WAUKESHA, Wis. – A man accused of leading police on a lengthy chase through Waukesha County was found not guilty on Friday due to mental disease or defect.

Joseph Marino, 33, was charged with multiple felonies in the case. Court records show he was ordered to be committed to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for 6 ½ years.

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Case details

The pursuit happened in December 2023 and ended in the town of Delafield. It began in Illinois before crossing the state line and stretching across Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties.

The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department said the police chase started in Elgin, Illinois. The sheriff’s department said Illinois authorities notified them of a pursuit involving an armed carjacking suspect who was headed north on I-94 toward Wisconsin. Deputies spotted the car and picked up the chase at speeds in excess of 105 mph in Kenosha County.

Kenosha County deputies continued the chase into Racine and Milwaukee counties before terminating their involvement. Officials said Waukesha police were alerted around 2 p.m. about a car that was wanted in connection with an armed robbery in Milwaukee. 

A criminal complaint states Waukesha police spotted the car speeding and cutting through traffic on State Highway 164. Officers attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over – at one point driving into oncoming traffic and nearly striking another vehicle. 

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Waukesha police, Wisconsin State Patrol troopers and Waukesha County sheriff’s deputies became involved in attempting to stop the driver. The complaint states the vehicle ran multiple stop signs and red lights as it sped away from law enforcement. Officers called off the pursuit after nearly two miles due to heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the downtown Waukesha area. 

A second traffic stop was attempted near St. Paul and Barstow. The complaint states the driver continued to flee, reaching speeds as high as 100 mph. A pursuing officer struck a citizen’s vehicle during the chase, per the complaint, and the citizen was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

As the pursuit continued, the complaint states the fleeing driver stuck his hand out the window and a “powder-like material began spraying in the air.” The vehicle hit spike strips near Meadowbrook and Rolling Ridge – but kept going.

Eventually, the car went off road in an open area west of the Orthopaedic Associates of Wisconsin building in the town of Delafield. Officers used a PIT maneuver to stop the car, which was stopped in a marsh area. Four Waukesha police squad cars were damaged during the incident, and the complaint states an Illinois State Patrol squad was “slammed” into earlier in the day.

The suspect was revving his engine, which police said made it obvious to officers the suspect was continuing to attempt to flee. The suspect would not listen or surrender to law enforcement. A Waukesha police K-9 was eventually able to apprehend the suspect – now identified as Marino.

The complaint states Marino was taken to a hospital for treatment of a dog bite from the K-9. In his wallet, prosecutors said dollar bills had a white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine. The pursuit stretched roughly 10 miles in Waukesha County, and police said several other vehicles were struck either by Marino as he fled or by authorities “attempting to catch up” with him.

An addiction treatment center in northeastern Wisconsin is receiving a federal boost to address the fentanyl and opioid epidemic.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin recently announced $750,000 will be given to CORE Treatment Services in Manitowoc to support its rural recovery programs. 

The funding was made possible through the federal Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Impact.

The 16-bed facility offers residential and day treatment to individuals facing drug or alcohol abuse, according to Carmen Persaud, the co-executive director.  

“We can help people in the emergency room, experiencing an overdose,” she said. “Instead of going back out on the street, they can come by us and we’ll put them in a crisis bed.”

On WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” Persaud said about 90 percent of people coming from hospitals transition to a crisis bed and then to treatment, which is funded by the Manitowoc Human Services Department. 

She added that the greatest challenge in rural Wisconsin is the lack of supportive services for people looking to maintain their sobriety after undergoing 30 to 45 days of treatment.

“We’re literally setting people up for failure,” she said. “If they can move into a recovery home, they have a better chance of success because they’re surrounded by that support.”

The CDC released data earlier this month, showing a decline in overdose deaths in Wisconsin and across the nation. 

Persaud told host Rob Ferrett that it’s critical to provide hope to people with substance use disorder, especially after leaving a hospital.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Rob Ferrett: How important is it to provide that next step for people at that moment?

Carmen Persaud: If you’re getting discharged from the hospital and you have nowhere to go, what is your level of hope going to be at that point? What are your choices? Probably, to return to drugs because that’s the easiest and the most calming effect you can have on yourself.

