Wyoming
Wyoming Reporter Now Facing An Additional 10 Felony Charges
The Platte County Attorney’s Office has nearly doubled the possible penalties for a Wyoming reporter accused of forging exhibits in an environmental case tied to her staunch opposition to a wind farm.
The 10 new counts against April Marie Morganroth, also known as the Wyoming-based reporter Marie Hamilton, allege that she convinced her landlords that she’d been approved for a home loan to buy their property, and grants to upgrade it.
Hamilton was already facing 10 felony charges in a March 9 Wheatland Circuit Court case, as she’s accused of submitting forged documents and lying under oath before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
That’s an environmental permitting panel that granted a permit to a NextEra Resources wind farm, which Hamilton has long opposed. She’s also reported on NextEra’s efforts and the community controversies surrounding those.
Then on Wednesday, Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver filed 10 more felony charges: five alleging possession of forged writing, and five more alleging forgery.
The former is punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines; the latter by up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Hamilton faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted of all charges in her March 9 case. The March 25 case would add up to 75 years more to that.
Both cases are ongoing.
Hamilton did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment left Thursday afternoon on her cellphone. She bonded out of jail earlier this month. The Platte County Detention Center said Thursday it does “not have her here.”
The Investigative Efforts Of Benjamin Peech
Converse County Sheriff’s Lt. Benjamin Peech investigated both cases at the request of Platte County authorities, court documents say.
When he was investigating evidence that Hamilton submitted forged documents and lied under oath for Industrial Siting Council proceedings, Peech also pursued Hamilton’s claim that she owned property on JJ Road, and that she’d bought it with a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.
The property, however, is registered under Platte County’s mapping system to a couple surnamed Gillis, says a new affidavit Peech signed March 19, which was filed Wednesday.
Peech spoke with both husband and wife, and they said they had the home on the market to sell it, and Hamilton contacted them in about July of 2025.
Hamilton told the pair that she and her husband wished to buy the property and were pre-qualified for a USDA loan through Neighbor’s Bank, wrote Peech.
But the property didn’t meet the standard of the loan, Hamilton reportedly continued. Still, she’d been approved for a USDA grant to work on the problems with the property and bring it up to the standards to qualify for the loan, she allegedly told the homeowners.
Papers
Hamilton provided the couple and their realtor with letters from USDA showing her loan pre-approval and grant approvals, the affidavit says.
During the lease period that followed, Hamilton was late “often” with rent and didn’t provide the couple with work logs until pressed, Peech wrote.
In early 2026, the lieutenant continued, the homeowners became concerned and asked Hamilton about her progress improving the property.
Hamilton reportedly sent the homeowners two invoices from contractors, showing she’d paid for work to be done. She said the wind had delayed that work, wrote Peech.
The affidavit says the Gillis couple sent Peech the documents Hamilton had reportedly given them, along with supporting emails showing those had come from one of Hamilton’s email addresses.
The Loan approval documents showed the respective logos for USDA Rural Development and Neighbor’s Bank at the top of each page, the lieutenant wrote, adding that the documents assert that Hamilton and her husband had been approved for the loan.
“There was then a list of items that needed to be completed — 14 items — prior to Final Loan Approval,” related Peech in the affidavit.
A signature at the bottom reportedly read, “Sincerely, USDA Rural Development Neighbors Bank Joshua Harris Homebuying Specialist.”
Grant Document
The documents purporting Hamilton had received a grant also showed the USDA Rural Development logo at the top of each page, with the names of Hamilton and her husband, other boilerplate language and a description of a $35,000 home buyer’s grant.
The project was about 65% complete at the time of review, the document adds, according to Peech’s narrative.
Peech describes more documents: a January notice, an invoice bearing the logo and name of “Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation, LLC,” and another invoice bearing the logo and name of “Pete’s Builders Roofing and Restoration.”
Real Estate Agent
Peech spoke with the Gillises’ real estate agent, Kay Pope, and she said she’d tried to verify the USDA grant and pre-approval by calling Susan Allman, who was listed in the documents as the Casper-based USDA agent. Pope left several messages without response, the affidavit says.
Pope spoke with Hamilton’s real estate agent, and he said he’d spoken to Allman, and he gave Pope a phone number.
Cowboy State Daily has identified Hamilton’s real estate agent and tried to contact him for further clarification.
