State to take over Iron County murder case

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Hurley — The state of Wisconsin will be responsible for prosecuting the five defendants accused of being involved in the death of a missing Lac du Flambeau man whose body was found in Mercer.

Wayne Valliere Jr. — a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa — was last seen Dec. 22 and reported missing Dec. 25. His body was found in the town of Mercer Jan. 1.

Iron County District Attorney Matt Tingstad said Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour was expected to handle the prosecution of the case.

Dufour was the state attorney responsible for prosecuting Donald Rick and Jessica Carli for the murder of Lisa Waldros and fire at the Bear Trap Inn in Saxon.

Rick was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the case, while Carli was sentenced to four years in prison and four years extended supervision.

The state can get involved in cases for a variety of reasons — including those that are resource-intensive or potentially involve multiple jurisdictions.

“We have a team of lawyers at the Department of Justice who do that every day. They go out to the local counties and help on those major cases,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel told the Daily Globe in a June 22, 2016, interview.

Schimel said these major cases require resources many smaller counties just don’t have.

“If the local (district attorney) were to handle that homicide case, realistically ... that’s going to consume six to 12 weeks of his time. And he’s not going to have much time to work on much of any- thing else, just to get that case ready for trial,” Schimel said.

Only one of the defendants in the Valliere case has been identified so far.

Richard F. A. Allen, 27, had a $1 million bond set in the case at a Jan. 5 hearing.

According to a probable cause statement in the case, Allen is suspected of first degree intentional homicide in connection to Valliere’s death.

The names of the other defendants haven’t been released, pending their appearances in court and the filing of criminal charges.