Cheyenne city attorney seeks additional prosecutor and $50,000 for permanent prosecutor office amid 6,000-case municipal caseload

Cheyenne City Attorney John Bridal told the City Council during a budget presentation that the city’s criminal division handles more than 6,000 cases a year and is seeking an additional full‑time prosecutor and a $50,000 one‑time appropriation to establish a permanent office for prosecutors.

Bridal said the criminal division currently has three staff — two city prosecutors and one paralegal — and that “6,000 cases is a lot” for that team. He described the workload as including reviewing evidence, drafting pleadings, preparing for bench and jury trials, and meeting statutory victim‑service obligations.

The request matters because many Cheyenne municipal offenses are jailable under Wyoming law, which often entitles defendants to jury trials and public defenders. Bridal said that about 15% of municipal matters proceed to bench or jury trial, and that the combination of large case volume and jury‑trial preparation increases resource needs for the prosecutor’s office.

Bridal compared Cheyenne’s staffing with a larger county prosecutor’s office, noting that a Natrona County district attorney’s office handling roughly 4,000 cases has about 10 staff attorneys and additional support personnel. “That creates a pretty good bottleneck,” Bridal…