JUNEAU (AP) -- A bombshell series of arrests happened Wednesday morning following four inmate deaths in an eight-month period at Waupun's prison, with the former warden now behind bars.
Waupun Correctional Institution's warden, Randall Hepp, is charged with misconduct in public office.
Eight other prison employees face charges of inmate abuse, which is a felony, and three of them -- two correctional officers and a correctional sergeant -- are also charged with misconduct in public office. All nine had court appearances Wednesday.
Abuse of Residents of Penal Facilities - Class I Felony
- Gwendolyn Peachey (Vick) - Age 50 of Burnett - Registered Nurse
- Brandon Fisher - Age 29 of Fox Lake - Correctional Lieutenant – 2 Counts
- Tanner Leopold - Age 27 of Waupun - Correctional Sergeant
- Jamall Russel - Age 39 of Beaver Dam - Correctional Officer
- Alexander Hollfelder - Age 31 of Waupun - Correctional Sergeant
- Jessica Hosfelt - Age 47 of Oshkosh - Registered Nurse
Misconduct in Public Office – Class I Felony
- Jamall Russel - Age 39 of Beaver Dam - Correctional Officer
- Sarah Ransbottom - Age 35 of Oshkosh - Correctional Officer
- Jeramie Chalker - Age 41 of Brandon - Correctional Sergeant
- Randall Hepp – Waupun Correctional Institution Warden
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department has been investigating the deaths and announced findings and recommendations during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
“These people were not cared for and they are people,” said Sheriff Dale Schmidt of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department.
The manner of death for the first inmate, who died on June 29, 2023, was ruled suicide. The second was an accidental overdose. The third was natural and the fourth, on February 22, 2024, was ruled a homicide.
The charges against the prison employees are only for the third and fourth deaths. The third suffered a stroke, but Sheriff Schmidt says routine checks weren’t done on the inmate and warning signs were ignored.
“Evidence shows the decedent was dead in his cell at least 12 hours before he was discovered on the morning of October 30, 2023,” said Schmidt.
Sheriff Schmidt says the fourth inmate was ruled homicide primarily due to dehydration and malnourishment. Water was shut off in his cell for significant periods of time and he wasn’t served 9 of 12 meals over a four-day period.
“Correctional officers failed to conduct required rounds on numerous occasions,” said Schmidt. “However, staff intentionally initialed that rounds were completed when they were not and supervisors were aware of this practice occurring regularly.”
“I don’t think there was any intent in these cases,” said Dodge County District Attorney Andrea Will when asked why none of the employees were charged with homicide. “I think this is one purely of neglect.”
Some of the issues happening here are similar to what inmates at Green Bay Correctional Institution have been complaining about for the past year. The state has said both are under a type of lockdown it refers to as a modified movement with limitation on things like showers, outdoor time, and visitation.
“They were investigated in Brown County,” said Schmidt. “No criminal charges were filed in those incidentsa stern warning was issued by the investigator to the Department of Corrections, meaning this is not isolated to one facility.”
Sheriff Schmidt says Department of Corrections Secretary Kevin Carr resignation a few months ago came three days after a phone conversation with Schmidt detailing what investigators determined was happening in Waupun’s prison.
“I do not find that to be a coincidence,” said Schmidt.
Governor Tony Evers named Deputy Secretary Jared Hoy as Carr’s replacement less than two weeks ago. FOX 11 asked Schmidt why he is optimistic Hoy can get the Department of Corrections on the right path.
“I’m optimistic that he has presented me with the right things so far,” said Schmidt. “That is yet to be seen. He has been very open and honest with me. He has been accommodating to the needs that we have had.”
Hoy said in a statement that more than 20 people remain under internal investigation, at least eight are on administrative leave and nine others were fired or have retired since the probe began a year ago.
Three of the four deaths are subject to federal lawsuits, the state Department of Corrections is investigating the prison's operations, and the governor last year asked the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved.
Evers has requested the sheriff’s department keep its investigation open while federal and internal probes continue. However, the sheriff says he feels they have properly investigated everything under their purview, but could reopen anything if more information is presented.
