State Crime and Court Roundup: More fallout from the spa shooting

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BROWN DEER - The head of Brown Deer’s police commission says an outside agency will review a 2011 standoff in which Brookfield spa gunman Radcliffe Haughton was not arrested.

Jim Jiracek said the police department ordered the review – but the commission itself has no plans to take up the matter, or consider any type of action. He said the panel might do something later. But for now, at least, he’s confident that Police Chief Steve Rinzel and his officers did nothing wrong. Some national police experts have criticized Brown Deer Police for not arresting Haughton 22 months ago, when officers saw him point what appeared to be a gun at his wife Zina. Rinzel said the officers could never determine that the apparent weapon was a gun. Prosecutors later filed a disorderly conduct charge, but it was dropped after an officer failed to testify. Media reports said Brown Deer Police were called to Haughton’s home 20 times over the last decade, before he shot-and-killed his estranged wife and two others last Sunday at the spa where his wife worked. Haughton also wounded four other women before turning the gun on himself.

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A state appeals court was asked yesterday to bring back the limits on most public union bargaining – at least until the court can review a judge’s ruling that struck down much of the bargaining law. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen asked the appellate court yesterday to put Judge Juan Colas’ ruling on hold, after Colas refused to delay it himself. Colas said the state failed to show that it would suffer irreparable harm if the delay was not granted. The Dane County judge ruled in mid-September that it was unconstitutional to allow bargaining only for wages at-or-below inflation, because non-union workers don’t have the same limits. The ruling only applies to local government and public school unions. State employees were not included in the lawsuit which the ruling stemmed from – and therefore, the full bargaining limits still apply to them.

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A judge could decide next week whether an Argyle man is mentally competent to stand trial for helping start a house fire that killed his three nephews. 18-year-old Jeremy Wand is due in court next Thursday for a competency hearing before Lafayette County Circuit William Johnston. He’s charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of attempted homicide, and one count of arson. Prosecutors said Jeremy Wand helped burn down his uncle Armin’s house on September seventh, killing Armin’s three young sons. Armin’s wife and their two-year-old daughter survived the blaze, but the woman’s unborn child was killed. Armin Wand-the-Third is facing numerous charges in the blaze. But state prosecutors have not charged either defendant in the death of the unborn child.

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A central Wisconsin man has pleaded innocent to charges that he concealed his mother’s death for three decades, and cashed her Social Security checks that kept coming. Yesterday, a Portage County judge ordered 66-year-old Charles Jost of Amherst to stand trial on felony charges of theft, forgery, mail fraud, and illegally using somebody else’s personal documents. Jost, his sister Delores Disher, and his brother-in-law Ronald Disher are all charged in the alleged scheme. The Dishers have both pleaded innocent, and Jost was earlier found to be mentally competent to stand trial in the case. All three are accused of hiding the death of Marie Jost, who would be 100 today. There’s no indication that she’s still alive, and authorities have been searching the Jost property after dogs found a scent of human remains. Charles Jost and the Dishers were arrested September fifth. Ronald Disher faces additional charges, for allegedly attacking a sheriff’s deputy who searched his home near Almond. All three defendants are due back in court December 10th, when trial dates could be set.

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A 76-year-old man is jailed under a half-million-dollar bond, for taking a gun to his ex-wife’s house right after a judge found him in contempt for violating his divorce settlement. Authorities said Richard Petarius of Sussex exchanged gunfire with Waukesha police officers during the incident. It happened late Tuesday afternoon at his ex’s condominium in Waukesha. Prosecutors said the man stormed inside, pushed his 75-year-old ex-wife to the floor, and broke her arm. Later, she was talking to a police officer when Petarius allegedly appeared with a shotgun and pointed it to the officer. Two patrolmen exchanged gunshots with Petarius, but the bullets never hit anyone. The woman was led out of the condo as police called for backup – and over two dozen squad cars and rescue vehicles from various agencies in the Milwaukee area showed up. Petarius made an initial court appearance yesterday on 10 charges that include attempted homicide, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment, burglary, and possessing a gun in violation of a restraining order. A judge placed a four-year restraining order on Petarius in 2010. He’s due back in court next Thursday.

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It’s been three-and-a-half weeks since a man was shot-to-death outside a Milwaukee Jesuit church – and authorities still don’t know who he is. Two prayer groups were meeting at St. Hyacinth Church when they heard the gunfire outside on October second. The victim’s body was found on an edge of the church parking lot. Associate pastor John Montag says it’s scary that nobody seems to know who the victim is – or why the shooting occurred. The body remains unclaimed at the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office – and yesterday, police asked for the public’s help in determining his identity. He’s a Hispanic man thought to be in his early 40’s, around 5-feet-5 and 175 pounds. Montag says the victim must mean something to somebody – and the fact that he remains unidentified makes it that much more tragic.

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