Victoria Bear Charged with Homicide by Negligent Operation of Vehicle

Charges have been filed in St. Croix County District Court against Victoria M. Bear, a previous Hudson resident now living in Plain WI, with “Homicide by Negligent Use of a Motor Vehicle”, a Class G felony. For a Class G Felony, the penalty is a fine of up to $25,000, or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both; however, for a repeat offender, the term of imprisonment may increase up to 2 years with prior misdemeanor convictions, and up to 6 years with a prior felony conviction.

Charges stem from an accident Bear was involved in where she pulled out from a stop sign and into the path of another Hudson resident, Michael Strauch, killing him.

As sad as this story is for the community to lose a beloved family man like Mike Stauch, the hurt only goes deeper when learning the details leading up to the incident, followed then by the actions taken shortly after by local authorities.

It is this writer’s opinion the level of incompetence shown and actions taken by the Hudson Police Department at the time of this incident is nothing less than breath-taking. Many have wondered why there has been such a turnover at the position of Chief lately. It could be argued the problem hasn’t been at the Chief’s position – the problem is with an incompetent Police and Fire Commission to rid the department of below grade officers incapable of acting up to professional standards. The officer(s) who allowed Ms. Bear to leave the scene and return home without being administered a breath test should have been immediately placed on administrative leave for failure to perform a proper accident investigation. It’s just that simple.

Victoria Bear is no stranger to local law enforcement. She’s developed a rather interesting rap sheet over the last few years. Here is a review of just the traffic violations:

07-08-2005: Case 2005TR004575 Violation Date: 06-29-2005
Operating While under Influence (1st) — Guilty Fine: $690.00

07-08-2005: Case 2005TR004576 Violation Date: 06-29-2005
Drink Open Intoxicants in MV-Driver — Dismissed on Prosecutor’s Motion

07-08-2005: Case 2005TR004577 Violation Date: 06-29-2005
Operating Left of Center Line — Dismissed on Prosecutor’s Motion

07-25-2005: Case 2005TR004877 Violation Date: 06-29-2005
Operating with PAC .10 or More (1st) — Dismissed on Prosecutor’s Motion

Bear filed a “Not Guilty” plea and the court process lasted until she pleaded “Guilty” to the OWI charge. The court ordered a restitution fine and revocation of her license on 12-09-2005. She failed to pay the fine by the court ordered time resulting in her license not being reinstated until 05-17-2006.

During this time period, she had 2 more charges filed against her in January of 2006 for writing worthless checks. One was dismissed, the other she was found guilty of.

In March of 2006, she was served with an eviction notice and a judgment amount for over $1,800.

Next on 01-02-2007 she was stopped by Hudson PD and charged with Operating After Revocation. It would be curious to hear what exactly was the reason for the stop, but undoubtedly during the license check it was learned Bear was driving without a valid drivers license. She was stopped again for an unknown reason by the North Hudson PD on 05-22-2007 and charged again with OAR (1st – Rev. due to OWI/PAC). Bear was required to post a $1,000 bond and the case ended with her pleading guilty to “Operating w/o Carrying License” and the case was settled on August 1, 2007, just 54 days before killing Stauch.

Which then brings us to the Sunday evening of September 23rd 2007 at around 6:00, when Bear, allegedly leaving the bowling ally, drives her vehicle out from a stop sign turning east and into the path of Stauch’s westbound motorcycle causing his fatal injuries.

Imagine for a moment you being the first officer responding to the scene. Your first and foremost order of business would be to do whatever possible to assist and aid those injured. Next would be to control the scene followed by beginning an investigation in collecting the names of everyone involved. In the meantime, other officers and emergency personnel most likely are arriving on scene.

In the very short minutes following the crash, authorities fully realized Stauch was in critical condition calling to have him airlifted from the scene and taken directly to Regions trauma center in St. Paul. This had to have taken at least 20 to 30 minutes from the time of the collision till the med-flight arrived.

During this time you’d think police officers would’ve identified the drivers and have radioed dispatch for license checks and priors. (They do for at least 75% of all the other license checks called in.) You’d also think there would be a pretty intensive and extensive line of questioning done at the scene especially with the only remaining driver able to talk. Wouldn’t you?? Wouldn’t you think, given how gun-ho some cops can be charging people with DWI, how if even the slightest hint of alcohol is detected anytime there is a serious crash with personal injuries – wouldn’t you’d THINK one of the first actions taken would be to have all drivers blow into the tube for a test? Especially someone who has just recently been picked up twice for driving without a valid license due to a drunk driving conviction. IS THAT ABOVE COMMON SENSE???!!

But nooo…. not here, not in Hudson!! Here the officer drives the one most likely to be charged with some sort of moving violation – home! Unbelievable. Then!! Roughly 40 minutes later!! Officers come back to her home, take her to the hospital and find her BAC at a 0.116!! And now…, now the District Attorney isn’t sure whether to bring charges because the officers at the scene failed to do their job properly!! Amazing!!

And yet, many in this city think more taxes should be raised and wasted on this group protecting a number of these misfits. Hopefully when the new mayor takes office, he’ll dismiss everyone sitting on the Police and Fire Commission and assign all new members who will then clean house in the police department.

In the meantime – it would be interesting to hear why the District Attorney hasn’t brought charges against at least one officer for aiding and abetting. Victoria Bear was given a pass and an investigation should be held into her connections with the officer at the scene who gave her the ride home to begin with.

That will be the real story here…….

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