Felony cases prosecuted in 2024

A son was committed for killing his mother, a drunk driver sentenced to prison for killing four siblings, and an assistant district attorney was charged with threatening a judge. These were among the more than 470 criminal cases filed in Waupaca County in 2024.

Dankert
Russell J. Dankert, 32, Clintonville, was charged Jan. 8, 2024, with possession of narcotics with intent to deliver, first-degree reckless endangerment, obstructing an officer and felony bail jumping.

On Dec. 30, 2023, Clintonville police responded to a 911 hangup call on North Park Street.

Officers found a woman who said she needed Narcan and was going to die.

She told the ambulance crew that she had smoked fentanyl.

Dankert is schedule for a plea/sentencing hearing on Jan. 17, 2025.

Dismuke, Tody
Clintonville police responded to a report of gunfire shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2024,

A witness reported seeing a man dressed in black standing at the entrance to Christus Lutheran Church on Anne Street. He was arguing with two men who were standing at the corner of Anne and 15th streets.

She said the man in the church driveway pulled out a gun and started firing. One of the other men fired back, according to the criminal complaint. All three men fled the scene.

Austin S. Dismuke, 20, Menasha, was charged with three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and one count each of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct.

He entered pleas of no contest to misdemeanor charges of discharging a firearm within 100 yards of a building, intentionally pointing a firearm at a person and endangering safety. Dismuke was placed on two years of probation.

Ashton R. Tody, 21, Clintonville, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment as party to a crime and disorderly conduct.
His case remains open

Janovetz
Roberta l. Janovetz, 50, Waupaca, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, administering dangerous and stupefying drugs, placing foreign objects in edibles and delivery of prescription drugs on April 25, 2024.

She was accused of giving Lorezapam to a patient for whom it was not prescribed at a Manawa assisted living facility.

The alleged victim was described as annoying at times because she would follow staff around,

The charges were later amended to delivery of a prescription drug, which was dismissed but read into the court record, and intentionally subjecting an individual to risk of abuse without causing harm, to which Janovetz entered a plea of no contest as part of a deferred prosecution agreement on Nov. 19, 2024.

Szilagyi
A former Waupaca County assistant district attorney was accused of threatening a judge and a prosecutor.

Benjamin R. Szilagyi, 42, Oshkosh, was charged on July 15, 2024, with two felonies and four misdemeanors related to the incidents.

The judge dismissed one of the two felony counts and the complaint was amended.

According to the criminal complaint, Szilagyi sent a text to a judge that said, “I feel it’s fair to let you know that you are on my (expletive) list. If I hear you name again you’re gonna be sorry. Have a nice life.”

A prosecutor with the Waupaca County District Attorney’s Office reported receiving a phone call from Szilagyi, “The moment they answered, Benjamin ‘began shouting in a very loud and forceful voice at me. He stated that I should keep his name out of my mouth or things are going to get a hell of a lot worse for me.’”

He had been an assistant district attorney in Waupaca County since January 2023.

The case remains open. Szilagyi is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 3, 2025.

Miller
Area law enforcement was involved in a 24-hour armed standoff at a home in Amherst on July 25, 2024.

They were attempting to arrest Jeffery E. Miller, 32, in connection with an attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer on July 23.

Miller wass accused of shooting Sauk County deputies after crashing his vehicle in Baraboo following a police pursuit on July 23.

On July 25, Sauk County contacted the Portage County Sheriff’s Office and requested assistance in apprehending Miller.

When deputies attempted to serve an arresf warrant in Amherst, Miller began firing at them from the attic of a home.

The following afternoon, deptuies entered the home and found Miller dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Farmer
Scott C. Farmer, 47, Neenah, was sentenced to a total of 37 1/2 years in prison on Nov. 22, 2024, after he was convicted in Waupaca County Circuit Court of four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and a fifth OWI.

Farmer was driving a westbound pickup truck in the eastbound lane of U.S. Highway 10 when he collided with an oncoming sports utility vehicle on Dec. 16, 2023.

The crash resulted in the deaths of four siblings.

The driver of the SUV, Daniel Gonzalez, 25, was critically injured and succumbed to his injuries after he was transported to a hospital for medical treatment.

His siblings – 9-year-old Daniella, 14-year-old Lillian and 23-year-old Fabian – died at the scene.

The Gonzalezes were originally from Ecuador. Daniel and Fabian were working on a dairy farm in Waushara County.

They were the stepchildren of Rev. Kurt Schilling, pastor of Emmaus Lutheran Church in Waupaca, and his wife Paulina.

Barnick
Evan Barnick, 21, Oshkosh, was sentenced in Waupaca County to five years in prison on Nov. 4, 2024.

He was convicted of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, first-degree reckless endangerment, and failure to install a court-ordered ignition interlock device.

Around midnight on Oct. 29, 77-year-old Gerald Pagel, of New London, was helping a woman whose vehicle had just struck a deer.

They were standing on the side of County Trunk W at Brehmer Road in the town of Caledonia.

According to the criminal complaint, a dark-colored Ford truck was travelling southbound on County W.

The woman told investigators that the truck was moving fast as it headed toward them.

Pagel waved his flashlight in an effort to alert the truck driver to slow down. The woman dived into a ditch to avoid being hit.

She said she heard Pagel yell, “They are going to kill us,” just before the truck fatally struck him.

The driver failed to stop and continued southbound toward State Highway 96.

A records check indicated that Barnick has two prior drunken driving convictions, his license was revoked, he was restricted to a 0.02 blood-alcohol content and required to operate vehicles with an ignition interlock device installed.

Peters
The Clintonville man who stabbed his mother to death will spend the rest of his life in a secure mental health facility.

After a three-day trial, a Waupaca County jury convicted Jordan D. Peters, 20, of first-degree intentional homicide on Oct. 11, 2024.

Because Peters had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, the jury reconvened on Oct. 14 to hear from witnesses and mental health experts about Peters’ state of mind.

They returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental disease.

Peters was committed for life to a Wisconsin Department of Health Services facility. He will spend the rest of his life in a secure mental health facility.

Peters’s mother, Angela S. Zahn, 39, Neenah, was driving them in Clintonville on Sept. 4, 2023.

Clintonville police found Peters standing beside a car with its driver’s side door open on Memorial Circle,

They also found a woman lying in a fetal position down the street from Peters. She had sustained a 1-inch stab wound below her sternum.

She told police her son had stabbed her and said, “He hates me.”

Zahn was airlifted to to ThedaCare Medical Center in Neenah, where she was later pronounced dead that evening.