By Lawrence Andrea | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Nov. 14, 2022
WASHINGTON – A West Bend man who police say entered a city polling place last Tuesday with a knife and demanded staff “stop the voting” had been arrested just days prior and was free on a signature bond for reportedly posting hand-written racist and threatening political messages downtown and sending photos of those notes to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
Prosecutors in Washington County have since charged Michael J. Miecielica, 38, with more than 12 counts, including making "terrorist threats" and using threats to discourage voting — both felonies. He is also charged with endangering safety with the use of a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct, according to court records.
Most of the charges stem from an Election Day incident in which Miecielica reportedly entered the West Bend Community Memorial Library with a hunting knife in an attempt to stop voting at the polling location inside.
Body camera footage from the incident published by CBS58 shows an officer pointing his gun at a man in red pants and a maroon T-shirt with a gray backpack as the officer tells the man to “drop the knife” and get on the ground near the entrance to the library.
“I have box cutters in my backpack, like four,” the man told officers in the footage. He also said he had three or four beers that day and that “I probably should have a psych (evaluation).”
Witnesses told police the man, later identified as Miecielica, stabbed the hunting knife into the library counter during the incident and told staff to call the police. He reportedly told detectives he stabbed the counter "to prove he is a bad person," court records indicate.
In an interview with police, Miecielica said he "has been scared and afraid for the past 10 years because of all the political things going on." He said he initially thought to bring a baseball bat instead of a knife because it was "less dangerous" and noted he planned to make threats to disrupt voting.
Before bringing the knife to the library, the man told investigators he went home and deleted from his laptop a manifesto he wrote in 2019 that detailed "a plan to detonate a bomb at the border as the defendant was upset withthe border and immigration policies," according to the complaint.
Inside the library, Miecielica told investigators he went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror for several minutes "to make sure he really wanted to go through with what he was about to do."
"The defendant said he walked out of the bathroom with the knife behind his back and made hisway to the polling center," investigators wrote. "The defendant said it was his intent to do his act there as that’swhere he wanted to get arrested."
A poll worker shortly after the incident told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel there was a "heavy police presence" at the library to arrest the man. Children playing inside the library just outside the voting room, as well as voters waiting to cast their vote, were ushered into the designated voting room, the worker said, and the doors were shut while police were called. No injuries were reported.
The Election Day arrest was not Miecielica's first run-in with police this month.
Just six days before the Nov. 8 incident, Miecielica was arrested for reportedly posting at least 16 hand-written notes discovered on Oct. 31 at various locations in downtown West Bend, including at a local pizza place, a post office and Badger Middle School, that contained racist and threatening messages urging people to vote for Republican candidates in the upcoming election.
Police said the man used a fake name to email photos of some of those notes to the Johnson and Barnes campaigns. One message referenced Barnes "hanging from a tree," according to court records. Some of the notes contained references to Hitler and white nationalist groups.
Investigators identified Miecielica as a suspect through surveillance footage and tips from the community, records show, and Miecielica later told police he was "exercising his 1st Amendment Right and said the messages were not what he personally believed in."
He pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct and "computer message- threaten/obscenity" charges, court records indicate. Miecielica was also ordered to have no contact with Badger Middle School. A judge approved a $1,000 signature bond for his release, meaning Miecielica signed a document promising to show up for future court dates or face a $1,000 penalty.
An attorney for Miecielica did not immediately return a Journal Sentinel request for comment.
A Washington County judge last Thursday set Miecielica’s new bail at $50,000 cash after prosecutors argued for a $75,000 bail.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 28.
Read the original story at milwaukee journal sentinel