Former State Employee Sentenced for Harassing Phone Calls to State Trooper That Went on More Than Six Months

KANSAS CITY, KS—Timothy L. Wyrick, 33, Bonner Springs, Kan., has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for making a series of threatening calls to a Kansas Highway Patrol officer that went on more than six months. At the time of the crimes, Wyrick was employed by the Kansas Highway Patrol as a motorist assist technician.

Wyrick pleaded guilty to five counts of communicating a threat by interstate commerce. According to court records, in March 2009 a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper began to receive anonymous phone calls from a male who made threats of bodily harm against the trooper. The trooper received calls both on the trooper’s cellular phone and home phone.

In one of the calls, the caller left the following message:

“You got to leave too early from your traffic stop!
Had you in my scope!
Well, gonna be some good things happen tonight.
Oh, I got your burial site all done, ready for you.
Bye, bye.”

The calls, which continued from March through Sept. 15, 2009, made repeated threats of bodily harm, described what the trooper was doing, how the trooper looked, and where the trooper had been while on duty. The caller indicated he knew where the trooper lived and where the trooper’s mother lived.

Some of the calls came from a pay phone at the Wal Mart in Paola, Kan. Other calls came from a Tracfone with a number that investigators were able to identify. On Sept. 15, 2009, investigators watched while Wyrick used a cellular phone to make a call from the Tracfone number while he was sitting in a Kansas Highway Patrol work truck parked at the side of 69 Highway, just north of a cell tower located at 103rd Street and 69 Highway in Overland Park, Kan. He was arrested and investigators recovered the cell phone from his boot.

U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Highway Patrol and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Zabel for their work on the case.