A Wyoming reporter charged with submitting forged documents and lying to a state panel left the Platte County Jail on Wednesday after posting bond, facing 10 felony charges and up to 65 years in prison.
April Marie Morganroth’s appointed defense attorney also waived her preliminary hearing on Wednesday, sending all 10 of the charges against her to the Platte County District Court for arraignment.
Morganroth, 40, faces three counts of possession of forged writing, three counts of forgery and four counts of perjury in judicial, legislative, or administrative proceedings.
Charges against Morganroth, who according to court documents also uses the aliases Marie Hamilton and April Marie McClellan, carry potential penalties of 65 years in prison and $65,000 in fines. They stem from her efforts to contest a controversial wind energy project for which NextEra Energy Resources sought a state permit this winter. The project is slated for the Chugwater area.
Morganroth used the byline of Marie Hamilton, and that name is listed in the case’s criminal affidavit.
Hamilton’s entanglements with the law flow from her testimony and three documents she submitted at Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality public hearings in Chugwater involving a controversial wind project last November and December.
A spokeswoman for Hamilton’s court-appointed attorney, Denny Harts, of Douglas said he would decline to comment on the case.
Court records show Wheatland Circuit Court Judge Jacqueline Brown on Tuesday allowed a motion from Harts to reduce his client’s bond from $50,000 cash to $5,000.
A spokeswoman at the Platte County Jail said Hamilton left the jail Wednesday morning.
A call left on Hamilton’s cellphone was not immediately returned.
The fundraising website, GiveSendGo, has published a fundraiser for Hamilton set up by Scott Morganroth II titled “Help Local Mom & Advocate Get Back to Her Family.”
The posting states that Marie Hamilton was fighting the allegations of forgery and perjury associated with an Industrial Siting Division hearing in “administrative court when law enforcement forced entry into her home on March 10, breaking her door, confiscating her devices, and leaving her home in a state of disarray for her husband and children to find later.”
The fundraising campaign is meant to help with her legal defense and is “not an endorsement of her documents,” the posting states. Those who contribute will “help ensure the battle is fought fairly.”
‘Political Motives’
“Marie’s children are devastated at the sudden and unprecedented removal of their mom from their lives. The state, for what appear to be political motives, has already taken the first steps to permanently (damage) the lives of her children,” the post states. “As members of the community, we are united in our desire to see justice actually done, a fair investigation carried out, and a family reunited. Please give what you are able and please PRAY for this family as they navigate a situation that none of us should wish on even our enemies.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, there had not yet been a donation.
Joshua Shimkus, former Hamilton business partner in a short-lived newspaper startup called the Wyoming Sentinel, told Cowboy State Daily that he began his partnership with Hamilton when several newspapers were closed in the state in 2025.
The partnership began in August of 2025 “but that ended on Oct. 6 of last year.”
“I can’t really get into why,” he said. “I’ve wrapped up (the newspaper) and shut it down.”
Shimkus said there remains some things he needs to “tidy up” and that it’s helpful that he knows her “real name now.” He said has sought legal counsel but does “not want to litigate in the press.”
Hamilton previously wrote for the Oil City News and has been a freelance reporter for other publications in the state.
Court records show the Platte County charges against Morganroth stem from her testimony as “Marie Hamilton” and 18 exhibits she submitted during a Chugwater public hearing by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Industrial Siting Division for a wind-farm project.
Converse County Sheriff’s Office investigators assigned to the case charge that she submitted documents as part of the hearing including three she wanted placed under seal with one authored by an official from UCHealth and two others by an official with Laramie County School District that “referenced medical documents related to children.”
The investigation showed that the official with UCHealth no longer worked for the company at the time the letter was written and dated and the school official denied ever writing the letters.
Her Testimony
Hamilton testified under oath the documents were “true and accurate,” the affidavit states. She also testified under oath that her statements that she was a property owner in the area affected by the wind farm, held a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in journalism from Arizona State University, was attending law school at the University of Wyoming and owned a ranch, as well as various family ranching businesses in several states.
The affidavit states Converse County Sheriff investigators used all of her various aliases and found no evidence to support her statements to owning property, the various degrees or her enrollment in law school at the University of Wyoming.
“April Morganroth has attended the Arizona State University in the undergraduate program,” the affidavit states.
The three counts of possession of forged writings are punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines, while the three counts of forgery, each carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
The four counts of perjury are each punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
An arraignment date has not yet been set in Platte County District Court.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
