ROCK SPRINGS — Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo’s initial appearance in circuit court this Wednesday has been vacated and replaced with a settlement conference for September, according to attorney Joseph Hampton, a member of Kaumo’s legal team.
In early August, Kaumo was charged with five counts of official misconduct and one count of conflict of interest. The investigation began in 2020 and focused on whether Kaumo used his official position as mayor to aid in securing business for JFC Engineers and Surveyors on the Bitter Creek Reconstruction Project. Kaumo currently serves as president and is the majority shareholder of JFC.
While Kaumo was initially supposed to appear in circuit court on August 31, that has been vacated due to Kaumo pleading not guilty to all the charges.
“The August 31 hearing has been vacated because Mr. Kaumo entered written not guilty pleas to all charges. This is common practice when dealing with misdemeanor charges,” Hampton told SweetwaterNOW.
The settlement conference is scheduled for September 20.
“On September 20, parties call into the court for the settlement conference. The settlement conference is not in lieu of a court hearing. The settlement conference is more so a status conference. On September 20 we will call in and let the court know how we would like to proceed with this matter,” Hampton said.
In the meantime, Hampton said that the State will respond to their demand for discovery.
“In this case the Court has granted our motion to require the State to produce discovery by a date certain. The State must produce all discovery by September 9,” Hampton said. “It is a little unusual for the court to order discovery deadlines, but the court likely found it appropriate to do so here due to the long period of time that has passed between law enforcement’s investigation and the State actually filing charges.”
All six counts Kaumo has been charged with are considered misdemeanors, and the charging documents were served after a two-year investigation conducted by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
