Home

News 07.05.16

5 July 2016 News


Nobody is seriously injured in two separate vehicle crashes in Fond du Lac County Friday night. A two year old child received minor injuries in a four vehicle crash on Interstate 41 near County Highway B south of Fond du Lac. Traffic was back up for about eight miles for a couple hours until the accident scene was cleared shortly before 7:30pm Friday. A couple hours later a semi and truck collided on northbound Highway 151 near South Main Street, tipping the semi over on its side. The driver received a cut to his face. The northbound lanes of 151 were closed for several hours overnight until the semi could be uprighted and removed.


A jury convicts a Neenah man of sexually assaulting an unconscious high school student in La Crosse. The jury deliberated about two hours Friday before finding 32-year-old Benjamin Wendler guilty of second-degree sexual assault. According to a criminal complaint, Wendler took the 18-year-old student to a party in La Crescent, Minnesota, in May 2014. The woman drank until she got sick. Friends told police they put her in bed at Wendler’s La Crosse apartment because she couldn’t walk. The woman says she woke up to find Wendler sexually assaulting her. Wendler’s attorney, Todd Schroeder, argued the sex was consensual and the woman’s testimony wasn’t consistent with what she told police. Wendler faces up to 40 years in prison when he’s sentenced Sept. 27.


One person is killed following a van versus pedestrian accident in Sheboygan County. Sheriff’s Officials says 23-year-old Shawn Kaufert of Sheboygan Falls was walking on County Road P in the Town of Rhine early Sunday morning when he was struck by a van. Kaufert was pronounced dead at the scene. The van driver, 49-year-old Brian Hartwig, was not injured. Police say speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors in the crash. The accident remains under investigation.

The latest Wisconsin Farm Bureau market basket survey shows the price of a summer picnic this year will be less than last summer. The informal survey of 14 food items to prepare a typical picnic was $54.30 down $4.56 or nearly eight percent from June 2015. Wisconsin Farm Bureau spokesman Casey Langan says the price of a watermelon saw the biggest drop of nearly 46 percent. Prices were also down for ground chuck, pork ribs, hotdog and hamburger buns, mustard and American cheese. There were price increases for lemonade, corn chips, ketchup and baked beans.

An advocate for a man police shot and killed after he allegedly came at an officer with a pitchfork says he struggled with mental illness for much of his adult life. Executive director of Housing Initatives and Madison school board member, Dean Loumos says Michael William Schumacher wasn’t a dangerous person. Loumos says Schumacher had been with Housing Initiatives, which provides housing and support for people with mental illness, since 2008. He says Schumacher graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison but soon after his mental illness began to manifest itself. He says he is legally prohibited from disclosing Schumacher’s medical diagnosis. A UW-Madison spokesman said he couldn’t access a student database Sunday to confirm Schumacher’s graduation.

Police stopped a man from leaping off a Green Bay bridge. Officers found the 45-year-old Green Bay man sitting on the edge of the Leo Frigo Bridge early Saturday afternoon. The bridge spans the Fox River just south of where it empties into the bay. The man was threatening to commit suicide by jumping and told officers he was armed with a knife and had swallowed several pills. Authorities closed the bridge to traffic and officers talked him off the bridge after 25 minutes of negotiations. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. The incident marked the third time in nine months that police saved a would-be jumper from the bridge. One incident occurred Feb. 27 and the other was Oct. 21.


Share