By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 38-year-old man living in Downing has been charged with seven felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and one felony count of receiving stolen property.
Brandon J. Hermanson is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Dunn County Circuit Court October 8 before Judge Luke M. Wagner.
In addition to the seven felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and one felony count of receiving stolen property worth between $2,500 and $5,000, Hermanson is charged with two misdemeanor counts of receiving or concealing stolen property worth less than $2,500 and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia.
Each of the 11 counts carries a modifier of being a repeat offender.
Judge James Peterson set a cash bail of $25,000 for Hermanson on February 19.
According to online court records, Hermanson’s current address is the Dodge Correctional Institute in Waupun. His address was updated August 17.
Stolen UTV
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department on February 2 of this year about a stolen John Deere Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) out of Wood County. The UTV was recovered in Chippewa County on January 30.
Additional investigation revealed that an individual had purchased the UTV from a person in Eau Claire County. After the UTV was purchased, the woman went to register it but was unable to register the UTV because the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources informed her that it was stolen.
The Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department took custody of the UTV and was able to identify the person who had sold it. The Chippewa County investigator made contact with the person who had sold the UTV, identified in the criminal complaint as Victim#1.
Victim #1 said he had purchased the UTV at the address of 126 Main Street in the Village of Downing on January 9 for $4,500. After Victim#1 found out the UTV was stolen, he paid back the purchase price the woman had paid of $9,300, according to the criminal complaint.
Victim#1 said he had received a bill of sale for the UTV but believed the seller’s name was fictitious.
Wood County
Victim#2 informed the Wood County Sheriff’s Department that his UTV had been stolen from his residence sometime between January 1 and January 6, 2021. The UTV was parked at his seasonal property in the Town of Hansen in Wood County. During the burglary, second-hand silverware also had been stolen, along with a metal cart, according to the criminal complaint.
The Dunn County investigator drove past 126 Main Street in Downing on February 2. While there were three vehicles parked in the driveway, the investigator could only see one license plate, which was registered in Wisconsin.
The vehicle was registered to an individual who worked in Glenwood City. When the investigator talked to the man, he told the investigator he had sold the UTV and explained that his “friend” from Wisconsin Rapids was going through a divorce and did not want to lose the UTV. The friend was later identified as Brandon Hermanson. The man said he had posted the UTV for sale.
When asked about the bill of sale and the fictitious name of Dave Clarke, the man said Hermanson had told him to use that name. The man did confirm that his actual telephone number had been listed on the bill of sale, according to the criminal complaint.
When the investigator asked where Hermanson was located, the man said Hermanson had moved into his residence at 126 Main Street in Downing about two weeks earlier and that he had met Hermanson in prison. The man said that he, Hermanson and a woman with whom he believed Hermanson had a relationship were the only three people living at his residence.
The investigator asked if Hermanson had brought the UTV on a trailer, and the man said it had been on a trailer. When the investigator asked about the location of the trailer, the man said he had sold it on Craigslist to someone identified as Victim#3 in the criminal complaint.
The man said Hermanson did not have a job and that he believed the vehicle Hermanson drove, a dark colored Chevrolet Traverse, belonged to the woman with whom Hermanson had a relationship.
The investigator contacted the man’s probation agent, who issued a warrant for the man’s arrest. The man willingly turned himself in to the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Department later that night, according to the complaint.
When the Dunn County investigator spoke to a Wood County investigator, the Wood County investigator said Hermanson had a history of drug use, thefts and burglaries and that he was a person of interest in several other thefts and burglaries.
The Dunn County investigator also learned that Hermanson was a person of interest/suspect in a firearms incident that took place in Sun Prairie.
Long guns
A witness, identified in the criminal complaint as a confidential citizen informant (CCI), told the investigator that he/she had observed Hermanson removing “long guns” from the Traverse on February 1 and taking them into his bedroom at the residence at 126 Main Street.
The weekend prior, the CCI had observed Hermanson arrive at the residence with chainsaws, tools and a tool box and said the chainsaws were in the basement at 126 Main Street. Two CLAM ice augers also were located in the basement, the CCI said.
The trailer on which the UTV had been transported was a fourteen-foot black steel trailer with a wooden deck, the CCI said.
The investigator contacted Victim#3, who said he had purchased the trailer at a residence in Downing for $1,100 and that he had paid cash, the complaint states.
