Charge against ex-Waupun warden in inmate deaths reduced to a misdemeanor

JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have reduced a felony misconduct charge against a former Wisconsin prison warden implicated in two inmate deaths to a misdemeanor as part of a plea deal, online court records indicated Monday.

Warden Randall Hepp was charged with felony misconduct in office in June 2024 in the deaths of Cameron Williams and Donald Maier at the Waupun Correctional Institution, the state’s oldest maximum security facility. He announced his retirement days before he was charged.

Online court records show prosecutors reduced the misconduct charge Monday to violating state-county institution laws. The misconduct charge carried a maximum sentence of three-and-a-half years in prison and $10,000 in fines. The violation count is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and $500 in fines.

Hepp was due to appear in Dodge County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon for a joint plea-sentencing hearing. Online records show a plea agreement was filed Monday morning and Hepp was given a guilty plea questionnaire, a form that asks defendants if they knowingly and voluntarily plead guilty.

Hepp’s attorney, Michael Steinle, did not return a message from The Associated Press.

Eight members of Hepp’s staff were charged in June with abuse or misconduct in the deaths. Online court records show charges were dismissed against one of them this month and another pleaded guilty in September to a reduced count of misdemeanor violating laws governing a penal institution and was assessed a $250 fine. Cases are pending against the remaining six staffers.

Williams died of a stroke at the prison in October 2023. His body was not discovered for at least 12 hours. Maier died of dehydration and malnutrition in February 2024.

According to court documents, Williams told an inmate advocate three days before he died that he needed to go to a hospital but no action was taken. He had fallen in the shower two days earlier and had to crawl into his cell. A day before that he collapsed on the way back to his cell but neither fall was documented. No one checked on him the night he died.

Maier had severe mental health problems but either refused or wasn’t given his medication in the eight days leading up to his death, according to court documents. Another inmate told investigators guards turned off Maier’s water after he flooded his cell. Guards said they turned water off and on for Maier, but investigators said no one told him when it was on and no one gave him food in the four days before his death.

Asked if prison workers understand the water shut-off policy, Hepp told investigators that policies go out via email but he doesn’t think anyone at any prison reads them. He said no American jail documents an inmate’s every meal.

The prison, with a stone exterior and high, castle-like guard towers, opened in 1854 and has long been a target for closure. Seven inmates, including Williams and Maier, have died there since 2023. One killed himself, one died of a fentanyl overdose and one died of what investigators suspect was suicide. Two more deaths are under investigation.

A federal investigation into smuggling at the prison has so far netted at least one former employee who pleaded guilty to smuggling cellphones and drugs in exchange for money. Inmates have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions and a lack of health care.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has rejected calls to shutter the facility, despite the problems. He has said he wants broader criminal justice reform and a plan to house the facility’s roughly 1,700 inmates.