By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review
Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions that may be disturbing to some readers.
A judge in Wausau this month set a $10,000 cash bond for a man accused of brutally assaulting an inmate at the Marathon County Jail for more than 90 minutes in December.
Ashton Dreiling, 21, and Shaye L. Zinser, 22, each face felony charges of first-degree sexual assault while aided by others and of battery by prisoners in connection with the rape. The charges were filed May 18 in Marathon County Circuit Court, more than five months after an inmate reported he was beaten and was sodomized with a bottle of hot sauce mixed with cleaning solution that was then released into his rectum.
Zinser appeared in court June 1 and was ordered held on a $5,000 cash bond. But Dreiling remained at large until this month.
As previously reported, video surveillance footage captured at the jail detailed much of the assault beginning at about 10:30 p.m. Dec. 8, when he was allegedly forced to rub another inmate’s feet and suck his toes. The inmate was allegedly given canteen money by Dreiling and Zinser for participating in the act.
Then, video footage shows Dreiling and Zinser putting hot sauce down the front of the pants of the alleged victim, who was then made to rub the hot sauce around in his groin area. The alleged victim was also forced to snort Kool Aid, lick hot sauce on the floor and lick another inmate’s nipples.
A witness told investigators Zinser and Dreiling wanted the man to perform homosexual acts on them so he “would know what it was like to be a victim,” according to the criminal complaint.
About 30 minutes after the assaults began, the inmate was led into the bathroom where the two men allegedly forced the hot sauce bottle into his body. Video surveillance footage also captured the man being grabbed by the throat, punched in the torso and strangled. Corrections officers finally entered the cell block at 12:14 a.m., when the inmate asked to be removed for his safety.
The alleged victim told investigators he thought he would be killed in the attack, according to court documents. On May 19, Judge Greg Strasser ordered body-only arrest warrants for both men.
Inmate records show Dreiling was arrested Sept. 14. One day later, he appeared in court, where Circuit Judge LaMont Jacobson ordered the cash bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 25.
