A Gillette, Wyoming, real estate agent accused of identity theft is trying to get a phone company to release nearly two years of cellphone records for a key witness against her.

Tami Hinson, 58, was charged in December with six felonies, including three counts of identity theft and three more counts of forgery. She was accused of forging other real estate agents’ signatures to receive a higher commission on home sales. She has pleaded not guilty and her trial is scheduled for Oct. 7 in Campbell County District Court in Gillette.

Her attorney, Ryan Patrick Healy, filed a motion for a subpoena last month to require TracFone Wireless to turn over phone records of Michael “MG” Stellpflug from November 1, 2022, to July 23, 2024, including the dates, duration and phone numbers of all phone calls, as well as the dates, phone numbers and contents of all text messages.

Stellpflug had turned Hinson over to authorities when he suspected her of using his and others’ signatures to collect additional commissions on real estate sales, court documents say.

Hinson, in turn, claimed that Stellpflug harassed her in various ways, and she sought and received a stalking protection order against Stellpflug. He disputes and refutes her reasons for the order.

Neither Healy nor Hinson immediately responded to messages from Cowboy State Daily seeking comment Friday afternoon.

Prosecutor says: No

Campbell County Prosecutor Nathan Henkes disputed Healy’s motion in a separate Aug. 1 motion, asking District Judge James Michael Causey to “quash” or stop the subpoena.

Henkes called the subpoena overly broad and an invasion of privacy. He also said Healy’s request that TracFone send Stellpflug’s phone records directly to his law firm rather than to the court violated the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“Defendant has not sought limitation or independent judicial review of the evidence requested,” Henkes’ motion states. “Instead, defendant is demanding, under penalty of perjury, telephone records from a victim in a criminal case spanning over a year, which is extremely troubling to the State because the subpoena process undermines MG Stellpflug’s privacy.”

The subpoena could reveal personal, medical and trade-related information that could then be disseminated, the document says.

Hinson’s court filing shows no response from the judge as of Friday.

Wait a minute, that’s my phone number

Stellpflug follows the court case regularly and was shocked when he saw the subpoena late last month, he told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

“I thought, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before,'” Stellpflug recalls. “And then … I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s my phone number.'”

He said Henkes had let him know he would file the motion to quash.

“But still, how could someone even do something like that?” he asked.

Stellpflug stressed that as the person who betrayed Hinson, he played a key role in her case. He said he spent 2,200 hours investigating her actions last year, and has now spent around 3,000 hours.

Stellpflug said he viewed the summons as a sign of desperation.

More than a year

Detective Alan Stuber of the Gillette Police Department began investigating Hinson on May 4, 2023, after hearing from Stellpflug, a local real estate agent, according to an affidavit filed in Hinson’s case.

Stellpflug alleged that Hinson used his personal information and that of two others, Chad Friedt and Will Collier, to obtain thousands of dollars in commissions that were not hers.

Hinson owns 1st Class Realty and worked with PennyMac Loan Services LLC to buy and sell foreclosed homes, the affidavit said.

If she were the buyer, she would receive a certain percentage of commission. However, if the buyer was an outside real estate agent, the commission for the sale would supposedly be higher.

Hinson prepared a purchase agreement for Kimber Court in Gillette for $296,000 on August 23, 2017, the affidavit states.

The Multiple Listing Service reportedly listed Friedt as the buying agent.

Friedt, however, denied receiving a commission of about $5,328 on that sale, the affidavit said, adding that he discovered that the summary addendum to the sale at PennyMac Counter bore his electronic signature as “buyer’s agent.”

Friedt said that while it was indeed his electronic signature on the form, the printed name and other information were not handwritten. He denied any involvement in the sale, the affidavit states.

“Chad’s name was used by Tami for her financial gain,” the affidavit states.

Next real estate agent

The document states that on March 28, 2018, Hinson executed a contract to sell a property on Timothy Street for $130,000. The commission was $2,484.

The Multiple Listing Service identified Stellpflug as the buying agent, complete with his electronic signature, the affidavit states.

He denied ever having signed this document.

Hinson prepared a contract to sell a property on Lakeland Hills Drive in Gillette on April 23, 2020, the document says.

The multiple listing service showed Collier as the buyer’s agent and had his electronic signature.

Collier said he did not remember signing the document, but it was possible. He denied having any involvement in the sale, the affidavit said.

It is said that the commission was approximately $3,587.

Permission, actually

Detective Stuber wrote that in all three transfers, Hinson attempted to “deceive” the loan company PennyMac and the individuals involved by altering the database in the Multiple Listing Service, listing the male real estate agents as selling members, and then replacing the “selling member” with herself.

The detective said he met with Hinson on May 15, 2023.

She said all three men were fired before the contracts became final, the affidavit states.

“As a real estate agent, I have the right to do whatever I want with the information,” she is said to have said.

Stuber asked if Hinson could provide the termination dates of the three men, “and she could not provide any documentation,” the detective wrote.

The affidavit states that Hinson then stated that Friedt was “terminated” before his business closings and that Collier left before his last business closing.

Stuber asked her why she changed the agent names in the database.

She said the reason was because the men were no longer working with her, the affidavit states.

Hinson reportedly said two of the men gave her permission to use their names to help the company.

“They probably even signed the stuff themselves, because I’ve never forged anyone’s signature,” she is said to have said.

Each of the six charges against Hinson carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The case is ongoing.

Claire McFarland can be reached at [email protected].