Welcome to our new feature for paid subscribers: The Full Court Press! We dig through Marathon County Circuit Court filings to find the most interesting lawsuits, construction liens and other notable court filings.
For now, the main focus is on civil cases and construction liens, along with some updates on cases we are following. It’ll likely evolve over time.
Marathon County vs. Sustainable Resources
An ongoing story when I first moved back to town is the Northern Lights Mobile Home Park on Grand Avenue. The park continually seemed to have issues from the health department, which detailed hundreds of violations that they said made it unfit for human habitation.
The park lost its license multiple times, and every time people living there wondered where they would go. Someone else would buy it, promise to fix it up, and fail to deliver on those promises. And the city of Schofield would start the process over.
Finally, it was shut down.
But the last owner of the property, Sustainable Resources LLC, is now facing a lawsuit from Marathon County. The county health department performed an inspection on the property on May 29, and they found evidence of squatters on the property (it’s fenced off but the fencing only seems to extend along the road, so someone walking could easily get in). And, there is evidence of rodent infestation, health officials say.
While the property is supposed to be vacant, there are still mobile homes on the property.
According to the lawsuit, the health department sent a letter July 5 asking Sustainable Resources to clean up the property. They performed another inspection later in the month and nothing had been done.
The county is asking the court to either order Sustainable Resources to clean up the property, or allow the county to clean it up and then bill Sustainable Resources for the cost. And any penalties and fines the court might deem appropriate.
IRI Consultants vs Aspirus
According to a lawsuit filed in Marathon County court last month, IRI Consultants were hired in September of 2022 in response to concerns that Aspirus’ workforce was aiming to unionize.
IRI alleges in the lawsuit that Aspirus paid some of its early invoices but then didn’t pay a number of invoices related to work Aspirus had hired IRI to do. That amount totals $332,500, according to the suit. IRI alleges in the suit that none of the invoices were disputed by Aspirus at the time.
IRI alleges in the suit that Aspirus terminated its contract with IRI after IRI refused to negotiate on the invoices it sent to Aspirus.
Jeff Decker vs Keith Hilts
Jeff Decker filed a lawsuit against Keith Hilts saying that Hilts blocked his attempt at a records request. Decker says he requested the records in April, but Hilts denied it in May. Decker says the video would exonerate his behavior in an incident with a middle school principal in the district. Failure to provide the footage has led to him being excluded from school activities and slandered his reputation as a parent, according to the suit.
Hilts in a response to the suit said he had provided Decker with 11 videos. None of them had sound, as the district doesn’t record sound on its videos.
The suit is a writ of mandamus asking the court to force the release of the video.
Updates
Ken Charneski vs Kronenwetter
The substantial part of the case hasn’t really moved forward. The latest is that Charneski and Lee Turonie were to provide memorandums to the court, and Turonie filed a motion to strike as Charneski hadn’t followed the instructions to keep his word count to under 2,000. Turonie claims his word count was more than 3,100 words, but Charneski says it’s under 2,000 even counting the title. “The court must put an end to his antics and should strike the entirety of Chanreski’s memorandum,” Turonie argued.
As a recap, Charneski filed suit against current clerk Bobbi Jo Birk-LaBarge, former interim administrator Kim Manley and contracted village attorney Lee Turonie saying they violated open records laws in not providing legal invoices upon request. (Charneski is a board member in the village of Kronenwetter.) A judge dismissed Turonie from the case as open records laws don’t apply to a private attorney. According to court records, Charneski owes $100 from the decision.
State vs. Theresa Coleman
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled in this case for Sept. 31 (but according to court documents, a waiver of the preliminary hearing has been filed this week). Coleman is accused of stealing roughly $21,000 from the village through a scheme where she allegedly took utility payments from customers and applied them to her and her family members’s utility accounts instead. The scheme was discovered by other village employees during a routine financial audit. Coleman is free on a $5,000 signature bond.
State vs. Christopher Wood
Former mayoral candidate Chris Wood signed a $1,500 signature bond this week after he pleaded not guilty in Marathon County Court this week. Wood is not allowed to contact the victims and is not allowed at any Kwik Trips. Wood, a former mayoral candidate who prosecutors allege got into an altercation at Kwik Trip with a mixed-race couple and used the N word multiple times, is now facing a hate crime charge. He is currently fundraising for his defense. He’s currently raised about $2,200 of his $9,000 goal.
See last month’s Full Court Press, the first of the new series: