Montoya pleads not guilty to felony charge
Laramie City Council Ward 1 candidate Paul Montoya has been accused of crimes against computer users. He entered a plea this morning, less than one week before the Primary Election.
Laramie City Council Ward 1 candidate Paul Montoya pleaded not guilty to felony crimes against computer users in Albany County District Court today.
District Court Judge Misha Westby set a trial date of Feb. 10-12.
If Montoya is found guilty, he could face up to a $3,000 fine, three years in prison or both. A guilty conviction would also prohibit him from serving on the Laramie City Council, but the felony charge alone does not prohibit him from running, being elected or serving if elected.
Montoya, formerly the engineering director for Wyoming Public Radio, is accused of disabling his former employer’s radio transmitters and locking out his former colleagues from re-enabling those transmitters remotely.
The Wyoming Public Radio Network plays a key role in the federal emergency alert system. It also aids in broadcasting state- and county-level alerts.
“The [U.S. Federal Emergency Alert System] 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.
Montoya is one of five candidates hoping to represent Ward 1 following this year’s elections. His campaign has stressed fiscal responsibility and government transparency.
Alleged crimes against computer users
The University of Wyoming Police Department opened an investigation into a potential computer crime involving WPR in November 2022.
“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 accuses Montoya of more allegedly felonious behavior 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.”
The identity of the suspect was originally unknown. But UWPD Andrew 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 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.”
Detective Vielhak also spoke with WPR administration about the rules surrounding remote access.
“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.”
A defiant candidate responds
Montoya served as the director of engineering for more than eight years. From 2021-2022, Montoya was heavily involved with the citizen movement to halt the Rail Tie Wind Project — a 26,000-acre wind farm planned for the southern end of Albany County near to a bed and breakfast Montoya used to own.
He filed to run for Laramie City Council in May, seeking one of the two Ward 1 seats on the ballot this year. On Tuesday, the Primary Election will whittle the field of candidates from the current five down to four (twice as many as the available seats), eliminating the candidate with the lowest vote tally.
In a public post shared to his campaign’s Facebook page Aug. 8, Montoya suggested the timing of these charges — or possibly the timing of the press coverage highlighting these charges — is suspicious.
“While I’m prepared to fight these accusations, I’m puzzled by the timing of this,” Montoya writes. “The allegations suggest that these crimes occurred almost two years ago. Why are charges just being brought now?”
In that same post, Montoya highlights his career in radio.
“I have worked in radio broadcasting for 48 years in Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Cheyenne and Laramie,” he writes. “Over the course of time, I have worked in various broadcast capacities and even ownership. I worked with the FCC in 1986 to help develop the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and most recently helped develop the new WY state EAS plan put into effect last year.”
Montoya then touts his tenure at WPR, which included adding 22 new signals and six new transmitter sites as well as the launch of Wyoming Sounds, according to his post. He also “designed new ways to monitor and control our transmitter sites throughout Wyoming and began designing new systems to distribute audio via internet for more reliable program distribution in bad weather.”
Montoya adds he and his wife have volunteered “thousands of hours” and donated “thousands of dollars” during the station’s regular fund drives.
“Why would anyone with the relationship I’ve outlined be ‘severely angry’ with WPR or cause harm?” he writes. “We will let this play out through the legal system and I will not let this interfere with my campaign or relationship with my former fellow employees at WPR.”
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.
Admit it, Jeff: You've written not just one but three articles attempting to skewer Paul Montoya because of your political biases: you oppose him for City Council.
None of us knows whether Paul is innocent or guilty, and in our system of justice he is innocent UNTIL proven guilty. And there are many things about your account that don't ring true. For example, you say that WPR's transmitters were disabled from an IP address directly traceable to a hotel where Montoya was staying. Not even a newbie hacker would make such a rookie mistake! Anyone wanting to cover his or her tracks would use a VPN, Tor, or some other method of concealing the session's origin. Paul is more than technically knowledgeable enough to know better. So, was the "evidence" fabricated by a vengeful past employer? We don't know. Admit it.
In any event, until and unless Paul is convicted of a felony (he could well be convicted of a lesser offense or completely exonerated), your hammering on him with MULTIPLE derogatory blog posts is simply an attempt to influence the election. This is unethical, and demonstrates that you're no journalist. You're just another opinionated blogger, and readers should view your writings with this in mind.