Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Meanwhile at Microsoft headquarters....."}]

Smile 7 21 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, July 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Meanwhile at Microsoft headquarters.....

Daily Smile: Sunday, July 21, 2024

 Meanwhile at Microsoft headquarters.....

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland, raiding dumpsters and garbage cans.

She was finally treed in a resident’s backyard on Thursday afternoon, shot with tranquilizer darts and captured.

The bear was first spotted at the local golf course, Worland wildlife photographer James Yule told Cowboy State Daily.

He dubbed the bear, which weighed about 75 pounds, “Par 5.”

“She was out at the golf course for a day and then she decided, ‘To heck with this, I’m going into town to party,’” Yule said. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster."

At one point, Par 5 evaded capture by going way back into some Creekside weeds and “lying down in some cool swamp water,” Yule said.

Authorities tried hazing the bear out with noisy “whistler” charges fired from shotguns, but that didn’t work, he said.

Washakie County Sheriff’s Office deputies “were able to guide the bear into a tree in the Crimson/Cardinal area of Worland,” before it was tranquilized, according to the sheriff’s office.

After it was captured, Wyoming Game and Fish personnel took custody of the bear, the sheriff’s office stated.

Yule was on site when the bear was captured. He said he was told by Game and Fish agents that the bear will likely be released back into the wild, though it might have been previously captured in the Sheridan area.

"She might be given another chance because she’s a breeding-age female,” Yule said.

An inquiry sent to Game and Fish about the bear’s status on Friday wasn’t answered by publication time.

Bears getting too used to human-provided food sources, what wildlife agencies call “food conditioning,” is one reason why bears are sometimes captured and killed.

That was the case with another 3-year-old Wyoming black bear, which was killed by wildlife agents last month in Grand Teton National Park after it repeatedly obtained human food and started approaching people in the Jenny Lake area.

Yule said he hopes nobody hand-fed Par 5 during her adventure in Worland.

“Once somebody hand-feeds a bear, it will start walking right up to people expecting to get more food,” he said.

Worland resident Ron Goyn told Cowboy State Daily that he came home for lunch on Thursday and found the bear lurking in his backyard.

“My dog just blew up barking, viciously in the house, by my sliding glass door,” he said.

“I’m glad I had that door closed, because I glanced out there, and there was this black bear, just standing on my porch,” he said.

The bear started wandering about the yard, showing great interest in Goyn’s chicken coop.

“Apparently, she thought it was a cave,” and tried going inside, he said, adding that thankfully, his chickens were behind a fence and were unhurt.

The bear clambered over his fence and ended up in his neighbor’s yard, where it was treed by deputies, he said. 

He added that he called Yule to come over and take photos.

Yule said the police tried shooting the bear with a tranquilizer dart, which made it drowsy, but didn’t knock it out. Then Game and Fish agents arrived and darted it again, which did the trick.

“When the bear fell asleep, it got wedged in a fork in the branches,” Goyn said.

Yule said that a cherry-picker lift was brought in from a local business, and a Game and Fish biologist and sheriff’s deputy used it to reach the bear and heave it out of the tree.

Goyn said the drama with the bear in his and his neighbor’s yards lasted about three hours before Game and Fish finally hauled it away.

“It was kind of a strange deal for Worland,” he said.

There are occasionally black bears in the general area, but one coming into town is highly unusual.

"You hear about bears every once in a while along the Bighorn River,” he said. "There’s a lot of good natural resources for them along that river."

Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com

Worland bear Chris 2 7 3 26

<title>Young Black Bear Leads Authorities On Two-Day Chase Through Worland | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster,” said a local who observed the bear.

Young Black Bear Leads Authorities On Two-Day Chase Through Worland

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

When Wyoming oilman Howard Cooper finally got word he could drill two 2.5-mile-long horizontal wells in the Powder River Basin, it wasn’t just a triumph of geology. It was a marathon for the key federal lease that made his wells economic. 

