Former Candidate Pleads No Contest to Sabotaging WPR Tower

Former Laramie, WY City Council candidate Paul Montoya recently pleaded no contest to disabling Wyoming Public Radio’s (WPR) transmitters in 2022. He professed his innocence in an interview with Cowboy State Daily, stating that he chose the plea agreement for personal and financial reasons.

Montoya had initially been charged with two felonies, but one was dropped, and the other was reduced to a misdemeanor of computer trespassing. He received a sentence of one year of unsupervised probation, no fine, and $370 in court fees, avoiding a felony conviction due to Wyoming’s first offender statute. 

Montoya is a former engineering director and radio host for WPR. Charging documents accused Montoya of allegedly remotely disabling WPR’s transmitters while he was out of the state and then, from an in-state WPR radio tower facility one week later, allegedly disabling remote access. According to the 2022 affidavit, this amounted to “effectively denying any other authorized user’s remote access to the computer station and rendering them unable to turn the transmitters back on remotely.”

The affidavit notes WPR’s radio towers serve “as the main dissemination towers for the U.S. federal Emergency Alert System,” according to The Laramie Reporter.

Montoya attributed the charges to a personal feud with a former supervisor at the University of Wyoming, where the station is based, according to Cowboy State Daily.

Montoya’s legal troubles were seen as a factor in his unsuccessful bid for Laramie City Council, where he finished third in the general election, notes Cowboy State Daily. Some believe the criminal case hurt his campaign, with influencers allegedly exploiting the charges to sway voters. However, Montoya maintains that he was performing his job duties and did not intentionally hinder the station’s operations. His felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor two days after the election, avoiding a potential conflict with his ability to serve on the council if elected.

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief