Top Stories, September 25th

UPDATE: District Attorney Contacts Dan Thiel

9/25/11 - There has been a development in the Danni Jo Thiel story. On Friday, we began reporting that the death of the 24-year-old Beaver Dam woman this past May has been attributed to a drunken driving car accident nearly ten years ago when she was 14-year-old. It all started in August of 2001 when the Thiel family was driving through Horicon and an oncoming truck crossed the centerline and collided head-on with their vehicle. The accident took her mother’s life and left Danni Jo bedridden. The driver of the offending vehicle, Nicholas Gross, was convicted of Homicide by Intoxicated Use of a Vehicle and is due to be released from prison next May. Danni Jo’s father Dan Thiel told us on WBEV’s Community Comment that a recently-completed autopsy determined her death to be from a “car accident.” Thiel says he would like to see additional charges brought against Gross now that “car accident” is the official cause of death on the death certificate, which arrived last Wednesday, four months after Danni Jo’s death. Dan Thiel was contacted by Dodge County District Attorney Kurt Klomberg on Saturday afternoon and Thiel tells us that the “ball is rolling.” We’ll have more details for you during our Monday morning newscasts right here on WBEV 1430AM.

Texas Man Sentenced In Fond du Lac Molestation

9/25/11 - A 54-year-old Texas man who sexually assaulted a Fond du Lac girl over a period of 17 years has been sentenced to prison for 60 years. Tomas Flores was sentenced in Fond du Lac County Court this week on charges of 1st degree sexual assault of a child and repeated sexual assault of the same child. Judge Robert Wirtz gave Flores two 30-year terms on the charges that will run consecutive to each other. The victim supplied a detailed statement to authorities in May of 2009 and a warrant was issued for Flores in September of that year. The victim said the assaults began in the early 1990s when she was 5 years old. She told investigators that the sexual relationship continued over the years because Flores allegedly threatened to kill her, a family member, and when she became pregnant her baby if the sex stopped.

Honadel: ‘Child Porn Offense Punishment Weak’

9/25/11 - Wisconsin state Representative Mark Honadel says child porn offenders rarely wind up serving any jail time in the state. Speaking at this week’s Assembly Criminal Justice Committee hearing, Honadel said only three people arrested for child pornography were jail in Wisconsin. Honadel is backing new legislation which would require automatic sentences for anyone convicted on child porn charges.

Milwaukee Cop Sentenced In Drug Ring

9/25/11 - A former Milwaukee police officer was sentenced Friday to two years in a federal prison, for his involvement in a drug deal that was staged as part of a sting operation. Royce Lockett was arrested after an informant told Milwaukee Police that several officers had been dealing with drug traffickers. As part of the sting operation, Lockett was given a thousand dollars to give the informant a ride to a certain location – and then the officer delivered over four-pounds of fake cocaine to somebody else. Lockett apparently believed he was transporting almost 20-thousand-dollars worth of cocaine. The activities were all videotaped as evidence. Lockett arranged a plea deal – but it’s sealed along with several other documents in the case. He resigned from the Milwaukee police force in early February, after serving for 14 years.

Mequon Man Charged With Hitting Milwaukee Bike Cop

9/25/11 - A Mequon man is due back in court next Thursday, on charges that his van struck-and-injured a Milwaukee police officer who was on a bicycle. A Milwaukee County circuit judge is expected to decide if there’s enough evidence to put 47-year-old Vladimir Krivoshein on trial on two counts of causing injury by drunk driving, and injury by hit-and-run. Prosecutors quoted Krivoshein as saying he had “several swigs of vodka” before his van struck officer Allan Tenhaken and kept going. Officers arrested the van driver a few minutes later – and they said he did not perform well on his sobriety tests. Authorities said Tenhaken was conducting a field interview with a colleague when the van struck him at a high rate of speed on the night of September 15th. Prosecutors said the side mirror hit the officer and sent him sprawling.

Thieves Strike Lock-and-Dam

9/25/11 - Being a thief can be hard work, as evidenced by the theft of metal gates at a lock-and-dam on the Mississippi River in southwest Wisconsin. Grant County sheriff’s deputies said concrete was broken when the gates were removed from a cement barricade at Lock-and-Dam Number-11 near Dubuque Iowa. Authorities said the metal gates were positioned on the dam’s levee. They have the words “Lock-and-Dam 11” and “U-S-A-C-E” welded on them. The metal was valued at three-thousand dollars. The theft took place sometime between Monday and Wednesday. It was discovered by a lock-master for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Anti-Smoking Groups Praise Roll-Your-Own Crackdown

9/25/11 - Wisconsin’s Revenue Department is getting a heap of praise from anti-smoking groups. That’s after the agency warned tobacco shops that they must pay two sets of state taxes if they let customers roll their own cigarettes. About 50-to-100 stores have roll-your-own machines – and the state says they must register and pay taxes for being both a distributor and a manufacturer of smokes. The group Smoke-Free Wisconsin contended that some shops were breaking the law by not paying the required taxes. Alison Miller of the American Cancer Society said the machines are out-in-the-open, where underage customers could buy cigarettes illegally at a cheaper price that teens can afford. The Revenue Department says they’ll check on those places. The agency sent out a letter Friday reminding retailers of their tax obligations. Over the last 10 years, Wisconsin’s consumer cigarette tax has jumped from 59-cents a pack to just over two-and-a-half dollars.

