SWEETWATER COUNTY — Former Green River Urban Renewal Agency Administrator Jennifer “Jennie” Nicole Melvin was sentenced to 4-8 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary Tuesday morning for her theft of nearly $78,000 from the URA’s Development Fund and the Flaming Gorge Days account between January 2021 and May 2023.

Melvin was convicted by Third District Court Judge Jospeh Bluemel for using her position as the URA Administrator to embezzle funds from URA accounts for her own personal use. As part of a plea deal that was accepted by Judge Bluemel, Melvin will also serve three years supervised probation, following her incarceration. She will also be required to pay restitution in the amount of $77,494.08, which is the total she stole.

The court proceedings began with a change of plea from not guilty to guilty to both counts of felony theft. During her change of plea, she admitted to stealing the money for personal use, including gambling, purchases, and helping family members with living arrangements.

In exchange for a guilty plea, the state offered a deal in which they argued for 4-8 years of incarceration for the first count of felony theft of $42,942.55 from the Green River Development Fund. The state argued that for the second count, which includes the theft of $34,551.53 from the Flaming Gorge Days account, she should be sentenced to 4-8 years in prison, but to suspend that with three years of supervised probation. The state argued that these sentences should run consecutively.

After hearing arguments from state prosecuting attorney Teresa Thybo, Melvin’s defense attorney Eric Phillips, as well as victim impact statements and a statement from Melvin herself, Judge Bluemel said he believed the state’s argued sentencing seemed appropriate. He made it clear that if Melvin makes parole, she must finish her parole before her probation begins.

Victim Impact Statements

Thybo started off her argument by pointing out the “absolute frivolousness” of the way Melvin spent the money she stole from the community. She said there were multiple Amazon purchases that “in no way benefited the community”. She listed off several items Melvin purchased using the stolen funds including knife sets for over $300, storage containers for $200, several candle sets for $200, and many blankets and throw pillows for over $300 per item or set.

“It’s concerning to the state that there was a complete disregard for the community,” Thybo said.

She added that Melvin broke the trust the community had in her, and used the money for Flaming Gorge Days, a beloved community event that takes a lot of volunteer work to put on. Flaming Gorge Days had to be canceled in 2023 due to the account being depleted from Melvin’s theft.

To speak on the impact on Flaming Gorge Days, longtime Flaming Gorge Days committee member Susan Mitchell gave a victim impact statement. Mitchell said that each year’s event raises money to put on the next year’s event, and following the Covid-19 pandemic they believed they had pulled off a great success in 2022 that would set them up for a great event in 2023.

“We would never know the success of our event because it was taken from us,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the event has been set back to its inception due to the actions of one person.

“It will never be to the caliber it has been,” she said.

Additionally, she said that the committee’s reputations were tarnished when the 2023 cancellation hit the news. At the time, the investigation on Melvin was ongoing so they could not release a reason as to why the event was being canceled, which resulted in the committee taking the heat.

“Our trust was shattered and it felt like a punch in the gut,” Mitchell said.

Dawn Coursey, former head chair of the Flaming Gorge Days committee also gave a statement. She said she has been part of the committee for 14 years and was involved through volunteer work since the early 1990s. Coursey stressed the importance of the event as it gives back to kids in the community and is often used as a fundraiser for several youth organizations.

“I guess I’ll never understand,” she said. “This has been eating at me for the past year.”

The final statement came from Bonnie Tippy, owner of Red White Buffalo in downtown Green River. She said a lot of work has gone into developing Green River’s downtown, and that they were making progress and building on momentum when Melvin’s actions came to light. Tippy said it is hard to recruit businesses in downtown, and retail activity has declined. Additionally, the URA funds that helped with beautification, the Halloween parade, new facade grants, and more is no longer there to support the downtown businesses.

While she acknowledged that it isn’t the URA’s job to support retail in downtown, it did help, and now the businesses in downtown are feeling the loss of that support. Additionally, the board members of Green River Main Street are now dealing with tainted reputations.

On a personal level, Tippy said that Melvin spent a year convincing Tippy to join the Main Street board, and then when she finally did Melvin was arrested shortly after.

“People talk a lot, people point fingers. It’s hard to let people know that I didn’t know [about this], that these weren’t my actions,” Tippy said, adding that it has resulted in her losing business.

Additionally, Tippy said that the Green River Arts Council’s funds were frozen as a result of this investigation, and they almost folded. She stressed how big of a loss that would have been for the community.

“This is not over,” Tippy said. “This has set us back for years.”

Defense: Good People Make Mistakes

Phillips started off his argument that good people can make mistakes, and that’s what this case is. He said that it started with Melvin making an accidental purchase using the wrong card, and it then snowballed. He said this is a common pattern for these types of cases, where getting away with one mistake or action leads to multiple infringements.

Both Phillips and Melvin said that she had the intention of paying back the money but it spiraled out of control. Phillips also pointed to Melvin’s lack of criminal history in her 50 years of life, stating this is a first offense. He said she is not the monster people want to believe she is.

Melvin said with reflection over the past year, she believes she used the funds for frivolous purchases as a means of retail therapy to escape the pressures of her job and at home life. She explained this is also why she started gambling at the local off-track betting facilities, as she wanted a place to dissociate and escape.

“I don’t know if I can articulate the amount of pressure I was under,” she said.

She said the first moment of theft came from accidentally purchasing something on Amazon with the URA’s credit card, and then it snowballed. She expressed guilt and shame for her actions and the impacts they have had on the Flaming Gorge Days committee and community at large.

“Absolutely if I could go back and redo it all, I would. I would,” she said. “I also know there is no possible way to repay for some aspects of my influence in the community, but I’d like to try.”

Judge Bluemel said that everyone faces pressures and burdens in their lives, but that Melvin’s actions broke the trust placed in her, and tainted and tarnished a tradition in Green River.

He said those four words, trust, tradition, taint, and tarnish, are really relevant in this case.

“You’re not the first person who’s ever tainted this community, and sadly you won’t be the last,” he said. “… It’s pretty hard in this situation to not place the blame squarely on your shoulders.”

He said any sentence that doesn’t involve incarceration would not be sufficient for the impacts of Melvin’s crimes on the community.