State Briefs

Vaccination numbers plateau

CASPER (WNE) — The number of Wyoming residents seeking COVID-19 vaccines has again plateaued. In the last two weeks, just under 4600 people sought a first dose, and 576 sought the one-dose Janssen shot. 

Those numbers are roughly the same as they were in the previous two-week period. 

The shift is a turn from August, when nearly double that number of people were seeking initial vaccine doses in Wyoming.

The plateau persists despite a new advertisement campaign from the Wyoming Department of Health, and pleadings from local health officials including Natrona County Health Officer Dr. Mark Dowell, who has stressed the strain the illness among the unvaccinated has put on Wyoming hospitals.

The Wyoming Department of Health earlier this month launched a new public information campaign with a focus on real stories from residents who regretted not getting their shots earlier. 

“We almost lost a really strong guy, he’s retired law enforcement. He was on a ventilator with a feeding tube,” a man in physician’s attire and a mask tells the camera in one of the advertisements. “He now believes and wishes he could tell everyone ‘take the vaccine.’” 

The advertisements feature the tagline, “Catch COVID-19, and the virus may decide for you.” They focus on “real Wyoming stories,” a slogan imprinted at the bottom of each video. 

In addition to the videos, the new campaign uses radio, news- paper, television and social media to spread the word.

Medicaid fraud, sexual assault results in prison term

CHEYENNE (WNE) – A former Cheyenne counselor convicted of sexually assaulting a patient and defrauding Medicaid received prison time during a hearing Friday morning in Laramie County District Court.

Laramie County District Judge Catherine Rogers sentenced William Dale Robinson to three to five years of incarceration for the sexual assault charge. A 12- to 16-month sentence for a felony charge associated with incorrectly billing Medicaid will run concurrently with this sentence. Robinson had one day of credit for time served.

Robinson pleaded guilty in July to two felony charges as part of a stipulated plea agreement: second-degree sexual assault by a health care provider and obtaining property by false pretenses in an amount greater than $1000.

Robinson brought with him to the courtroom a cashier’s check for $6,397.36 – the amount he’d falsely claimed from Medicaid – which he’d agreed to pay in restitution to the Wyoming Department of Health’s Division of Healthcare Financing.

While working as a licensed professional counselor and part-owner of Capitol Counseling, 1918 Thomes Ave., Robinson had an ongoing sexual relationship with a patient, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case. In the plea agreement, he said he’d approached the woman during a June 2018 therapy session about beginning the sexual relationship.

Robinson said he and the woman had sexual contact during a regularly scheduled therapy session in July 2018, and that he billed Medicaid and received reimbursement for both the June and July visits.