Judge dismisses Mittelstadt motion to withdraw plea

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  —  A Dunn County judge has dismissed a handwritten motion filed by Beth M. Mittelstadt to withdraw her “no contest” plea in connection with a house fire and a machete attack against police officers.

Mittelstadt and her attorney, Chris Gramstrup, communicated by telephone with Judge Rod Smeltzer in Dunn County Circuit Court during a hearing June 21.

Gramstrup was given a deadline of May 31 to file any motions with the court, including a formal motion for Mittelstadt to withdraw her plea of no contest that resulted in Judge Smeltzer finding her guilty.

Gramstrup did not file any motions by the deadline and requested that the judge dismiss the motion that Mittelstadt had filed with the court.

Judge Smeltzer subsequently granted the dismissal of Mittelstadt’s motion.

Mittelstadt is currently serving seven years in Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac.

Mittelstadt had pleaded no contest and was found guilty in June of 2015 and was sentenced in December to a total of 15.5 years in prison and eight years of probation on a charge of criminal damage to property related to the suspected arson of a house on Third Avenue in Colfax in May of 2014 occupied by Katy Bundy and her children.

Mittelstadt also was sentenced on two counts of recklessly endangering safety related to using a machete to threaten Colfax Police Chief William Anderson and Sergeant Todd Kurtzhals of the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department in December of 2014 at an apartment in downtown Colfax.

Police Chief Anderson shot Mittelstadt with his duty weapon when she continued to threaten him with the machete.

Judge Smeltzer ordered the sentences to run concurrent to each other, resulting in Mittelstadt serving a sentence in state prison for seven years with three years of probation.

Initially, Mittelstadt was charged with felony counts of arson and attempted murder but agreed to a plea deal that ended up in the charges being reduced to felony criminal damage to property and recklessly endangering safety.

Mittelstadt filed a handwritten letter with the court in December expressing her desire to withdraw her plea of no contest due to ineffective counsel.

Judge Smeltzer held a hearing in January and postponed any action on the handwritten request until Mittelstadt had found an attorney to represent her.

Mittelstadt previously was represented by John O’Boyle, who at the time of Mittelstadt’s sentencing was assigned to the case as a public defender.

O’Boyle has since become the district attorney in Barron County and was Mittelstadt’s third public defender.

Gramstrup, who had been assigned to handle the case as a public defender, told the court at the March 11 hearing he was unaware of Mittelstadt’s handwritten letter.

Mittelstadt appeared in court in April of 2015 with the first public defender assigned to her case, Dan Chapman, and said that she wanted a new attorney.

Several months later, Mittelstadt appeared in court with her second attorney, John Bachman, after writing a letter to Judge Rod Smeltzer stating that she wanted a third new attorney.

Mittelstadt told the court that Chapman and Bachman had not communicated with her often enough and had not returned her telephone calls.

The handwritten motion to withdraw her plea of no contest also was based on Mittelstadt’s belief that her attorneys had provided ineffective counsel.

Judge Smeltzer explained to Mittelstadt on several occasions that attorneys are not always able to immediately return their clients’ telephones calls since they could be tied up in court for the day or meeting with other clients.