Sentence reinstated for counterfeiting

A 24-year-old Kalispell woman charged with passing counterfeit money in Columbia Falls in 2009 was back in Flathead County District Court after the county attorney’s office petitioned to revoke her deferred sentence.

Amanda Wyatt and her accomplice, Sonya Pitkin, 24, were initially accused of passing $50 bills in Columbia Falls made from $1 bills with the ink removed by oven cleaner. The bills were used at Ferk’s Casino and Town Pump. The two women had been living in Las Vegas and had moved to Columbia Falls.

Wyatt and Pitkin were also accused of stealing blank checks from Thomas Leone, of Trego, who allegedly paid Pitkin $400 to $500 each time for sex at a Whitefish motel. Both Pitkin and Leone were charged with prostitution.

In a plea agreement, Wyatt was given a two-year deferred sentence for felony forgery relating to the counterfeiting and another two-year deferred sentence to run concurrently for forging one of Leone’s stolen checks, both to terminate in January 2011. She was also ordered to pay restitution, fines, public defender fees and court fees.

In January, Wyatt’s probation officer said her “adjustment to supervision has been stellar” and that Wyatt had gone back to college and had her son back at home. Still, she had not made payments to the victims and owed $1,876. Her public defender asked for more time so Wyatt could earn money to make her payments.

On May 24, Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler dismissed the state’s petition to revoke Wyatt’s sentence for forging Leone’s check and reinstated her deferred sentence for counterfeiting for one year.