The inquiry will examine whether campaign donation checks distributed to lawmakers amount to bribery.
By Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office has launched a criminal investigation to determine whether checks distributed to Wyoming lawmakers on the House floor constituted bribery, the agency announced Saturday.
As WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide first reported, Rebecca Bextel, a Jackson conservative activist, handed out campaign donation checks to several Republican lawmakers on the floor Monday evening following adjournment. A photograph shared with the news organizations captured the exchange.
Bextel initially told a reporter it was “nobody’s business” what she had given lawmakers, but later admitted in a social media post that she hand delivered checks from a separate, then-unidentified Teton County donor. Bextel has denied wrongdoing.
“Community complaints and media reports” prompted the sheriff’s inquiry, the agency said.
“Our community deserves full transparency, and alleged criminal conduct involving our lawmakers deserves no less than a thorough investigation,” Sheriff Brian Kozak said in a statement.
The Teton County donor, Don Grasso, was not identified until Friday, when he told a Jackson Hole News&Guide reporter he’d written checks intended for 10 lawmakers. Grasso said he expected Bextel to mail the checks, and that he “wouldn’t have done it the way that Rebecca did it.” Grasso also said he didn’t believe Bextel had ill intent, but rather a likely need for “expediency.”
The checks spurred significant controversy at the Capitol during the first week of the 2026 budget session. Both the House and the Senate launched separate investigations, and Senate leaders promised a crackdown that could include an outright ban or making it illegal to receive campaign contributions during a legislative session.
Grasso provided a reporter with a list Friday of the 10 lawmakers the checks were intended for: Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett; Reps. John Bear, R-Gillette; Marlene Brady, R-Green River; Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne; Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette; Tony Locke, R-Casper; Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs; Joe Webb, R-Lyman; and Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper.
All 10 lawmakers are either members, allies or have been previously endorsed by the Freedom Caucus.
A photograph of the exchange, taken by Laramie Democratic Rep. Karlee Provenza and now widely circulated, shows Bextel handing a check to McCann with Brady in the background holding a similar-looking document. McCann confirmed to a reporter Wednesday that Bextel had given him a campaign donation check from another donor. He also said, “No one’s ever told me how to vote. Ever.”
Brady initially told a reporter Wednesday, “I can’t remember,” when asked what Bextel was handing lawmakers. She gave a different but still indefinite answer later that day, telling the same reporter to “figure it out” when asked the identity of the Teton County donor.
Otherwise, it remains unclear which of the named lawmakers received or accepted the checks, including Neiman and Bear, who pushed back when Jackson Democratic Rep. Mike Yin broached the subject Wednesday on the House floor.
Yin brought up the checks as the House debated legislation that would prohibit local governments from imposing fees or conditions on residential or commercial development to fund workforce housing, unmet housing needs or affordable housing — an approach that Bextel vocally opposes. Bear brought the bill, which got the approval of the House Appropriations Committee late Friday night.
Neiman and Bear did not respond to requests for comment Saturday before publication, nor did either lawmaker comment Friday when a reporter first inquired after Grasso named them among the 10 intended recipients. The two are among the most powerful lawmakers in the Wyoming Legislature.
Bear, a leading member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, said Yin was “making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated” when the checks first came up on the House floor.
“And that accusation is offensive to this body,” Bear said on the floor.
Neiman also objected, asking Yin if he could substantiate or verify his claims.
Cody Republican Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, chair of the Freedom Caucus, said Yin made “a defamatory statement” and that distributing checks on the House floor “essentially would be bribery and unethical.”
A person commits bribery, according to state law, if either “he offers, confers or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage upon a public servant as consideration for the public servant’s vote, exercise of discretion or other action in his official capacity,” or “while a public servant, he solicits, accepts or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit, testimonial, privilege personal advantage upon an agreement or understanding that his vote, exercise of discretion or other action as a public servant will thereby be influenced.”
Bribery is a felony with a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, a fine of $5,000 dollars, or both, according to state law.
The Sheriff’s Office said it will keep its inquiry “separate from any internal legislative reviews and will be conducted so as not to impede the session.”
Bextel did not respond to a request for comment by publishing time. Appearing on a podcast Thursday produced by a business partner, Bextel said she handed checks to lawmakers when she saw them — including on the House floor.
It was not done in “the dark of night,” she added.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
