Cheyenne Police Break Up Check Fraud Ring, Arrest 3

Three people were arrested Tuesday following check fraud incidents at two Western Vista Federal Credit Union branches in Cheyenne.

According to arrest records, police were called to the branch at 1215 Storey Blvd. at 5:10 p.m., about 20 minutes after Graycee Rene Bingham, 21, of Cheyenne, and Lance Daniel McCartney II, 30, of Platteville, Colorado, entered the credit union and Bingham tried to cash a check on another person's account.

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Police say the staff had just received an email from another branch warning that someone, later identified as Ronald Jerome McNeill Jr., 36, a Cheyenne transient, had just cashed, or tried to cash, stolen checks from that same account within the past hour.

The staff held onto the check Bingham tried to cash, delayed her and McCartney, and called the police, but the two left in a black Ford sedan bearing Colorado license plate 818-UGM before police arrived.

At 5:58 p.m., police located the sedan in the Target parking lot at 1708 Dell Range Blvd., and Bingham and McCartney, whom police recognized from security camera video a Western Vista teller had shown them, were stopped and detained.

Police say Bingham admitted that she and McCartney had been at the Western Vista branch on Storey Boulevard and tried to cash a check there, and claimed that a friend gave her the check already filled out.

Police say the check was one of several that were reported stolen in a vehicle burglary at the Flying J Travel Center at 2250 Etchepare Drive on Jan. 9.

Bingham was patted down for weapons and reportedly admitted to having a metal straw in her back pocket which she'd used to smoke fentanyl earlier that day.

She was arrested and booked into the Laramie County Detention Center for felony forgery and misdemeanor possession of fentanyl.

Police say McCartney, who'd been driving the sedan used to commit check fraud, had seven blue fentanyl pills on him.

He was arrested and subsequently charged with misdemeanor possession of fentanyl.

He made his initial appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court this morning, Jan. 24, during which his bond was set at $1,000 cash and his arraignment scheduled for Feb. 21 at 2:00 p.m.

The state also filed a petition to revoke McCartney's probation, which he's scheduled to be seen on tomorrow, Jan. 25.

As for McNeill, he was arrested on a traffic stop at 1735 Westland Rd. at 9:00 p.m. for felony forgery and misdemeanor theft.

He and Bingham are scheduled to make their initial appearances in Laramie County Circuit Court at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, Jan. 25.

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