“I beat her up pretty bad” – Michael Fay, a convicted felon seeking an Evers’ commutation to get out of prison early
Inmates serving time in three of Washington County’s most notorious cases are seeking commutations from Gov. Tony Evers, according to DA Barry Braatz. They include two convicted killers, one thought to be in the country illegally, and a man who unsuccessfully used a “gay panic” defense after he shot and killed a local tavern owner.
The third inmate seeking commutation is a woman convicted of causing a bruised toddler’s death by neglecting to get her medical attention for an injury.
Rounding out the list of commutation requests are a 7th offense drunk driver and a man who beat his wife with a bat, admitting, “I beat her pretty bad.”
Braatz told WRN, “I am in the process of drafting a response to each of these applications, which I can provide you when I have completed them and submitted them to the Governor and the Commutation Advisory Board.”
Short-staffed District Attorney offices around the state are starting to receive commutation requests as a result of Tony Evers suddenly reigniting the process after it lay dormant for 25 years. We previously wrote about the Racine DA blasting Evers after she also received commutation notices from killers.
Evers chose to:
- Allow homicide lifers to seek early release after serving 20 years, including cop killers.
- Allow violent criminals not serving life terms to seek early release after serving 50% of their time.
- He exempted only a few offenders, such as sex offenders and those who committed physical abuse of a child.
- Although Evers created a board to review applications, his executive order allows his chief legal counsel to get the applications directly, bypassing the board.
- District Attorneys are raising concern about victim notification, putting victims and their families back through the process, gutting of truth in sentence law certainty, extra work on their offices, and more.
- Evers previously pledged to reduce the prison population by 50%.
There is no transparency in this process. Evers has not responded to a request seeking a list of applicants, so we turned to DAs instead. There is no way for the public to easily find out who Evers releases or who applies. - The responsibility of notifying the DA and judge is left to inmates, not the state, in Evers’ order, and DAs can object but they can’t overrule Evers.
On May 6, DA Barry Braatz told WRN that the Washington County DA office had received these commutation notices (on May 12, he told us that he had not received any additional requests).
Kelly V. Bodoh, DOB: 09/17/1977 – 97CF400
Bodoh, 48, is serving a life sentence with parole eligibility in 2037. He was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in 1998.
Evers’ new process required homicide lifers to only serve 20 years in prison before they can qualify to seek release. On April 23, the court records registered Bodoh’s commutation request.
What did Bodoh do? According to court records, “In the early morning hours of December 18, 1997, Robin Elsinger made homosexual advances on Bodoh. Bodoh believed that Elsinger had molested him a couple of months earlier when he was passed out due to intoxication. Bodoh prevailed upon his friend, Kraig Hoepner, to drive him to his grandmother’s house to retrieve a gun. Elsinger went along. Bodoh shot Elsinger at close range while the three were riding in the car. After the first shot, Bodoh shot again because he did not think Elsinger was dead. Bodoh would have fired a third shot, but Hoepner told him to stop.”
Elsinger, 40, was the owner of the R&B Tapperes tavern in Hustisford.
It was one of two cases in Wisconsin where a so-called “gay panic” defense was attempted. The jury rejected the argument.
Oscar L. Ruiz, DOB: 08/29/1973 – 07CF287
Ruiz is 52. He was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide, in 2009. He received 27 years in prison (13.5 confinement time for each charge run consecutively.) His mandatory release date is 2034.
A story by GM Today from the time says Oscar Ruiz “is thought to be an illegal immigrant.” He was described as a 33-year-old farm worker at the time of the crime.
“A former co-worker, Anselmo Gonzalez-Castillo, 36, is serving a life sentence for the December 2005 brutal attack on two brothers working at the Thull family farm, resulting in the death of one of them,” wrote GM Today at the time. “Roman Sanchez, 35, died as the result of massive head injuries Gonzalez-Castillo inflicted on him and his brother, Rosando Sanchez, 27, on the night of Dec. 12, 2005. Rosando Sanchez survived. According to the criminal complaint filed in the matter, the brothers were attacked by Gonzalez-Castillo while they worked on the Thull family farm in the township. Roman Sanchez died several days later in a Milwaukee area hospital.” Ruiz was accused of planning the homicide.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported at the time that Ruiz threatened Gonzalez-Castillo to get him to commit the crimes. “Ruiz and Gonzalez-Castillo were afraid they were going to lose their jobs at the Thull dairy farm because the three siblings were complaining to their supervisors about their work habits,” the complaint alleged, according to the Journal Sentinel.
“Ruiz told Gonzalez-Castillo to drive Ruiz’s van to the farm, to turn off the milking parlor lights and to ‘hit them with the piece of metal’ while wearing gloves, the complaint says,” according to JS. “On Dec. 12, 2005, Ruiz told Gonzalez-Castillo ‘today’s the day you have to do it,’ according to the complaint.
Leann L. Leszynski, DOB: 04/02/1987 – 12CF154
She is 39. Her mandatory release date is April 2027. She was convicted of neglecting a child where a consequence is death. Many drug charges were dismissed.
Court records say that on May 1, 2012, Leszynski’s doctor’s office “contacted the West Bend Police Department. The doctor’s office informed the police department that Leszynski had called and told the person she spoke with that her daughter was unresponsive.”
An officer found the child deceased. The cause of death was “an infection that began in a cut on the child’s finger that spread throughout her body, although this was determined after an autopsy, some time after police investigation and interrogation had concluded.”
According to Fox 6, the 3 year old girl had bruising on her body that Leszynski claimed was from a clock falling on her. “The complaint also says Streicher is heavy into drugs and frequently uses Xanax, heroin, marijuana and cocaine. One witness told officers that he saw Streicher ‘blow marijuana into the mouth of Haley and tell her to inhale.'”
She received 15 years in prison in 2013. But Evers’ order allows people not convicted of life terms to seek release after serving only 50 percent of their time.
Note: Evers’ guidelines say that sex offenders and those who commit physical abuse of a child don’t qualify to seek release. But it’s unclear whether that refers specifically to charges that label the charge that way vs a neglect conviction.
Michael J. Fay, DOB: 09/11/1972 – 19CF557
He was convicted of 1st degree reckless injury with a domestic abuse modifier and false imprisonment.
In 2020, he was sentenced to nine years in prison (other years were concurrent). He is 53. His mandatory release date is 2028.
Fox 6 wrote at the time that prosecutors said Fay “beat his wife with a baseball bat. That woman watched from the gallery with a gash on her forehead as her husband made his initial court appearance.”
Prosecutors said Fay told police, “I beat her up pretty bad” because he “was upset about having court today regarding their divorce,” according to Fox 6.
Kristine Ruppert, DOB: 01/25/1972 – 20CF407
She is a seeking a commutation for a felony OWI 7th, according to court records.
A story at the time by WISN said that she was on probation and had a revoked license for 6th offense OWI when she drove high after huffing and caused a three-car crash in West Bend. Another driver was injured. In 2021, she received four years in prison consecutive to another sentence (which was a sentence for sixth offense OWI). Her mandatory release date is June 2027.
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