But, we give you a warm bed. We give you food, a roof over your head and you’re surrounded by people who are doing the work to improve themselves through treatment. We’ve seen some great outcomes from that. It’s been wonderful.

RF: You opened in 2020.  During the start of COVID, the use of fentanyl accelerated in the drug supply in the country. What was it like to get going in the midst of that chaos?

CP: We received our state license to open mid-March, and it was right before our state got shut down for COVID. It was quite devastating at first, but myself and my co-director are good at pivoting, and that’s what we did.

We took our day treatment program and we made it virtual. It wasn’t ideal, but it was what we could do to start helping people. By that summer, we were opening with eight beds. We limited the capacity in our building, just went from there. 

RF: What does $750,000 in federal funding mean for your operation and your ability to reach more people?

CP: We have a four-year plan on how we can expand our services, both treatment and recovery. We have an outpatient behavioral health clinic in Waupaca. We provide recovery support services in Shawano and two recovery homes in Shawano, one for men and one for women.

We started a Resiliency Initiative, which allows us to go into rural communities and start setting up services. Shawano was our first attempt at that, and so far, we’ve been quite successful.

We are looking to expand to the Menominee Tribe, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and other surrounding tribes. The grant is going to help us to increase that reach. It’s also going to allow us to work with Theda Care and help develop bridge clinics where we can bring medication-assisted treatment to people that cannot easily access it. 

RF: Talk about the range of treatment people are getting when they meet up with CORE Treatment Services? 

CP: We started CORE to effectively treat substance use disorder. You really have to get inside people. There are things that have occurred in a person’s life that have led up to their only option being using a substance. I’m speaking about trauma. 

We try to offer a wide variety of different treatment modalities, like cognitive behavioral therapy, which works in helping people change the way they think. We’re also incorporating approaches to treatment regarding Native American traditions. 

We offer physical exercise. We get people out to recovery meetings while they’re in treatment. We try to connect them with resources in their own community. We offer case management services so as soon as someone’s walking in the door, that case manager is working with them. Then, we build their treatment plan around what works for that person.

We find a lot of people adapt well to music and art. When they’re coming out of addiction, they forget who they were. Exposing them to healthy sober activities can oftentimes light a fire in them about something. It’s important that they have healthy outlets when they leave that don’t involve drugs and alcohol.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Eight counties in Wisconsin are now in a severe drought, while much of the rest of the state is in a moderate drought.

We’ve been following the dry conditions all week on Action 2 News This Morning. The dry conditions are also leading to an increased fire danger.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says most of the state has a moderate fire risk Friday while some counties in Northeast Wisconsin are at a high risk, including Menominee, Shawano, Oconto, and Marinette.

The fields are dry and winds are going to pick up this weekend. One spark to dry vegetation could set off a huge fire.

That’s why the DNR is asking you to be extremely cautious.

The DNR says gusty winds plus the lack of significant rainfall during the past month are behind the elevated fire risk.

Forest rangers say we typically see conditions like these in spring, not October.

In our area, Door, Kewaunee, Oconto and Shawano counties are considered to be in a “D2,” or severe drought.

“What we may be able to do is adjust to the weather,” Gene Schriefer, Wisconsin Farm Service Agency executive director, said. “I’m fond of, maybe it’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s not how much rain you get, it’s how much rain you keep. I think of this in terms of, if I get a three-inch rain can I capture it or do I get a three-inch rain and two-and-a-half inches of it runs off? That’s the difference in making a farm more drought resilient. If it does flood, does my field drain quickly?”

It’s less than ideal for farmers, but the executive director of the Wisconsin Farm Service Agency says he’s trying to stay optimistic.

“It’s a lot of year ahead of us. We’re currently in a dry pattern. The two-, three-, four-week forecast is warmer than normal and a little drier than normal, but drier than normal doesn’t mean no rain, it just means the odds of something happening are less that what we’d normally expect this time of year,” Schriefer said.

Conditions could change in the next few months.

The National Integrated Drought Information System predicts that through the end of the year the drought conditions will improve and we could come out of it completely.

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