of Juneau County
The Messenger LOCAL SCHOOLS CELEBRATE FFA WEEK VOL 14, NO. 30
LOOK INSIDE FOR YOUR LOCAL NEWS:
Elroy: Page 6 Mauston: Page 4 New Lisbon: Page 8
County: Page 3 Wonewoc: Page 18 Hillsboro: Page 16
Classifieds: Page 15 Legals: Pages 20 & 21
THE AWARD WINNING OFFICIAL LEGAL NEWSPAPER OF JUNEAU COUNTY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013
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Mauston PTC treasurer accused of stealing $48K BY EVA MARIE WOYWOD On Tuesday morning, February 19, a felony charge of theft in a business setting was filed against 46 year old Lisa Lutz of Elroy. Due to Lutz's past employment history with Juneau County agencies, a special prosecutor, Tania Bennett, is handling the case on behalf of the State of Wisconsin. For the same reasons the investigation was handled by Deputy Sheriff Jesse Phillips with the Adams County Sheriff's Department. According to the criminal complaint Lutz is being accused of stealing a total of $48,174.55 from the Mauston Parents and Teachers for Children (PTC) organization where Lutz had served as treasurer. The complaint goes on to state that Lutz has returned $18,612 of the missing funds leaving $29,562.55 still not accounted for. The red flag went up in November of 2012 when PTC president Jami Lehman received a call from the Bank of Mauston that their account held at the bank was overdrawn. Lehman told investigators that she contacted Lutz about the call she had received and was told it was "impossible" and that she would contact the bank president, Bob Fait. Later on that same day Lehman received a call from Fait stating that he spoke to Lutz and told her that the PTC needed to deposit $1,900 by 2 p.m. or pending checks would bounce. Fait reportedly told Lehman that Lutz was not making any sense. Also on that day the bank provided Lehman with two years of bank statements. The criminal complaint states that Lutz had complete control over the accounts for the PTC and was solely responsible for their checking and savings accounts. In addition to an account at the Bank of Mauston, the PTC has a savings account with Edward Jones. Lehman's research supposedly discovered that in January of 2012 there was $3,000 missing from the savings account. Lehman told investigators that the PTC owed the Mauston School District $5,000 and they were unsure on how they were going to pay them back. After reviewing all statements she estimated that Lutz had stolen nearly $40,000. Lehman stated that there were approximately 75 checks missing due to Lutz writing them out for cash and that Lutz had obtained a debit card under the name of the PTC and had made withdrawals. Lehman turned over to investigators the PTC's treasurer's reports for 2011 and 2012 as well as bank statements dating back to 2008. On November 26, 2012 Adams County deputy Phillips met with Lutz at her place of employment, the Juneau County Child Support Agency. Lutz reportedly stated that she had gotten behind in several payments on payday loans while she was working for the Juneau County Sheriff's Department. She reportedly stated she would "rob Peter to pay for Paul." She is said to have stated she would pay off the interest on one loan by taking out another payday loan and it spiraled out of control in her acquiring debt. See THEFT, page 4
NATIONAL FFA WEEK All of our schools in the region are celebrating National FFA Week February 16 - 22. Throughout the year these students participate in a variety of activities and spend many hours giving back to their communities. Above, Amber Bellows of the Mauston FFA attends the annual Mauston FFA ice fishing tournament. See the center spread for more on all the groups.
Mauston Chief of Police refuses to release public documents for view Due to recent and numerous headlines involving missing persons, namely children, the Messenger has been working on compiling information and resources for our readers on what to do and what to expect when filing a missing person's report. As part of that research we made an emailed inquiry to the Mauston Police Department on what their policy and procedures are in regard to missing children. That request was emailed on Monday, February 18. On the following day, Tuesday, we stopped into the police department to see if we could attain that policy and procedure. We were told by Chief Mark Messer that he had 10 days to respond to our request. We then asked if we could inspect and review the department's policy and procedure manual. Chief Messer responded he would not make that manual available to us, and that we must provide a written request detailing the scope of what
information we were looking for. The documents we requested are open public documents and are required by government agencies to be made available upon request. It is for that very reason many agencies and departments post their policy and procedures online for all to view. That openness was noted on Tuesday morning when Chief Mark Messer and the Messenger were in the office of Mauston City Administrator Nathan Thiel. The Messenger had once again made the request to review and inspect the police department's policy and procedure manual to which Chief Messer stated he would not make it available to us nor any citizen making the request unless it went through the City Attorney and the scope of why the request was being made. "I won't let you go on a fishing expedition," he stated. City Administrator Thiel conducted a quick internet
search and reported that other police departments had their policy and procedures online and available to the public. Thiel did state he didn't feel comfortable stating an opinion on the matter on whether or not our request should be granted by the Mauston Police Department. The Messenger was not requesting any confidential material nor material that should have required man hours in attaining for our review. We were requesting the polices and procedures in which the police department operate under and are often required to by state and federal law. We were not requesting copies to be made but rather to review the manual which should be on hand in the department at any time a public request is made. Later that morning we received an email stating that we would need to make our request via the City Attorney and should email it to her. We responded that our request was simple and advised the Mauston Police
Department that if they should need legal counsel in granting the request that they should seek the legal counsel. Just prior to going to press we received a phone call from Chief Mark Messer that he had obtained a legal opinion from the city attorney. He stated he would provide to us policy and procedure on missing children reports and that if we required to view the entire policy and procedure manual we could come in and review as long as himself or an officer was present while we were reviewing the public document. We inquired if needing an officer present was the opinion of the attorney or his own requirement. Chief Messer responded that is was his requirement. The Messenger will follow up in upcoming issues with information on missing children, what to expect when filing a report and how to take steps in preventing a child from becoming missing.