DOJ releases file on River St. shooting

Just under three weeks after Oneida County district attorney Jillian Pfeifer announced no charges would be filed against the five officers involved in an incident at a River Street residence on Jan. 20 that ended in the death of 33-year-old Steven Kincaid, the state Department of Justice has released the investigative file generated by the agency’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in the course of its independent investigation of the officer-involved incident.

The records can be found at https://www.doj.state.wi.us/dci/officer-involved-critical-incident.

When Pfeifer’s charging decision was announced on March 22, the DOJ noted that its usual practice is to post the investigative file of officer-involved deaths on its website. 

However, records associated with this investigative file were not immediately posted due to “an ongoing criminal prosecution associated with this incident.”

According to Pfeifer, the only criminal prosecution arising out of the Jan. 20 incident involves a 37-year-old woman who is accused of harboring or aiding a felon and felony bail jumping.

According to a criminal complaint filed on March 22, police allege Kimberly R. Baenen repeatedly refused to identify Kincaid and was otherwise uncooperative on Jan. 20 when law enforcement was seeking to determine who was inside the River Street residence.

Based on where the case stands procedurally, Pfeifer told the River News she was “comfortable with DCI releasing the investigative file even though the criminal prosecution against Ms. Baenen is still pending.”

In addition to the felony counts, she is also charged with resisting/obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor.

A pretrial conference in is scheduled for May.

According to Pfeifer’s letter, the independent investigation showed that Kincaid died after firing two shots, at close range, directly at law enforcement, “creating an actual, unlawful interference directed at officers thereby allowing officers to use deadly force to protect themselves, fellow officers, and (another person) believed to still be inside the residence.”

The five officers involved have been identified as Sgt. Christie Kondzela and officer Graeme Biskobing of the Rhinelander Police Department, Sgt. Thomas Williams and deputies Michael Bedish and Cole Lehman of the sheriff’s office. 

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].