Man charged with fraud for attempting to cash forged check at Peoples State Bank in Boyceville
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 36 year-old-man has been charged in connection with allegedly attempting to cash a forged check for $3,500 at Peoples State Bank in Boyceville.
Dylan J. Corrigan is charged with one felony count of forgery, and one felony count each of fraud against a financial institution and of attempted fraud against a financial institution, along with two misdemeanor counts of bail jumping and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Dunn County Circuit Court Judge Christina M. Mayer set bail at $5,000 cash for Corrigan on February 26, and Corrigan is scheduled for another court appearance April 12.
The attempted bank fraud in Boyceville was followed by additional attempted fraud the next day at the Menomonie Peoples State Bank location, which then was followed by fleeing from a police officer during a traffic stop and a high-speed chase that eventually concluded in St. Croix County.
According to the criminal complaint, Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin learned about possible fraud being committed at Peoples State Bank on state Highway 79 in Boyceville on February 21 of this year.
Police Chief Lamkin met with a teller at the bank who said a man described as white and wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and a hat that said “Retired Drug Dealer” with hair in twin braids came into Peoples State Bank and asked to open an account.
The teller met with the man, whose Wisconsin driver’s license identified him as Dylan Corrigan.
Corrigan presented a check to the teller for $3,500 that he wished to use to open an account at the bank, the complaint states.
The check appeared to be issued from Designers Mirror and Glass, Inc., out of Warren, Michigan, payable to Dylan Corrigan and drawn upon a Comerica Bank account, according to the criminal complaint.
The bank teller told Police Chief Lamkin that Corrigan had commented he was staying with his girlfriend at a Donald Street address in Boyceville. He had left the bank on foot after being told that processing the check and opening the bank account would take a while.
The teller said Corrigan had called the bank later because he could not get access to the on-line banking services. Staff at the bank told Corrigan there was a technical delay, the complaint states.
The teller had talked with the owner of Designers Mirror and Glass and told Police Chief Lamkin that the business owner had told her the business’s bank account had been compromised and there were other recent fraudulent charges, according to the criminal complaint.
Designers Mirrors
Police Chief Lamkin contacted Designers Mirrors, and the business owner said that a forged check had been written out on his business account and that he does not know Dylan Corrigan, according to the criminal complaint.
Another person also had attempted to cash a forged check on the same account earlier in the day in Oklahoma. The business owner said he wanted to prosecute Corrigan for forgery and identity theft.
Police Chief Lamkin discovered Corrigan had warrants for his arrest with the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. The warrant with Dunn County was for misdemeanor counts of possessing an illegally obtained prescription and possession of amphetamine/LSD/psilocybin, with both counts carrying the modifier of as a party to a crime and as a repeat offender.
Court records in that case listed Corrigan’s address as a location in Eau Claire.
Police Chief Lamkin, along with two Dunn County deputies, went to an address on Donald Street that is a known location for drug users and transients. No cars were present and no one answered the door, according to the criminal complaint.
Menomonie
The next day, on February 22, a Menomonie Police Department officer overheard radio traffic from Police Chief Lamkin stating that Corrigan was at the Peoples State Bank branch on North Broadway in Menomonie, according to the criminal complaint.
The Menomonie police officer was aware that Police Chief Lamkin had been dealing with a possible fraud case the previous day involving Corrigan and that the police chief had probable cause to arrest Corrigan on active arrest warrants.
The Menomonie officer saw the suspect’s vehicle driving northbound on North Broadway. The vehicle was a black Jeep with registration from Massachusetts. The officer got behind the vehicle and activated his emergency lights, and then the vehicle pulled off on Cedar Avenue East.
As soon as the police officer got out of the vehicle, the driver, a blond woman wearing sun glasses, started driving away. The officer reported that the vehicle was fleeing, that it had gone through the Speedway parking lot onto Oak Avenue and then had turned north on North Broadway and got onto I-94 traveling west, according to the criminal complaint.
Bank employees
After alerting other agencies of the fleeing vehicle, the Menomonie officer returned to Peoples State Bank and spoke with one of the tellers, who said that Corrigan had arrived at the bank at 8 a.m. and had attempted to withdraw $1,500 from the account he said he had opened at the Boyceville branch but that the account did not have any funds, according to the criminal complaint.
The teller called the Boyceville branch of Peoples State bank and was told that Corrigan was suspected of fraud. The teller asked another bank employee at the Menomonie branch to check the vehicle, and the second employee read off the license plate number, which the teller then relayed to Boyceville.
The bank employees had seen a younger blond woman who was the driver and a man with brown hair in the passenger seat of the vehicle.
When asked what Corrigan had been wearing, the bank employee said he was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a beanie-style hat that said “Retired Drug Dealer.” The man’s phone also had a broken screen, and the man had blood on his hand, but the bank employee was not sure if the man had just cut himself or if it was old blood, the complaint states.
The bank employee also said Corrigan “reeked” of alcohol and that he seemed twitchy. Corrigan had a tattoo from his right ear down to his collarbone as well.
Later on, after Dunn County and St. Croix County deputies had pursued the vehicle in a high-speed chase that extended into St. Croix County, and the vehicle had been impounded by Dunn County, the Menomonie officer met with Police Chief Lamkin at the Dunn County impound lot.
When searched, the vehicle with the Massachusetts license plates had Narcan kits and numerous drug use kits. A beanie with the phrase “Retired Drug Dealer” also was found in the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
Driver
When the Menomonie officer spoke with her after she was arrested, the vehicle operator, Annalese Willmarth, admitted she had been driving and had taken Corrigan to Peoples State Bank and that the other people in the vehicle had pressured her to drive away when the police officer initiated a traffic stop, according to the criminal complaint.
