Alison Dirr|Appleton Post-Crescent
APPLETON - In deciding Tuesday between probation and prison for the woman who hid the gun used in theJack's Apple Pub shooting last spring, Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger balanced the defendant's troubled and traumatic past with personal progress in recent years.
In the end, Krueger landed somewhere in the middle.
She ordered that 29-year-old Dree Sullivan spend 3½ years on probationwith 2½ years in prison hanging over her head if she violates the conditions of probation.The long probation term is meant to ensure that she stays on the right path.
"This is frankly, Ms. Sullivan, a difficult call," Krueger said before handing down the sentence on a charge of harboring or aiding a felon by falsifying information.
Sullivan was at the College Avenue bar last May with her boyfriend Henry Nellum, who authorities say shotat another man, Leander Moffitt, during a fight inside the establishment. Appleton police Lt. Jay Steinke, one of the officers who responded, fired his weapon as he tried to enter the bar and fatally struckbystander Jimmie M. Sanders.Nellum was struck in the left bicep.
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Prosecutors said after Steinke fired, Sullivan took Nellum's gun from him, put it under her car then tried to come back into the bar while saying that no one inside had a gun inside.
Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis argued for a prison term, saying that Sullivan is no stranger to the criminal justice system. She had her first run-in when she was nine years old and a series of arrests and convictions between 2007 and 2011 in Florida.
"She continues to surround herself with people who don't follow the law, follow the rules," Tempelis said.
Ultimately, she took the gun "without any hesitation" and hid itto protect Nellum, Tempelis said. Despite the many police officers in the area at that point, she said, Sullivan didn't give the gun to any of them and instead put it under her vehicle where someone else could come across it.
And when Nellum was in jail but before Sullivan was arrested, Tempelis said, there were phone calls between them in which Sullivan said she knew she shouldn't be contacting him and indicated they would sell everything to get him an attorney. These calls showed she didn't have in mind the best outcome for herself or her young daughter, Tempelis said.
Nellum is scheduled to stand trial in August on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, felony murder, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, possessing a gun as a felon, using a gun while intoxicated, carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct. An aggravated battery charge was dismissed earlier.
Sullivan's attorney, Lauren Blumenthal, saw her situation through a lens of prior trauma, including a violently abusive relationship she endured at the hands of a manin Florida, and a tendency to seek stability through relationships with men.
She pointed out that in the years after Sullivan moved to Wisconsin she had no criminal history until this case.
"I think that's a pretty profound turn of events,"Blumenthal said, noting Sullivan's record free from criminal charges since 2011.
On the night of the shooting, she wanted to stay home but, consistent with her people-pleasing behavior, went to the bar with Nellum,Blumenthal said. And when someone is in an enclosed space with gunshots ringing out, they're not going to be thinking clearly, she said.
Sullivan felt like she needed to get the gun out of that situation,Blumenthal said. She didn't throw it in the river or hide it in a place that would be hard to find but instead put it under the tire of her own car, she said.
She added that Sullivan had stable, full-time employment in a trust-based position as a geriatric care providerin the community as well, and regained employment after she was released on bond after months in the Outagamie County Jail. With that, she started rebuilding her life and hasn't violated conditions of release,Blumenthal said.
"Afford her the opportunity to keep doing what she's doing right," she said in arguing for 18 months of probation with a withheld prison sentence if she violated conditions.
Sullivan told Krueger that in her time in jail and out on bond she has realized her mistake last May and acknowledged the seriousness of her actions. She thanked Krueger for giving her the opportunity to leave the jail and start to rebuild her life.
She said she wanted to get the gun out of that situation and put itwhere she didn't think anyone would see it.Sullivan said she didn't tell police about the gun because she was scared, but acknowledged it was a mistake.
"I'm not going to sit here and deny the fact that the decision I made wasn't the right decision," Sullivan said.
Krueger said taking the gun out of the bar prevented police from properly investigating the crime and then not telling officers of the gun's location was evidence of criminal thinking.
She also referenced Sullivan's "pretty extensive" criminal history in Florida but said much of it occurred during a period when she was involved with the violently abusive man who is now incarcerated.
"I'm also noting that you have a history of trauma," she said. "You were clearly involved in an abusive relationship for a lengthy period of time and there appears to be documentation that substantiates that, and that abusive relationship may have played a part in some of your past criminal activity."
Krueger also weighed the apparent change once Sullivan came to Wisconsin.
But she also cautioned Sullivan against thinking she was a victim in this circ*mstance.
"You're not the victim in this case," Krueger said."You may have been a victim at other times in life, and I think you were, but trying to minimize your involvement in this and think that somehow it wasunimportant is not the way to be looking at this."
