Chief on FOCUS board at time of arrest

Former Police Chief Sam Keller was serving on the FOCUS board of directors at the time of his arrest for domestic assault, according to information provided by the Wyoming Office of the Attorney General, Division of Victim Services. FOCUS, according to its Facebook page, is a nonprofit advocacy group helping victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and victims of all crimes. 
The Division of Victim Services also confirmed that concerns have been raised that funds provided by FOCUS have been used to offset Keller’s rental costs in the home he shared with the woman he pleaded guilty to assaulting, but neither FOCUS nor the Division of Victim Services would reveal if Keller had indeed received that assistance.
“To our knowledge, he was on the board,” said Darryl S. Erickson, deputy director of the Division of Victim Services. 
“From the division’s standpoint, once we heard a board member had pled guilty to a domestic battery charge, we were concerned about them serving on the board. We looked into that, contacted the director, and she had confirmed that,” he said. “When he resigned from his position as chief (of Newcastle Police Department), he resigned from the board.” 
According to a board roster provided by his office, Keller joined the FOCUS board in September 2020 as a board member at large. He is then listed as the treasurer for fiscal year 2022. 
FOCUS board President Denice Pisciotti said that Keller was a member of the board at the time of his arrest and that he resigned the following day. Information provided by the agency shows him serving as treasurer last year, but Pisciotti claimed that he was simply a member at large at the time of his arrest.
Pisciotti did not answer questions related to why the information filed with the Division of Victim’s Services was inaccurate regarding Keller’s title on the board, or who was responsible for submitting updated information to the state. 
Erickson also confirmed that his office had been made aware of concerns regarding Keller’s living situation at the time of his arrest, and the possibility that FOCUS funds were being used to pay some or all of the rent at the residence.
Although Erickson could not confirm that FOCUS funds were used to pay rent, or if the agency held the lease for Keller’s residence at 441 W. Cambria St., he did admit that he had looked into the potential use of state funds for rental payments. 
“We had previously heard the concerns that you are expressing and that caused some concern. We looked into it on our end before reaching out to the director of FOCUS,” Erickson said. “We were able to confirm on our end that our (state) funds were not being used for anything related to that.” 
He noted that once they received information that state funding was not used, they were satisfied with the explanation and their investigation ended. 
According to a response from the FOCUS board of directors, the agency does not discriminate against anyone who needs their services based on their relationship with FOCUS and that their bylaws support this practice, which apparently means that FOCUS board members and employees are eligible to receive financial assistance from the agency. They refused to reveal if Keller had benefited in such a way, however, claiming that state law prevents them from doing so.
“Under Wyoming Statute WS 1-12-116 FOCUS cannot either confirm or deny your questions under client confidentiality. All board members and employees must sign a confidentiality agreement with FOCUS,” the response says.
The statute referenced by FOCUS pertains only to “confidential communications between family violence and sexual assault advocate and victim,” and only applies to “information transmitted in confidence between a victim and an advocate in the course of that relationship and includes all information received by, and any report, working paper or document prepared by the advocate in the course of that relationship.”
It is unclear if a simple confirmation that Keller was living in a home where rental assistance was being provided by FOCUS falls under that prohibition, and the statute narrowly defines “advocate” as an individual “certified by the program as having undergone at least forty (40) hours of crisis advocacy training.”
According to Pisciotti, the remaining board members are Michelle Hepker (vice president), Paige Liggett (treasurer), and members Taunya Offdenkamp and Megan Sams. Pisciotti said the board did not have a secretary at the time of Keller’s arrest, and no information was provided to indicate that all board members are in fact “advocates” that have received the 40 hours of training required to fall under the prohibition.
FOCUS reported that they had not informed the city about the situation, and when the City Council’s police committee was asked if they were aware of the FOCUS connection to Keller, Councilman Don Steveson responded that he was personally unaware of the situation. Mayor Pam Gualtieri did not respond to the question.