Waupun prison lieutenant pleads in inmate deaths

A man who worked as a Waupun Correctional Institution lieutenant when two incarcerated residents died pleaded no contest to two low-level misdemeanors in connection with the in-custody deaths.

At a plea hearing Feb. 11, Brandon Fisher, 31, of Fox Lake, had two felony charges of abuse of residents of penal facilities reduced to two misdemeanor charges of violating the laws of a state institution.

Fisher has a sentencing hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. May 29 in Dodge County Circuit Court in Juneau.

Fisher was among nine Waupun Correctional Institution staff members arrested and charged in June 2024. He was one of seven charged in connection with the February 2024 death of 63-year-old Donald Maier, who died of malnutrition and probable dehydration in what the Dodge County medical examiner ruled a homicide, and one of three charged in connection with the October 2023 death of 24-year-old Cameron Williams, who died of a rare stroke.

All nine staff members arrested in June 2024 were originally charged with felonies. Of those, four cases have concluded with reduced or dismissed charges. Former Warden Randall Hepp and former correctional officer Sarah Ransbottom were each convicted of violating the laws of a state institution. Two others – former correctional sergeants Jeramie Chalker and Alexander Hollfelder – had their cases dismissed.

The charges against staff came amid scrutiny of Waupun’s maximum-security prison for a string of seven resident deaths within two years and a federal investigation into an alleged contraband smuggling ring. Current and former staff have tied many of the issues at Waupun, and in other state prisons, to long-term staffing shortages.

Williams was 24 years old when he died of a rare stroke caused by multiple blood clots in his brain in his cell at Waupun Correctional Institution in October 2023. Fellow residents said Williams’ cries for help in the hours before his death went ignored by staff members.

Three staff members were criminally charged in connection with Williams’ death: Fisher, former Correctional Sergeant Tanner Leopold and former prison nurse Gwendolyn Vick.

According to the criminal complaint for Williams’ death, the three staffers discussed entering Williams’ cell the night before he died after they were unable to get a response from him during a welfare check, but never conducted a cell entry.

Leopold is charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities and has a telephone scheduling conference at 1 p.m. March 23.

Vick is charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities. She had an evidentiary hearing in October, with a decision on that scheduled for 1 p.m. March 17. She has a trial set for May 11-28.

While Williams’ death was still under investigation by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office, another death occurred at the Waupun Correctional Institution.

Maier died Feb. 22, 2024, after prison staff intermittently shut off his water and didn’t give him food or medications for multiple days, investigators found.

The Dodge County Medical Examiner ruled Maier’s death a homicide. Seven staff members were criminally charged.

The highest ranking of those, Hepp, was accused of not ensuring staff members were properly trained on the prison’s policies and procedures – including documenting when a resident’s water is turned off and meals are missed. At Hepp’s plea and sentencing hearing in April 2025, Dodge County District Attorney Andrea Will said that on the restrictive housing unit, where Maier died, there was a “complete breakdown of following the policies and procedures of this institution.”

A criminal complaint for Maier’s death said Hepp told investigators an apathetic attitude of “just get by” by staff in the restrictive housing unit “is the inevitable outcome of a long-term staffing deficit in this type of environment.”

According to the complaint, Fisher was the lieutenant of the restrictive housing unit for multiple consecutive days before Maier died. Prosecutors accused him of not taking further steps to check on Maier’s well-being after he was informed of Maier’s deteriorating condition by multiple correctional officers.

Fisher told investigators that on Feb. 21, 2024, one day before Maier’s death, a correctional officer told Fisher they were concerned Maier may be having a seizure. Fisher said at that time he did not believe the officer’s description of Maier’s behavior was a seizure, and Fisher was “pulled away to a higher priority issue on the unit,” the complaint said.

Other former staff members were accused of the following:

• Chalker, a former correctional sergeant, was accused of initialing that he had completed two cell check rounds on the restrictive housing unit that he didn’t complete. His case was dismissed in April 2025 at the request of prosecutors, who said the investigation determined Chalker had been instructed by his superior officer to fill out the rounds sheets and was merely following orders.
• Hollfelder, a former correctional sergeant, was accused of not notifying supervisors or initiating a welfare check after he was told of Maier’s condition during his shifts on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22, 2024, according to the complaint. However, the case against him was dropped in September 2025 at prosecutors’ request, after they determined Hollfelder properly communicated concerns to his supervisor and a member of the prison’s health services unit and had limited contact with Maier due to time spent off work on family and medical leave.
• Jessica Hosfelt, a former prison nurse, is accused of not following the prison’s policy for a hunger strike, despite being notified Feb. 20, 2024, about concerns Maier was “not eating food for a couple days, drinking sewage water and playing in the toilet,” the complaint said. Later that day, she went to Maier’s cell for a welfare check after a correctional lieutenant reported Maier may have had a seizure. Hosfelt didn’t enter the cell, but determined he was “alert and responsive” and not having a medical emergency. After Maier’s death, Hosfelt told a detective that security staff make the ultimate decision on when to physically go into a cell to check on a prisoner’s well-being – but multiple security staff told investigators they rely on health staff to tell them when a situation arises to the need of entering a cell for a medical reason, a detective testified at Hosfelt’s preliminary hearing. She’s charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities and has a telephone scheduling conference March 3.
• Jamall Russell, a former correctional officer, didn’t deliver breakfast or lunch to Maier for four days in a row, from Feb. 18 through Feb. 21, 2024, and didn’t follow procedure for a hunger strike, according to the complaint. Investigators determined Russell had seven days of contact with Maier on the restrictive housing unit, from Feb. 15 through Feb. 21, 2024. Russell said outside of incidents where a prisoner expresses self-harm or suicidal ideation, it was not “in line with the way he was trained” to write an incident report, the complaint said. However, he said he reported his observations of Maier to his sergeant. According to the complaint, Russell said he didn’t distribute medications to Maier because Maier would “either yell obscenities or ignore him completely.” Russell also initialed that he completed 14 cell check rounds on Feb. 18 and 19 in the restrictive housing unit that he never completed, according to surveillance footage. Russell is charged with both abuse of residents in penal facilities and misconduct in public office. He has a plea hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on March 11.