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DOJ partners with gas stations to spot human trafficking

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The Wisconsin Department of Justice is partnering with the Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, in an effort to help spot human traffickers. Attorney General Josh Kaul says employees working in places like gas stations and hotels can often be the first to spot trafficking.

“They can also allow law enforcement to make contact with a survivor of human trafficking and help that person get the services that are needed to help that person escape from trafficking,” Kaul said.

The initiative is not the only effort to address human trafficking in the state. How to spot trafficking is now part of the training truck drivers receive at the state’s technical colleges.

Diocese of La Crosse releases list of priests accused of sexual abuse

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Leaders of the Catholic Church in La Crosse are naming 25 priests who’ve been accused of sexual abuse.  The Diocese of La Crosse released the list last week. Eighteen of them have died, but all were removed the priesthood.

The diocese says eight of the priests worked in Eau Claire. Seven others worked in Chippewa Falls. You can find a full list of the men accused of abuse online.

Leads sought in Dane County homicide

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No arrests have been made yet, in a Dane County homicide. Initial indications were that the death was a hit-and-run. Witnesses saw Nicholas Day running near Mount Horeb last Wednesday, and he was dressed in running clothes when his body was found.

Following an autopsy, Sheriff Dave Mahoney said the 26-year-old Navy veteran and father was the victim of an “extremely brutal” and “very calculated ” homicide. A GoFundMe page has been established for Day’s family.

Madison has first homicide of 2020

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Madison police are investigating the city’s first homicide of the new year. A man killed in s shooting on Saturday in Madison has been identified as a 20-year-old from Chicago.

Police found Antonio Stidhum in an apartment on Madison’s southwest side. The person who lives in the apartment wasn’t there at the time, although police say they’ve been cooperating with the investigation.

No other details have been released on a suspect. This is Madison’s first homicide of 2020.

WIBA

No charges in case of possible funding issue at Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison

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No charges will be filed in a case of possible mismanagement of funding at the Dane County zoo.

Dane County officials raised their concerns over that funding after they took over the Henry Vilas Zoo last year, and saw a discrepancy in the funding they were taking in versus what the Zoological Society had reported over the last several years.

Sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors say they saw no evidence of criminal activity on the part of the society, and say officials with the Society fully cooperated with the investigation.

Little pup making recovery in Madison after being thrown from car

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A lucky pup is recovering, after been tossed from a moving car in Madison.

The 2-month-old puppy, now named Kringle, is recovering with a foster family after having a leg amputated. The pup was rushed to UW Veterinary Care by a person who saw him thrown from the car in South Madison.

UW vets determined his right front leg was broken so severely that amputation was the best option.

Dane County Humane Society spokeswoman Marissa DeGroot says Kringle will be available for adoption after recovering.

Family of murdered Wisconsin brothers file wrongful death lawsuit

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Family members of Nicholas and Justin Diemel, the Wisconsin brothers who were killed during a business trip to northwest Missouri, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Caldwell County.

Garland Nelson

Pamela Diemel, the mother of the brothers, and Lisa, Nicholas’ wife, filed the suit against their accused murderer Garland Nelson, as well as his mother, Tommie Feil, and J4S Farm Enterprises, the Feil-owned farm company that employed Nelson.

The lawsuit alleges that J4S and Nelsons’ mother failed to use reasonable care to supervise the activities of Nelson. He was convicted in October 2016 of cattle and insurance fraud and served 17 months in federal prison. The lawsuit alleges the defendants knew of his previous illegal activities and did not disclose the information to the Diemel brothers when agreeing to care for their cattle.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages to compensate for the brothers’ deaths, the loss of future wages, funeral expenses and pain and suffering.

Missourinet

Reward offered in Beaver Rotary Club Christmas display vandalism

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Cops in Beaver Dam hope a reward will lead to whoever went full Grinch-mode and damaged a Christmas display. Vandals did about $3,000 worth of damage to the Beaver Dam Rotary Club’s lights display earlier this month.

The Dodge County Sheriffs Office posted have pictures of the suspects to Facebook. Investigators hope a new $5,000 reward convinces someone to step forward and make a case against the suspects. This is the third time in three years that someone has destroyed part of the Rotary Club’s display in Beaver Dam.

Alliant Energy has offered a $4,000 matching donation to assist the Beaver Dam Rotary Club in providing Beaver Dam Swan Park with a camera system and wireless internet coverage.

Treu changes plea in hit-and-run that killed Girl Scouts

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Colton Treau, the man accused of killing three Girl Scouts and a mother in a Chippewa County hit-and-run crash, has changed his plea. Treu plead not guilty in May, but in court on Monday, the 22-year-old plead no contest to four felony counts of vehicular homicide.

Treau also plead guilty to a felony count of a hit-and-run causing great bodily harm.

According to court documents, Treu told investigators that he and the passenger in his truck were high from huffing – or inhaling chemicals – when he crashed and fled the scene in November of 2018.

Treu was found guilty of all five counts, and other charges were dismissed. A sentencing date has been set for March 10 and 11, and Treu could receive a life prison term.

Study ranks Wisconsin #10 in per capita drunk driving arrests

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WRN file photo

A study of drunk driving arrests by state reveals Wisconsin is not number one. That could come as a surprise, given the state’s reputation for drunk driving, and the fact that in 2018, 159 people died and more than 3,000 were injured in alcohol-related crashes here.

But the new study by U.S. Drug Test Centers found that Wisconsin’s per capita rate of just over 425 drunk driving arrests per 100,000 people put it at number 10, behind South and North Dakota, Wyoming, North Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico, Maine, Washington and Alaska.

In 2018, the national average was 330 arrests per 100,000. An estimated 30 people are killed in drunk-driving crashes every day in the U.S.

U.S. law enforcement agencies reported more than 1.01 million arrests for DUI in 2018, according to FBI data, which is a decline from 2014 levels but represents a modest 1% increase from 2017.

Men are far more likely than women to be arrested for DUI. In arrests where the suspect’s sex was reported, men accounted for nearly 3 in 4 DUI arrests in 2018. However, both men and women have seen their DUI arrest totals fall over the past 10 years.