Wife of former Goddard mayor granted diversion in Zoobilee ticket counterfeiting case
A Goddard woman accused of making fake tickets to the Sedgwick County Zoo’s annual after-hours charity fundraiser in 2019 has been granted a diversion.
Elizabeth Blubaugh and her husband, former Goddard mayor Jamey Blubaugh, each were charged with a count of misdemeanor counterfeiting in August after an investigation into photocopied Zoobilee passes led back to the couple. Jamey Blubaugh abruptly resigned from his post two days before prosecutors announced the charges. He is scheduled for a bench trial on Jan. 21, court records show.
If Elizabeth Blubaugh follows the rules outlined in her deferred prosecution agreement, the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office will dismiss her misdemeanor counterfeiting charge after one year. That includes following all federal, state and local laws; notifying the diversion office if she has any contact with law enforcement; not leaving the state without permission and maintaining a full-time work or school schedule.
She also has to pay $945 in restitution to the Sedgwick County Zoo plus other fees, attend and complete a theft education program and perform 40 hours of community service. Blubaugh, her attorney and the prosecutor signed off on the agreement Tuesday, according to court records.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said it could not comment on the diversion because the case against the former mayor is still pending.
Elizabeth Blubaugh’s lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
According to her diversion agreement, she and her husband “followed through on a plan” to make fake tickets to the Sept. 7, 2019, event and gave them to at least seven other people to use. They made the counterfeit passes by photocopying a real ticket on a copy machine at a local real estate office and used “a heavier stock of paper to make the tickets look legitimate,” the document says.
The fake tickets included the same serial number as the real pass, which cost $140 a piece to purchase, according to the agreement.
The zoo reported to law enforcement within days of the fundraiser that several fake entrance passes that all bore the same serial number had been used. According to an arrest affidavit released this fall, the Blubaughs initially told law enforcement they’d sold the real ticket with that serial number to an unknown woman in Old Town after their daughter couldn’t attend the event.
But months later a disgruntled former employee who worked for the real estate office where the fake tickets were copied told authorities the couple made them, reportedly for people who couldn’t afford to buy them.
Jamey Blubaugh was midway through his first term as Goddard’s mayor when he resigned in August.