Those two leases were but thin slices of the 2.5-mile-long lateral that made up each horizontal well, cutting across the line, but might as well have been the Great Wall of China as far as Cooper was concerned.

Cooper, who owns Three Crown Petroleum, told Cowboy State Daily he can permit and drill a typical oil well on private minerals in about five weeks in Wyoming, at least on paper. That’s two weeks for state permits, one week to build a pad and move in a drilling rig, and two weeks to drill. 

But when federal leases are involved, timelines can stretch dramatically, particularly if litigation and additional environmental reviews are triggered. 

That makes any well with a federal lease a gamble with million-dollar stakes.

Cooper’s two-well program is a case study in how even the tiniest sliver of federal land can hang up a drilling project, tying up capital while the operator misses out on economic opportunities vital to keeping smaller companies afloat. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Lease That Sat For Years"}]

The story starts long before Cooper, with a federal lease that sat in limbo for years. 

The lease was originally issued to Anschutz as part of a series of federal sales between 2015 and 2020 across several western states, including Wyoming, which accounted for 1,232 of the 1,323 leases sold during that time. 

The leases were challenged by conservationists, who said the environmental analysis of water usage, sage-grouse protections and greenhouse gas emissions were inadequate.

A judge agreed, ordering a 200-page supplemental environmental review to redo aquifer and sage-grouse analysis for the sales, which also included some areas in Nevada, Utah and Montana.

Bureau of Land Management spokesmen said at the time that such reviews have been required under the National Environmental Policy Act in similar cases to ensure impacts are fully considered before development moves forward.

To create a viable oil and gas well, Cooper needed to add Anschutz’s disputed lease to existing leases he already held in the area. He had already put together enough leases for a 1.75-mile and a 1.25-mile well, but for the project to be economic, Cooper said he needed each well to have a lateral of at least 2.5 miles.

“That essentially doubles your reserves,” he said. “But doesn’t add that much more to the cost.”

So Cooper signed an agreement to purchase Anschutz’s lease, despite the ongoing legal and regulatory uncertainty tied to it, on Nov. 4, 2025. 

They were the last two puzzle pieces he needed for a viable project. 

From then until now, when he’s finally received the go-ahead to drill, it’s been eight months. 

Taken together, though, that thin slice of federal minerals — from its original lease sale years ago to final permitting today — carries a timeline of roughly seven years. 

That piece was essential, however, to extending Cooper’s wells to 2.5 miles, making the overall project economic.

During that time, Cooper estimates he committed in excess of $1 million across the two Powder River wells — money he had to pay up front 

 while also keeping his business afloat. 

Putting a well together involves is an exercise in a bit of business gymastics, with a dash of mathematics and puzzle making thrown in.

Cooper sited his well pad just outside of the sage-grouse corridor Wyoming has established, saving him an additional $375,000 per well by not having to purchase sage-grouse credits. 

Cooper also bundled two other wells in nearby Johnson County into his Powder River project to further lower the cost of drilling. So, even though the Johnson County wells didn’t have the same federal complications, they couldn’t move forward either until the entire package was ready to go.

“By signing a four-well drilling program, we save a considerable amount of money,” Cooper said. “So we went down this road of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight months of our capital is tied up. 

“It’s a lot of capital tied up. We know the oil is there, if they would just let us drill and produce it.”

Meanwhile, the market shifted substantially. 

“If we could have drilled these wells three months ago, we would have had three months of oil at $100 a barrel,” he said. “Now we’ve lost 30% of value. It’s gone from $100 a barrel to $70.”

Cooper estimates that, taken together, the four wells would have produced around 300,000 barrels of oil during that three-month period of $100 oil. He bases that figure on production from nearby offset wells, which have already extracted roughly 100,000 barrels each.

“We’re still going to get a return on our investment,” Cooper said. “But we’d have gotten a much better return … if we could have drilled these wells three months ago.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Reform Push Underway"}]

Getting his permits required more than waiting. 

