By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A former Boyceville man charged with delivering methamphetamine and with election fraud has been sentenced to one year in prison and three years of extended supervision.
Anthony P. Lippert, age 40, appeared with his attorney, Francis Rivard, February 4 before Judge Rod Smeltzer in Dunn County Circuit Court for a plea and sentencing hearing.
Lippert was charged with one felony count of delivering methamphetamine with a “repeater” modifier and one felony count of maintaining a drug trafficking place with a repeater modifier.
Lippert also was charged with one count of felony election fraud in connection with signing nomination papers for a candidate placed on the ballot in the spring election in April of 2020 for the Boyceville Village Board.
Lippert pleaded “no contest” to felony election fraud, and Judge Smeltzer accepted Lippert’s plea and found him guilty.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge of delivering methamphetamine.
Judge Smeltzer sentenced Lippert to nine months in jail on the election fraud charges, concurrent to his current sentence in a Chippewa County case, and sentenced Lippert to one year in prison and three years of extended supervision on the drug charges, concurrent to the sentence on the election fraud.
Lippert is currently serving a two-year prison term in connection with a Chippewa County case in which he was charged with one felony count of battery by a prisoner, one felony count of strangulation and suffocation and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
On May 30, 2019, in Chippewa County, Lippert was found guilty after pleading no contest to the felony count of battery by a prisoner and was sentenced to 36 months of probation and given 71 days of credit for time served.
The charges of strangulation and suffocation and disorderly conduct were dismissed but read into the record for sentencing.
Lippert’s probation was revoked in Chippewa County Circuit Court on April 13, 2020, and he was sentenced to two years in state prison and two years of extended supervision with 106 days of credit for time served.
Judge Smeltzer ordered the Dunn County sentences of nine months in jail, one year in prison and three years of extended supervision to run concurrently to the sentence in the Chippewa County case, which means, in effect, that Lippert will be on extended supervision for three years rather than two years.
Drug charges
According to the criminal complaint, a Dunn County investigator was contacted by two confidential informants in February of 2020 who said they were able to purchase methamphetamine from Anthony Lippert at his residence located at 1020 Main Street in Boyceville.
The investigator met with the two CI and provided them with $120 of prerecorded West Central Drug Task Force buy funds and then equipped one of the informants with audio and video body wires.
Both of the informants arrived at Lippert’s residence at shortly after 1 p.m. They completed their transaction and then met with the investigator again. The informants told the investigator Lippert had gotten the methamphetamine from a back bedroom while they waited in the kitchen, according to the complaint.
Both of the informants completed a voluntary statement indicating Lippert had sold CI No. 2 $120 worth of methamphetamine. Both of the informants also indicated they knew it was Lippert because they had met through a mutual friend, the complaint states.
The investigator reviewed the video surveillance and identified the man who handed the suspected methamphetamine to the informant as Lippert.
Election fraud
According to the criminal complaint, Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin became aware of Lippert signing nomination papers for a candidate for the Boyceville Village Board after speaking with Darlene Lee, Boyceville clerk-treasurer, who said that one of the candidates on the ballot for the village board in the spring election had come to the village hall to register to vote and had identified himself with a Minnesota driver’s license.
Lee said she had told the man he could not register to vote without a valid Wisconsin photo identification and also discussed with the police chief that the man had filed to run for village trustee when it appeared he was not a resident of Boyceville. Lee also noted the man had requested to be removed from the ballot in the spring election, but she had told him it was too late for him to be removed, the complaint states.
Police Chief Lamkin requested a copy of the nomination paperwork on which the man had listed his address as 1020 Main Street in Boyceville.
According to the complaint, Police Chief Lamkin was aware “that RR owns numerous properties in town that he rents to his employees at Speciality Pallet Company, including 1020 Main Street.” When the police chief checked the man’s driver’s license and vehicle registration, both listed the man’s address as being in Richfield, Minnesota.
Police Chief Lamkin reviewed the signature pages for the village board candidate’s nomination papers and observed the signature of Anthony Lippert, 1020 Main Street, Apartment B.
A search of online court records revealed numerous felony convictions for Lippert in an Eau Claire County case (conviction date of June 19, 2015), two Chippewa County cases (with convictions in 2016 and 2019, with the 2019 case resulting in a 36 month sentence) and a second Eau Claire County case (with a conviction in 2019 and a three-year sentence), according to the complaint.
Police Chief Lamkin eventually concluded the man who had taken out nomination papers for the Boyceville Village Board was, in fact, a resident of Boyceville when he declared his candidacy but that he had not transferred his driver’s license or vehicle registration as he was required to do and would receive a warning.
