A Murrayville man arrested for aggravated stalking, unlawful restraint, and multiple violations of an order of protection in May has had his charges dismissed in Greene County Court this week.
Greene County State’s Attorney Caleb Briscoe says that charges against 48 year old Jason E. Wyatt of Murrayville were dropped this week because of an alleged false police report being filed and other miscellaneous offenses allegedly committed by another individual: “We originally had two different felony cases involving Mr. Wyatt and various allegations in those. I think the most egregious ones were aggravated stalking in both cases, and I think there was also an allegation of unlawful restraint. Those cases have been dismissed against Mr. Wyatt. We have charged Sarah Baumgartner who was the alleged victim in those cases with two different criminal offenses. One being filing a false police report and the other one would be allegations of wire fraud.”
According to charging documents, the 41 year old Baumgartner told Carrollton Police on April 23rd that Wyatt had threatened her over text message on April 15th, threatened her in person on April 18th & 19th with bodily harm and sexual assault, and on April 19th detained her in a vehicle not allowing her to leave. Baumgartner had petitioned and was granted an emergency order of protection against Wyatt on March 19th. A warrant was issued for Wyatt’s arrest in the alleged incidents on April 23rd. Wyatt ended up turning himself into police on June 3rd for the case after the Greene County Sheriff’s Department placed a bulletin out for his arrest, believing him to be a threat to the public.
Briscoe says that after an investigation it is alleged that Baumgartner falsely accused Wyatt of the incidents in question when she filed her police report with Carrollton Police on April 23rd. In turn, Briscoe it led to subsequent wire fraud charges being filed against her: “In the wire fraud case, the allegations are that she pretended to be Jason Wyatt and was trying to reach out to other people in a threatening manner in order to receive financial assistance from people feeling sorry for her, for lack of a better term, in order to gain benefits or financial assistance.”
Charging documents say that in a series of text messages, Baumgartner sent messages to Shelli Martin of Carrollton, while pretending to be Wyatt, to provide continual financial benefits. In preliminary hearing testimony in Greene County Court from Greenfield Police Chief John Goode, a resident authority in the county on cyber crimes, he alleged that Baumgartner was attempting to achieve rental assistance from Martin who is her landlord.
Baumgartner is facing a Class 3 felony on the wire fraud charge, which carries a possible 2-5 year prison term, a maximum of 30 months adult probation, and a possible fine of up to $25,000. The false police report charge is a Class 4 felony that carries a 1-3 year prison term, possibly 30 months probation, and up to a $25,000. Depending upon the court, Baumgartner could be charged to serve the prison terms concurrently or consecutively.