After the state moved a violent sex offender into a neighborhood as part of a “supervised release program,” a furious resident decided to give his new neighbor a very warm welcome.
When a community in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, heard that a registered sex offender would be moving into the neighborhood, they were understandably upset but felt there was nothing they could do to stop it. However, Russell Speigle was determined to oust the child predator by any means necessary.
As part of a supervised release program, 40-year-old Howard Nyberg was approved to move to the quiet residential street Gaston Circle. Nyberg is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 1994 of second-degree sexual assault of a child before he was ultimately committed as a sexually violent person at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston.
Outraged that officials would place a violent sexual predator in his neighborhood, 50-year-old Russell Speigle realized that the state wasn’t going to protect him and his loved ones from dangerous criminals. So, he improvised a plan to force Nyberg out of his community once and for all.
According to KTRK, after going on television news to protest Nyberg’s move didn’t work, Speigle set out to ensure that Nyberg couldn’t move in. Armed with a pair of 5-gallon gas canisters, Speigle set fire to the sex offender’s home not once but twice, finally burning it to the ground.
The first time, investigators suspected that the fire had been set intentionally, but no one was charged. Nyberg made the necessary repairs to the home and once again prepared to move in. Once the house caught fire a second time and burned down, police captured images of the culprit, later identifying Speigle as the arsonist.
Speigle was arrested and charged with arson, which caused approximately $90,000 in damages to the home the first time and ultimately destroyed the property altogether. Speigle was tracked down at a residence in Muscoda and was taken to the Burn Unit of UW Hospital in Madison where he received treatment for facial burns due to the arson.
Speigle was sentenced to 3 months in jail and 5 years probation, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. He explained that his decision was one out of desperation, as he had been the victim of a sexual offender when he was a child.
“I acted alone, without cooperation or encouragement from anyone,” Speigle said. “My motive was not revenge or retaliation. There was no profit motive. I took no pride in destroying someone’s private property. At the time, I saw it as a desperate last resort to circumstances with no good options.”
Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds acknowledged understanding of Speigle’s motivation for the arson but expressed a necessity to send him to jail for taking the law into his own hands.
“Let’s state the obvious,” Reynolds said. “As parents and law-abiding citizens, no one wants his next-door neighbor to be a sexual predator. However, there’s not a place in society for vigilante justice.”
Speigle’s plan ultimately worked when Nyberg chose to move away not only from the neighborhood but also to another town. Incredibly, Speigle’s intuition was correct, as Nyberg received a sex registry violation for opening up an email and Facebook account under an alias soon after the arson.
Although Speigle went to extremes to ensure that a violent pedophile didn’t move into his neighborhood, it’s easy to understand his desperation. No one would feel safe with a sex offender moving in next door, especially at the administration of the state.
Source: Tap Worthy Happenings
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