Fugitive surfaces in Afghanistan

RAWLINS -- A former Rawlins police captain and former Carbon County commissioner wanted on criminal charges has been located in Kabul, Afghanistan, County Sheriff Jerry Olson said Thursday.

Adam Lee Meacham is wanted on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges.

Deputy Carbon County Attorney Cal Rerucha said earlier this week that he could not discuss the case because state law restricts disclosure about criminal charges involving sexual assault and crimes against minors.

County authorities could not locate Meacham for arrest, declared him a fugitive, and placed his name on the National Crime Information Center.

Thursday, Olson said he confirmed that Meacham, who took medical retirement in late 2006, was working for a Dubai-based contractor in Afghanistan.

Olson said he also has received a letter from Meacham's attorney, Michael Krampner of Casper, who wrote Meacham is preparing to return to Carbon County next week.

In 2007, former Rawlins resident Stephanie Faber sued Meacham and the city, claiming he sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager and that the city did not respond to her claims.

She received a cash settlement, but neither an admission nor an apology of wrongdoing from Meacham and the city.

Voters expand SWC commission

GREEN RIVER -- Sweetwater County voters overwhelmingly approved expanding the county commission from three to five members, according to election officials.

Residents of the state's largest county approved the ballot measure calling for a five-member commission during a special election Tuesday.

Voters approved the question by more than a 3-to-1 margin, and the initiative passed in all but two of the county's 36 voting precincts.

The idea of expanding the commission has been floating around for years in 140-year-old Sweetwater County.

A group of non-partisan residents formed the Time for 5 Committee in January and spearheaded the measure through, garnering enough petition signatures during the summer to schedule the special election.

The two new at-large commission members will be voted into office in the November 2010 election, officials said. The ballot measure did not call for dividing the county into districts. That move would require an additional ballot initiative.

The unofficial tally was 3,893 votes for the measure and 1,017 against.

Residency fraud leads to fines

SHERIDAN -- An 60-year-old Illinois man has been fined $4,170 for illegally purchasing resident licenses in Wyoming over a six-year period.

Fred G. Plambeck, of Cary, Ill., also had his hunting and fishing privileges suspended for six years by Sheridan County Circuit Court Judge John Sampson.

According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Plambeck purchased or applied for licenses after he moved to Illinois in 2004.

Plambeck argued that because he owned a home in Arvada in northern Wyoming with a mailing address and paid property taxes, he remained a state resident.

But an investigation found he had not lived in Wyoming more than a month each year since 2004.