“We worked with Gov. Mark Gordon’s office, Western (Energy) Alliance, both U.S. senators and House representatives,” he said. “We had to work with everybody to get this stuff, which should not be necessary. Why should I spend all that time when, if I drill on private minerals, I don’t have to do any of that. It takes a lot of my time, which I prefer to be focusing on putting together additional drilling deals, as opposed to spending a lot of time with all these different entities to try to get our permits issued.”

Industry leaders say Cooper’s experience is increasingly common. Wyoming Petroleum Association’s Ryan McConnaughey told Cowboy State Daily litigation has become common where federal leasing i involved, often due to the checkerboard nature of mineral leases in most western states. 

“I believe under President Biden’s administration was the first time that every lease sale was challenged,” he said.

While conservation groups have argued those challenges are necessary to ensure federal agencies fully comply with environmental law and account for cumulative impacts, McConnaughey said lawsuits are often filed late in the process, at the 11th hour, as a way to increase financial pressure on operators. 

“This isn’t really about making sure that the federal government is doing their due diligence,” McConnaughey 

said. “It’s become a concerted effort to stop oil and gas drilling on federal lands.”

Environmental reviews conducted for permits in many cases are now taking nearly a decade to complete, he said, which makes the flood of 11th-hour lawsuits even more troubling.

“Delays have become a hallmark of drilling on federal land,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And that’s one of the reasons we have been advocating for reform.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Building At SPEED"}]

McConnaughey supports legislation from Wyoming’s congressional delegation called the Let America Build Act and the SPEED Act, which sets deadlines for legal challenges and allows states to take larger roles in administering the permitting process. 

McConnaughey said the change would improve efficiency without removing federal requirements. Critics, however, have raised concerns that tighter deadlines could limit legal oversight.

“It should be about making sure that the federal government is following the law,” McConnaughey said. “If that’s the case, those challenges need to take place immediately.”

Taking over regulatory oversight doesn’t reduce or eliminate any existing restrictions, he added. It just means state agencies are helping eliminate a bureaucratic chokepoint.

“That way the work is being done by local people who understand the industry, understand what is required, and could really speed up the process,” McConnaughey said. “I think that would be a game-changer for the industry here in Wyoming.”

Looking over the history of the new wells he’s about to drill, Cooper sees a sharp contrast between federal and state processes. 

“It’s absolutely insane,” he said. “We are moving pretty fast now, but this is one of those things where … it would be really helpful going forward if the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Energy are focusing on streamlining the permitting process with the federal government. I would like to see it more in line with the way the state of Wyoming moves forward. fter you acquire the lease, then you approach the state of Wyoming and file for your permits. If you own the lease 100%, then it takes basically a two-week period from the time you apply for your permits to when they’re issued.

"After that, a rig moves onto the location, a well pad is built, and you’re “good to go.

“Then you just drill the well and tie your well to an existing oil line and an existing gas line, and you sell your product into the existing oil and gas lines and that’s how it works. It’s very efficient, and that’s what the federal government should strive for, because then it would generate a lot more revenue for the federal government.”

Three Crown Petroleum Campbell County 7 3 26 JPG

<title>Wyoming Company Missed Out On $100 Oil With 7-Year Wait To Drill On Federal Land | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming oilman says it missed out on $100-a-barrel oil during a seven-year fight to get the OK to drill on federal land in the Powder River Basin. "We would have had three months of oil at $100 a barrel,” the owner said. “Now we’ve lost 30% of value."

Wyoming Company Missed Out On $100 Oil With 7-Year Wait To Drill On Federal Land

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

The nation’s 250th birthday celebrations around Wyoming likely won’t hold a candle to what happenewd on the dusty streets of 1899 Casper leading up to the Fourth of July 127 years ago.

That’s because a similar blowout today would lead to arrests, fines and possibly hospital stays.

Just before the turn of the past century city businessmen, a former sheriff, and other enthusiastic male residents spent a few hours on June 29 chasing and shooting each other with Roman candles — 3,000 of the fiery devices, according to a local newspaper account.