Pope called that number and left messages without response, wrote Peech.
Peech then called a USDA Rural Development office and spoke with a Janice Blare, deputy state director, he wrote.
Peech sent the three USDA letters to Blare and gave her “all of Hamilton’s names and aliases,” he added.
The lieutenant wrote that Blare later told him the USDA investigated the letters and determined no evidence existed to show the USDA had issued them.
No records existed either, of Hamilton “using all her alias permutations” or her husband within either the USDA loan program or grant program, wrote Peech.
The USDA didn’t have an office at the address listed in two of the letters. The address pertains, rather, to a dirt lot. The USDA Rural Development office didn’t have a program titled “Rural Communities Home Buyer Program” as listed on two of the letters.
On Nov. 6, 2025, the date of the first letter purporting Hamilton had been approved for the grant program, all U.S. government offices including USDA were on furlough, noted Peech from his discussion with Blare.
A person named Susan Allman didn’t appear in USDA’s employee records, Blare reportedly added.
The Phone Call
Peech called the cellphone number one of the letters listed for Allman, “and this was disconnected,” he wrote.
The number Hamilton’s real estate agent had given was a voice over internet protocol number that Bandwidth LLC operates but is assigned to Google, added Peech.
Meanwhile, Converse County Investigator Amber Peterson spoke with the construction and roofing companies listed in the documents.
Chad Derenzo of Pete’s Roofing confirmed the logo and name listed on the documents were his company’s own — but said his company hadn’t issued the bid listed in those documents, according to the affidavit.
“Their company had never contracted to do work for Hamilton or at the… JJ Road address,” the document says.
The invoice also bore an address in Torrington, Wyoming, and his company doesn’t have a Torrington office, said Derenzo, reportedly.
Jessica Loge of Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation gave similar statements, saying the documents bore her logo, but her company hadn’t issued the bid or contracted with Hamilton.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
Most 18-year-olds focus on deciding what they want to do after high school.
Alyssa Shade already knows.
The Yoder teen already is a certified EMT, a red-carded wildland firefighter and a member of the all-volunteer Yoder Fire Department.
Another 18-year-old, J.R. Ruiz, joined the department only a few months ago. He recently returned from a wildfire-severity assignment in Colorado and, this past week, was helping on the South Fork Fire near Cody.
Behind them is another generation waiting in the wings. Fire Chief Justin Burkart’s 17-year-old son, Jayden, is already part of the department, while his 16-year-old daughter, Maykayla, recently joined as a junior firefighter.
In a profession where volunteer departments nationwide are struggling to recruit younger members, Yoder appears to be on a different track.
How does a town of just 134 people keep producing firefighters sought out and trusted to fight some of the nation’s biggest wildfires?
The answer starts with volunteers investing in one another.
“We’re 100% volunteer,” Burkart told Cowboy State Daily.
Beyond Wyoming
The tiny Goshen County community sits along U.S. Highway 85 south of Torrington, surrounded by hay fields and open prairie.
The Yoder Volunteer Fire Department protects roughly 248 square miles and serves about 700 residents throughout its fire district.
Yet those volunteers routinely deploy across the West, cutting fire lines with bulldozers, staffing engines on major incidents and supporting wildfire operations from Colorado to Virginia.
“We have a reputation of really sending out some professional firefighters to these incidents,” Burkart said. “It’s not a game to us. It’s something that we really take some pride in.”
Burkart joined the department as an 18-year-old in 1999 after discovering federal wildfire assignments could help pay for college.
“I found out it was a good way for me to pay for college,” he said.
Today, the department routinely sends engines, a water tender and two dozers on federal assignments, with about 22 members participating regularly in the federal fire program.
Last year, Yoder firefighters collectively spent about three months helping battle wildfires in California. Burkart said the department paid roughly $1 million to firefighters and seasonal personnel through federal assignments in 2025.
For a department staffed entirely by volunteers, those assignments have become far more than an opportunity to earn extra income.
“They’ll have more contact with live fire over a two-week period than most volunteers would have in a three- or four-year period,” Burkart said.
The knowledge comes home.
Heather Trompke, who serves on a Rocky Mountain incident management team, works in the finance section tracking personnel and equipment time during major incidents.
“We get to bring all of this stuff back,” Trompke said. “We can train and show how to fill out documents properly, and that translates into a smoother fire for everyone else when they go out.”
“There’s always something to learn in wildland firefighting,” added firefighter Bailey Powell. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing it for 60 years or five.”
-
With flames consuming palm trees behind him, Yoder firefighter Shane Tromke pauses during a federal wildfire assignment. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Father and daughter Robert and Alyssa Shade are volunteers who work side-by-side. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Yoder firefighters spend countless hours training on specialized equipment and techniques before deploying incidents across the West. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Alyssa Shade is only 18, but she is confident that wildland firefighting is going to be a part of her future. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department)
Growing Firefighters
Like volunteer departments across America, Yoder faces a challenge that has nothing to do with flames.
Recruiting.
“If you look nationwide, the volunteer fire service is aging out,” Burkart said. “The younger generation is not really involved in that.”
Instead of waiting for volunteers to walk through the station doors, Yoder and neighboring Goshen County departments are trying to grow their own.
Robert Shade helps coordinate a countywide junior firefighter program that introduces teenagers to the fire service before they turn 18.
“Right now, nationally, pretty much every trade, every job there is, there’s a lack of young people getting involved,” Shade said.
Junior firefighters learn equipment familiarization, truck maintenance, hose deployment, pump operations and safety procedures before becoming full firefighters.
“They’re the future,” Shade said. “We’ve got to make sure that we get them involved.”
Rather than keeping the program confined to Yoder, departments across Goshen County work together so young firefighters train alongside one another.
“We’re reaching out and kind of working with the whole county,” Shade said. “It helps everyone get to know each other.”
The program appears to be paying off.
Shade started attending meetings as a teenager after encouragement from her boyfriend, who happens to be Burkart’s son.
“I kind of started coming for fun,” she said. “Then I got a true understanding of everything, and it just became really interesting.”
-
Flames creep across the landscape behind Yoder Volunteer Fire Department trucks. The tiny Goshen County department has become an outsized force in Wyoming’s wildfire response efforts. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Firefighters with the Yoder Volunteer Fire Department serve roughly 248 square miles in Goshen County. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Pink fire retardant streams from an air tanker above a dozer carving a containment line during a wildfire operation. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department)
A Family Tradition
Volunteer firefighting isn’t just passed from one generation to the next in Yoder.
It’s often passed around the dinner table.
Burkart’s wife left this week for a federal wildfire assignment in Colorado. Robert Shade serves alongside daughter Alyssa.
“There are families on the department,” Shade said. “Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters.”
For him, volunteering alongside Alyssa is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“It’s a lot of fun to go out with Alyssa and do what we both love,” he said.
The work isn’t without sacrifice.
“When the pager goes off, you could be at a dinner with your family,” Burkart said. “You could be at your kid’s birthday party. You could be at a track event for your kids.”
And the sacrifice isn’t limited to firefighters.
“It’s not only the members that have to make that sacrifice,” he said. “It’s also the family.”
When firefighters deploy on federal assignments, the department still has to answer calls at home.
“We do have a lot of members that deploy nationally, but we also have to protect home when they’re gone,” Burkart said.
That responsibility is shared with neighboring departments through mutual-aid agreements.
Last year alone, Yoder firefighters assisted neighboring agencies 26 times, while local farmers and ranchers helped firefighters cut fire lines during large grass fires.
Yoder’s firefighters have built something much larger than a volunteer department.
They’ve built a pipeline to answer the call.
One generation trains the next.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
-
Connecticut10 minutes agoNew CT laws taking effect July 1: Absentee ballots, zoning, AI
-
Delaware15 minutes agoState Police Investigating Shooting in Newark – Delaware State Police – State of Delaware
-
Florida22 minutes ago10 places to watch the fireworks in South Florida for 4th of July 2026
-
Georgia25 minutes agoBottoms wants Georgia to meet its universal pre-K pledge | Chattanooga Times Free Press
-
Hawaii30 minutes agoWashington Football Pursuing Coveted 2028 Four-Star Hawaii Athlete
-
Idaho37 minutes ago
BYU-Idaho Launches BYUI Live! as New Name for Campus Entertainment
-
Illinois40 minutes ago‘A real farm crisis’: Illinois farm bankruptcies rise for 3rd straight year
-
Indiana45 minutes agoCarroll and Clinton fairs join food drive to help local food banks
