Denying charges: Pilots who had plane, cash seized in Cody plead not guilty

Posted 2/16/16

At separate appearances in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne last week, Scott M. Lewis, 27, and Gilbert W. Wiles Jr., 38, each pleaded not guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to operate an unregistered aircraft and aiding and abetting the operation …

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Denying charges: Pilots who had plane, cash seized in Cody plead not guilty

Posted

Two Colorado pilots who had their plane and nearly $260,000 seized from them in Cody are each denying federal charges that stem from the 2014 incident.

At separate appearances in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne last week, Scott M. Lewis, 27, and Gilbert W. Wiles Jr., 38, each pleaded not guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to operate an unregistered aircraft and aiding and abetting the operation of an unregistered aircraft.

Lewis — who hails from Englewood, Colorado — and Wiles — who lives in Denver — were each released on unsecured bonds after their appearances.

A magistrate judge ordered them to stay in Colorado while the case is pending, among other conditions.

The federal charges allege Wiles and Lewis flew their 1968 Cessna TU-206 across the United States in 2013 and early 2014 without ever registering it. An indictment alleges the two men used fake names, posed as aerial photographers and took other steps to obscure the trail of their cross-country travels.

When Cody police searched the men’s airplane at Yellowstone Regional Airport and their Holiday Inn hotel room in late February 2014, they suspected involvement with drugs. Police were able to obtain a warrant because — in addition to reports that the men were acting suspiciously — a Powell Police Department K-9 reportedly alerted to the scent of narcotics on the doors of the plane.

However, Cody police found no drugs.

They did find and seize 12 vacuum-sealed bags holding $258,520 in cash, 15 cell phones and three fake Idaho driver’s licenses with Lewis’ photo.

Federal authorities spent months doing their own investigation and they also apparently found no direct evidence of drugs. The authorities claim they did learn that Wiles and Lewis had lied about who they were and took steps to hide their ownership of and activities with the plane.

Federal prosecutors do allege the cash and plane were used in smuggling drugs in a separate, civil forfeiture filing, where they have a substantially lower burden of proof.

Unlike a criminal case, where a defendant must be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the government needs only to prove a forfeiture case by a “preponderance of the evidence.” It means they basically have to show their case is more likely than not to have the items forfeited to the federal government.

Wyoming lawmakers are currently considering whether to make it more difficult for the government to get property in forfeiture proceedings.

The federal government has also been changing its policies.

In January 2015, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder barred the Department of Justice from taking over seizure cases from local law enforcement agencies (like Cody police) unless there’s an issue of public safety.

“Had this 2014 seizure occurred one year later, the present civil forfeiture action would have been prohibited and barred,” David Michael, one of Lewis’ attorneys, wrote in a November filing.

Michael, of San Francisco, argued that Park County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters should never have given police a search warrant for the plane — and especially not the room at the Holiday Inn.

“(T)here was absolutely no evidence, beyond pure speculation and threadbare suspicions, before the magistrate linking either (Lewis) or his hotel room to illegal activity,” Michael wrote, in an excerpt first quoted by the Associated Press.

Michael could make the same request to suppress the evidence in the new, criminal case.

Wiles and Lewis were each given a tentative trial date of April 18.

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