“Last Thursday night from 9:30 to 12:30 o’clock the streets of Casper were ablaze with fireworks,” The Natrona County Tribune reported on July 6, 1899. “Some of our citizens had made up their minds to give others a touch of patriotism before the Glorious Fourth came around.”

That “touch” involved grown men shooting each other with the fireworks and transforming themselves back to their “glorious” youth when rules, regulations and consequences to unsafe behavior were just empty words spoken by adults who held no fascination with the noise, light, fire and heat of the pyrotechnic device.

So, days before the nation’s 123rd birthday, store owner Hugh L. Patton, 38, fired a 30-ball Roman candle across the street at John S. VanDoren. Patton was a former Casper town marshal and Natrona County Sheriff who had resigned in 1897 to join the Teddy Roosevelt Rough Riders during the Spanish American War, where he had served as a lieutenant. 

VanDoren, an agent for a stage line to Lander and ice cream shop owner, returned fire. But instead of hitting Patton he sent his firework sputtering into the confectionary shop run by Harry G. Duhling, 33.

Just that day, the June 29 edition of the Natrona County Tribune noted on page five that Duhling in his confectionary shop “had a big supply of firecrackers and fireworks on hand.”

“Better place your order with him now for your Fourth of July supply,” the editor reported.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pre-Fourth 'Celebration'"}]

But the Roman candles among that supply of fireworks didn’t garner a sale because the great pre-Fourth of July fireworks war was on.

The June 29 edition also carried a big ad touting the Fourth’s activities under the management of the Casper Fire Department, which included a $300 display of fireworks at the end of the day.

Where the fire department was on June 29 as more men joined the firework fracas is not clear.

The newspaper editor who obviously had an interest in the fight described Duhling just after 9:30 p.m. June 29 as going into his store stash of Roman candles and firing back at VanDoren. But the wily VanDoren had recruited reinforcements and built a fort out of egg cases as a defensive tactic.

“He (VanDoren) sent three fire balls across the street, taking in the businesses from Fred Roedde’s restaurant to the Grand Central Hotel,” the Natrona Tribune reported. “By this time at least 20 men were on each side of the street armed with 30-ball Roman candles.”

The Tribune editor described the men from both sides as running into the middle of the street and shooting each other with a Roman candle when they were three or four feet apart until their ammunition “was exhausted.”

After carrying on for some time, the warriors turned on the growing number of spectators who had been drawn to the battle.

“A volley was sent into a party who were on the porch of the Grand Central hotel,” the newspaper reported. “There were a number of ladies in the crowd, all of whom lost no time getting inside.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Burning Bystanders"}]

After chasing the hotel guests inside, the group went after some men watching from an alley behind the Cunningham store, chasing them down the alley and sending a shot that burned Robert F. Potter, a bookkeeper for C. H. King, the grandfather of future president Gerald Ford, in the ear and shooting “Uncle”Jeremiah Dain in the back, burning him “to the skin.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Dain, 68, owned a paint shop in Casper."}]

The newspaper editor mentioned “quite a number of the participants were burned” and then named some names, including John Shaffer with a burned finger, Charles Nichols with a burned front vest, Lee Culver with a burn on the front of his coat, VanDoren with a forehead burn and J. B. Bradley who was burned on the face.

“Other crowds were shot into until everybody was chased home or into the back alleys and then the fight commenced again, which was kept up until 12:30 a.m. when every Roman candle in town had been shot off. In all there were no less than 3,000 shots fired,” the Tribune editor wrote.

At Wyoming Banner Medical Center, Dr. Ben Kautza, medical director for the surgical trauma department, listened to a description of the battle and said it “would be shocking” if someone didn’t die as a result due to the burn and wound care available in the West in 1899.

“We barely had antibiotics, so, wound care back then was cleaning and frontier salves, almost native-type medicine,” he said. “It would be shocking if people didn’t have really bad kinds of complications … as far was wound issues, wound infections, skin deformities.”

Kautza said Roman candles pose a threat as a projectile to the eyes and face in addition to igniting clothing and creating third-degree burns. Other issues involve a faulty candle exploding in the person’s hand and “kind of taking your hand or arms with it.”

