Wisconsin Radio Network

Wisconsin News and Sports

You are here: Home / Archives for Crime / Courts

Check your own coverage before buying extra COVID-19 insurance, says DATCP

By

The COVID-19 crisis has a lot of people worried about their health coverage, and some scammers are out to bilk people out of their savings.

State consumer protection administrator Lara Sutherlin says many groups and companies are offering less than ideal health plans or even entirely phony offers for coverage. 

“You may see advertisements for these on the internet, through social media, or television, or maybe you might even be contacted directly over the phone to a robocall.”

Sutherlin says, as always, to read the fine print on a plan before you sign for it, and make sure your own insurance doesn’t cover something like telehealth before you make a purchase.

“These offers are often misleading or the benefits may be something you already have or you don’t need. If you already have health insurance check what is covered by your plan before buying any other additional benefits.”

If you don’t currently have health care, you could be covered under BadgerCare. Call 2-1-1 or contact the state at http://Access.Wisconsin.Gov to find out more.

Suspect named in central Wisconsin stabbing double homicide case

By

A 22-year-old Marathon County man accused of stabbing two brothers may have planned the attack.

Court documents show Brandon Noll told investigators he had been planning to kill William and Michael Stone since early April, adding he had a life-long desire to kill and that Tuesday just felt like the day “he would do it.”

Noll is accused of stabbing both William and Michael in the home he shared with them along with his father and the Stone’s mother, then leading police on a chase that ended in Marshfield after he crashed one vehicle then stole another.

Noll is being held in the Marathon County jail on five million dollars bond for probable cause of first degree intentional homicide, formal charges against him are pending, and no further court action has been scheduled.

WSAU

Look out for scammers looking to make a quick buck selling COVID-19 cures, says DATCP

By

Social media is swirling with fear and worry about the coronavirus, and that’s got plenty of crooks trying to make a quick buck.

State consumer protection administrator Lara Sutherlin says anyone who’s trying to sell you a cure at all is a scam artist. 

“We’re seeing scams around fake oils, fake vaccinations, fake home cures, because people are scared and these kinds of scams work.”)

Sutherlin says no multi level marketing product is going to help you. “There are no vaccines right now, and anybody who’s promising a cure for coronavirus is a fraudster and you should ignore them.”

The only way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to stay home and practice good hygiene and social distancing.

 

ACLU of Wisconsin files suit to reduce prison population during pandemic

By

Photo: WI Dept. of Corrections

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin wants fewer inmates in state prison during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit to that effect in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Friday. The organization claims that’s needed to avoid a dangerous outbreak that would further strain the state’s health care capacity and put public health at risk.

“Right now Wisconsin’s overcrowded prisons are a ticking time bomb that threatens the health of all Wisconsinites, especially people of color who are disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration,” said Chris Ott, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director. “The very modest steps taken so far by state officials are simply not enough to prevent an outbreak that would strain our hospital system, endanger public health, and claim thousands of lives. State officials have the power to avert this catastrophe – and they have to act now.” 

The suit, filed on behalf of two inmates with pre-existing conditions, state criminal defense lawyers, and Disability Rights Wisconsin, asks the court to order Governor Tony Evers and the Department of Corrections to reduce the prison population to a level where social distancing is possible, with priority to the elderly and those with conditions that increase their risk of COVID-19 complications and death.

According a press release announcing the lawsuit, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections holds almost 23,000 adults in facilities with a design capacity of 17,815, thus exceeding their capacity by more than 30%. 

The ACLU says so far DOC has reduced that population by just 1.3%, leaving tens of thousands of people incarcerated in overcrowded conditions where social distancing and other mitigation measures recommended by public health experts are impossible.

The lawsuit notes that an outbreak of COVID-19 in Wisconsin prisons could overwhelm available hospital beds and ICU units in communities where prisons are located.

UW-Madison Police investigating double homicide

By

Two people are dead following a double homicide at the UW-Madison Arboretum.

UW Police are reporting that a jogger found two people, a man and a woman, lying in a ditch early Tuesday morning.

One person was dead on scene, while the other was transported to a hospital and died a short time later.

