Kyrie's Healing Journey: Fund Essential Records

During this last legislative session, Wyoming cut revenues from towns and counties – harming real people in our communities. Unfortunately, many services have been underfunded long before this session – including services that support survivors of sexual assault. I am raising money for a member of our community to get her court records to support her healing journey. Funds will go directly towards obtaining records.

In March of 2022 Kyrie was severely physically and sexually assaulted in her home, here in Laramie, WY. After going to the hospital for her injuries, she decided to file charges against her assaulter. That began the year long process to go to trial. This period was filled with many ups and downs and Kyrie attempted suicide in June of that year.

On February 9, 2023, after 5 long, hard days of trial, he was found guilty on 3 counts of sexual assault in the 1st degree. During the trial, Kyrie had to testify against him over multiple days, reliving each terrifying moment, she also had personal photos displayed to an audience, as well as her truthfulness questioned, and severely victim blamed.

In April, he was sentenced to 6-8 years in prison (including time already served) when each count carries 5-20 years. Now, several years later Kyrie has to face the reality that he may be out soon.

In her effort to share her story, to fight for and empower other survivors, and create trauma informed care programs with first responders, Kyrie requested the transcript records from the trial. Unfortunately, she was told that as the victim, she would need to pay $890 for these records. Kyrie went to all of her connections within the system, including her court appointed victims advocate, the sheriff’s office, attorney’s office, and SAFE Project, and no one could help her get the records for a reduced cost.

As a victim, and single mom, Kyrie does not have much flexible income and many dollars were spent on medical costs, mental health care, and to replace items that were taken from the "crime scene" aka her home. This is the reality for many victims, and this cost creates inaccessibility, when it can be a large part of someone's grief and healing process.

When attempting to get the records she learned that a large reason for this cost, and its inaccessibility is because the court reporters are not paid in full by the system itself. This creates an unwinnable situation, when either the reporters are not paid an honest wage for their work, or the public is charged records they need to achieve justice in their cases.