By Shereen Siewert
A 40-year-old Gleason man is facing multiple felony charges after he and a Wausau woman were found unresponsive in a downtown parking lot.
Police were called at about 10:20 p.m. April 30 to the parking lot behind the Landmark Apartments, 221 Scott St., for a report of two people who appeared passed out next to a running vehicle.
When officers arrived, they discovered both the man and woman slumped onto the ground, struggling to breathe, with a bag of suspected heroin lying nearby, according to court documents.
Wausau Fire crews and EMS arrived and revived the couple with Narcan, after which the man, later identified as Jeremiah Brooks, became combative, physically resisting officers, according to the police report. Three officers held Brooks down and secured his wrists before loading him into the ambulance, an effort to protect the ambulance crew from injury, the report states.
Both Brooks and the woman, identified in police reports as 42-year-old Dawn Christenson, survived.
In an interview with police, Brooks said he couldn’t remember what happened before he passed out. But witnesses told police they saw Brooks “frantically walking back and forth” in the parking lot, appearing to be “highly impaired, bouncing off vehicles,” the report states.
A search of Christenson’s phone showed numerous messages asking people for methamphetamine in a way that “appeared to be setting up deals,” police said. After initially telling officers she didn’t remember using heroin that night, Christenson admitted using the drug with Brooks, who had picked her up after driving to Wausau from Gleason.
Brooks now faces felony charges of first degree recklessly endangering safety, delivering heroin and possession of narcotic drugs, which carry a combined maximum penalty of more than 28 years in the Wisconsin Prison System.
The charges against Brooks were filed May 4 in Marathon County Circuit Court. During an initial appearance, Circuit Judge Jill Falstad ordered Brooks held on a $1,000 cash bond. He remains jailed as of Friday, with his next court appearance set for May 13.
No charges have been filed against Christenson in connection with the incident.
