Why a grand jury? Wyoming attorneys opine on Sublette County’s approach to wolf abuse investigation

As a defense attorney who’s built a career on advancing justice for the accused and incarcerated, Meredith Esser is skeptical of grand juries. That’s the approach Sublette County prosecutors are taking to pursue an indictment of Cody Roberts for felony animal cruelty. Roberts paraded a wolf around for laughs after allegedly striking it with a snowmobile in 2024.

The skepticism is partly because Esser — and many of her defense attorney peers — are locked out of the process. A legal defense isn’t part of a grand jury in the federal court system, or in Wyoming, where they’re seldom used.

“Essentially, grand juries have this veneer of impartiality because they are a jury of your peers,” said Esser, the outgoing director of the Defender Aid Clinic at the University of Wyoming College of Law.