News Segment

GEOFF TATE GUITARIST BUSTED ON ID THEFT CHARGES:

April 7, 2004

EVERETT – Scott Moughton got his 15 minutes of fame playing guitar for the lead singer of Queensryche. Queensryche was a local, but famous, heavy metal band and Moughton played with Geoff Tate on his solo project.

Wednesday, Snohomish County prosecutors gave him 15 minutes more.

They claim he ran an ID theft ring and will face more than 40 counts of ID theft.

“Money would just disappear. We’d be like, ‘OK, what’s going on now?’ ” said Joey Palomera, one of the ID theft victims.

Victims in apartments along the Bothell Everett Highway now know someone was stealing their mail by breaking into their locked mailboxes.

According to court documents: “Scott has 20 to 40 people bringing him mail every night and Scott likes bank cards.”

Detectives arrested two of those ’employees’. They led investigators to Moughton’s apartment, where they say they found 15 bags of mail. They also found 40 pieces of ID from California, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington.

In addition, there were two picture ID’s for the FBI, one with Moughton’s picture on it and the name ‘Wendal Scott’.

Moughton’s neighbor, Almeda Young and other neighbors aren’t surprised. They say they knew something was going on.

What they don’t understand is why Moughton would do this. Court documents say he told his apartment manager he made $300,000 a year from band royalties.

“Why does he need more money?” wondered Palomera. “We don’t even make that much money. He’s out there taking our money.” Palomera’s family is out thousands of dollars and their credit is damaged.

“He’s taken a lot of money from a lot of people and that’s pretty bad. That’s a lot of money, especially from mail. Mail’s a personal thing.”

Leslie Knopp courtesy of Komo 4 News