A 6th-offense drunk driver named Bradley Wolf caught a break when he landed in the courtroom of Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
She decided not to send him to prison and gave him a year in jail with work-release privileges instead. He could have gone to prison for 10 years. He promptly reoffended and was accused of causing a crash.
And he’s not alone. We found multiple other cases where Crawford gave short jail terms to repeat drunk drivers. For example:
- On 6/21/22, she sentenced Michael J. Betts to 6 months jail for 6th offense OWI. “With Huber and good time. Sentence deemed served,” the court records say. He committed a domestic abuse-related misdemeanor after that sentence. (He was convicted of 5th offense in 2012.)
- Stephen Rygula, 4th offense OWI. He received 4 months in the Huber Jail from Crawford on 11/27/2018.
- Zarah Hail, 5th or 6th offense OWI. She gave Hail 7 months Huber Jail.
- Jibril Mohamud was in Crawford’s courtroom twice; first for 4th offense OWI, and then for 5th. Each time, she gave him 6 months in jail. She gave him a $500 signature bond. He now has an open sex offense case.
In the case of Bradley Wolf, who landed in Crawford’s court for 6th offense OWI:
The criminal complaint says Wolf drove drunk for the 6th time in Sun Prairie in April 2018. He was driving drunk with expired registration and was stopped when he did a U-turn. He admitted drinking whiskey and Cokes, according to the complaint.
Read the criminal complaint here.
He reoffended, getting caught for 7th offense OWI after a crash.
In 2022, he picked up that 7th offense and finally met a different judge willing to send him to prison for 5 years in Sauk County. According to the Baraboo News Republic, a woman told police she was sitting at a red light in her car when Wolf came “speeding” toward her and rear-ended her.
In 2023, he was charged with an 8th offense, also in Sauk County. Those two cases were handled together.
