Teton County ends with someone in a patrol car. A fight on the Square ends with a citation and a court date. Both run on the same statutes in the same Circuit Court, and carry consequences the statutes never mention: a no-contact order, a federal gun bar, a custody case not yet filed. I defend both, and for a first charge the aim is an outcome that is not a conviction for a crime of domestic violence.

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Tell me who called, what the paperwork says, and whether there is a no-contact order

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(307) 300-2496

40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, two blocks from both courts

Do not

Contact the other person, even to apologize.

The no-contact condition is a court order. A text that says sorry is a new charge, a revoked bond, and an exhibit for the state.

Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been arrested or charged? Here's what happens next.

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Three things to know before the hearing.

The blow, and the household.

Battery is bodily injury by physical force: six months and $750 (W.S. § 6-2-501). Between household members it is domestic battery (W.S. § 6-2-511): six months on a first, a year on a second within five years, a ten-year felony on a third within ten.

She cannot drop it.

The case is the State against you; the county attorney decides. Domestic cases are built on the 911 recording, body camera, and photographs so they survive a change of heart. A defendant who leans on the witness has committed a second offense.

The rifle in the truck.

Federal law bars anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing a firearm (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9)). Wyoming domestic battery fits. A protection order can impose the same bar while it lasts. Violating it is a federal felony, up to fifteen years.

The first seventy-two hours.

Four things happen at once, on different clocks, and they are one problem.

The arrest. An officer with probable cause to believe a domestic battery or assault happened within the last twenty-four hours can arrest without a warrant and without having seen anything (W.S. § 7-20-102). On a domestic call the practical rule is separation, and separation means the patrol car.
The bond and the no-contact condition. The jail must tell you within four hours that you can ask for release in writing. The bond order will bar contact with the alleged victim and witnesses, and usually firearms. It is the court's order, not hers, and only the court can change it.
The protection order. A separate case. The other person petitions the Circuit Court, no fee (W.S. § 35-21-103). A temporary order issues without hearing from you; the hearing follows within seventy-two hours. Then an order of up to three years: the home, the children, no contact.
The custody case. Not filed yet. Evidence of spousal or child abuse counts against a parent by statute (W.S. § 20-2-201(c)), and a police report at midnight in July is an exhibit in a divorce filed next spring. See the custody page; the two matters are planned together.

The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar on the Jackson Town Square at dusk, its neon sign lit — Closing time on the Square is where the summer cases start

The bar fight and the kitchen.

The visitor's case

A shove on the sidewalk after the rodeo, a split lip, and a citation for battery, unlawful contact, or breach of the peace, dated three weeks after the flight home. Must-appear offenses, with a jury right, usually resolvable without a return trip: the court can proceed in your absence on written consent for anything carrying a year or less. Wyoming's self-defense statute makes reasonable defensive force lawful and imposes no duty to retreat on whoever did not start it (W.S. § 6-2-602). The work is proving which person that was.

The household case, and the honest goal

The 911 call, the arrest at midnight, the bond hearing, a week in a friend's spare room, a custody question nobody has said out loud. For a first domestic battery charge, the aim is an outcome that is not a conviction for a crime of domestic violence. The general deferral is open to a first domestic battery and closed to a second (W.S. § 7-13-301); the domestic-violence arrest statute has its own, ending in dismissal. Where self-defense or the recording says otherwise, the case is tried to six jurors.

Read the bond order with me. The call takes thirty minutes.

Tell me who called, what the paperwork says, and whether there is a protection-order petition.

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The felonies, the record, and the visa.

Aggravated assault, strangulation, who counts as household, the gun ban, immigration, employers

The felonies

Aggravated assault and battery is the felony version: serious bodily injury, injury caused with a deadly weapon, a drawn weapon used as a threat, or injury to a woman the defendant knows is pregnant (W.S. § 6-2-502). It carries up to ten years and is tried in District Court to twelve jurors. Strangulation of a household member is its own ten-year felony, defined as impeding breathing or circulation by pressure on the throat or by blocking the nose and mouth (W.S. § 6-2-509), and it is the charge a prosecutor adds whenever a report says a hand touched a neck. Aggravated assault is excluded by name from the deferral available in most first misdemeanor cases. Unlawful contact, touching someone "in a rude, insolent or angry manner" without injuring them, carries the same six-month ceiling as battery (W.S. § 6-2-501(g), (h)). Probation on domestic battery can run three years.

