Axe wielding naked man attacks deputies
On Dec. 20, Crawford County Sheriff's Department deputies responded to the
village of Wauzeka for a 52-year-old man acting bizarre. According to a
Sheriff's Department report, deputies arrived at the man's house and attempted
to make contact with him. At one point, the man responded to the deputies from
inside the home and invited them in. Entry was attempted by the deputies but the
door was locked. Officers continued to knock on the door when the man suddenly
appeared at the front door naked and holding a double bitted axe. The man
started to come outside with the axe but then went back into his house and shut
the door. He then swung the axe, sticking it through the door. A part of the axe
went through the door and was protruding out through the other side. The man
then barricaded himself inside his house. Deputies backed away from the
residence and called the Tri-River Special Operations Team. Deputies set up a
perimeter around the man's home and evacuated the close neighbors from their
residence while waiting for the Tri-River Special Operations Team. Several
attempts were made to contact the man by phone but were unsuccessful. At
approximately 7:20 p.m., the man exited his home shouting at police. Members of
the Tri-River Special Operations Team used a taser and rubber bullets to subdue
the man. The man was not seriously hurt but he was transported to the Boscobel
hospital to be examined for any possible injuries. Criminal charges are pending
in the case. Assisting at the scene were the Wauzeka First Responders and Fire
Department, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Crawford County Emergency
Management Coordinator. The Wauzeka Fire Department was used as a staging area
for the officers.
The man's name was withheld due to a possible mental commitment.
Prohibition-era law re-emerges
Some elected government officials in Crawford County and in the various
municipalities throughout the county may be in violation of state law. A 1933
law has recently been dusted off and is making waves throughout Wisconsin. The
1933 law was created following Prohibition and apparently has been forgotten for
decades until resurfacing recently. Following Prohibition, there was a rush of
businessmen seeking to open bars. Lawmakers wanted to avoid conflicts of
interest in liquor license decisions, so they made it illegal for elected
officials to own businesses that sell products or services to liquor license
holders. The law is broad and bans virtually all business dealings between
government officials and liquor license holders such as bars, restaurants,
convenience stores and grocery stores. The law carries a penalty of up to 90
days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The law re-emerged this summer when a Stevens
Point council member who sells vacuums to bars and restaurants was forced to
quit after learning about the conflict. In Racine, an alderman who sells
insurance to restaurants quit last month. In Madison, a councilman who is the
owner of a laundry business, will stop cleaning the uniforms of bar and
restaurant employees. State lawmakers are seeking to repeal the law and say that
the law is outdated and severely restricts who can run for local office.
Representative Louis Molepske, 'D) Stevens Point, has introduced a bill that
would repeal the law. Liquor wholesalers would still be prohibited from sitting
on municipal bodies. It is hoped by supporters that the Assembly and Senate will
pass the bill early next year. Ethics laws are designed to prevent officials
from using their positions for financial gain. Officials should recuse
themselves from decisions that could affect their businesses.
One year later, still no clues in Fischer case
Shannon L. Fischer has been missing for more than a year and sadly, there is
still very little evidence in the case. "We are leaving no stone unturned," said
Prairie du Chien Police Chief Mike King. "This is still an open case of the
highest priority. Anything that anyone can give us, we are interested in." King
said that nobody in Prairie du Chien has seen nor heard from Fischer since she
was reported missing. Fischer has been missing since Dec. 18, 2006. She was last
seen at 4 p.m. in the 200 block of East Blackhawk Ave. "We're treating it as a
homicide," said King. "I think we have to at this point. We would like to
believe that she is alive but, given the information we have, it seems somewhat
unlikely." King said that there has been virtually no evidence found in the
case. He said that the case if very unusual because Fischer had no driver's
license, no cellphone, no credit cards or other such personal affects. "It makes
it very difficult," he said. "We usually have a starting point but we really
don't have it in this case." There has been no activity on Fischer's e-mail
address since she was reported missing and no leads or information has turned up
on the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, which is a national data base used
by law enforcement agencies. Two Prairie du Chien police officers have been
working on the case as well as an investigator with the Department of Criminal
Investigation. King said that the FBI is also very eager to help should any new
evidence prompt their involvement. "It's a very, very frustrating case," said
King. "We will follow up on any lead, no matter how insignificant." Two
billboards showing Fischer's face and description have been put up asking for
any information anyone can provide. One billboard is located along Marquette
Road near the Smart Buyer Furniture Warehouse building and the other is in Iowa
near Marquette. The billboards were arranged through Crimestoppers. "We want to
solve this case, whatever the outcome," said King. "I am confident we will solve
it." Fischer would be 24 years old now and is described as 5-3, 140 pounds, with
brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information can call the Prairie du Chien
Police Department at (608) 326-2421 or Crimestoppers at 1-866-799-PAYS.
