Law Enforcement

n December 19 - An officer took a walk-in complaint from a man who said he had dated a woman for 11 years but in the past year, found that she had been cheating on him. The man said she did not have much so he lent her his truck so that she could at least provide for their child they had in common. The man said they had agreed she could use the truck until she got back on her feet starting around October 2022. The man said that after some time, the woman had messaged him asking for the title of the truck.

The man said he was not giving up the truck and after seeing the woman’s new boyfriend drinking and driving the truck, he wanted it back. The man asked for the truck a week and a half prior to coming to the police but the woman said she was not going to give it back. The officer stated he would speak to the woman at some point in the near future.

A week later, the woman came to the department wanting to know why the department wanted to talk to her. The woman stated she did not purchase the truck and her name was not on the title or the registration. The woman said the man told her to give the truck back but she didn’t think that was fair. The woman said they had verbally agreed that she could keep the truck and the man was just upset because she had a new boyfriend.

The officer said a verbal agreement was not good enough and she needed to give the truck back. The officer said if she believed the truck now belonged to her, she would have to take the man to civil court but for now, she needed to give the truck back to the man. The woman agreed and left the department.

n December 28 - An officer was notified a man was coming to the Colby/Abbotsford Police Department. The officer was advised the man had a warrant issued for his arrest. The officer conducted a records check of the man and observed him to have a felony probation violation warrant through the Wisconsin Division of Community Corrections.

The officer made contact with the man who was advised of his warrant. The officer transported him to the Marathon County Jail without incident.

n December 30 - An officer received a call regarding possible child neglect in the city of Colby.

The officer was told a man was working in an apartment when he noticed the apartment was filled with trash and there was feces on the wall. The caller stated the apartment smelled of rotting garbage and had flies everywhere. The caller also stated there were multiple children inside of the apartment.

The officer arrived at the apartment and met with the mother of the family outside of the residence. The officer asked the woman if he could step inside and inspect the apartment. The woman said it was a mess and she was trying to get it cleaned. The woman told the officer she lives in the apartment with her fiance as well as four children, all of whom are under the age of 13.

The woman opened the door and told the officer he wasn’t going to like what he would see. Upon entry, the officer saw a 10-year-old child sitting on a twosquare foot table playing a video game. The child was not wearing any clothes and only had on a pull up-style diaper. The child ran back to a back bedroom when the officer walked into the room.

The entire floor of the living room area was covered with garbage and there were piles of items mixed with the trash. The only three items not covered in garbage were the three recliners. The counters of the kitchen area were completely covered in garbage with no room to safely prepare any food. Various items were in the bathroom making access to the toilet difficult due to having to walk around or over items.

The officer told the woman the apartment is not fit for children. The woman said she knows and is doing the best she can but does not have any help.

The woman said three of her children like to sleep on the recliners in the living room so they can rock. The woman said the other child has her own room. In the three children’s room, there were two twinsize mattresses on the floor with one partially on top of the other. There was a toddler bed covered in items and a dirty mattress. The woman said her room is also a mess and said her children go in there and make it a mess.

The other bedroom for the oldest child was filled with garbage and had a couch with no bed. The couch was full of various items.

The officer asked the woman about the brown smudges on the wall and she told the officer it was food and marker while denying that it was feces. The woman did concede there was feces on the door but had not gotten around to cleaning it.

The two youngest children were not wearing any clothes and only had the same style pull-up diapers the 10-year-old was wearing. The oldest child started shaking and crying when coming out by the officers.

The officer asked the woman if the kids had any family members they could stay with until the apartment could be cleaned. The woman said she did but they would only help now that the officer was taking her kids away. The officer explained he was not there to take her kids away, but just wanted a safe place for them to stay while the apartment was cleaned.

The officer made contact with Marathon County Social Services who then spoke to the woman over the phone. The officer then spoke to the Social Services representative who said she would be finding a safe place for the children and doing a temporary placement with them until the apartment could be cleaned and is deemed safe for children.

As the officers were leaving, the woman’s fiance came home and spoke to the officers. The man said he works all day and there is only so much time in a day to clean. The man said he recently filled a dumpster at the apartment.

