Raczon protection order trial continued

A trial in Hot Springs Circuit Court was continued in a case against Megan L. Raczon, who is charged with misdemeanors violation of a temporary protection order and violation of a protection order.

According to court documents, a Gottsche employee who will be referred to as “Jane Doe,” obtained an ex parte protection order against former Gottsche employee Raczon on May 26, 2017, and on June 2, 2017, the court entered a formal protection order against Raczon, and she signed showing she received a copy of the order. That order was extended several times until it was allowed to expire in June of 2018.

Raczon, according to court documents, continued to stalk Doe. On June 6, 2017, Raczon created a fake account and signed up for a large amount of items under Doe’s name including contacts to purchase vehicles, dating sites and weight loss sites. The same day, she went to Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital and loitered in the hallway connecting the hospital to Gottsche. The following day she was loitering in the same area again.

On June 8, 2017, Raczon reported to the Thermopolis Police Department that she had been running errands and found her tires had been slashed. She believed it was Doe or one of her friends. It was subsequently learned from the subject who fixed the tires that Raczon had been driving when she heard a “pop pop” sound.

Also on June 8, Gottsche received a call requesting to speak to Doe. The receptionist recognized the caller’s voice as Raczon’s and when she said Doe was unavailable due to an appointment the caller hung up without leaving a message.

On June 12, 2017, Raczon was seen on video in the area where Gottsche joins the hospital. The next day she was in the area again and Doe saw her twice. Raczon said she was there filing complaints against Gottsche.

Hospital CEO, upon interview with an officer, said Raczon had come to the hospital previously on two separate occasions to file a HIPPA complaint against Gottsche alleging someone had attempted to obtain her legal medical information, though Raczon had been told such complaints must be done online. The CEO also reported Raczon was loitering near the Gottsche area.

On June 13, 2017, Doe reported that during the previous day she was driving and observed Raczon driving the opposite direction. She further observed Raczon “flip a U-turn” and follow her for several blocks before turning off.

On June 15, 2017, Doe received an online friend request from herself. Others who were with Doe received similar requests. Doe believed it was another of Raczon’s harassment attempts. As she was going to report the incident, Doe saw Raczon outside the Hot Springs County Library. Upon further investigation it was found the fake account in Doe’s name originated from the library’s wireless internet at the time Raczon was there.

On June 20, 2017, Raczon filed a lawsuit and requested protection orders against Doe and several of her co-workers; none were granted. It was found Raczon had also sent threatening letters to Gottsche. Raczon met with an officer claiming she had received text messages from a friend, telling her to leave town. Raczon requested a list of witnesses in the protection orders so she could avoid them and claimed some of the witnesses were stalking her.

On June 22, 2017, Raczon again met with the officer claiming she received text messages from her friend warning her of people listed on the protection order. The officer looked at the text messages and noticed there were indications Raczon was tracking Doe through her friend, who still worked at Gottsche with Doe. This was in direct violation of the protection order, which ordered Raczon not to put Doe under surveillance.

Raczon seemed to understand she had messed up and agreed to send copies of the messages to the officer. However, when the officer went to check his computer to see if the messages were received Raczon left the area. Raczon was later located at her home and stated she accidentally deleted the messages and lost her phone; the phone was later found stuffed in a closet.

Following Raczon’s arrest, officers contacted her friend to attempt to get Raczon’s messages off her phone. The friend attempted to erase the messages and refused to give the phone to the officer. Following the arrival of a second officer, the friend was allowed to make a phone call to her husband and after the call gave up the phone and allowed officers to make copies of the messages.

Those messages showed attempts by Raczon to obtain information from her friend who had Doe’s work schedule to learn when and where Doe would be. It also showed Raczon’s attempts to intimidate Doe’s co-workers who supplied Doe with evidence to help identify Raczon as the person doing the harassing and stalking.

Tuesday morning, Raczon also entered her initial appearance on four new charges against her related to the incidents in 2017. These include felony counts of stalking and perjury, and misdemeanors of unlawful impersonation through electronic means and false reporting.