Tim Michels to Democrat Tony Evers: Stop Endangering Wisconsinites by Releasing 884 Convicted Criminals

Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels called on Gov. Tony Evers (D) to suspend the state’s parole commission and pardon advisory board as the state has released at least 884 convicted criminals.

Wisconsin Right Now reported that Gov. Evers’ Parole Commission released at least 884 convicted criminals, which includes more than 270 murderers and attempted murderers, and more than 44 child rapists.

Wisconsin Right Now noted that these cases, which span from 2019 to 2021, include some of the “most brutal killers in Wisconsin history and some of the most high-profile.”

As the outlet noted, these paroles were discretionary, meaning that the Evers administration decided to release these criminals into Wisconsin’s communities.

This revelation follows as Evers said in 2018, during his last gubernatorial campaign, “We will not release violent criminals.”

Michels, in his letter to Evers on Monday, called on the governor to immediately halt the “reckless efforts” of the Wisconsin Parole Commission as well as suspend the Pardon Advisory Board.

The Wisconsin Republican detailed many of the worst offenders, which include:

Just a few months ago, the people of Wisconsin found out that your choice to lead the Parole Commission attempted to set free a man who brutally murdered his wife in front of his children. Douglas Balsewicz was to be released less than 25 years into an 80-year sentence for stabbing his wife 42 times in front of the couple’s children, ages 2 and 4. After he murdered his wife, he left their kids with their mother’s bloody, dead body and went to get tacos.

Were it not for the work of enterprising journalists, we would not have found out about Balsewicz. But hundreds of other heinous criminals have already been released from prison. One is Carl Beletsky, who shot and decapitated his wife Kathleen with a kitchen knife and tried to burn her head in a wood burning stove before going out to drink. Beletsky now lives in Hatley, according to Wisconsin Right Now. Another is Joseph Roeling, who murdered his family in their sleep. According to a newspaper article at the time, he killed his mother, stepfather and young half-sister so he could have the house to himself. Roeling is now living in Oshkosh.

Another is Terrance Shaw. He raped, stabbed, strangled and murdered Susan Erickson of Onalaska, a nurse and mother of two young children, after spotting her through a window of her house. He chalked it up to having “one really bad day.” Shaw is now free living back in Onalaska.

“The list of killers you released goes on and on. You are either unaware or do not care just how heinous their crimes were and just how upset the surviving victims and their families are that you set them free,” Michels charged. “These criminals deserved to serve their entire sentences. Many of those you’ve granted early parole should have remained locked up for life, but they are living freely among us now. Hopes and prayers that they won’t kill or rape again are all their neighbors have.” [Emphasis added]

“You ran on a platform of releasing half of all criminals from prison, but you were not candid with the people of Wisconsin about limiting your get-out-of-jail-free card to nonviolent offenders. You’ve granted over 600 pardons in your term as well, an astounding number. Thanks to enterprising journalism, we now know that you have released dangerous criminals into our communities. It must stop,” Michels added.

This is not the first time that a political figure has slammed Evers’ soft-on-crime policies.

Gabe Nudo, the Kenosha, Wisconsin, county chairman, said that Evers failed the people of Kenosha during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.

“Evers failed Kenosha and we all know it. The images of our city burning will forever be etched into our memory,” Nudo wrote in an op-ed in September. “You probably saw our former county executive Jim Krueser recently try to defend Governor Evers with a desperate op-ed in the Kenosha News. He called our attempts to highlight the complete failure by Governor Evers politically motivated. Well, let me set the record straight. It is not political — it’s personal.”

In contrast, The Milwaukee Police Association and the Kenosha Professional Police Association have also endorsed Michels for governor.