Misdemeanor vandalism charges in St. Croix and Eau Claire counties against freshman quarterback Ben Luehrs have been dismissed because of more serious felony vandalism charges in St. Croix County, District Attorney Richard White said.
Luehrs was charged with various counts of vandalism in relation to the June damage of high schools in Hudson and New Richmond.
White said Luehrs and his four other co-defendants paid restitution in Eau Claire County and are seeking a plea agreement for the felony charges.
However, the judge in St. Croix County denied the agreement.
“The judge advised us that he did not believe that he could accept the plea agreement that had been suggested to him,” White said. “So procedurally we’re in a position where the next step is a preliminary hearing that will be scheduled in front of this judge, or the defendants will file a substitution request for a new judge.”
Luehrs did not return an e-mail from The Spectator and his phone number is not listed.
In a Sept. 20 issue of The Spectator, athletic director Scott Kilgallon said the decision on whether to punish Luehrs was still up in the air because the charges had yet to go through the legal system and it was an occurrence that happened prior to Luehr’s enrollment at the university.
“When a student-athlete comes in, they understand we have very high expectations, but we want to make sure they are doing well in class and are good citizens,” he said in a Sept. 20 interview. “We deal with these situations one-on-one.”
However, Kilgallon decided no actions will be taken to suspend or punish Luehrs because the situation was out of the Eau Claire athletic department’s jurisdiction.
“We don’t have that authority nor would we take it against any student whether they were an athlete or not,” Kilgallon said. “It’s different when something happens here and there are all sorts of legal implications.
“It was a separate issue before (Luehrs’) time at Eau Claire and the general policy protects all students in that situation.”