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2013 brought resolution to several old crimes

By: Associated Press//December 29, 2013//

2013 brought resolution to several old crimes

By: Associated Press//December 29, 2013//

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By DINESH RAMDE
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Several Wisconsin residents were sentenced in 2013 for decades-old crimes, while new slayings left residents horrified. Here are some of Wisconsin’s other top news stories:

TODDLER’S 1957 DEATH 

A 77-year-old Sheboygan woman was convicted in February of killing her toddler more than 50 years earlier. Prosecutors said Ruby Klokow threw her 6-month-old daughter roughly against a sofa, causing her to bounce to the floor. Klokow, who was charged after her adult son came forward in 2008 with stories of horrific child abuse, received a maximum sentence in May of 10 years in prison.
Ruby Klokow, 77, was convicted in February of killing her toddler more than 50 years earlier.

A 77-year-old Sheboygan woman was convicted in February of killing her toddler more than 50 years earlier. Prosecutors said Ruby Klokow threw her 6-month-old daughter roughly against a sofa, causing her to bounce to the floor. Klokow, who was charged after her adult son came forward in 2008 with stories of horrific child abuse, received a maximum sentence in May of 10 years in prison.

CHILDREN KILLED

Three children locked in a bedroom while their mom went to work died in an April house fire in West Allis. Their mother, 25-year-old Angelica Belen, was sentenced in September to 18 years in prison and 18 years of extended supervision for their deaths. Belen’s family and city officials criticized child welfare workers for failing to remove the children from her care even after she ignored warnings and repeatedly left them alone. A state investigation led to the overhaul of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare’s in-home services program.

FARMHOUSE DEATHS

Jaren Kuester, of Waukesha, was charged in May with killing a retired farmer, the farmer’s wife and the farmer’s brother at a home near Wiota a month earlier. Kuester’s father told journalists that the family had warned authorities that Kuester could be dangerous and tried to get him help. A judge ordered Kuester confined to a mental institution in October.

POLICE STRIP-SEARCH SCANDAL

Former Milwaukee police officer Michael Vagnini looks at the bailiffs as they come to handcuff him following his sentencing June 21 before Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Kristyna Wentz-Graff)
Former Milwaukee police officer Michael Vagnini looks at the bailiffs as they come to handcuff him following his sentencing June 21 before Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Kristyna Wentz-Graff)

A Milwaukee police officer was convicted of conducting illegal body-cavity searches on male residents, under the pretense of looking for drugs that were never found. Michael Vagnini was sentenced in June to 26 months in prison, and three other officers were convicted of lesser offenses for allegedly watching Vagnini and failing to intervene. At least 20 people have filed lawsuits against the police department over the strip searches.

CHURCH ABUSE

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released 6,000 pages of documents in July that included personnel files for 42 priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse against them. The documents showed New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan came up with a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood while Dolan was archbishop of Milwaukee. The cardinal implemented the plan after Vatican officials failed to act on his pleas to defrock problem priests.

PRAYER DEATH

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the second-degree reckless homicide conviction of a central Wisconsin couple who had prayed rather than seek medical attention for their 11-year-old daughter, who died of untreated diabetes in 2008. Dale and Leilani Neumann, of Weston, argued on appeal that state laws weren’t clear on when someone becomes criminally liable for engaging in prayer. The justices rejected that argument 6-1 in July, saying the statute on child abuse was sufficiently clear.

POLICE KILLER RELEASED

A man who pleaded insanity after killing two Waukesha County police officers in 1975 was released from a mental hospital in September after doctors testified he may have been sane all along. Alan Randall’s good behavior had earned him privileges and limited freedoms in the hospital, and prosecutors said if he’d shown the same behavior in prison he’d have been paroled as early as 1992. Instead, he remained institutionalized for 21 more years, in part because the judge was concerned about whether Randall’s initial homicidal trigger persisted.

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond in Madison also contributed to this report.

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