Gruich remains jailed after hearing on $40,000 cash bond

After an adjourned initial appearance last Thursday, December 19, and as of press time, a Michigan man accused of threatening an Oneida County judge and a local newspaper publisher remained jailed in Oneida County as his spouse sought legal representation for him.

Peter Gruich, a former automotive engineer for a Chinese company and a supporter of Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC) owner Kirk Bangstad, left the hearing under a $40,000 cash bond — meaning he had to pay that amount to be freed. 

Gruich has been charged with threatening injury or harm via computer message, a misdemeanor, and of making a threat to a judge, a felony, state of Wisconsin court records show. 

The criminal complaint against Gruich alleges that he threatened both Oneida County judge Michael Schiek and Gregg Walker, publisher of The Lakeland Times and The Northwoods River News, in separate email messages that he signed as “Pete Gruich, Nazi Killer.”

The cash bond remains at a significant threshold, but Oneida County judge Mary Sowinski, who presided over the bond review and who set the original bond, said she was lowering the amount by $10,000 based on Gruich’s financials as well as other circumstances.

“I should be clear, the court is obligated to take into account the financial circumstances of the defendant and, given the income that Mr. Gruich just described, the court believes that $40,000 of cash bond is an appropriate amount to set at this time, given that Mr. Gruich does not yet have counsel [and] he lives out of state,” Sowinski said. “The strength of the state’s evidence is strong and the threats that Mr. Gruich is making are significant.”

Also, given the income Gruich affirmed in court — about $4,800 a month from all sources — Sowinski said she did not believe Gruich would qualify for a public defender.

“Based on that income, it would be extremely unlikely that you are going to qualify,” she said. “I can’t imagine a circumstance where you would qualify for state public defender representation.”

Gruich said his wife had been trying to secure other legal representation for him but had made little headway.

“My wife is trying to contact a couple of attorneys, but she hasn’t had any success either,” Gruich told the judge.

Sowinski said the same non-monetary conditions would remain intact — a prohibition on the use of, or access to, any device that accesses the Internet, as well as no contact with the victims.

Finally, Sowinski said she would be recusing herself from the case after consulting with the district court office.

“The particular circumstances of this case is that the judge who is alleged to have been threatened by Mr. Gruich in this case is the presiding judge of this county, which means that this court is obligated to follow the orders and directives and otherwise comply with the demands of that presiding judge,” she said. “I have been instructed by the district court office that under those circumstances it is appropriate for this court to recuse itself from further work on Mr. Gruich’s case.”

Sowinski said that, when she was originally assigned the case, it apparently wasn’t clear to the district court office that it was the Oneida County presiding judge who had been named as the victim. 

“Accordingly, this case will be reassigned,” she said. “I will be recusing myself. We did attempt to contact a judge who could hear the case for a bond review before the holiday. That was not possible and so the court is hearing the bond review today out of necessity and necessity only.”

Gruich interview

During an interview with Oneida County detective sergeant Gary Loduha and detective sergeant Christopher Coniglio after his arrest, Gruich said the incident unfolded after he was contacted by Bangstad.

“Gruich was asked how an individual from the state of Michigan ended up sending emails to individuals located in the Oneida County area, to which Gruich responded that Gruich had been contacted by Kirk Bangstad,” the interview report stated.

The contact was actually a fundraising appeal from Bangstad that had landed in his spam folder, Gruich told the detectives.

“Gruich stated the email from Bangstad was related to Bangstad asking for money for Bangstad’s defense in Bangstad’s current criminal case,” the interview report states. Bangstad has been charged with criminal defamation.

Gruich told detectives he had no prior contact with Bangstad and that he was unsure how Bangstad knew to reach out to him.

“Gruich went on to reiterate that the email sent by Bangstad was in Gruich’s spam email folder, but that Gruich had contributed to various fundraisers on GoFundMe so Bangstad could have potentially obtained Gruich’s information,” the report states. “Gruich went on to state that Gruich had read further into Bangstad’s story after receiving the email from Bangstad and admitted that Bangstad’s story got Gruich ‘worked up.’”

Specifically, Gruich told detectives that Bangstad stated that Bangstad was under a gag order “for the First Amendment,” which upset Gruich. The report states that Gruich then became emotional when he was asked if there were other factors contributing to his sending of the emails.

“Gruich proceeded to explain that Gruich’s main motivation was in defense of the things that Gruich’s father had fought for in World War II,” the report states. “Gruich stated it was also coming up on the anniversary of Gruich’s father’s death, which was on November 19, and Gruich was extremely emotional during the time leading up to that date.”

Gruich also told detectives that his own interactions with a Michigan judge had influenced his conduct.

“Gruich indicated the judge in Michigan ‘put him through hell’ for four years for being harassed and, as a result of that interaction, the judge was fired and lost the judge’s retirement,” the report states.

The detectives reported that Gruich had no interest in discussing the emails sent to Walker and Schiek and expressed disgust with himself when the subject of the emails was brought up.

“Gruich advised detectives that Gruich did know the emails looked bad, but did not realize threatening a judge was a felony offense in the state of Wisconsin,” the report states. “Gruich was again extremely apologetic with regard to Gruich’s actions and advised detectives that Gruich would never do anything such as this in the future as well as that Gruich had never done anything such as this in the past.”

Detectives also asked Gruich if he had any intention to act on the threats made in the emails.

“Gruich stated Gruich had no intention of acting on the threats,” the report stated. “Gruich went on to state this was one of the dumbest things that Gruich had ever done.”

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.