Judge sends sex offender to prison

Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Raymond Huber sentenced Devin J. Postel, 49, New London, to 10 years in state prison and six years of extended supervision Monday, Nov. 25.

He must also register as a sex offender, maintain absolute sobriety and have no contact with any victims.

A jury convicted Postel of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim and felony bail jumping on Oct. 8, 2024.

He was initially charged on July 22, 2019, after a then 21-year-old woman reported that Postel had sex with her while she was sleeping in a camper at Wolf River campground in Mukwa.

According to the criminal complaint, the woman and her friend joined Postel at a campsite that his nephew had rented.

There were six adults, sitting around a campfire, drinking.

The woman went into the camper around 3 a.m. to sleep in a bunk bed.

Postel climbed into the top bunk, then asked if he could share her blanket since he had not brought one with him.

The woman agreed, turned to face the wall away from him, then fell asleep.

When she woke up, she was naked from the waist down. Her underwear and shorts on the floor.

The woman told investigators she immediately believed she had been raped.

The woman and her friend left the campsite and drove to St. Vincent Hospital in Greed Bay for a rape test.

Delays

The case had been delayed multiple times since the charges were first filed.

Courthouse operations were severely delayed from July 2020 to May 2021 due to restrictions during the covid pandemic.

A jury trial scheduled for Dec. 16, 2020, was removed from the court calendar.

In June 2022, Judge Troy Nielsen postponed a scheduled jury trial in response to concerns regarding the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office altering investigative reports before forwarding them to the district attorney’s office.

Postel’s defense attorney, David Winkel, filed a motion asking Nielsen to require the sheriff’s office to appear in court and either “certify that the reports were not altered or provide the defendant with evidence in the form of written reports or otherwise of what was removed or altered from the reports.”

In his motion, Winkel noted that staff from the sheriff’s office testified on Feb. 21 that “reviewing officers not present for the investigation routinely altered reports of the investigating officer. The changes are not merely grammatical. Rather, staff testified that the changes may be substantive. In at least one case, reviewing officers removed exculpatory information.”

Defendants “have no way of confirming whether the probable cause established through the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office reports is truthful and accurate, manufactured, or whether obviously exculpatory information has been removed,” Winkel argued.

Because of the conflict between Sheriff Tim Wilz and District Attorney Veronica Isherwood regarding the issue of revisions at that time, Nielsen said, “No way on earth we could pick a fair and impartial jury from this county next month.”

After a two-day trial, the jury deliberated less than an hour before finding Postel guilty of sexual assault and felony bail jumping.

On the morning of the trial’s second day, Postel failed to appear in court. Huber authorized an arrest warrant, increased Postel’s cash bond to $500,000 and the trial proceeded without Postel’s presence.

In the afternoon, Postel was in custody and in court for closing arguments and jury deliberations.

When he was sentenced on Nov. 25, Postel entered a no contest plea to a second felony bail jumping charge for a Nov. 3, 2019, offense.