Wyoming Journalist Faces 10 More Forgery Charges in Alleged USDA Loan Scheme

When the Gillis family agreed to sell their Chugwater property, they believed the buyer had secured a USDA home loan and grant. Prosecutors allege the documents proving that approval were forged.

Platte County prosecutors filed 10 new felony counts against April Marie Morganroth, a Wyoming journalist and activist, bringing her total felony exposure to as many as 20 counts across related matters. The fresh allegations center on a scheme in which Morganroth allegedly used fabricated USDA paperwork to convince the Gillis family she had federal backing to purchase and renovate their Chugwater home.

The new charges, filed in Platte County circuit court, include five counts of forgery and five counts of possession of forged writing. Under Wyoming law, each forgery count carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Investigators say they identified a pattern in submitted paperwork and contractor invoices purporting to show USDA loan and grant approvals that did not exist. The Gillis family, identified in court documents as the sellers, allegedly relied on those representations during the transaction.

The latest counts arrived weeks after Morganroth had already been charged with separate felony counts stemming from alleged false testimony before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council, the state body that oversees permitting for large energy projects. That earlier case is tied to her public opposition to a NextEra-linked wind development near Chugwater, a fight that gave Morganroth a prominent profile in southeast Wyoming's land-use debates.

Morganroth, who has also been identified in reporting as April Marie Hamilton, previously waived preliminary hearings and posted bond on the earlier charges. Defense counsel has noted that she is presumed innocent and that procedural protections will play out in court.

Regional outlets including WyoFile, County 17, and the Torrington Telegram have followed the expanding docket, in part because the case sits at an unusual intersection: a journalist who publicly documented and contested a state permitting process now faces criminal allegations involving the manipulation of official documents in a separate real estate transaction. Editorial and opinion pieces have already begun appearing in regional publications given the notoriety of the wind-project permitting fight.

The case has reverberated beyond Platte County into Albany County and across southeast Wyoming, where state permitting for large renewable energy projects has been an active subject of public debate. The allegations raise pointed questions about how documentation is vetted before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council and what legal exposure accompanies the submission of false instruments to public processes.

Prosecutors and defense counsel are now exchanging discovery and setting pretrial deadlines. Whether the 10 new counts survive pretrial challenges and advance to trial will hinge on proceedings in Platte County circuit court in the weeks ahead.