Todd Richmond.

FILE - Ryan Borgwardt appears in a Green Lake County courtroom Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Green Lake, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash,File)

Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled to Asia says plan was a ‘crazy, emotional dream’

A Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death so he could live with a woman in Asia says his plan was a “crazy, emotional dream.” Ryan Borgwardt made the comment during an interview with Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office investigators. The interview was part of an investigative file released to The Associated Press this week. Borgwardt tells detectives that he hatched his plan because he couldn’t communicate with his wife and his children didn’t want to do anything with him. Borgwardt abandoned his kayak in Green Lake in August 2024 in hopes investigators would think he drowned. He flew overseas and lived with a woman in Georgia for several months. He returned to Wisconsin in December.

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FILE - Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing in Milwaukee, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

Immigrant pleads guilty to being in US illegally after judge allegedly helped him evade agents

An immigrant who was arrested after a Milwaukee judge allegedly helped him evade federal agents has pleaded guilty to being in the U.S. illegally. Online court records indicate Eduardo Flores-Ruiz entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee. He faces up to two years in prison. According to federal prosecutors, U.S. immigration agents planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz when he appeared at the Milwaukee County courthouse in April for a hearing in a battery case. They say Judge Hannah Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz through a back door after learning agents were looking for him. Dugan faces obstruction charges.

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FILE - DeAsia Harmon speaks at the funeral for her husband D'Vontaye Mitchell, July 11, 2024, in Milwaukee. Mitchell died June 30 after an incident at a hotel. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, file)

4 former Milwaukee hotel workers get probation and time served in dogpile death

A judge has sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers charged with killing a man by piling on top of him to a mix of probation and time already served, allowing them to avoid spending any more time behind bars. Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences for former Hyatt Hotel security guards Todd Erickson and Brandon Turner, bellhop Herbert Williamson and front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson on Wednesday. All four were initially charged with being party to felony murder in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s June 2024 death. The workers piled on Mitchell after he ran into the women’s bathroom in the Hyatt lobby. When emergency responders arrived, Mitchell wasn’t breathing.

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Deer hunter discovers rare subtropical wood stork in the wilds of Wisconsin

A deer hunter has discovered a rare subtropical wood stork in the wilds of Wisconsin. Horicon Marsh Bird Club President Jeff Bahls says a hunter scouting for deer first sighted the bird Sunday in a remote section of the Mud Lake Wildlife Area in Columbia County, northeast of Madison. The hunter sent photos of the bird to Bahls, who verified the creature was indeed a wood stork. Wood storks are typically found around the Gulf of Mexico and in South America. It’s listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Bahls says the Wisconsin wood stork is a juvenile that likely became lost.

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