Who counts as a household member

"Household member" is defined in the Domestic Violence Protection Act and reaches further than people expect: spouses and former spouses, people who live or lived together as if married, parents and their adult children, co-parents who never lived together, other adults sharing living quarters, and anyone in, or formerly in, a dating relationship. In a valley of shared leases and seasonal roommates, that covers a lot of doors. The protection order, after a hearing on a preponderance of the evidence, can be extended in three-year periods, give the petitioner sole possession of the home, bar you from initiating contact, and award temporary custody of the children with visitation only on conditions that protect them. Willful violation is its own misdemeanor, six months and $750. What is said at the protection-order hearing becomes evidence in the criminal case.

The gun ban, in detail

The federal definition is a misdemeanor with an element of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed by a spouse or former spouse, a co-parent, a cohabitant, or, since 2022, a person in a current or recent dating relationship. A plain battery conviction can fit it too when the victim was a partner, because the federal definition looks at the relationship and the element of force, not at the name of the charge. In a county where the elk rifle lives in the truck from September to January, this is the consequence that changes a life, and it appears nowhere in the Wyoming statute the person pleaded to. Federal law lifts the bar for a conviction that has been expunged or set aside; the expungement page covers what Wyoming allows. The sensible plan is not to acquire the conviction.

Employers, landlords, and the visa

Employers, landlords and licensing boards read "domestic" differently from "battery," and ski-area and hospitality employers run checks at every hire. A seasonal worker on a visa or a green-card holder faces a separate and serious problem, because a crime of domestic violence is its own ground of removal; the page on immigration consequences explains the framework, and no non-citizen should enter a plea in one of these cases without immigration advice first.

Asked about assault and domestic violence charges.

Can the alleged victim drop the charges in Wyoming?

No. The case is titled State of Wyoming against you, and the county attorney decides whether it goes forward; the person who called is a witness, not a party. A protection order cannot be denied because the petitioner withdrew an earlier one, and domestic cases are built on the 911 recording, body-camera footage and photographs so that they can proceed if the witness changes her account. A witness who does not want a prosecution can say so. A defendant who asks her to say so has committed a new crime.

What does the no-contact order mean if we live together?

It means you do not go home, text, call, or send a message through a friend, even if your partner asks you to. Only the court can lift the condition. Until it does, a reply to "please come get your things" is a violation, a revoked bond, and a second charge. A couple who both want the household back together can ask the court to modify it, and that is often granted, with terms. Collect your things with an officer present. Let me make the request.

Will I lose my guns if I am convicted of domestic battery in Wyoming?

Under federal law, yes, while the conviction stands. A misdemeanor with an element of physical force, committed against a spouse, a former spouse, a co-parent, a cohabitant, or a current or recent dating partner, bars possession of any firearm or ammunition, and Wyoming domestic battery is that offense. A protection order entered after a hearing can impose the same bar while it lasts. Federal law lifts the conviction-based bar for a conviction that has been expunged or set aside, and since 2022 a single dating-relationship conviction lapses after five years.

What is the penalty for domestic battery in Wyoming?

For a first offense, six months and $750 at most, with probation of up to three years. A second conviction within five years, counting a prior battery, assault, or unlawful contact against a household member, carries up to a year and $1,000. A third within ten years, or a second plus one of the listed offenses, is a felony punishable by up to ten years and $10,000, heard in District Court before twelve jurors. Strangulation of a household member is a felony carrying ten years on the first occasion.

I was defending myself. Is that a defense to a battery charge in Wyoming?

It is. Defensive force is reasonable when it is what a reasonable person in your position would judge necessary to prevent injury, and no more; an honest belief in the danger is enough even if the danger was apparent rather than real; and a person lawfully where he is has no duty to retreat, provided he was not the initial aggressor. The domestic-abuse definition itself excludes acts of self-defense. The question is proof: who struck first, the injuries, the recording.

I was cited after a bar fight in Jackson and I live out of state. Do I have to come back?

Not necessarily. Battery, unlawful contact and breach of the peace are must-appear offenses in Wyoming, so the citation cannot be paid by mail; ignoring it produces a warrant. But for an offense carrying a year or less, the court can, on your written consent, let arraignment, plea, trial and sentence go forward without you, and in a visitor case I ask for that first. This week, send me the citation, write down what happened, and name anyone who saw it; the state's witnesses are usually the other side's friends.