McGregor woman gets working furnace by Christmas
Reinhardt holds her grandson, Alan Millin, who stays with her after school until
his mother comes to pick him up. Connie Reinhardt of McGregor now has a working
furnace for Christmas, but will probably still have to take her showers
elsewhere. Reinhardt hasn't had running water since the July flood that
inundated the town, and since the onset of winter, she's been heating her house
by turning on her electric stove oven, leaving the door open, and using a fan to
distribute the warmth. Her furnace and water heater were destroyed by the
floods, and although the Clayton County Disaster Relief committee and Community
Action have paid for the new appliances, which have already been installed,
neither one was working last week. The installer, she said, put in the water
heater and connected it, but a leak from a broken pipe soon flooded her basement
and the water was disconnected. Reinhardt says she had running water before the
flood, and doesn't know how the pipe was damaged. Either way, she says, no one
has returned to fix it, and she doesn't have the money to pay for it. And even
then, without a working furnace, she feared the water pipes would freeze and
break. The furnace too, was installed, but not connected to heating ducts or to
the lp gas she uses for heating. The installer, she said, kept promising to come
back "next week," but didn't show up. To get by, she has been heating with the
oven of her electric stove. "I don't know what I'll do when the electricity bill
comes this month.," she said. As it turned out, however, the installer, Rick
Kirby, had been waiting for her to have her gas tank filled so he could connect
and test the furnace. Reinhardt said she thought the tank was already filled. A
Dec. 20 call to the gas company, Fauser Oil of Postville, revealed that,
although Reinhardt had called them for service, she had indicated no urgency.
"We had no idea she had no heat in the house," said a spokesman. They made the
delivery the same day, and Kirby hooked up her furnace that evening. The water
problem will probably not be solved as easily. Kirby, who also installed the
water heater, said he believes the leak is in the pipe running from the street
to the house. That, he said, will require someone with a back hoe to dig up the
pipe, and he doesn't have the equipment for it. She manages without water by
filling large jugs at friends' houses and using the water judiciously. To
conserve water, she uses paper and plastic disposable utensils as much as
possible. Because of the water shortage, she does minimal cleaning or scrubbing.
She takes her showers at the local truck stop, and dreams of once again "being
able to take a shower in my own bathroom." An additional problem, said
Reinhardt, is that the flood shifted the house off the foundation. She pointed
out a spot where daylight can be seen between the wall of the house and the
foundation. From the outside, the shifting is even more visible. She has tried
patching her leaking roof, but says the patches don't work because the house
continues to shift. She blames that at least partially on the erosion in her
front yard. A large drainage ditch runs between her yard and the highway, and a
large unfilled hole part of what used to be her yard is clearly visible beside a
culvert in the ditch. She believes the whole bank along the ditch is unstable.
Reinhardt said she was told by a city official that the ditch is her problem. A
spokesperson for the city, Norm Lincoln, said more work will be done on the
ditch with the next construction season, but did not comment on whether or not
that would help Reinhardt's situation. Although she still cares for her grandson
after school, he and his mother, who lived with her, had to move out after the
flood due to the lack of heat and water. Reinhardt says she suffers from reflex
sympathetic disease which leaves her unable to work. Her income consists of a
social security disability check. Reinhardt lived in the house, the historic
Ringling circus family house, for over 15 years when she was married. She moved
out and went through a divorce. When the house later came up for sale she bought
it back and moved in last spring, getting settled just in time for the flood.
Reinhardt produced a wry smile at the thought of this irony and the even greater
one that she moved out of the town of Littleport, Iowa because it was in a flood
zone of the Volga River. The town was destroyed in a 1999 flood and rebuilt on
higher ground. Reinhardt has a picture of the original Main Street and pointed
out the house where she used to live. The site of her old house in now part of a
park. And what of her present house, with its leaky roof, shifted foundation and
plumbing problems what if they can't be fixed? "I don't have anywhere else to
go," she said. Editor's note: A series of telephone calls has established that
Reinhardt has not been forgotten by authorities. Joel Biggs of Clayton County
Emergency Management and Randy Frank, who worked with the Clayton County
disaster Recovery Committee, have worked with Reinhardt in replacing her furnace
and water heater, but said the disaster recovery funds cannot be used to replace
the leaking pipe. They were concerned to hear that her furnace was not working
and were ready to act had that problem not been resolved. They added, however,
that part of their mission is to empower the people they serve, and their wish
would be for Reinhardt to take more responsibility in handling her affairs. Bill
Fassbrenner, family service worker for Community Action of Clayton County, has
also been working with her. He said he had referred her to a rural development
agency that could possibly assist her in repairing the leaky pipe. He continues
to monitor her situation.
