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Matthew Allen Holtegaard, 20, will be expected to complete 40 hours of community work service, take an alcohol assessment and pay an $80 surcharge within 30 days. If he does that, his probation agent can apply to have him discharged early so he can successfully enter the military by the end of the year.
Holtegaard’s attorney, Tim Guth, said his client has already been accepted to join the military but probation would keep him from beginning basic training.
Holtegaard entered a plea agreement Sept. 4, in which he admitted to barging into a home in the 300 block of West Sanborn Street on April 5 and assaulting residents of that home after a verbal confrontation between them and a group of Holtegaard’s friends. He was convicted of misdemeanor assault, and charges of burglary and fleeing police were dropped.
Ryker Wayne Bergo, 22, and his brother Lucas Loren Bergo, 20, still have charges pending from the incident and are scheduled for jury trials in January 2009.
Easter assault
Santiago Rojas-Gasca, 34, took an Alford plea Wednesday on a charge of felony terroristic threats, admitting that he may have threatened to kill his wife with a knife in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday.
An Alford plea means the accused admits no guilt but concedes a jury may find him guilty.
Rojas-Gasca said he could not remember all the events that transpired on Easter because he had been drinking heavily, so he wanted to take advantage of a plea bargain.
Rojas-Gasca admitted to drinking and driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.16 percent after being pulled over for speeding in the St. Charles area April 26. He was convicted of gross misdemeanor drunken driving with two prior convictions on his record from 2002 and 2006.
His plea agreement contains a joint sentencing recommendation of 30 days in jail and 60 days of electronic home monitoring with a two-year probationary period.
Rojas-Gasca is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12.
Suspected dump seen from space
George Gary Beesecker, 62, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to illegally dumping more than 200 discarded tires on his farm in Houston, Minn. sometime before April 2006.
His attorney, John Brinckman, said the case has almost been resolved because the tires were apparently on the property before he bought the land and has since cleaned up “almost every piece of illegal stuff.”
A settlement conference was scheduled for Jan. 22.
According to the criminal complaint, Beesecker buried “a couple hundred” tires in a ditch to build a road and left stacks of at least a hundred more on his farm about three miles south of Ridgeway, Minn. The illegal dumpsite was large enough for law enforcement officials to see it in satellite images of the area, the complaint states.
He was charged with felony illegal dumping of hazardous waste and misdemeanor illegal tire dumping.
Kevin Behr may be reached at (507) 453-3524 or kbehr@winonadailynews.com.
JED wrote on Oct 30, 2008 7:33 AM: