City council candidate charged with felony

Charging documents allege that Ward 1 hopeful and former Wyoming Public Radio employee Paul Montoya disabled radio transmitters sometimes used for emergency alert systems.

Paul Montoya has been accused of crimes against computer users. He is one of five candidates vying for two Laramie City Council Ward 1 seats. // Courtesy photo

Paul Montoya, a Ward 1 candidate for Laramie City Council, has been accused of crimes against computer users, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

Montoya — a first-time candidate aligned with the local Republican party — worked previously for Wyoming Public Radio.

Charging documents accuse Montoya of allegedly remotely disabling WPR’s transmitters while he was out-of-state and then, from an in-state WPR radio tower facility one week later, allegedly disabling remote access. According to the affidavit, this amounted to “effectively denying any other authorized user’s remote access to the computer station and rendering them unable to turn the transmitters back on remotely.”

The affidavit notes WPR’s radio towers serve “as the main dissemination towers for the U.S. Federal Emergency Alert System.”

“The EAS is a national public warning system, commonly used by local and state authorities to deliver important emergency information, including AMBER alerts, weather alerts and more,” the affidavit states.

The Wyoming Public Media Network plays a key role in not only the federal emergency alert system, but in broadcasting state- and county-level alerts as well.

Montoya’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Montoya is one of five candidates vying for one of the two seats on the ballot for his ward. The Primary Election on Aug. 20 will narrow that current field of five candidates to a field of four for the General Election in November.

If he is convicted, Montoya will no longer be eligible to serve as a city councilor. State law requires that municipal officers be “qualified electors.”

“No person is a qualified elector who is a currently adjudicated mentally incompetent person, or who has been convicted of a felony and his civil or voting rights have not been restored,” states Statute 22-1-102.

Alleged actions

In November 2022, the University of Wyoming Police Department opened an investigation into a potential computer crime involving WPR.

“On October 27, 2022, a person later determined to be Paul Montoya remotely logged into a desktop workstation computer that operates WPR’s radio transmissions, including radio towers, broadcasting technology and equipment, and other WPR related functions,” the affidavit alleges. “Montoya remotely navigated the computer to a program that controls WPR’s radio transmitters, and disabled the transmitters. Montoya then logged out of the system.”

The affidavit’s timeline picks up one week later.

“On November 4, 2022, at an unknown time, Montoya physically arrived at the ‘Pilot Hill’ location, where WPR’s radio towers are located, as well as a building that houses the workstations that control the towers,” the affidavit alleges. “Montoya physically accessed a workstation inside the building, and again disabled the radio transmitters. Montoya also enabled a function on the workstation that disabled remote-access to the workstation, effectively denying any other authorized users’ remote-access to the computer station and rendering them unable to turn the transmitters back on remotely.”

State statute regarding crimes against computer users

Wyoming State Statute 6-3-504 states:

“A person commits a crime against computer users if he knowingly and without authorization … Denies computer system services to an authorized user of the computer system services which, in whole or part, are owned by, under contract to, or operated for, on behalf of, or in conjunction with another.”

The statute outlines that a crime against computer users is: 

“A felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than three (3) years, a fine of not more than three thousand dollars ($3,000.00), or both …” 

Search warrants

UWPD Detective Andrew Vielhak, the affidavit’s author, notes that the identity of the suspect was originally unknown. Vielhak acquired two search warrants.

“The first search warrant was served to Charter Communications, Inc., who was determined through an open-source search as the internet provider for the IP address that was used to perpetrate the remote-disabling of the transmitters,” the affidavit alleges. “The search warrant returned information that the act was perpetrated by a person staying at the Argus Hotel in Albany, New York. Your affiant then confirmed with the Argus Hotel’s management that Montoya had been physically staying in that hotel during the time of the incident.”

Vielhak writes he served a second warrant to T-Mobile, “who was determined through an open source search to be Montoya’s cell-phone service provider.”

“The search warrant returned information that Montoya had physically been in the geographical region of Laramie, WY and Buford, WY during the timeframe of the transmitters being physically turned off, and user access denied,” the affidavit alleges. “Montoya had told many people, your affiant included, that he was on the east coast and did not return to Laramie, WY until after the incident.”

The affidavit states Detective Vielhak learned from WPR administration that employees are not allowed to disable the transmitters “under normal operating circumstances or with malicious intent,” nor allowed to deny remote access to other users.

“Your affiant learned that Montoya is an employee of WPR, has access to the Pilot Hill tower location, and knows how to operate the remote-user access applications,” the affidavit alleges. “Your affiant also learned that Montoya has been severely angry with WPR in the past, been subject to many complaints, and had a deteriorating relationship with WPR administration at the time of the incident.”

Disclosure: Jeff Victor, the owner and editor of this news outlet and the reporter who wrote this story, is a part-time employee of Wyoming Public Radio.