Former Goddard mayor, wife copied fraudulent Zoobilee passes including serial number, affidavit says
A Goddard couple charged with counterfeiting tickets to the Sedgwick County Zoo’s 2019 Zoobilee fundraiser made the fake passes with a copy machine at a local real estate office, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the case.
An ex-employee of the office who also complained to law enforcement that Jamey and Elizabeth Blubaugh had been “hosting parties at which cocaine and marijuana were being used” disclosed on Jan. 2 that the couple “were responsible for the manufacturing of false Zoobilee tickets,” the affidavit says.
Attorneys for the Blubaughs did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment Tuesday afternoon. The couple has pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
Jamey Blubaugh was the mayor of Goddard until he resigned on Aug. 3 midway through his first term, pointing to a rocky relationship with the town’s city administrator.
But two days later, the local district attorney’s office announced that the former mayor and his wife, Elizabeth, were facing misdemeanor counterfeiting charges connected to the fake fundraiser tickets.
In 2019, Zoobilee was held on Sept. 7. A single ticket to the annual after-hours event more than $100 last year.
The affidavit, provided to The Eagle following a request to the court Tuesday, says the zoo contacted the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office to report fraud four days after the Zoobilee event. The night of the event, the zoo had accepted several fake tickets that all had the same serial number on them. Investigators learned that Elizabeth Blubaugh legitimately purchased three tickets to the event, including one that carried the serial number that appeared on the fraudulent tickets.
When the Sheriff’s Office initially spoke to the Blubaughs about it on Sept. 11, 2019, the couple claimed they used two of the legitimate tickets and sold the third “to a female in the Old Town area of Wichita” after their daughter decided not to attend, the affidavit says.
A few months later, on Jan. 2, a woman who worked for the real estate office told authorities “she had recently been fired from her job” and said that “Jamey and Elizabeth Blubaugh had been hosting parties at which cocaine and marijuana were being used. She also said the Blubaughs were responsible for the manufacturing of false Zoobilee tickets,” the affidavit says.
A week later, during a law enforcement interview, Elizabeth Blubaugh “confessed to manufacturing additional Zoobilee tickets on a copy machine” at the real estate office, the affidavit says.
“Blubaugh said she used a heavier stock of paper in the copy machine to make the tickets look legitimate,” according to the document.
She told authorities during the interview that she made approximately 10 fake tickets “and gave them to various people.”
The woman who made the Jan. 2 report was one of the people who received a fake ticket from the Blubaughs, the affidavit says.
Elizabeth Blubaugh told authorities during the Jan. 9 interview that her husband knew about the fake tickets and that he “‘printed’ the tickets at her behest,” according to the affidavit.
When an investigator tried to talk to Jamey Blubaugh on Jan. 31, Blubaugh refused to answer questions, saying: “I don’t really want to comment on anything and have anything on record of mine,” the document says.
On Feb. 10, the zoo’s chief financial officer told law enforcement that the ticket serial number in question had been scanned eight times the night of the 2019 Zoobilee event — once legitimately and seven times fraudulently.
A woman who received a fake ticket told authorities in a July interview that one of the Blubaughs gave her a fraudulent pass and said that she knew the tickets were copied at the real estate office. She also told authorities that Jamey Blubaugh was aware of the tickets and helped pass them out, according to the affidavit.
The woman “said both Elizabeth Blubaugh and Jamey Blubaugh had said the week prior they could make tickets for people who could not afford them,” the document says.
On July 31, three days before Jamey Blubaugh gave up his mayoral seat, the zoo’s president and chief executive officer told law enforcement that he “did not give anyone permission” to make fake Zoobilee tickets or use the zoo’s signature bear paw logo, which appeared on the fraudulent copies, the affidavit says.
The Blubaughs have a criminal bench trial scheduled for later this week, but that is expected to be postponed.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 4:38 PM.
