By Shereen Siewert
A 41-year-old Wausau man is facing criminal charges after an apparent altercation with staff at City Hall led to his arrest this week.
Jeffrey S. Decker, who has several open cases in Marathon County Circuit Court, appeared Friday, Jan. 28 to face charges of disorderly conduct and resisting an officer in connection with the incident at City Hall. During an initial appearance, Circuit Judge Scott Corbett ordered Decker held on a $1,000 cash bond, which covers all open cases.
Decker gained notoriety for a series of protests a decade ago that led him to be barred from all University of Wisconsin campuses.
Prosecutors say Wausau officers, just before 10 a.m. on Thursday, were at City Hall to attend municipal court when they were approached by an assistant city attorney who asked for help with a man creating a disturbance upstairs. The witness identified Decker and said Decker was being “disruptive, sitting or lying on the floor and refusing to leave,” according to the incident report. As the attorney was speaking to officers, a staff member inside the city attorney’s office notified dispatch as well.
According to the criminal complaint the officers made contact with Decker on the landing between the first and second floors, where he was “immediately confrontational,” refused to leave and said “if I’m being arrested, arrest me right here.” Police say Decker declared his intention to “go upstairs and see” if he would “get arrested,” told one officer to “kiss my ass” and made his way up the stairs. He was detained after allegedly grabbing and pulling the handle of the door leading to the city attorney and mayor’s offices. He then continued “creating a scene” and yelled about being “wrongfully arrested recently” before throwing himself toward the ground face first, police said.
While in handcuffs, Decker manually grabbed and twisted his handcuffs before complaining the restraints were too tight and said he feared he would “lose a hand” before getting to the jail, according to police, who say Decker’s behavior was captured on body cam footage. He also allegedly tried to force police away from him and said “(expletive) you, I’m walking out of this building” before he was officially under arrest, the report states.
Decker is a freelance journalist who has covered previous stories for several area news outlets including Wausau Pilot & Review. He is no longer associated with the publication.
In recent weeks he sent multiple emails to journalists at Wausau Pilot & Review and other publications along with police officers, prosecutors and public officials claiming he was wrongfully arrested at Horace Mann Middle School, calling for Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven’s censure and accusing officers and a Marathon County Court commissioner of improper, potentially criminal behavior. In one email, Decker demanded that an officer who arrested him at the school “completely rewrite” his report on the incident and threatens civil and criminal action against the Wausau Police Department if his demands were not met.
“Doing so will greatly reduce your department’s exposure to imminent civil and criminal actions,” Decker’s letter reads. “Order him to send his rewrite by 5 p.m. to the District Attorney and the City Attorney. If you agree, I then agree not to initiate a John Doe prosecution for (the officer’s) sustained assault of my person and robbery of my dignity. Chief, if you truly cannot see how far his barbarism has exposed you, you really need better lawyers. I am not allowed to give legal advice, of course, but I have always wanted to win a John Doe prosecution.”
“Friends are best, Chief, so let’s please smooth this over before you pay for it,” another email reads.
Those letters, along with additional recent behavior by Decker, prompted several recipients to contact police reporting that they feel unsafe, according to the complaint.
Police reports obtained by Wausau Pilot & Review show Decker was arrested on Dec. 3 at Horace Mann Middle School in Wausau after he allegedly showed up at the school, went to the playground and began playing with 6th grade children without being cleared to do so. Police say he then refused to leave. While he was being escorted from the school, Decker allegedly grabbed an officer’s vest before lying on the ground and refusing to stand or walk out. At that point, police say, he was placed in handcuffs.
Decker faces charges in five separate cases that include disorderly conduct, contact after a domestic abuse arrest, resisting or obstructing an officer, violating a harassment restraining order and bail jumping. He was the subject of a restraining order by a Pagan church in Athens in December and on Friday was ordered again to have no contact with the group’s representatives, court records show. Two weeks ago, he was ordered by a judge to undergo an outpatient competency examination by the Wisconsin Forensics Unit, but court records do not indicate whether he has so far done so.
A judge issued a restraining order against Decker in 2011 after the UW System argued that his protests of student fees intimidated and harassed UW staff and representatives. The state Supreme Court upheld the injunction but returned the issue to the Dane County Circuit Court for clarification. There, a judge refused to reopen the case, which effectively ended the injunction.
Decker remains behind bars as of Friday afternoon. A pretrial conference is set for March 8.
