Lucas Wyman Mulvaugh Pleads Guilty in U.S. Federal Court

The United States Attorney’s Officeannounced that during a federal court session in Missoula on September 13,2012, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch, LUCAS WYMAN MULVAUGH, a35-year-old resident of Belgrade, pled guilty to conspiracy to maintaindrug-involved premises. Sentencing has been set for January 3, 2013. He iscurrently released on special conditions.
In an offer of proof filed by AssistantU.S. Attorney Paulette L. Stewart, the government stated it would have provedat trial the following:
From approximately March 2009 untilMarch 14, 2011, Randy Leibenguth, Stephanie Leibenguth, and MULVAUGHmanufactured and distributed marijuana in the Bozeman/Belgrade area. TheLeibenguths owned and operated Montana Cannabis Ministry/Montanans CultivatingMedicine (MCM). MULVAUGH owned and operated Outlaw Hill Health Institute(OHHI).
On March 14, 2011, law enforcementseized 539 marijuana plants from the Leibenguths at the MCM location and 892marijuana plants from MULVAUGH at the OHHI location.
According to a man who worked forMULVAUGH on March 14, 2011, MULVAUGH and Randy Leibenguth were “businesspartners” until February 2011. In February 2011, MULVAUGH and Leibenguth werein a business dispute that ended their relationship.
According to X.X., X.X. purchased over$300,000 worth of marijuana from Randy Leibenguth. This was corroborated bybank records. X.X. purchased most of the marijuana from Randy Leibenguth, butalso made purchases from Stephanie Leibenguth and MULVAUGH. Some purchases wereat the storefront at the MCM location and a couple of purchases were fromMULVAUGH at the OHHI location.
Testimony and documents generated by theconspiracy would have shown that the conspiracy involved the manufacture of atleast 1,000 marijuana plants and at least 100 kilograms of a substancecontaining a detectable amount of marijuana during the above time frame.
Randy Leibenguth and StephanieLeibenguth pled guilty to federal charges and are awaiting sentencing.
MULVAUGH faces possible penalties of 20years in prison, a $500,000 fine, and three years’ supervised release.
The investigation was a cooperativeeffort between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Montana Division ofCriminal Investigation, the Missouri River Drug Task Force, the Federal Bureauof Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal InvestigationDivision, and the Laurel Police Department.