A traffic stop at night on a snowy mountain highway, the patrol car's lights reflected on the road — A stop on the highway · Teton County, Wyoming

Criminal defense · Teton County, Wyoming

A criminal defense attorney in Jackson Hole, for cases in the Teton County courts.

A Wyoming misdemeanor can mean jail, a suspended license, a firearms problem, and a record that background checks read for years; a felony means the penitentiary is on the table. I defend both in the Teton County courts, a short walk from my office, before a judge and a prosecutor who see the same charges every week. The decisions made in the first days, whether to pay the citation, whether to talk, what to plead, are the ones that decide what the file says afterward. My job is to make those decisions with you, not after you.

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Book a thirty-minute call

Through the chat button in the corner of this page, at any hour; it goes onto my calendar

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(307) 300-2496

40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson · a short walk from both courts

Text

Do not

Talk to the police, or pay the citation.

A friendly call to clear things up is a recorded interview. Paying a forfeitable citation is a no-contest plea. Say nothing, pay nothing, until we have read the paperwork together.

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.

Three things to know tonight.

Two courts, one street.

Every misdemeanor in Wyoming starts in circuit court (W.S. § 5-9-129), so the Teton County Circuit Court is where nearly every case here begins: first appearance, bond, misdemeanor pleas and trials, and the preliminary hearing in a felony. The District Court takes felonies from there. Both are working from temporary quarters at 250 East Simpson Avenue, a short walk east on my own street.

Misdemeanor or felony.

Wyoming draws the line at the maximum sentence: more than one year of imprisonment is a felony, everything else a misdemeanor (W.S. § 6-10-101). A felony means the possibility of the penitentiary, a jury of twelve rather than six, and consequences that outlast the sentence.

The first seventy-two hours.

A person arrested without a warrant must be brought before a judge, and a judge must find probable cause within seventy-two hours or the person goes free (W.R.Cr.P. 5(a)). Bond starts from release on a signature and adds conditions only where needed, weighing residence and community ties (W.R.Cr.P. 46.1). A visitor has neither, which is why that hearing matters more for the visitor than for the neighbor.

How a case moves through Teton County.

Citation or custody. A case begins with a citation and a promise to appear, or with a night in the detention center. If the officer checked the box allowing bond to be forfeited in lieu of appearance, paying the scheduled amount waives trial and is treated as a plea of no contest (W.R.Cr.P. 3.1). Paying is quick, and it is a conviction.
First appearance and bond. The charge is read, the rights are explained, and bond is set, in person or by video from the jail. For a visitor with an out-of-state license, a lawyer at this hearing changes the number.
Misdemeanors, in the Circuit Court. Not guilty until there is a reason for it to be something else; then discovery, the recordings, any motion about the stop or the search, and the conversation with the prosecutor that resolves most cases. If it does not, a misdemeanor with possible jail time is tried to a jury of six (W.R.Cr.P. 23).
Felonies, to the District Court. A preliminary examination within ten days if in custody, twenty if not, at which the state must show probable cause; then bindover to the District Court for arraignment, motions, and, if it comes to that, a twelve-person jury (W.R.Cr.P. 5(c)). It is the first place the state's witnesses testify under oath.

Teton County Circuit Court

All misdemeanors; initial appearances and bond for everyone arrested in the county; preliminary examinations in felony cases. One circuit judge.

250 E. Simpson Ave., Jackson, WY 83001 (temporary) · (307) 733-7713 · PO Box 2906, Jackson, WY 83001

District Court, Ninth Judicial District

Felony arraignments, motions, jury trials, and sentencing after bindover. One district judge, who decides many motions on the briefs without a hearing and expects courtroom dress, no jeans, from everyone. Where court sits now, and how each courtroom runs.

250 E. Simpson Ave., Jackson, WY 83001 (temporary) · (307) 733-2533 · PO Box 4460, Jackson, WY 83001
Both courts left 180 S. King St. in February 2026 for the new Justice Center build; the prosecuting attorney is at 270 E. Simpson Ave. Check your citation before you drive.

The neon bucking-bronco sign of the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar lit against the night sky — The Square after last call is where the summer cases begin · Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress

Who I represent, and what is at stake.

Three agencies write the cases and one office prosecutes them: the Jackson Police Department in town, the Sheriff's Office from Wilson and Teton Village to Hoback and over the pass to Alta, and the Highway Patrol on the state highways, which writes a large share of the traffic and DUI cases. Summer brings the visitors and the stops on the highway, the open containers at the boat ramps, the fights outside the bars; winter brings a seasonal workforce in its twenties and the DUI on the drive back to Wilson. Between them are the residents, with the most to lose in a town where an arrest is known at the coffee shop by Thursday. The goal for each is the same: no conviction, or the least the facts allow, with the license, the job, and the family intact.

