State agents arrested a Mukwa man in Madison Tuesday, May 29 after he allegedly fired a handgun at a Waupaca County deputy, then fled the area.
James D. Dax, 57, was charged May 29 with pointing a firearm at an officer. The felony offense carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison.
At 2:34 a.m. Friday, May 25, Dax sent an email to Eric Norton, a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the criminal complaint.
In the rambling and often incoherent email, Dax complains about corruption in county and township government and mentions Jason Snyder, an employee of the Waupaca County Zoning Department.
“Though in the past we were harassed by bad cops and their affiliates, now I ran into a situation in which a person who perhaps ties to under-world of drugs in this and adjacent counties just happen to offer a contract hit on anyone I wanted. I was not, I repeat I was not looking for such,” the email said.
The email complained that the county had turned the law against him, “on my stray feral cats coming from the horse farm that entered my buildings and killed/stolen (to eat later) some of my birds.”
After complaining that people were ignoring him, Dax went on to say, “Am I the only one who see’s (sic) in the Book of Revelations that the beast id (sic) really the US of A and that two-horned means ‘two-faced?'”
Dax criticizes the country for becoming socialistic and states, “I already know I have been watched by many various types including the air and in stores, etc.”
Norton forwarded the email to Snyder, who forwarded it to Jeff Siewert, the corporation counsel for Waupaca County.
“This is getting too close to home for me,” Snyder said in his email to Siewert. “I understand that there isn’t a direct threat and he’s trying to be intimidating but I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that he only mentions my name specifically in the same email as his interactions with a hit man.”
At about 9 p.m. Saturday, May 26, Waupaca County Sheriff’s Deputies Chad Repinski and Kevin Studzinski went to Dax’s home on the E9100 block of Manske Road in Mukwa. Earlier attempts to contact Dax had been unsuccessful.
Repinski was the first to arrive. As he entered the driveway, Repinski saw a man, identified as Dax, waving a pistol at him and yelling at him to go away. According to the criminal complaint, Dax fired a shot and Repinski put his vehicle in reverse and backed out of the driveway. He called for assistance.
Studzinski used the loudspeakers on his squad car to tell Dax to put down the gun and that the officers were there to check on his mental health and welfare.
Dax’s wife drove up and told the officers that she had told Dax earlier that day to pack up and leave. She described him as paranoid. She said Dax believes everyone is out to get him and that he carried a pistol most of the time, according to the criminal complaint.
The Waupaca County Emergency Response Unit arrived and searched the area but could not find Dax.
Shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 29, the state Division of Criminal Investigations received a call from a man who identified himself only as Jim. The man complained about corruption in Waupaca County, said he was on the run and in Madison and admitted to firing a weapon during a confrontation with law enforcement. He said he wanted to speak to an agent and wanted his vehicle searched for a possible GPS unit.
Three DCI agents took Dax into custody later that morning. Dax told the state agents that he feared for his safety in Waupaca County and that he had thrown his guns into a marsh.
Judge John Hoffmann set a $5,000 cash bond as a condition of Dax’s release from custody.
Dax was convicted of two counts of disorderly conduct in August 2011. Dax had been charged with cruelty to animals after he shot a neighbor’s dog for eating one of his birds.