The judge noted Wenonah Wagner’s abuse of trust when deciding to sentence her consecutively for the casino robbery.
Wenonah Sue Wagner, a 31-year old resident of El Reno, Oklahoma was sentenced this week to spend a year in federal prison for stealing from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s Charging Horse Casino and Bingo.
Wenonah Wagner was a security guard at the Charging Horse Casino when she stole $23,000 from the operation. Wagner is thought to have used the money to have bought a firearm and a pound of meth.
Sentenced to 10 Months in Prison
The former security guard appeared in the court of US District Judge Susan Watters on Wednesday for sentencing. Wagner received 10 months in prison on a theft conviction and was ordered to pay back the $23,000 she stole from the Indian casino.
Wenonah Wagner is serving out two theft sentences at the moment, so Judge Watters said the current sentence would be served consecutively. The defendant pleaded guilty to the crime in December 2016. The case had no plea agreement.
Took Advantage of Position of Authority
The judge noted that Wagner took advantage of her position at the casino to steal from the business. Also, Judge Watters noted that Wagner placed other staff members under scrutiny during the investigation of the crime.
Wagner used the stolen money to go to Texas and buy a pound of methampetamines and an illegal firearm. The judge characterized Wagner as a drug addict whose substance abuse started when she was a pre-teen. Eventually, that drug use led to intraveous meth use.
Casino management must always be careful about inside jobs. One reason casinos have such omnipresent surveillance is the need to monitor staff members. Many of the most successful cheats in casino history happened when a dealer helped with gaffing a roulette machine, dealt cards from the bottom of the deck, or looked the other way when a craps or roulette player top-hatted the bets.
“The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks”
Often, the person who seems most vigilant is the guilty party. One corporate auditor and investigator once told the story of an audit of a successful small business he once performed, when the boss was convinced that someone was stealing from the company.
He was told by the entrepreneur of one bookkeeper for the business whom the boss particularly trusted, because she maintained a vigilant stance towards all other employees. The auditor told the boss that she would end up being the guilty party before the investigator began his audit. He was met with shock and alarm by the owner, but eventually was proven right when the full audit was performed.
The phenomenon the auditor referred to is “projection”, in which a person guilty of wrongdoing projects their crimes or sin onto others around them. Knowing they are committing a crime, the guilty party is hyper-vigilant about others doing the same thing.
John Sullivan: The Prosecutor
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan recommended a “high-end” guideline sentence of 14 months served consecutive to the state sentence. Sullivan noted that the security guard abused her position of trust. The prosecutor also suggested that her theft “hamstrung” the casino and its staff.
John Sullivan also characterized Wagner’s trip to Texas as a someone who “ran amok”. It was noted that the $23,000 in stolen cash was used to pay bills, in addition to buying guns and drugs.
Gillian Gosch: The Defendant
Assistant Federal Defender Gillian Gosch told a different story. Wagner’s court-appointed defender said that her client was a drug addict with serious mental issues which should have mitigated the judge’s sentence.
Gillian Gosch asked for an 8-month sentence to be served concurrently with Wenonah Wagner’s current prison sentences in Montana. Ultimately, Gosch’s recommendations were not chosen.
Charging Horse Casino Profile
Charging Horse Casino is located in Lame Deer, Montana. Charging Horse has 19,000 square feet in gaming space, which includes a bingo hall, video poker, and video keno. The operation has 134 video poker machines and an unspecified number of video keno machines. The adjoining Charging Horse Bingo hall has 500 seats. A Charging Horse restaurant also exists on the property.
The casino operation runs 18 hours a day, from 8am to 2am. The tribe which owns the casino is the Northern Cheyenne. The town of Lame Deer has 2,052 residents and is named after Chief Lame Deer, a Miniconjou Lakota leader who was killed under a flag of truce by the U.S. Army in 1877.