Who I representWhat is at stake

01The visitor: a case in a town she has already left, a court date on a return ticket, and a record that follows her home
02The seasonal worker: employer housing, sometimes a work visa, and a first offense that should not become a lifelong one
03The resident: reputation in a small valley, a firearms question, the children, and a job that runs background checks
04The licensed professional: a reporting duty to a board, an employer's policy, and a disposition that has to read well five years from now

Read the paperwork with me. The call takes thirty minutes.

The first week is for gathering, not talking: I enter an appearance so every call from a detective, an adjuster, or an employer comes to me instead of you.

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North of town, the law changes.

Where the highway enters Grand Teton National Park, the road, the campgrounds, the river, and the trails are federal land, and a citation or arrest there is a federal case: a Park Service ranger instead of a deputy, an Assistant U.S. Attorney instead of the county prosecutor, a U.S. Magistrate Judge instead of the circuit judge, a bench trial instead of a jury of six, and a record that Wyoming's expungement law cannot reach. The same is true in Yellowstone and on the National Elk Refuge. Everything on this page is the state side of that line; the national parks chapter is the federal side, and it is where a visitor cited inside the park should start.

What people ask on the first call.

Do I need a lawyer for a misdemeanor in Teton County?

A Wyoming misdemeanor can carry jail, and the ones charged most often here, DUI, possession, battery, carry their own consequences: a license suspension, a firearms problem, a mark on a professional license, a record a background check will read for years. The reason to use a lawyer is not that the case is complicated; most are not. It is that the decisions made in the first weeks, whether to pay the citation, whether to talk to the officer, what to plead and to what, decide what the file says afterward, and they are hard to unmake.

How is bond set in Teton County, and can I get out before the hearing?

Within four hours of being booked you must be told of your right to ask the court in writing for release, and a judge must consider the request in no more than seventy-two hours. The rule starts from release on personal recognizance or an unsecured bond and adds conditions only where needed to assure you will appear and the community will be safe, weighing the charge, the evidence, and your history, including your ties to the community. A resident with a job and a lease usually walks out on a signature; a visitor with an out-of-state license is the person for whom a lawyer at the bond hearing changes the number.

I was arrested on vacation in Jackson. Do I have to come back for court?

For a misdemeanor, often not. Wyoming's rules allow the court, with your written consent, to conduct the arraignment, plea, trial, and sentencing in your absence, and allow pleas and sentencings by video conference. Whether the judge agrees in a given case is up to the judge. A felony is different: you will be present for the preliminary hearing, the arraignment, and any trial. What you cannot do is ignore the date; a missed appearance becomes a warrant that follows you to the next traffic stop wherever you live.

The citation says I can forfeit bond instead of appearing. Should I just pay it?

Understand what paying is first. Under the Wyoming rules, paying the scheduled amount on a citation marked for forfeiture waives your appearance, waives a trial, and is treated as a plea of no contest to the offense charged. For a parking ticket that is the sensible way to close it. For anything a background check, a licensing board, an insurer, or an immigration officer might read as a criminal conviction, paying is the decision that creates the record. Read what the citation charges, not just what it costs, and if the statute number is one you do not recognize, ask before you pay.

Can the charges be dismissed or reduced?

Sometimes, and the answer depends on facts I have not seen. The results available in a Teton County misdemeanor case run from a dismissal, to an amendment to a lesser charge, to a deferred disposition under Wyoming's first-offender statute in which the case is dismissed after probation without a conviction ever being entered, to a plea with an agreed sentence. Which is realistic turns on the stop, the evidence, your record, and the prosecutor. Two things hold in every case: the deferred disposition has a permanent side effect the expungement page explains, and none of these results is available to someone who has already paid the citation.

Is a Jackson municipal court ticket the same thing as a Teton County case?

No. Every incorporated town in Wyoming has a municipal court for offenses under its own ordinances, and since January 2026 the Town of Jackson's has held its sessions in the council chambers at Town Hall, 150 East Pearl Avenue. It hears animal-control, parking, traffic, and other ordinance violations; a state misdemeanor or felony does not go there. The same officer can write the same conduct either way, and the town notes that its police cite traffic and criminal cases into the Circuit Court. A state citation names the Circuit Court and cites a section of the Wyoming statutes; that is the charge that leads to the courts on this page.

Start

Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.

Criminal matters begin with a thirty-minute call. Book it through the chat button in the corner of this page, day or night, and it goes straight onto my calendar; or send the note here and my office will call you, usually the same business day. Bring the citation or charging paperwork if you have it, and call or text any time.

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40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com