Wisconsin Innocence Project Gets $778K Grant

9/25/11 - The U-W Madison group that seeks to exonerate wrongly-convicted criminals is getting over a million-dollars in new grants. The Wisconsin Innocence Project has been awarded 778-thousand-dollars from the National Institute of Justice, to expand its efforts to find cases where D-N-A evidence supports a convict’s claim of innocence. Also, the Innocence Project is getting almost a quarter-million dollars from the Wrongful Conviction Review Program in the Bureau of Justice Assistance. That funding will put an Innocence Project attorney in the state public defender’s office. The person will look for cases where D-N-A evidence can be used to prove people’s innocence earlier in the court process.

Mayor Ryan Opponents Gearing Up

9/25/11 - An effort is moving forward to have voters recall Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan, at the same time the City Council is working on a separate process to remove him. An alderman took out recall petitions a few weeks ago. And one of the organizers, Mary Jo Stoelb says 12-hundred signatures have been collected. About 41-hundred valid signatures must be submitted by November first in order to hold a recall vote. Ryan has been heavily criticized for three major alcohol-related episodes since becoming Sheboygan’s mayor in 2009 – including a three-day binge in Elkhart Lake in July. Earlier this week, the council voted to have two attorneys review a pair of formal complaints against Ryan, and prepare the city’s case for removing the mayor should a quasi-judicial proceeding be held. Ryan is an admitted alcoholic, and he promises to resign if he’s caught in a major drinking episode again. But for now, the mayor refuses to quit. And he says he’ll challenge any effort to boot him out.

Luxemburg Dairy Fines $55K

9/25/11 - An eastern Wisconsin dairy farm will pay 55-thousand-dollars to settle a state lawsuit that involved the spilling of 100-thousand gallons of manure. The Justice Department said the Stahl Brothers Dairy of Luxemburg released the manure into the Kewaunee River in Kewaunee County in 2009. Officials said the spill affected at least 13 miles of the river. The dairy has 13-hundred cows. Owner Lary Stahl said he cooperated with authorities from the beginning, and he’s glad to put the case behind him. The dairy was ordered to pay 16-thousand-dollars in fines, 15-thousand in restitution, and 24-thousand to cover the state’s response to the incident.

Physicians Group Bad-Mouthing Cheese

9/25/11 - A national medical group is attacking Wisconsinites’ love affair with cheese. The Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine has rented a billboard just south of Green Bay on the Highway 41 expressway. It shows the Grim Reaper wearing a Cheese-head. And it says “Warning – Cheese Can Sack Your Health – Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium.” Northbound drivers on 41 will start seeing the billboard Monday. And Packer fans will see it a week from Sunday as they head to the Green Bay-Denver football game at Lambeau Field. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board disputes both the message and the messenger. Board senior vice president Patrick Geoghegan says the Physicians’ Committee has backing from animal rights’ groups. And he says the American Medical Association is among those who’ve said the group’s practices are quote, “irresponsible and potentially dangerous” to people’s health. The Marketing Board said all of its nutrition information is scientifically-based – and his organization takes that very seriously, and not everybody else does.

Dodge County Land Conservation Offering Trees, Shrubs

9/25/11 - Trees and shrubs are now available for the annual fall Small Packet Tree sales program in Dodge County. The Land Conservation Department is offering several species of trees for sale for the 2012 planting season, including Red and White Oak, Sugar Maple, White Cedar, White Pine, Colorado Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, Hazelnut and Fraser Fir. Most trees are sold in bundles of 25 and most are $24 per bundle, tax included. Sugar Maple bundles are $40 per bundle. The deadline to place orders is January 27, but there are limited amounts of some species, so early orders are encouraged. For more information or to get an order form, contact the Dodge County Land Conservation Department. Contact information is on our website.

Contact: 386-3660 or http://www.co.dodge.wi.us/conservation/landserv.html#treesales

BDAAA Hosting Local Author Book Reading

9/25/11 - The Beaver Dam Area Arts Associations this week is hosting an “All Area Book Club Read of ‘Swimming in the Daylight’ with author Lisa Paul, Beaver Dam native.” Paul will be at the Seippel Arts Center on Wednesday, September 28 at 6:30 pm. This free event will include discussion and refreshments. Books are available at the Beaver Dam Library, Seippel Arts Center, Vineyard Books and Book World.

The BDAAA: (920) 885-3635 or email bdarts@seippelcenter.com to RSVP.

For more upcoming classes and events, please visit their website www.bdaaa.org.