Michael Ingold was acquitted months ago on a first-degree homicide charge, but it’s his own words leading up to that trial that are keeping him in jail and the court system.
Portage County Judge Louis Molepske Jr. ruled that there’s enough probable cause following a preliminary hearing to bind Ingold, 61, over for trial in the latest case where there are 10 charges against him for threatening the two people from the district attorney’s office who prosecuted the homicide trial and the two detectives who investigated the case.
Following Molepske’s ruling, Ingold pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include eight counts of battery or threat to prosecutors or law enforcement officers and two counts of threatening to cause bodily harm to individuals in the court system. Each of the charges carry a maximum of six years and fines of $10,000.
Winnebago County District Attorney Eric Sparr, who took on the case because the alleged threats were levied against representatives of the Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney’s Office, argued that while the threats were not made directly to the victims, it is not a requirement in threatening cases. Having a number of jail calls on record along with the interview of a jail officer who claimed Ingold made a threat was enough to bring forth the charges.
“I think there’s an argument that one statement alone wouldn’t be a threat, but we have the context of all of the other phone calls and statements that were made,” Sparr said.
Defense attorney Christopher Restemayer argued that the jail calls and off-hand remarks do not meet the true threat analysis and that standards in a criminal trial are tighter.
“Much of my client’s comments were, ‘I would like this to happen,’ or ‘I would like to do this,’” Restemayer said. “That does not meet the threshold of a true threat.”
Restemayer further argued that speech cannot be restricted or punished under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. He painted Ingold’s statements as “wishful thinking” of someone who had sitting in jail for two or three years.
“Violence must be threatened, not merely predicted, hoped or endorsed,” Restemayer said. “To be a true threat, it cannot be merely venting or frustration or anger, which is what we have here. As despicable as the state might think his speech is, it is still protected.”
Shawano County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Gamm, who is also one of the victims in the current case, testified that another inmate at the Shawano County Jail informed him about Ingold making threats, which prompted Gamm to review some of the recordings made by Turnkey, the provider for the jail’s phone services. From January through December 2025, there were a number of calls where Ingold allegedly said he wanted harm or death to come to the people involved in prosecuting the murder trial.
Gamm said there was a call on Jan. 28 where Ingold said he wanted the detective hung. Another call in March had Ingold saying he was “going to do something terrible.” In April, Ingold allegedly said he would torture his victims, including beating them with a baseball bat. Other threats were made in a July phone call and another time to a jail officer after returning from a court hearing, according to Gamm.
Gamm also said that the jail inmate he interviewed claimed that Ingold was demonstrating in the jail’s dayroom what he intended to do to the detectives and prosecutors, putting his fingers in the form of a gun.
In the recordings, according to Gamm, the people Ingold talked to warned that he shouldn’t be making such statements because they could be taken seriously by law enforcement. Ingold’s alleged response was “Let them take them seriously.”
Ingold’s behavior hasn’t been limited to phone calls and chats in the jail, according to Gamm.
“He has a long history of making disparaging comments to myself, v(ictim) two and the other detective during the court hearings,” he said.
Molepske, in his ruling, said he didn’t know if Ingold was aware that phone calls in the jail are recorded, but the claim that Ingold stated he didn’t care who heard his threats was enough to provide the burden of proof to move forward with a trial.
Ingold has now been in the Shawano County Jail for four years, currently being held on a $10,000 cash bond. A closed pre-trial conference for the attorneys is planned for Aug. 24, and a scheduling conference is planned for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 26 in the County Board Room at the Shawano County Courthouse.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
