RUMOR: Did Supervisor Lingenfelter rape some woman in a county vehicle?
TRUTH: According to an April 24th, 2025, email that has recently surfaced, District 1 County Supervisor and former Kingman Vice Mayor Travis Lingenfelter has been accused of "violently" raping a 48 year old St. George, UT, woman. The email, obtained from a public records request, after a Kingman area news reporter mentioned its existence on a June 23rd radio broadcast, was apparently originally submitted via the Mohave County website online contact form with the subject header "New Response Completed for Contact - BOS Lettman" (referencing Dist 2 County Supervisor Rich Lettman) but was forwarded to alleged rapist Lingenfelter with the cryptic message "FYI" by Dist 3 County Supervisor and former AZ legislator Sonny Borrelli. Lingenfelter and Borrelli had previously served together as members of the Mohave County West Basin Water Users Study Committee. Lingenfelter was appointed to the Governor’s Water Policy Council 2 years ago.
The email contains a brief one sentence statement from the alleged victim Kari Gillespie; "Travis Lingenfelter raped me, violently, in a Mohave county vehicle at Cedar Pocket.", a location in Lingenfelter's District on the Utah border.
June 23rd, Lingenfelter posted a vague and rambling statement to the Facebook account he uses to communicate to constituents wherein he referred to an unstated allegation against him as a "malicious falsehood" and "total BS". He asserted that a reporter had stated an implausible date related to when the incident had allegedly occurred relative to when he had turned in his County vehicle and requested a replacement. Lingenfelter also stated he had retained legal counsel. The post was subsequently deleted but not before we captured screen shots.
The same day, District 4 Mohave County Supervisor Don Martin posted on his Facebook account that "I WAS NOT THE SUPERVISOR WHO WAS CALLED WITH THE COMPLAINT..." and "If you want to know who the supervisor was who was called with information on the allegation, suggest you ask Supervisor Lingenfelter!" This instigated several constituents commenting as to what he was referring to, but Martin did not answer. Instead he also deleted his social media post.
Lingenfelter, who runs a Vitamin C supplement company from his home address, is no stranger to controversy. Most notably involving his ties to a highway interchange project in Kingman associated with Las Vegas based Sunbelt Development. Sunbelt's principal, Bill Lenhart, was convicted for an illegal campaign contribution to former Kingman Mayor Richard Anderson’s 2016 campaign, after a 2018 Kingman election probe. While Lingenfelter himself was not implicated, his role in securing $20 million in state funding for the project raised concerns, given that Lingenfelter had voted in favor of the City going forward with various parts of the project multiple times as a Kingman City Councilman and Vice Mayor.
Critics claimed he used his elected position to enhance his personal finances. Lingenfelter was named as a project manager for the I-40 Rancho Santa Fe Interchange and Parkway project about six months after being elected Supervisor.
Lingenfelter is listed as the Principal for Intermountain West Solutions, LLC, an economic development consulting firm. Established in December of 2020, the address of record listed for the LLC is also his home. The company's now defunct website featured projects, including the Rancho Santa Fe interchange.
Another controversy arose in 2021 during Mohave County Board of Supervisors meetings. After being called a “little boy” and "stupidvisor hubris" by local residents, Lingenfelter proposed new rules for public comments to include permanently banning members of the public who said things that the supervisors found offensive or lacking in decorum. Lingenfelter was subsequently informed by the Board's attorney that the Board was not required by law to have an open "Call to the Public" but if they did then the public then had a free speech right to criticize staff or elected officials and call them names.
In May of 2023, the Kingman Miner accused Lingenfelter of plagiarism following the publication of a letter to the editor on January 14, 2023. The letter was later removed from their website archives after it was revealed that approximately 300 words of its content was plagiarized from a blog by Michael Josephson.
Additionally, in
2023, Lingenfelter received harsh public criticism for his tie breaking vote
against hand counting election ballots in Mohave County.
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