As a surgeon in Pittsburgh a few years ago, the Fourth of July, Memorial Dayand other holidays meant people would pull out fireworks, misuse them or have faulty ones that brought them to the hospital with “devastating hand injuries” related to an explosion in a person’s hand.

During the past two Fourth of Julys in Casper, Kautza remains thankful he has not seen a “Roman candle fight” but he’s seen a few hand injuries from firework explosions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"If It Happened Now"}]

At the Casper Police Department, spokesperson Rebekah Ladd said if the Roman candle war happened in 2026 it would have resulted in a police response and investigation that included canvassing the area to get the wounded to care.

Any “hazardous material” would also have been removed, she said.

Officers would also interview those involved and review available evidence to determine each person’s actions and intent,” Ladd said. “The investigation would included assessing the nature and extent of any injuries, which could help determine whether potential assault charges would be classified as misdemeanors or felonies.”

Ladd said additional charges such as disturbing the peace would also likely be considered, with the ultimate charging decisions depending on the outcome of the investigation.

“Regardless, the Casper Police Department strongly discourages this type of behavior, even still, in 2026,” she said.

Patton, who instigated the whole Roman candle war, went on to become a Wyoming state representative in 1909 and was appointed U.S. marshal for Wyoming by President Taft in 1912. He was re-elected Natrona County sheriff, serving from 1915-17.

VanDoren, also an instigator, went on to become the Casper city treasurer for several years.

Potter, one of the burn victims, moved to Douglas in 1900 and in 1905 successfully established the Douglas Enterprise newspaper.

Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com

Roman candle fight Historic casper roman candle inset 7 3 26

<title>Wyoming History: Casper’s Huge 1899 4th Of July Fight With 3,000 Roman Candles | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The huge blowouts planned for America's 250th birthday likely won’t be as wild as the three-hour firefight with 3,000 Roman candles that broke out in Casper in 1899. A similar celebration today would likely lead to arrests, fines and hospital stays.

Wyoming History: Casper’s Huge 1899 4th Of July Fight With 3,000 Roman Candles

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Clyde “The Buffalo” will be the biggest celebrity in Cody for America’s 250th.

 was invited to participate in the Cody Stampede Rodeo and Parades on July 3 and 4.

On Thursday, the famous bison arrived. His first stop was the historic Irma Hotel. 

It might be the first time a buffalo was invited inside Buffalo Bill’s hotel. He was even served a drink at the bar.

“He likes bourbon and margaritas,” Clyde’s owner, Clint Mortenson, told Cowboy State Daily. “He drinks what I drink.”

Clyde will be first in line for the parades Friday and Saturday. He may or may not have a rider on his humped back.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We haven’t decided yet,” Mortenson said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Celebrity Bison"}]

Mortenson, who owns Mortenson Silver and Saddles in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has raised Clyde since he was two weeks old. He turned his “pet” into a celebrity through the connections he made after several years in the film industry.

“I actually lived in Lusk when I went to saddle-making school, and supplied horses, saddles, and other things for movies in New Mexico,” he said. “That's how Clyde became popular."

Clyde's "acting" credentials include appearances in Paramount's "Yellowstone," the Amazon Prime science-fiction series "Outer Range," and Apple TV’s "Pluribus.”

Clyde has also appeared in commercials for Banana Republic, Bass Pro Shops and YETI.

“When the Oklahoma City Thunder made the NBA Finals last May, Clyde took on the role of "Rumble the Bison" to support the team,” Mortenson said. “He had a place of honor outside the Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City.”

Between acting and endorsement gigs, Clyde is a highly sought-after model for all kinds of photo shoots. In November 2025, Mortenson transported Clyde to Jackson for a western-themed wedding shoot.

Mortenson has fully embraced his role as Clyde’s chauffeur, booking agent, and personal assistant. The bison is fully halter-trained, so he’s comfortable going wherever Mortenson leads him.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Buffalo At The Bar"}]

When Mortenson and Clyde reached Cody on Thursday, they were invited inside the Irma Hotel by owner Mike Darby. Clyde eagerly accepted Darby's invitation.