The Dunn County investigator provided the information about the trailer to a Wood County investigator, who said the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department had taken a complaint of a stolen trailer matching the description of the trailer that Victim#3 had provided. Not long after that, Victim#3 contacted the Dunn County investigator and said he was in possession of the stolen trailer. On February 5, Victim#3 dropped off the stolen trailer at the Dunn County Sheriff’s department, according to the complaint.
Search warrant
On the afternoon of February 5, several Dunn County investigators and deputies, along with K9 Rip, investigators from Chippewa County and the Chippewa Falls Police Department, a sergeant from the St Croix County Sheriff’s Department and Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin, executed a search warrant at 126 Main Street in Downing, according to the criminal complaint.
No one was home at the time.
In a first-floor bedroom, law enforcement officers located a glass pipe which had been used to smoke methamphetamine, a small bag of a crystal substance believed to be methamphetamine (which later field tested positive for methamphetamine) and a total of seven firearms (.270 WIN Savage Axis; Ruger 10/22 with Bushnell scope; 16 GA shotgun; .223 Savage Axis; 30-06 Springfield Remington; Zbrojovka rifle; 62×39 Norinco Rifle).
The officers also discovered three firearm cases, a MarCum sonar fish finder used for ice fishing with the initials “LGH” written in permanent pen, several license plates (which turned out not to be stolen), miscellaneous tools and a key fob belonging to a 2010 white Ford F-150 that contained the initials “DP.”
In the living room, law enforcement officers discovered between the couch cushions the owner’s manual and a Wisconsin license plate which belonged to a stolen vehicle from Wood County.
In the basement, law enforcement officers found two CLAM ice augers, three STIHL chainsaws, additional drug paraphernalia and miscellaneous tools and power tools, according to the complaint.
The Dunn County investigator contacted the man who lived at 126 Main Street at the St. Croix County jail and confirmed that Hermanson’s bedroom was on the first floor of the residence.
The investigator asked about the tote of tools, guitars and other items in the basement, and the man said the guitars and tote of tools belonged to an individual with the initials of AC.
“I know that AC has ‘sticky’ hands and was often found to be in possession of items that were stolen. I asked (the man) why AC dropped off those items, and he said AC asked him if he could sell them for him,” according to the complaint.
On February 7, a teletype was sent out to numerous counties informing them of Hermanson’s Department of Corrections warrant and for officer safety concerns.
On February 11, the Dunn County investigator was informed that Hermanson had been taken into custody in Wisconsin Rapids. The investigator also learned that the truck stolen from Wood County was recovered at a location in Minnesota.
Polk County
The investigator drafted a notification of the items located at 126 Main Street and was contacted by investigators from Polk County who said they believed some of the items had been taken during a burglary in Polk County.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Department had responded to a burglary that was no longer in progress on February 1. Victim#4 said he had heard a knock on the door, two people, a man and a woman, said they were lost and their cell phone had died. They asked to use a cell phone charger and to use the bathroom, according to the complaint.
Victim#4 was pepper-sprayed, pushed to the ground, tied up and his residence was burglarized. The man and the woman left in a dark-colored SUV. Ice augers, a sonar ice fish finder and firearms were taken during the incident. Polk County investigators believed some of the property recovered at 126 Main Street was related to the burglary in Polk County.
The Dunn County investigator contacted a woman identified with the initials of DP and asked if she had recently had a vehicle stolen. DP said at that time, she was Victim#4’s significant other and believed her keys had been taken during the incident in Polk County, the complaint states.
Repeat offender
The Dunn County District Attorney’s office is aware that Hermanson qualifies as a repeat offender since he was convicted of felony burglary in Marathon County in June of 2019. The district attorney’s office also is aware that Hermanson is prohibited from possessing a firearm since he was convicted of felony burglary in Wood County in March of 2019.
Possession of a firearm by a felon is a Class G felony that carries a possible penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $25,000 and/or 10 years in prison.
Receiving stolen property worth between $2,500 and $5,000 is a Class I felony that, upon conviction, caries possible penalty of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to three years and six months in prison.
Receiving stolen property worth less than $2,500 is a Class A misdemeanor that, upon conviction, carries a possible penalty of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or nine months in jail.
Possession of drug paraphernalia is a misdemeanor that, upon conviction, carries a possible penalty of a fine of up to $500 and/or up to 30 days in jail.
The repeater modifier allows the prison sentence to be increased by up to two years for a misdemeanor and up to four years for a felony.
If convicted of a misdemeanor with a repeater modifier, the court may also suspend the defendant’s operating privileges for not less than six months and not more than five years. If the defendant’s operating privileges are already suspended, any additional suspension must be served consecutively.
