Four Face Jackson County Mailbox Bomb Charges
By Anne Jungen, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
Apr. 30–BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — State charges will be filed this week against four teens arrested in a string of rural Jackson County mailbox bombs, but the group will not face federal prosecution.
Mathias Marco and Anthony Dobbs, both 19 and of Melrose, Wis., and Daniel Sye, 19, and Benjamin Pfaff, 18, both of Mindoro, Wis., are expected to be charged with party to the crime of possession of an improvised explosive device and three counts each of party to the crime of criminal damage to property, Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox said Tuesday. “I’m treating all four of them as being involved in this enterprise,” he said.
The criminal complaint will be filed this week, but the four are not scheduled to appear in in Jackson County Circuit Court until 3 p.m. May 12, Fox said. All four are free on signature bonds.
The teens were arrested April 17 and are accused of placing explosives in three mailboxes and against a traffic sign in the town of Melrose and North Bend, Wis., in mid-April, said Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera. All of the devices detonated.
No one was injured. One of the teens learned on the Internet how to construct the explosive devices, Waldera said.
Fox declined to refer the group for federal charges based on their lack of criminal history. “Our authority is sufficient to deal with this conduct,” Fox said.
Charges were delayed because Fox was in Trinidad with the Wisconsin Army National Guard for the past two weeks building a school for orphans.
Investigators are “pretty confident” the men were not involved with four bombs found in rural La Crosse County mailboxes earlier this month, said La Crosse County sheriff’s Capt. Kurt Papenfuss.
Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com.
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