Man Who Kidnapped Mogul's Housekeeper Gets 22 Years

UPDATE Dec 10, 2024 6:50 PM CST

A man found guilty of kidnapping a woman from Michael Bloomberg's Colorado ranch has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. Joseph Lee Beecher, 51, had faced up to life in prison after his August conviction by a jury on kidnapping, carjacking, and firearm charges, the AP reports. He was sentenced on Thursday in Cheyenne and ordered to pay $5,306 restitution, according to court records. Prosecutors said Beecher was intent on killing Bloomberg when he went to the ranch in February 2022, but the media mogul wasn't there. The kidnapped woman, a housekeeper at Bloomberg's ranch, was rescued unharmed on the morning after the kidnapping.

Aug 30, 2024 4:40 AM CDT

Federal jurors in Wyoming have found a Colorado man guilty of kidnapping a woman on a ranch owned by Michael Bloomberg during what prosecutors described as his attempt to kill the media mogul. Joseph Beecher, 51, faces seven years to life in prison after he was convicted Wednesday in Cheyenne on kidnapping, carjacking, and firearm charges. The trial lasted two days and the jury deliberated for an hour and a half, the AP reports.

• The kidnapped woman, a housekeeper at the western Colorado ranch, was rescued unharmed on the morning after the kidnapping. Authorities found her and Beecher in a motel room in Cheyenne, about 200 miles northeast of the Bloomberg property.

• The kidnapping happened in February 2022, after Beecher was dismissed as a hotel handyman in Craig, Colorado. He worked there in exchange for housing and was told to leave, according to court documents.
• Beecher went looking for Bloomberg and his family, and rammed his truck through the gate of the former New York City mayor's ranch about 70 miles from Craig, according to court documents. Bloomberg had bought the ranch in 2020 for $44.8 million. The Bloomberg family was not present at the time of the kidnapping.
• The woman, who was abducted at gunpoint, didn't know Beecher. His motivation for seeking Bloomberg was unclear. But Beecher was "intent on killing Bloomberg," prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.

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• The woman, who was not named in federal court documents, was identified as the ranch's supervising housekeeper. She told investigators she was in an upstairs bedroom when she heard a man ask who she was. She turned and saw Beecher pointing a black "machine gun" at her, she said. Beecher stole two rifles, including an AR-15 and ammunition, from his employer's living quarters at the hotel earlier that day, according to officials.
• He left his truck at Bloomberg's ranch and ordered the woman to drive them in her husband's pickup "to various locations in an effort to locate and kill another media mogul in Colorado," the US Attorney's office for the District of Wyoming said in a news release.
• "Unable to find his second target, Beecher eventually forced the woman at gunpoint to drive him to the Stage Coach Motel in Cheyenne, where Beecher could rest and figure out his next criminal act," the US Attorney's office said. A SWAT team raided the room, freeing the woman and arresting Beecher, after investigators traced the woman's iPad to the motel.

(More Michael Bloomberg stories.)