The officer stated he will be referring charges of Neglecting a Child to the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office for both the man and woman.

n December 30 - An officer was dispatched to a residence in Abbotsford for a possible protection order violation. Upon arrival, the officer met with the complainant who said her ex-husband has had violent behavior in the past and she has a protection order against him. The woman said the order states that the man was not allowed at her residence and all child custody exchanges needed to be done by a third party. The woman said the man’s sister-in-law typically picks up the kids however, earlier that day, the man tried to pick up the kids at her house.

The woman said she was very afraid of the man and did not want him anywhere near her. The woman said she was afraid that the man would try to kill her if he ever came inside her house and believed that the man was not allowed at her residence per his bond conditions on an open Clark County case.

The woman showed the officer her daughter’s phone which displayed a text conversation between her daughter and an individual with the name “papa”. The woman said “papa” was her ex-husband and the texts showed the man agreed to pick up his daughter and told his daughter not to tell her mother he was coming.

The man told the daughter he would be at the woman’s house at 5:30 p.m. to pick her up. The messages show the man saying he would be there in five minutes, then saying “I’m outside” at 5:30 p.m. The daughter then responded saying, “drive away.” The woman said when her daughter told her she was leaving, she looked out the window and saw the man sitting in his truck, parked on the street in front of her house. The woman said she knew the man was not allowed at her house and was not allowed to pick up the kids per his bond conditions and per the protection order. The woman then called the police.

Prior to making contact with the man, the officer ran his information through the Wisconsin Department of Justice system. The man returned as a respondent in a domestic abuse injunction with the woman as the petitioner. The end date of that injunction is September 7, 2032. The conditions of the injunction state the man is not to have contact with the woman or her residence and that a third party must perform child exchanges.

As the officer was pulling away from the residence, a family member arrived and told the officer where the man was living. The officer made contact with the man who admitted to parking down the block and attempting to pick up his daughter.

The man said he was not a bad guy but did not have anyone else who could pick her up. The officer asked the man if he parked in front of the woman’s residence. He said he did not and insisted he parked a block away. The officer told the man someone witnessed him park in front of the house and the man said he may have been close but it felt like he was a block away.

The officer informed the man he had broken his bond conditions and domestic abuse injunction and arrested him for bail jumping and for violating the injunction.

The man was taken to Clark County Jail where he was released to the staff without incident. The report will be forwarded to the Clark County District Attorney’s Office for criminal charges.

n December 31 - An officer was on patrol when he observed a female he knew from prior law enforcement contacts driving north on Hwy. 13. The officer had Clark County Dispatch conduct a records check which came back with the woman having a suspended driving status and two active warrants.

The officer activated his emergency lights and made contact with the driver. The woman had one felony body only warrant through Clark county for failure to appear on possession with intent to deliver of cocaine and one bondable warrant through Marathon County for failure to appear for an OWI (first offense). The officer placed the woman under arrest and transported her to Clark County Jail where she was released to jail staff without incident.

n January 1 - An officer observed a black Mercedes- Benz traveling north on Hwy. 13 in Abbotsford. As the vehicle neared the intersection of Hwy. 13 and East Linden Street, the vehicle’s hazard lights turned on and then shut off and the right turn signal was then turned on. The vehicle almost came to a stop and then made a jerky right turn onto Linden Street. Upon running the registration of the vehicle, it came back to a 2001 Ford Ranger and not a Mercedez-Benz.

As the officer approached the vehicle, the officer saw two males and a female in the back seat of the vehicle. On the female’s lap was a young child, not in an approved child safety seat and no seat belt on. The driver tried to roll down the driver’s window but rolled down the rear driver’s side window. He again tried to roll down his window. The officer asked the man to just open the door so he could speak to the man. While speaking to the driver, the officer could smell the strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle. The driver also had glassy and bloodshot eyes.

The officer asked everyone in the vehicle for their IDs and after running them through dispatch, the driver came back with no driver’s license and two passengers did not come back as being on file. The man then agreed to take field sobriety tests and a Breathalyzer test. The result of the preliminary breath test came back as 0.12.

The officer placed the man under arrest for operating while intoxicated with a passenger under 16. When back at the police department, the officer issued the man citations for prohibited alcohol concentration with passenger under 16, operating without a valid driver’s license, child safety restraint violation for child over four but under eight, display unauthorized registration and unregistered vehicle. The man was then released to a responsible party.