JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Monday ordered a former Wisconsin prison warden implicated in an inmate’s death to pay a $500 fine to resolve the case after concluding he has no criminal record and didn’t realize his guards weren’t following policy.
Prosecutors charged former Waupun Correctional Institution Warden Randall Hepp and multiple members of his staff in June 2024 in the deaths of inmates Cameron Williams and Donald Maier.
Hepp was charged with felony misconduct in connection with Maier’s death, a count punishable by up to three-and-a-half years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Maier died of dehydration and malnutrition in solitary confinement in February 2024 after guards turned off the water in his cell, according to a criminal complaint. Investigators said Hepp failed to ensure his staff followed policy.
Dodge County District Attorney Andrea Will reduced the charge Monday to a misdemeanor count of violating laws governing a state or county institution in exchange for Hepp’s no contest plea. The new charge is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Will told Judge Martin Devries she reduced the charge because Hepp was well respected within the state Department of Corrections and didn’t know guards weren’t following policy.
“We have to make a decision about where to spend our resources and where to extend our resources and it’s not an easy thing to charge people in leadership of an institution,” Will later told reporters.
DeVries ordered Hepp to pay the $500 fine and court costs but didn’t sentence him to jail. The judge cited his service record, his lack of a criminal record and his “subpar employees” who failed to follow policy. The judge called Hepp’s prosecution “symbolic.”
Hepp’s attorney, Michael Steinle, told the judge Hepp was “extremely remorseful” and while a misdemeanor conviction might not mean much to a lot of people it does to him. Hepp said he understood the plea bargain and waived his right to a trial. He and Steinle left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
Maier's mother, Jeanette Maier, called Hepp's sentence a “slap on the wrist" and said her son had been treated worse than a caged animal.
“Nothing can bring my son back but I like to think we as a society would at least learn something from this tragedy so it never happens to someone else's son,” Maier said in a statement.
Eight members of Hepp’s staff were charged in June with abuse or misconduct in the deaths of Williams or Maier. Online court records show charges were dismissed against one of them this month and another pleaded guilty in September to a reduced count of misdemeanor violating laws governing a penal institution and was assessed a $250 fine. The remaining cases are pending.
Williams died of a stroke while in solitary confinement at Waupun in October 2023. His body was not discovered for at least 12 hours. According to court documents, Williams told an inmate advocate three days before he died that he needed to go to a hospital but no action was taken. He had fallen in the shower two days earlier and crawled back to his cell. A day before, he had collapsed on the way back to his cell but neither fall was documented. No one checked on him the night he died.
The prison, with a stone exterior and high, castle-like guard towers, opened in 1854 and has long been a target for closure. Seven inmates, including Williams and Maier, have died there since 2023. One killed himself, one died of a fentanyl overdose and one died of what investigators suspect was suicide. Two more deaths are under investigation.
A federal investigation into smuggling at the prison has so far netted at least one former employee who pleaded guilty to smuggling cellphones and drugs in exchange for money. Inmates have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions and a lack of health care.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has rejected calls to shutter the facility, despite the problems. He has said he wants broader criminal justice reform and a plan to house the facility’s roughly 1,700 inmates.
Hepp’s lawyer said senior guards at Waupun refuse to work in the solitary confinement unit, leaving it to junior guards and guards brought in from other prisons to deal with staff shortages. Steinle said problems will continue at Waupun until a new prison is built.
“Things happen in these restricted housing units, obviously,” the judge said. “But clearly this is not what you expect as far as treatment of human beings.”
This story has been corrected to show Hepp was charged in connection with Donald Maier's death but not the death of Cameron Williams.
From left, Randall Hepp, former Waupun Correctional Institution warden, and his attorney Michael Steinle stand inside Dodge County Circuit Court in Jueneau, Wis., Monday, April 28, 2025, after a judge ordered Hepp to pay a $500 fine to resolve a misdemeanor charge in connection with an inmate's 2024 death. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)
FILE - This booking photo provided by the Dodge County, Wis., Sheriff's Office shows Randall Hepp, June 5, 2024. (Dodge County Sheriff's Office via AP, file)
FILE - The Waupun Correctional Institution is seen June 5, 2024, in Waupan, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, file)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