Far from being a bull in a china shop, Clyde doesn’t mind small spaces. He's become a bit of a bar fly.

“We've done a lot of photo shoots in saloons," Mortenson said. "I've taken him into little bars in Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Durango, and Silverton, Colorado. I even took him into the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas."

Clyde entered the Irma through the back door and easily navigated the winding, narrow corridors leading to the dining room. He even posed on the front porch.

“He did great,” Mortenson said. “He was confident as we twisted and turned through the hallways to reach the bar. It was super.”

Clyde also made an appearance in front of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. He was not invited inside.

At both places, Clyde got photo-ops with bronze sculptures of Buffalo Bill. Mortenson brought something extra special to add to the ambiance of those shots.  

“The saddle is a one-of-a-kind replica of a Buffalo Bill saddle I made in 1993,” he said. “It's based on one he used in the Wild West Show in Paris, France.”

The actual saddle is on display in the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Mortenson got to take his replica inside to show how closely it resembles the original. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Biggest Celebrity"}]

Clyde will be making the most of his trip to Cody. In addition to leading off the Cody Stampede Parades, he’ll be making a grand entrance during the Cody Stampede Rodeo.

[{"type":"text","text":"“He’ll be here through July 4,” Mortenson said."}]

Clyde’s other big accolade is that he’s saddle-trained. Mortenson’s son, Wyatt, an actor and stunt performer, broke into show business as “The Buffalo Rider" by sharing photos and videos of himself riding Clyde.

Clyde will be saddled up for the parades and rodeos but might go riderless for the occasion.

The secret to Clyde’s success is his temperament and his self-identity. He might be a big bull bison, but he doesn’t seem to know that, and Mortenson hasn’t tried to persuade his best client otherwise.

"I don't think he knows he's a buffalo," he said. "He's pretty trustworthy with me, so he let me lead him all over, which has made him popular with directors and photographers. But he's always been gentle. He's just like a person."

Clyde the bison wes cody 14 7 2 26

<title>Bison Drinks Bourbon In Buffalo Bill’s Bar In Cody, Wyoming | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Clyde "The Buffalo" arrived in Cody for the Cody Stampede Rodeo and Parades, and his first stop Thursday was for a drink at Buffalo Bill's Bar in the legendary Wild West showman's historic Irma Hotel. "He likes bourbon and margaritas," said Clyde's owner.

Bison Drinks Bourbon In Buffalo Bill’s Bar In Cody, Wyoming

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Florida woman who owned a behavioral health clinic in Cheyenne has been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 to Wyoming Medicaid for bilking the federal agency with fraudulent claims.

Federal prosecutors say her daughter helped carry out the scheme by assisting with billing and falsifying service documentation while working for the clinic.

Tera Marie Campbell, 47, of Maitland, Florida, owned The Olive Branch LLC, a behavioral health clinic that provided autism services in Cheyenne and Minot, North Dakota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said Thursday in a statement announcing the women’s sentences for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell used the business to submit fraudulent Medicaid claims over several years, including claims for services provided by employees who lacked required certifications, claims that were upcoded to higher-paying services and bills for appointments that never occurred, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said some of those claims were submitted for dates when the clinic was closed and even while Campbell was out of the country on vacation.

Campbell's daughter, Tayler Ann Krauss, 27, of McDavid, Florida, worked as the clinic's medical biller between December 2020 and October 2022. She was instrumental in providing service documentation used to support fraudulent claims.

The investigation concluded the clinic relied extensively on untrained employees, falsified certification and supervision records, and knowingly billed Wyoming Medicaid for services that did not meet Medicaid requirements, according to prosecutors.

A Florida woman who ran a Cheyenne behavioral health clinic, and her daughter, have been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 they stole from Wyoming Medicaid. They funneled fraudulent claims through the clinic for years, say federal prosecutors.

Daily Smile: Sunday, July 21, 2024

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