• Milana Doné
• Sep 18, 2026 Updated 2 hrs ago
• Bond set for RCSO deputy charged in turkey hunting incident

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RACINE — A judge set a $10,000 signature bond Thursday for the Racine County Sheriff’s Office deputy who was charged in connection to the injury of a man and his son during the youth turkey hunt this past spring.

James Lehman, 35, of Union Grove was charged Aug. 17 with two counts of second degree reckless injury with use of a dangerous weapon and two counts of injury by negligent use of a dangerous weapon.

Lehman also was ordered not to possess or control any firearms. His spouse’s firearm can be remain in the house but must be kept in a safe that Lehman does not have access to, according to online court records.

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According to previous Journal Times reporting, RCSO deputies and EMS personnel were sent to the Cherry Lake Sedge Meadow State Natural Area in the Village of Rochester about 2:19 p.m. April 12 after a report that two people had been shot.

A 40-year-old man and his 7-year-old son were taken to a Milwaukee hospital for treatment of their injuries.

The investigation was turned over to the Department of Natural Resources, which owns and manages the site.

Lehman reportedly told wardens that he and his 3-year-old daughter were participating in the youth turkey hunt, which was held statewide April 11-12.

According to the DNR website, the annual event gives hunters younger than 16 the opportunity to gain hunting experience before the regular turkey season begins. Youth hunters must have a spring turkey license, wild turkey stamp and valid harvest authorization.

Warden Jason Roberts reported in a criminal complaint that the distance between where Lehman said he was sitting and where the 40-year-old man and his son were sitting was about 39 yards.

According to the complaint, Lehman and his daughter were using a semi-automatic 12-guage shotgun, and Lehman claimed he didn’t know the man and his son were hunting that afternoon.

Lehman reportedly told wardens that he was blind calling turkeys and saw movement that he thought was a white turkey head and fan.

According to the complaint, Lehman said he aimed the shotgun by resting the barrel over a fallen tree and after again seeing what he thought was a turkey head, had his 3-year-old daughter pull the trigger.

Wardens met with the 40-year-old man that night after he was released from the hospital.

According to the complaint, the man said that he told Lehman about the locations where he hunts and asked Lehman not to use his hunting spots.

The man and his son were sitting against a tree and looking out into an open field, facing away from Lehman’s location, the complaint said.

The man reportedly told wardens that he and his son were not using turkey decoys or turkey fans and that they were wearing camouflage with leafy patterns.

Neither the man nor his son reportedly were wearing red, white or blue items that would have been visible at the time of the shooting.

According to the complaint, the man said he had is arm around his son that he believed Lehman might have mistook his hand for a turkey head because the shot occurred only a second or two after he used a turkey call.

After the shot was fired, the man said he called out for help, saw that he and his son were injured and told Lehman to call 911.

According to the complaint, the man was struck with multiple pellets in his back, lower torso, left hand and arm. The 7-year-old boy reportedly suffered multiple pellet strikes to his back and head.

Lehman did not have a hunter safety certificate, and he reportedly told wardens he was exempt because of military service, the complaint said.

He reportedly told wardens that he had gone hunting with others in the past, but that day was one of his first times hunting independently.

The Sheriff’s Office said it will conduct an administrative investigation to determine whether Lehman violated RCSO policies or procedures.

He was placed on administrative leave April 12, according to RCSO.

Lehman is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Oct. 7.

Mink farms are the latest in animal agriculture to be hit by highly-contagious virus, with seven confirmed cases in Utah

By Hope Kirwan

Threat of avian flu returns to Wisconsin with new species at risk – WPR

September 17, 2026

Updated September 17, 2026 at 8:30 am

State agriculture officials are urging farms to tighten protective measures after the highly contagious avian flu virus has once again been found in the state.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection confirmed the virus was found on a commercial poultry farm in Barron County.

State Veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle said they were notified right away when the farm began seeing increased mortality among its roughly 79,000 birds.

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“We have been seeing detections in other areas of the country, in the upper Midwest over the past two to three weeks,” she said. “A little bit of an increase in detections in the Dakotas and Minnesota, so we were watching really closely.”

Konkle said the affected flock has already been culled and the farm is working with state officials to dispose of the birds. 

The virus was last detected in the state in late February and early March, when four poultry farms were affected. Wisconsin has only found the virus on one dairy farm last December.

The H5N1 flu virus devastated U.S. poultry farms when it was first detected in 2022 and has continued to affect the industry ever since. Cases are often found during the spring and fall, when wild birds carrying the virus are actively migrating.

Konkle said that’s because the virus continues to circulate among birds in North America and has yet to mutate enough to be less contagious.

“I think a lot of cases are prevented, though, that otherwise we would be seeing,” she said. “People are really doing a good job of training employees and working on their own to increase biosecurity for their flocks, especially in these months where we see higher risk.”

But the threat of avian flu is not just isolated to poultry and dairy farms. Utah recently reported the first instances of the virus in captive mink, with seven cases confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

A spokesperson for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food told WPR all of the cases are related to each other, but declined to say whether they were all located on the same farm. Utah animal health officials and USDA officials are working closely with any affected producer, the spokesperson said.

Utah is the second-largest producer of mink pelts in the country behind Wisconsin. But federal data shows Wisconsin produced more than four times Utah’s annual pelt production in 2024, making up more than half of U.S. production for the year.

Keith Poulsen, head of Wisconsin’s State Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory, said it’s not a real surprise to find avian flu on an American mink farm. The H5N1 virus strain was found on mink farms in Spain and Finland in 2023. 

Along with exposure to wild birds, Poulsen said the cases in mink may be related to outbreaks on other types of farms. Utah reported cases of avian flu on both poultry and dairy farms as recently as late July.

“Mink are obligate carnivores, so they could be eating rendered meat product from the poultry industry,” Poulsen said, pointing to previous cases of dogs and cats becoming infected after consuming contaminated raw pet food. 

Neither USDA or Utah officials have released much information about the affected mink farm in Utah. 

Poulsen worries that could be because the agency is primarily focused on preventing the spread of New World screwworm in livestock along the southern U.S. border, or it is simply understaffed due to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

In Wisconsin, mink are not considered livestock and the state’s estimate 32 mink farms are not regulated by DATCP.

But Konkle said her agency developed a “good working relationship” with the industry’s veterinarians during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also affected captive mink. 

If the virus were to be found on a Wisconsin mink farm, Konkle said state and federal officials would work with the farm and their veterinarian to monitor the situation.

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