Judge denies POST access to Colling’s personnel records

The Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission was seeking psych evaluations and other records from Colling’s time with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. POST’s subpoena was rejected.

Derek Colling’s psychological evaluations will not be available to the state commission tasked with certifying law enforcement officers, a district court judge ruled Tuesday.

Colling resigned from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office in 2021, three years after his killing of an unarmed man. The incident kicked off a local movement for police reform, inspired a federal lawsuit and ousted a sheriff. A grand jury — convened by a county prosecutor who has also since resigned — chose not to indict Colling, so the former sheriff’s deputy was never criminally charged.

But the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission has been weighing the possibility of decertifying Colling — a decision that would prohibit the former deputy from ever working in law enforcement again. POST wanted Colling’s psych evals and other personnel records from before and during his time with the sheriff’s office to assist its ongoing investigation.

But the sheriff’s office wouldn’t hand those records over, so POST filed an administrative subpoena. Both the sheriff’s office and Colling himself moved to halt that subpoena.

They were ultimately successful, arguing that the Wyoming Public Records Act protects personnel records from requests such as POST’s.

“I don’t think it could be any clearer,” said Stephen Emery, the attorney representing Colling.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Eric Easton served as counsel for POST. Even he admitted in the courtroom there was no clear case law showing that an agency like POST should have access to personnel records.

“Ultimately we’ve run into a stone wall,” Easton said.

The Public Records Act does allow “supervisors” to view personnel records, and POST argued it should legally be considered a “supervisor,” since it serves as the state commission tasked with maintaining standards for law enforcement,

Emery responded that this line of reasoning was “very creative” but that the court should not “indulge Mr. Easton’s creativity.”

Albany County District Court Judge Misha Westby said it seemed to her that POST should be allowed access to the records, but without clear statute or case law pointing the way, she would stick with a narrower definition of “supervisor.”

“It also seems to me there should be an exception (for POST to access these records),” Westby said. “But I can’t find an exception that applies.”

Albany County Attorney Kurt Britzius, representing Sheriff Aaron Appelhans, said he was “not unsympathetic” to POST’s aims, but added the release of the records must be denied because “I believe the Public Records Act applies.”

Rep. Karlee Provenza (HD-45) tried to close this loophole during the last legislative session, sponsoring a bill that would have explicitly required “personnel files of peace and corrections officers and dispatchers to be available to the peace officer standards and training commission.”

The bill won committee endorsement, but died among a mountain of other bills when they failed to be considered by the full House before a key deadline. (This mountain of dead bills also included committee-backed efforts to expand Medicaid and to pass a state shield law for journalists.)

Provenza worked with POST Director Chris Walsh to craft that bill, Emery told the judge Tuesday, which demonstrates that even POST was aware this subpoena wouldn’t work.

“Mr. Walsh was very aware of the pickle he was in,” Emery said.

Colling was never disciplined for the shooting, and Emery added allowing POST to access Colling’s personnel files for possible disciplinary action would amount to “second-guessing the sheriff’s decision,” which POST “doesn’t have the right to do.”

Colling’s current certification expires next month.