Police are still investigating, but say it does not have anything to do with a shooting at UW-Hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Charges filed in 2008 murder of UW student Brittany Zimmerman

By

Brittany Zimmerman

Criminal charges were filed filed Friday in the murder of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann. Interim Madison Police Chief Vic Wahl said 53-year-old David A. Kahl was charged in Dane County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide.

Zimmerman’s murder took place on April 2, 2008 in her downtown Madison apartment. The 21-year-old Marshfield native was majoring in Medical Microbiology and Immunology.

Zimmermann’s killing “shook the Madison community and devastated her family, friends and hometown,” police said in a statement sent Friday.

Kahl, currently in prison on an unrelated charge, had been identified years ago as someone going door to door the day of Brittany’s murder, asking for money. A sample of Zimmerman’s clothing also had a DNA hit linked to Kahl.

WIBA

Carlie Beaudin’s killer will spend life in mental hospital

By

The man who beat a nurse to death in Milwaukee last year will spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital. A judge sentenced Kenneth Freeman Thursday to a life sentence for Carlie Beaudin’s death.

Freeman was originally declared unfit for trial, but a jury eventually found him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. He brutally beat Beaudin in January of last year and left her body in a parking garage at Milwaukee’s Froedert Hospital. Freeman’s commitment will last the rest of his life.

Reason for Stevens Point police chief’s removal remains a mystery

By

Stevens Point police chief Martin Skibba (photo courtesy Point/Plover Metrowire)

Stevens Point’s police chief has been on administrative leave for over a week and no one in city government is saying why.

In an editorial posted to the Point-Plover Metrowire, editor in chief Brandi Maskuski says she’s been given the runaround from everyone from the mayor’s office to the police and fire commission.

“Normally you’ll get some kind of comment about ‘no other officers are the target of this investigation’ or ‘the police and fire commission is cooperating with the city attorney on this matter.'” In this instance, we’ve received none of that information.”

Maskuski says she’s trying to find out who other than the police and fire commission had the authority to put Chief Martin Skibba on leave. “Not only are we looking at why the chief has been placed on leave, but right now the bigger story was ‘what was the process taken to place him on leave?'”

So far the only comment from city officials has been that Skibba is under investigation for breaking police department rules. Normally these sorts of actions are taken by the Police and Fire Commission, but that process wasn’t taken ahead of Skibba’s removal. 

State Supreme Court tosses appeal of man convicted of ordering his wife to kill police

By

A man convicted of soliciting his wife to kill police has had an appeal in the case tossed out by the State Supreme Court.

Kelly Closs was convicted in 2017 of solicitation of reckless injury for telling his wife to shoot any cops who came to the door. Police had tape of him calling from jail and telling his wife “let them have it,” “blow them away,” “shoot right through the door right into the cop.”

An appeals court previously upheld the convictions after Kloss claimed solicitation of reckless injury was not a crime in Wisconsin.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case last year, but decided on Friday that they would dismiss the appeal. Five of the seven justices agreed that the Supreme Court should not have taken up the case in the first place. 

Chief Justice Roggensack thanks Governor Evers, Legislature for creation of new circuit court seats

By

The Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court is thanking the rest of the Capitol on the approval of new county level judge seats.

Governor Tony Evers has approved a bill that will increase the number of county judges in Wisconsin by 12. 

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Pat Roggensack says that’s going to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to get cases heard in parts of Wisconsin. “If you’re in a county that has one judge, and that judge has a huge calendar, you’re just going to have to stand in line until your matter can be heard.”

Roggensack says the new law is just another piece of the puzzle in reducing the long wait it takes to get justice in parts of Wisconsin. “I think that really the bill and the Governor’s signing evidence the legislature’s and the governor’s concern that the needs for the people of Wisconsin be addressed.” The bill is backed by other measures that increase the number of assistant district attorneys in Wisconsin, and increase the pay rates for public defenders. 

“I think both those branches of government have been wonderfully cooperative and have understood that the needs of the court are the needs of the people,” says Roggensack. 

The new seats will be created four at a time over the next three years.