By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A Dunn County judge has ordered a second man involved in a burglary at a Rock Creek home destroyed by fire to help pay $62,785 in restitution.
Ryan J.Weiss, 30, appeared in Dunn County Circuit Court before Judge Rod Smeltzer for a plea and sentencing hearing April 29.
Weiss entered a plea of “no contest,” and Judge Smeltzer accepted his plea and found Weiss guilty on one felony count of theft of movable property worth more than $10,000.
Judge Smeltzer withheld sentence and placed Weiss on three years of probation, and as a condition of probation, ordered Weiss to serve six months in the county jail, concurrent with the sentence in a separate case in which Weiss was found guilty on a deferred prosecution agreement for bail jumping and sentenced to six months in the county jail.
Judge Smeltzer ordered Weiss to report to the county jail no later than June 1.
Michael A. Tenney was found guilty of the same burglary to a Rock Creek home destroyed by fire during a court hearing before Judge Smeltzer March 1.
The burglary occurred in a home in the Town of Rock Creek that burned October 11, 2017. The fire displaced the family from the residence.
One of the items stolen from the house, which is believed to have been sold by Weiss and Tenney, was a signed red No. 45 Michael Jordan basketball jersey given to the family’s six-year-old daughter and made available through the “Make A Wish” foundation.
Judge Smeltzer accepted Tenney’s guilty plea March 1, imposed and stayed a sentence of 18 months in prison and 18 months of extended supervision, ordered Tenney to spend 60 days in the county jail and placed Tenney on three years of probation.
According to a news release from the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department dated November 13, 2017, in the early morning hours of November 2, a family member had arrived at the residence in the Town of Rock Creek and discovered two unknown men with a vehicle behind the residence.
The family member saw two men inside the house with headlamps who were removing property.
When the woman asked the men what they were doing, they said they were “looting the house.” The woman told the two men to “get out.” The men had a garbage can full of property from the house that they loaded into their vehicle and then left.
Tenney told investigators he had seen Weiss in possession of three or four older BB guns matching the description of BB guns stolen from the house in Rock Creek, according to the complaint.
Tenney took investigators to the garage of his residence in Eau Claire and showed them several tool boxes and said he believed Weiss had stolen most if not all of the tools.
Tenney also showed investigators a backpack containing two sets of camouflage clothing he said Weiss and his girlfriend, Tabitha Sears, would wear when they robbed houses at night, the complaint states.
The backpack also contained an antique handheld magnifying glass later identified by a family member as belonging to her father and that had been stolen during the burglary in Rock Creek.
Tenney is scheduled for a restitution hearing before Judge Smeltzer May 7 at 8:30 a.m.
