A roping contestant and former employee of the Jackson Hole Rodeo is accused of stealing $3,800 by tweaking and re-depositing his winnings and paychecks via a virtual deposit app.
Ty Moses, 22, was charged Monday in Jackson Circuit Court with one count of felony theft and another of forgery, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines if he’s convicted.
Moses’ attorney Bob Schroth told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that Moses hasn’t been in this kind of trouble before, comes from a longtime local rodeo family, and that the alleged conduct is not typical of him.
“(The alleged crimes) are really out of character for him,” said Schroth, adding that he’s not commenting at this juncture on whether Moses maintains his innocence or not.
“If he owes money, it’ll get paid right away,” Schroth said.
The Rodeo Says
Jackson Hole Police Department Detective Sean Leonhard took on this case Sept. 5, says an evidentiary affidavit filed Monday in the case.
He contacted the proprietor of Jackson Hole Rodeo, who said a former employee and rodeo contestant, Moses, had been altering checks from the rodeo to redeposit them, says the affidavit.
Another rodeo staffer gave the detective printouts from the rodeo’s bank account and showed copies of checks that cleared as deposited despite having the same check number, the document says.
“The method appeared to be altering the cent value on the dollar amount of the check, and the defendant would remote deposit the check via a mobile application,” wrote Leonhard in the affidavit.
Those checks included both rodeo winnings and payroll checks, the detective continued. They spanned from an issue date of June 12 to Sept. 4 and ranged from $59 to $357, says the affidavit.
The total in fraudulent over-deposits was $3,809.24, the document alleges.
The Arrest
Teton County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Moses on Saturday on what the affidavit calls an “unrelated warrant.” It doesn’t specify, but Moses had a driving without a license citation filed July 1 for which he’d missed at least one court date, according to his court file.
Leonhard went to the jail to speak to Moses.
After hearing his Miranda rights, Moses told the detective that he’d heard about someone altering cent amounts on a check then re-depositing them via a mobile application and he decided to try it, the affidavit says.
The first time he tried it, it worked, he allegedly said. So, he kept re-depositing checks.
Leonhard asked if a sum of $3,800 extra over 15 instances sounded like an accurate tally of the overpays.
Moses said that sounded accurate, the affidavit alleges.
This case is ongoing. Moses is scheduled for a Nov. 12 preliminary hearing in Jackson Circuit Court
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
