The Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office is attempting to have a district court judge disqualified from a hearing for allegedly having prejudicial opinions about the case.
A motion filed by Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe is seeking to have a new judge hear the hear the case between the State of Wyoming and Joshua Jae Ekstrom. Third Judicial Court Judge Suzannah Robinson is currently the presiding judge in the case.
Erramouspe filed a motion to have Robinson removed from the case after a deputy county attorney claimed Robinson made comments about how the county attorney’s office should have charged Ekstrom.
The motion was discussed in a hearing Monday morning, presided by Third Judicial District Court Judge Joseph Bluemel.
According to documents filed with the court, Ekstrom is charged with three counts of felony exploitation of children, possession of child pornography and was arrested March 7. After David Harmon was appointed by the court as Ekstrom’s attorney, Deputy Sweetwater County Attorney Micaela Lira provided Harmon a plea offer on March 20. Ekstrom was bound over to district court April 1 and on May 13, the agreement was signed by Ekstrom, Lira and Harmon.
The terms of the agreement were that Ekstrom would plea guilty to the first count against him, with the other two counts being dismissed. Both Lira and Harmon would recommend Ekstrom be sentenced to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for a term of four to eight years, with a recommendation for Ekstrom to attend boot camp. Following the parties signing the agreement, a change of plea hearing was requested.
On June 1, the county attorney’s office received a letter from Robinson stating she was unlikely to accept the agreement unless it was being offered pursuant to Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure 11(e)(l)(B), which states the court shall advise a defendant that if the court does not accept the recommendation, the defendant has no right to withdraw their plea. The letter also stated the proposed sentence was concerning to the court based on the information available.
Harmon filed a joint request for a status conference with Robinson and Lira, which took place June 16 between the three through a phone conference. Testifying Monday, Lira said Robinson questioned the evidence used to charge Ekstrom, which she said consisted of two images of a minor child’s breasts and one image of the child’s vagina found on his Ekstrom’s phone. Lira claimed Robinson would have liked to have seen charges in the case that would not have resulted Ekstrom having to file as a sex offender, saying the situation did not meet the legislative intent behind the sexual exploitation of children statute. Lira said Robinson made that claim without seeing the photos or knowing the content of the photos.
She claimed Robinson also questioned why a 7-13-301 deferral, which would have given Ekstrom the opportunity to have the conviction purged from his record if he completed a probation term issued in place of the sentence, wasn’t offered in the situation. The deferral is only offered to people who haven’t had prior felony convictions and weren’t charged with murder, first or second degree sexual assault, aggravated assault and battery or first or second degree arson.
Lira said she doesn’t believe a deferral should be offered in possession of child pornography situation.
Lira also claimed Robinson said the case wouldn’t have been bound to district court
Lira said the status meeting was more Robinson commenting on how the state should have charged the Ekstrom. Robinson had worked in the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office prior to being a district court judge.
Harmon, was later called as a witness and after claiming he would only answer questions related to the status hearing, said Lira’s testimony matched his recollection of the meeting.
Erramouspe said the situation shows Robinson had already judged the case by offering her opinion on how it should have been charged. He also claimed Robinson didn’t know the full information involved with the case.
“Nobody knows more about a case than the prosecution,” Erramouspe said.
Court documents state a forensic examination of Ekstrom’s phone was conducted, which presented additional charges Lira could of filed, but hadn’t. The document also states that information wasn’t provided to the court.
Bluemel said he would issue a written opinion and adjourned the hearing.
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