The first of the four inmates who died, Dean Hoffman, killed himself in solitary confinement last June. Hoffman's daughter filed a federal lawsuit in February alleging that prison officials failed to provide her father with adequate mental health care and medications.
Tyshun Lemons and Cameron Williams were both found dead at the facility in October. Dodge County Medical Examiner PJ Schoebel said Lemons overdosed on acetyl fentanyl, a potent opioid painkiller, and Williams died of a stroke.
Donald Maier was found dead at the prison in February. Schmidt said his death was ruled a homicide due to malnutrition and dehydration.
All of the charges are related to the deaths of Williams and Maier.
Williams told an inmate advocate three days before he died that he needed to go to the hospital but no action was taken, according to a criminal complaint. He had fallen in the shower and had to crawl into his cell two days earlier, and a day before that he collapsed on the way back to his cell, but neither fall was documented, the complaint said.
He died of a stroke sometime on Oct. 29, but his body wasn't discovered until late the next morning, at least 12 hours after he died, according to the complaint. The nurse, sergeant and lieutenant charged in his death never checked on him that night, the complaint said.
Maier had severe mental health problems but he either refused or wasn't given his medication in the eight days leading up to his death, according to a separate complaint.
An inmate told investigators that Maier flooded his cell, resulting in guards turning off his water. Six days before he died, he told a staff member that he "wants water, water, water, all the water in the world" and acted like he was swimming around his cell. Guards also saw him drinking from his toilet, the complaint said.
Guards said they turned the water off and on for Maier, but investigators said no one ever told him when it was on, according to the complaint. Guards also didn't bring him any food in the four days leading up to his death, the complaint said.
Asked if his employees understand the prison's water shut-off policy, Hepp told them that policies go out via email but he doesn't think anybody at any institution really reads them and that no jail in the United States documents inmates' every meal.
Attorney Mark Hazelbaker is representing Gwendolyn Vick, a nurse charged with abuse in connection with Williams' death. According to the complaint, a nurse from an earlier shift told her that Williams was laying on the floor of his cell but she never checked on him. She told investigators that she told the guards that she wasn't sure it was necessary to enter his cell because Williams was always trying to get a hospital trip, the complaint said.
Hazelbaker said Vick is "very sad" that four people died at the prison but she wasn't responsible for anybody's death. She's entitled to be heard on the issues involved in providing prison health care, he said, adding that the real incompetence lies with the Department of Corrections in failing to properly staff and replace the aging prison.
Waupun had a 43% staff vacancy rate at the end of May, according to agency data.
"I can't stress enough that this is a system failure of massive proportions," Hazelbaker said. "It is dangerous. People don't want to work there."
Waupun's problems extend beyond the inmate deaths. Gov. Tony Evers' office said in March that federal investigators were looking into a suspected smuggling ring involving prison employees.
Evers said Wednesday in reaction to the charges being filed that everyone who failed to do their job will be held accountable.
"There must be accountability and justice," Evers said in a statement. "And I believe accountability and justice insist that both internal and law enforcement investigations must continue until they have been exhaustively and thoroughly completed."
The state Department of Corrections imposed a lockdown at Waupun, and at prisons in Green Bay and Stanley last year due to a shortage of guards. Waupun inmates filed a federal lawsuit in October alleging the the conditions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. That lawsuit is still pending.
Schmidt said he did not believe the lockdown had anything to do with the inmates' deaths.
Stanley resumed normal operations in November. Movement restrictions have eased at Waupun and Green Bay, but as of the department's latest update in April, in-person visitation had not resumed at Waupun and recreation time was still limited. Prisoners were being allowed to make phone calls and text using electronic tablets, however.
Waupun is one of five maximum-security prisons in Wisconsin. The facility, built in the 1850s, held 712 inmates as of May 31, according to the state Department of Corrections latest population report. The prison is designed to hold up 882 inmates.
Republican state lawmakers used the filing of charges to renew their calls for Evers to close the prisons in Waupun and Green Bay, which was also built in the 1800s.
"The warden may have been arrested, but the buck doesn't stop there," said state Sen. Van Wanggaard, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees the state prison system. "Tony Evers can't keep his head in the sand anymore."