Willmarth said she was pressured to drive away because she had a warrant out for her arrest and did not want to go to jail, the complaint states.
Pursuit
A deputy with the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department had heard the radio traffic related to the vehicle that had driven away from the Menomonie police officer and the alleged fraud at Peoples State Bank and learned that the vehicle was westbound on I-94, according to the criminal complaint.
The deputy drove south on county Highway Q toward I-94 in the event that the vehicle left the interstate at Exit 32.
The deputy saw the black Jeep with Massachusetts license plates on Highway Q, turned around and turned on his lights. When it became apparent the vehicle was accelerating away from him, the deputy turned on his siren.
The vehicle failed to stop for the stop sign at Highway Q and U.S. Highway 12, turned west on Highway 12, and then accelerated again, according to the criminal complaint.
The deputy turned on the traffic radar, and the target vehicle showed a speed of 92 mph in a 55 mph zone. The deputy reported he was operating his vehicle at around 100 mph in an attempt to close the distance between the two vehicles but was not gaining much ground. The deputy continued the pursuit into St. Croix County on Highway 12, the criminal complaint states.
Tire devices
A Wisconsin State Patrol squad was set up with a tire deflation device on Highway 12 near Wilson, but the driver of the Jeep saw the tire deflation device and turned north on county Highway W and then onto a town road and headed out to state Highway 128, where the vehicle failed to stop for a stop sign and then turned south on Highway 128, according to the criminal complaint.
The Jeep then turned onto I-94 and continued westbound.
Multiple squad vehicles from the Wisconsin State Patrol and the St. Croix County’s Sheriff’s Department attempted to stop the vehicle with tire deflation devices. The Jeep either maneuvered around them, or law enforcement officers were not able to use them because there were other vehicles close by, the criminal complaint states.
Eventually, a St. Croix County deputy was able to deploy a tire deflation device. The vehicle started to slow down and pulled into the ditch. After the vehicle came to a stop, the Dunn County deputy saw the passenger door open, and a glass methamphetamine pipe was thrown out of the passenger door. Two cell phones were also thrown out of the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
Five people in the vehicle were taken into custody.
The Dunn County deputy contacted Police Chief Lamkin to ask what to do with the vehicle since there could be evidence of fraud in the vehicle, and then the two of them determined the vehicle should be towed to Dunn County’s impound lot to be secured until a search warrant could be issued by a judge.
The Dunn County deputy retrieved the glass meth pipe, and a trooper with the Wisconsin State Patrol placed the two cell phones back inside the vehicle, the criminal complaint states.
Willmarth
Willmarth was transported to the Dunn County jail and was charged with felony fleeing and cited for failure to stop at a stop sign and speeding. In addition, Willmarth had an active arrest warrant in Chippewa County, according to the criminal complaint.
The deputy turned over the glass meth pipe to another deputy, who reported that Alex David Waldera had been a passenger in the vehicle and had admitted that a methamphetamine pipe had been passed around to the vehicle occupants while traveling from Boyceville to Peoples State Bank in Menomonie, the criminal complaint states.
Waldera is charged in Dunn County with one felony count of bail jumping and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia and is scheduled for a court appearance April 11.
Waldera, who also has an Eau Claire address, is charged in another Dunn County case with two felony counts of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver and three misdemeanor counts of possessing drug paraphernalia and bail jumping.
Judge James Peterson accepted a deferred prosecution agreement for Waldera in October of 2021.
In March of this year, a motion was filed with the court to revoke the deferred prosecution agreement. A motion hearing for Waldera is scheduled in Dunn County Circuit Court on April 10, and a hearing on the possibility of revoking the deferred prosecution agreement is scheduled for October 21.
Fleeing
Annalese Willmarth, also listed with an Eau Claire address, was charged with two felony counts of a vehicle operator fleeing an officer and possession of an electric weapon as well as two misdemeanor counts of bail jumping and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Willmarth reached a plea deal with the Dunn County district attorney’s office and pleaded no contest and was found guilty by Judge Mayer on March 12.
The no contest plea was for count 1, a felony count of fleeing an officer.
Judge Mayer withheld sentencing and placed Willmarth on three years of probation, concurrent to any other sentence, and ordered Willmarth to serve 180 days in jail as a condition of probation.
The remaining counts, including two traffic cases, were dismissed but read into the record for sentencing.
Narcotics
According to on-line court records, Corrigan pleaded no contest and was found guilty on one count of delivery of Schedule I or II narcotics on April 28, 2022, in Eau Claire County Circuit Court.
A second felony count of second degree recklessly endangering safety was dismissed but read into the record for sentencing.
Corrigan was sentenced to three years in state prison on April 28, 2022, and after serving the prison time, would be placed on five years of extended supervision.
A letter dated June 23, 2023, sent to Eau Claire County Circuit Court from Department of Corrections Agent Christine Suter recommended early discharge for Corrigan.
Eau Claire County Circuit Court Judge Michael A. Schumacher ordered on June 26, 2023, that the Department of Corrections effectuate the change for Corrigan from confinement in prison to extended supervision.
On April 10, 2018, Corrigan pleaded no contest and was found guilty of forgery in Eau Claire County. Sentencing was withheld, and he was placed on probation for three years.
On July 21, 2021, Corrigan’s probation was revoked, and on September 29, 2021, Corrigan was ordered to serve 18 months in state prison followed by two years of extended supervision.
