By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 21-year-old Wilson man found guilty in connection with criminal damage to the Eagles Nest Bar in Boyceville has been ordered by the court to pay $2,200 in restitution.
Hunter T. Smith appeared in Dunn County Circuit Court August 1 for a restitution hearing before Judge James Peterson.
Smith was charged in Dunn County with one felony count of criminal damage to property amounting to over $2,500 and felony second degree sexual assault of a child, along with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass and one misdemeanor count of fourth degree sexual assault.
Judge Peterson accepted Smith’s plea at a court hearing in May of no contest and found him guilty on the misdemeanor counts of fourth degree sexual assault and on criminal trespass.
The judge withheld sentencing and placed Smith on one year of probation for the fourth degree sexual assault to run concurrently with one year of probation for the charge of criminal trespass.
As a condition of probation, Smith was ordered to spend 15 days in the county jail.
Judge Peterson also ordered Smith to pay $243 in court costs and a $200 DNA surcharge.
Smith will be eligible for expungement of the charges if he successfully pays the court costs and successfully completes probation.
According to the criminal complaint, in April of 2017, Officer Peter Rud with the Boyceville Police Department was flagged down by some residents on East Street who said there was “someone living in the Eagles Nest Bar” on Main Street in Boyceville.
The Eagles Nest had been part of a foreclosure proceeding and was owned by People’s State Bank of Plainview.
A 14-year-old girl told the police officer she had been inside the bar twice and had gone in using an open door in the back. The girl said two men were living in the bar, which had been closed for a while and was on the market to be sold, the complaint states.
The girl told Officer Rud that the two men had moved tables around inside the bar and had placed cardboard over the windows. The men stayed there, turned on lights and used the bar as a place to “hang out,” she said.
The girl identified the two men who had been in the Eagles Nest, one of which was identified as Hunter Smith. She said the two men living in the bar were the ones who “were always walking around town,” according to the complaint.
Police officers had contacted Amy Hellmann, who was known to be a manager at People’s State Bank of Plainview, to tell her about what had been found. Amy’s husband, Joe, came to the Eagles Nest Bar to do an inventory of what was missing and what damage had been done to the building.
Joe Hellman supervised the cleanup of the Eagles Nest Bar and gave receipts showing the costs involved, which included 53 man hours of cleaning. The cleaning included four toilets that had been filled with excrement with no running water; replacing five fire extinguishers; replacing one window; renting a Dumpster; and purchasing cleaning supplies. The total cost was $2,629.03, according to the criminal complaint.
At the August 1 hearing, Judge Peterson granted $300 in restitution that had been paid by a co-defendant.
