In a rare move, Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric is seeking to back out of a plea deal that one of his deputies struck with a Powell woman. The woman’s defense attorney, meanwhile, said she wants to hold the prosecutor’s office to the deal.

The defendant in limbo is 30-year-old Audrey Biggica, who was allegedly caught with a syringeful of liquid meth in a gas station parking lot last summer. Biggica signed a plea agreement last month with then-Deputy County Attorney Laura Newton that called for her pending felony possession charge to be reduced to a misdemeanor. Assuming District Court Judge Bill Simpson went along with the arrangement, Biggica was set to receive 18 months of supervised probation.

But as the sentencing hearing got underway on May 8, the prosecutor filling in for Newton announced that he would not be reducing Biggica’s charge to a misdemeanor.

“The court can’t compel me to do it, so therefore the plea agreement cannot be enforced at this point,” Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele said.

When Simpson pressed the prosecutor on whether he was rejecting the plea agreement, Eichele said he was.

Biggica’s court-appointed attorney, Michelle Burns, expressed frustration, saying it was the first she’d heard there was an issue.

Burns said she’d driven to Cody from Greybull just for the hearing while Biggica “showed up here early, attentive, ready to go, ready to move on with her life.”

Burns said the misdemeanor deal was offered “because the state can’t prove that my client had possession of a felony amount” — and she said the signed agreement amounts to a binding contract.

“… My client has done nothing to breach it, and we absolutely intend to enforce this with the state,” Burns said.

Eichele sympathized with Burns, but said offers can be withdrawn; the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the state can back out of a deal until the defendant changes their plea or “detrimentally relies” on the agreement.

Judge Simpson noted that prosecutors and defense attorneys have traditionally treated plea deals like contracts. He said the “unique and novel question” of whether the state can back out of the agreement should be briefed by the parties over the coming weeks.

“This is something that obviously I was not prepared for,” Simpson said, apologizing to Burns and Biggica for the inconvenience.

Court, interrupted

The deal was negotiated and signed by Newton on April 23, but she later resigned from the office. Skoric has taken on several of her cases, but he was unavailable on the morning of May 8. And with the county attorney’s office already short a prosecutor — former deputy attorney William Appleton left in March — that left Eichele to handle the more than a dozen felony cases set for pretrial conferences or sentencings that day.

Things got off to a bad start before Biggica’s hearing, when Simpson pressed Eichele for details about a case that judicial staff had apparently said wasn’t going to be heard.

Simpson then called a sexual abuse case that had been slated for the afternoon, leading Eichele to object that the alleged victims hadn’t been notified of the change. The judge then called an attempted murder case of Newton’s that wasn’t on the schedule and Eichele interjected.

“Could I finish please?” Simpson said.

“No,” Eichele responded.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t finish?” the judge asked.

“No, because you’re calling a case that wasn’t scheduled today at this time that involves victims,” Eichele said.

Simpson countered that the victims didn’t need to be present for the pretrial conference and added, “don’t interrupt the court again. Do you understand?”

“No, I do not comprehend that,” Eichele responded. “When you are doing something that is improper, you must cease.”

Simpson then abruptly called a break and left the courtroom. He returned about 10 minutes later and explained he just wanted to keep the docket moving; Eichele, meanwhile, said he’d spent a couple days preparing for the specific cases on the calendar and asked for “a little courtesy” as he filled in.

‘Perceived miscarriage of justice’

The judge and prosecutor moved on, but soon sparred again over Biggica’s case: Eichele expressed frustration that the court had rejected the state’s request to delay Biggica’s sentencing, while Simpson was frustrated by the state’s attempt to reject the plea deal.

The judge gave the defense some time to discuss the situation while a different hearing went forward. However, when Burns and Biggica returned to the courtroom, they found that Eichele, who was appearing remotely, had dropped off the call. (Eichele later explained that he hadn’t realized they were reconvening.)

Simpson said the prosecutor disconnected “without any notice, advisement or consent” and Burns described herself as “rather speechless.”

“In 26 years I have never had an experience like I’ve had in court in the last hour-and-a-half today,” Burns said, adding that she was “very much disappointed in the perceived miscarriage of justice that’s happening here today.”

She urged the court to proceed with Biggica’s sentencing without Eichele, charging that the prosecution “walked out and failed to appear.”

Simpson said proceeding was “certainly an option,” but stuck with a briefing schedule that could run through the end of July.

Biggica also expressed disappointment, saying she’s been doing well in the county’s drug program. However, she said the prosecutor “must have his reasons.”

Several days after the hearing, Skoric formally filed notice that the state “has withdrawn from the plea agreement.” In a Friday interview, Skoric said it’s rare that he overrules a deputy’s plea deals, but recalled doing so years ago.

In the meantime, Biggica’s codefendant has already received a similar deal. Calvin Wick —- who allegedly provided Biggica with the meth-loaded syringe — pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of possessing meth last month in exchange for Newton dismissing a felony count of delivering meth or possessing it with intent to deliver.

Wick, 33, received credit for time served and one year of supervised probation, with conditions that included completing drug court.

Biggica’s case remains pending.