Bail is set at $100,000 for an Onalaska man accused of threatening to shoot his ex-wife and Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies while intoxicated on Tuesday.
Deputies responded to the incident after a woman called 911 and, while she was “difficult to understand,” the dispatcher heard “a male in the background screaming ‘hang up the phone’” and shouting expletives, according to court documents.
When officers arrived, the woman advised a male suspect, identified as Jason R. Johnson, 45, of Onalaska, “was going crazy and had a gun,” according to court documents.
Deputies later learned the woman went to Johnson’s trailer “because he had been drinking a lot.” While she was there, Johnson allegedly “stated he was very upset, grabbed his gun case, and threatened to shoot (his ex-wife) up,” according to court documents.
Deputies contacted Johnson at his trailer in the 100 block of D Street in Onalaska and “observed Mr. Johnson was intoxicated.”
While deputies were outside Johnson’s trailer, Johnson allegedly exited his trailer and asked a deputy to shoot him and “expressed he was extremely upset about his divorce with his ex-wife.” He allegedly “stated he owns a bunch of weapons and it’s his Second Amendment right” and said “he did not need weapons to ‘f-ck them motherf-ckers up.” According to court documents, he threatened to shoot “them up with somebody else’s guns,” screamed at deputies to put their holstered weapons away, and “made a gun gesture with his hand at (a deputy and a sergeant) while saying ‘bang bang’ and that he would kill them,” according to court documents.
Johnson then allegedly went to go back inside his trailer, and a sergeant told him to stop. Johnson allegedly “asked (the sergeant) what he was going to do about it, puffed out his chest, and walked directly into (the sergeant),” according to court documents. The sergeant and a deputy “took control of Mr. Johnson’s arms and handcuffed him,” according to court documents.
Jail records indicate Johnson was booked into the Lewis County Jail at 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
He was charged Wednesday with three counts of felony harassment and one count of third-degree assault. All charges are class C felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
While defense attorney Rachael Tiller argued Johnson did not have a gun on his person at the time of the incident and asked Judge Joely Yeagher to set bail lower than the state prosecutor’s requested $100,000, Yeagher granted the prosecution’s bail request, saying she understood Tiller’s arguments but found the community safety threat was significant.
Yeagher also granted the state’s requests for release conditions requiring Johnson to surrender all firearms and wear a SCRAM alcohol monitoring device until his case is resolved.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 19.
