JUNEAU – A former Waupun Correctional Establishment guard entered a no-contest plea to a prison cost Thursday and was ordered to pay a tremendous — making her the primary of nine staff facing charges for deaths at the prison to be convicted and sentenced.
As a part of a plea deal, Sarah Anne Margaret Ransbottom, 36, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor cost of violating the law of a state or county institution, reasonably than the felony cost she initially confronted, misconduct in public office.
Dodge County Circuit Courtroom Decide Martin De Vries sentenced Ransbottom to a tremendous of $250, which was the joint advice agreed upon by the prosecution and protection.
Ransbottom is one in every of seven employees who have been charged in reference to the Feb. 22 dying of 62-year-old Donald Maier. Maier died of malnutrition and possible dehydration in what the Dodge County medical examiner ruled a homicide. An investigation from the Dodge County Sheriff’s Workplace discovered jail employees members intermittently shut off water to Maier’s cell to stop him from flooding it, however didn’t correctly doc when the water was turned on or off. In addition they did not doc missed meals and supply Maier along with his medicines.
The seven employees members charged confronted various levels of accountability on the jail, ranging in ranks from the previous warden, Randall Hepp, to correctional officers, like Ransbottom.
Dodge County Assistant District Lawyer Shawn Woller stated Ransbottom’s offense was “the least aggravating of all of the defendants charged associated to this inmate’s dying.” In keeping with a prison criticism, safety digicam footage confirmed Ransbottom didn’t full cell test rounds on the restricted housing unit the place Maier was held between 4 and 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 20, or between 2 and a couple of:30 a.m. on Feb. 22, regardless of her initials marking them off on the log.
Following one other dying at Waupun Correctional Establishment in October 2023, the jail carried out a brand new system for conserving monitor of rounds, “to obviously decide who was chargeable for the care of the inmates,” Woller defined on the sentencing. As a part of that system, employees have been required to conduct cell checks at particular intervals throughout their shift, and mark off who did these cell checks.
The investigation into Maier’s dying was impacted by the false documentation that Ransbottom accomplished rounds she didn’t full, Woller stated.
“Correctional officers are an essential a part of our prison justice system. If officers don’t full thorough and correct experiences, our jail programs can not run safely and successfully,” he stated.
Nonetheless, Woller stated, he didn’t imagine any incarceration time was essential for Ransbottom as a result of her “minimal function.”
Nonetheless, through the prosecution’s sentencing argument, Woller learn a letter from Maier’s mom, which he stated she requested to be learn at every of the sentencings for these convicted of crimes referring to her son’s dying.
Within the letter, Maier’s mom stated she applauds legislation enforcement and prosecutors for prosecuting her son’s dying, however she believes the employees whose actions contributed to Maier’s dying ought to obtain greater than “a slap on the wrist and the embarrassment of being caught and arrested.”
“I really feel that each one that ignored my son and subsequently had a hand in his dying ought to spend a while in jail in order that they study firsthand what it’s wish to be depending on different guards for meals and water and medical care and safety,” her letter reads. “Nothing can deliver my son again, however I might wish to assume that we as a society would a minimum of study one thing from this tragedy, so this by no means occurs to anybody else’s son.”
Ransbottom’s lawyer, Greg Petit, stated there was “some horrible work and horrible injustice that was achieved within the jail,” however that Ransbottom was not part of it.
Ransbottom usually labored first shift in a wholly totally different a part of the jail, however was known as in to assist with cell checks within the restrictive housing unit throughout a double shift she was required to take.
“My shopper, amongst others, have been working 16-hour shifts, with no selection, as a result of the jail was woefully understaffed,” Petit stated.
Waupun Correctional Establishment’s severe understaffing has been cited by employees as the rationale behind the string of latest deaths on the jail. In a span of 14 months, six prisoners on the most safety establishment have died. Maier’s dying was the fourth in that timeframe. In keeping with the prison criticism for Maier’s dying, the previous warden informed investigators “that is the inevitable final result of a long-term staffing deficit.”
According to DOC data, Waupun Correctional Establishment reached its peak safety staffing emptiness charge within the second half of February — throughout the time-frame of Maier’s dying — of 56.2% of correctional officer and sergeant positions unfilled.
The criticism says Hepp additionally informed investigators the restrictive housing unit was few employees members’ common place and never a well-liked place to work, so there’s “an angle of ‘simply get by’ from employees in restrictive housing.”
Petit stated Ransbottom isn’t denying that she both initialed off or allowed somebody to preliminary off on rounds in restrictive housing unit that she didn’t do. However her wrongdoing doesn’t quantity to the felony she was initially charged with earlier than the plea settlement, he stated.
“My shopper’s not the one which turned off water and forgot to show it again on and forgot to inform individuals the water was off, the one which didn’t give meals, the one which didn’t give medicines, the one which didn’t alert employees. She had nothing to do with any of these issues,” Petit stated.
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The utmost sentence Ransbottom might have confronted for violating the legislation of a state or county establishment, a Class C misdemeanor, was a $500 tremendous and 30 days in jail. De Vries agreed with attorneys that no incarceration time was essential in Ransbottom’s case.
“There’s a dying on this case, and what you probably did was improper. And I need to make it clear, nonetheless, that … from what I’ve been informed in courtroom right here as we speak and looking out on the criticism, what you probably did improper right here didn’t trigger or contribute to anyone’s dying,” De Vries stated to Ransbottom.
The choose stated he sees the cost Ransbottom is convicted of as an offense that’s separate from Maier’s dying. Nonetheless, as a result of the cell checks she falsely marked off to have performed would have introduced her by Maier’s cell shortly earlier than he died, she is in courtroom for one thing that might probably have in any other case been dealt with internally, he stated.
Courtroom proceedings proceed for different Waupun employees members, a few of whom face costs for Maier’s dying, and a few who face costs for the Oct. 30 dying of Cameron Williams, who died of a rare stroke after prisoners say his calls for help went ignored.
The next are their upcoming courtroom appearances:
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Jessica Ann Hosfelt, a nurse who is charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities for Maier’s death, has a movement listening to scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 27.
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Brandon Fisher, a correctional lieutenant charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities for both Maier’s and Williams’ deaths, has a phone scheduling convention set for 1 p.m. Sept. 30.
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Hepp, who’s charged with misconduct in public workplace, has a phone scheduling convention set for 1:15 p.m. Sept. 30.
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Alexander Hollfelder, a former correctional sergeant charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities for Maier’s death, has a phone scheduling convention set for 1:45 p.m. Sept. 30.
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Jeramie Chalker, a former correctional sergeant charged with misconduct in public workplace for Maier’s dying, is scheduled for an arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 1.
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Jamall Rabb Russell, a former correctional officer charged with abuse of residents of penal amenities and misconduct in public workplace for Maier’s dying, has a phone scheduling convention for 11:15 a.m. Oct. 14.
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Gwendolyn Vick, a nurse who is charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities for Williams’ death, has a phone scheduling convention at 9:15 a.m. Oct. 21.
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Tanner Leopold, a former correctional sergeant charged with abuse of residents of penal amenities for Williams’ dying, has a phone scheduling convention at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 28.
Hepp resigned from his function as warden days earlier than costs have been filed towards him and the opposite employees members. DOC spokeswoman Beth Hardtke informed USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that Hollfelder, Leopold, Chalker, Russell, Ransbottom, Hosfelt and Vick are not employed by DOC.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Observe her on X, previously Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This text initially appeared on Appleton Put up-Crescent: Former Waupun correctional officer convicted of misdemeanor
