Becky Hadlock, the former Weston County clerk facing two felony charges  for her conduct during and after the 2024 general election, reached a deal with prosecutors that would keep her out of prison, a new court filing shows. 

Under the terms of the deal, as detailed in a Tuesday court filing by her attorney Ryan Semerad, prosecutors would agree to dismiss one felony and reduce the second to a misdemeanor election code violation. In exchange, Hadlock would plead guilty to the misdemeanor rather than taking the case to trial.  

Hadlock would not face any time behind bars, nor would she be required to serve probation, according to court filing. Instead, Semerad and Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen, a special prosecutor in the case, agreed to jointly recommend that Hadlock pay a $500 fine. 

A judge must still agree to abide by the plea deal. On Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Lynda Bush ordered that a preliminary hearing set for today be canceled and gave both sides the green light to submit the plea deal and proposed sentence.

In April, Hadlock resigned from office after she was arrested and charged with one count of violating the election code as an official and one count of falsifying election documents. Both are felonies and can be punishable by up to five years in prison. 

State investigators said they found evidence Hadlock knowingly filed a false post-election audit that did not show any ballot errors, according to an affidavit signed by a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation special agent. A subsequent audit of the same ballots revealed 21 miscounts. 

On the night of the 2024 general election, Hadlock caused an initial miscount in Weston County after using the wrong ballots. That led to a dramatic undercount in the vote for Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, who was running unopposed. A hand count ultimately sorted out the results, as did a second post-election audit. 

Still, the problem remained unresolved for many local voters who sought an explanation, and lawmakers soon took up the issue, first asking Hadlock and then sending her a subpoena to appear at a September 2025 meeting. After Hadlock did not appear, she was charged with defying a legislative subpoena, a misdemeanor. That case is still ongoing, but Hadlock recently filed a motion to change her not guilty plea. 

After Hadlock resigned in April, a judge dismissed a third case against her related to the 2024 election. That case was set into motion by Gov. Mark Gordon, who directed the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office to seek her removal from office for filing a false audit report and defying the subpoena. 

Hadlock’s attorney declined to comment for this story. 

This is a breaking news story and may be updated. 

Maggie Mullen reports on state government and politics. Before joining WyoFile in 2022, she spent five years at Wyoming Public Radio.

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