Last Updated: Thursday, August 28, 2008 9:14 AM CDT
Grocery store embezzlement charges dismissed
Prosecutors drop case after state supreme court ruling
By Daily News Staff
The Oneida County District Attorney’s office has dismissed embezzlement charges against a Minocqua woman whose case made it all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
In June, the state’s highest court ruled the district attorney’s office would not be able to use bank records it obtained through the use of defective subpoenas in its case against former grocery store employee Michelle Popenhagen.
Popenhagen, 36, was charged with stealing approximately $30,000 from the Savemore store in Minocqua. At the time of the alleged embezzlement she was in charge of preparing the cash drawers and had access to the ATM machine.
In November of 2005, Oneida County Circuit Judge Mark A. Mangerson ruled Popenhagen’s constitutional rights were violated when Minocqua police officers received three subpoenas for her bank records without offering a probable cause statement.
Because the subpoenas should never have been issued, Mangerson ruled the state could not use the bank records or incriminating statements Popenhagen made after she was confronted with the bank evidence.
The district attorney’s office appealed Mangerson’s decision to the third district court of appeals in Wausau and that group reversed the lower court decision.
The court agreed that the subpoenas were issued in violation of state statutes but argued that suppression of the records and the statements was not available as a remedy to the state’s error.
Popenhagen appealed that decision and the state’s highest court ruled in her favor.
Writing for the majority, chief justice Shirley Abrahamson argued if the statements are not suppressed “the safeguards established…for the issuance of subpoenas would be rendered meaningless.”
Earlier this month, prosecutors decided to dismiss the case “without prejudice” meaning the state could refile charges at a later date.
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