Casper Police Arrest Woman For Assault at WBI

Casper police officers arrested a woman Sunday evening after she allegedly strangled a fellow patient at Wyoming Behavioral Institute.

Megan Virginia Whitener, 38, was booked into jail on a recommended charge of assault and battery. She will likely make her initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court at 2 p.m. Monday.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Whitener had most recently been admitted to WBI on June 13. Since then, she allegedly punched, strangled and threw hot coffee on others.

A WBI employee provided police with a list of incidents involving Whitener during the prior month:

• Whitener hit a staff member in the face and was cited on June 26;
• Whitener threw hot coffee into the face of another patient on June 29;
• She hit and shoved a staff member, resulting in the issuance of a summons, on July 7;
• Whitener pushed and tried to hit a nurse on July 10;
• She tried to attack another patient on July 11;
• and she tried to strangle two staff members on July 12.

On Sunday afternoon, Whitener allegedly snuck up behind another patient and tried to strangle her. Whitener was not provoked. A staff member was able to intervene and stop Whitener after roughly two seconds.

The victim told police that she did not lose consciousness, but her neck hurt from being choked.

Whitener told officers that she was experiencing changes in her life and was upset by them. She admitted assaulting the other woman and said it was "because she was trying to give me AIDS and brain tumors through religion."