WAUPUN, Wis. — The family of Donald Maier, a 62-year-old inmate that died at the Waupun Correctional Institution, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the prison’s employees and contractors.
Maier died on Feb. 22, 2024 from probable malnutrition and dehydration after he was locked up in solitary confinement. Guards had turned off water in his cell, a violation of protocol that ensures prisoners have adequate drinking water, according to a criminal complaint. It also says guards did not follow protocol to get Maier help for his mental health disorder.
The family is now asking for damages and attorney fees as well as a trial by jury. In the lawsuit, the family claims prison staff had “deliberate indifference.” It also says staff were negligent in “ignoring [Maier’s] rapidly and obviously deteriorating physical and mental health while he was in their care.”
It specifically points to Waupun Correctional Institution Warden Randall Hepp, who, along with nine other employees, was implicated in Maier’s death. Hepp was charged in June 2024 with felony misconduct in connection with Maier’s death and another inmate’s, Cameron Williams — a count punishable by up to three-and-a-half years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
However, a judge on Monday ordered Hepp to pay a $500 fine to resolve the case. Maier’s mother, Jeanette Maier, called Hepp’s sentence a “slap on the wrist” and said her son had been treated worse than a caged animal.
It came after Dodge County District Attorney Andrea Will reduced the charge Monday to a misdemeanor count of violating laws governing a state or county institution in exchange for Hepp’s no contest plea. Will told Judge Martin Devries she reduced the charge because Hepp was well respected within the state Department of Corrections and didn’t know guards weren’t following policy.
But in the family’s lawsuit, it claims Hepp was “well aware” of “the understaffing, the lack of morale, and the lack of adequate training,” which created a “substantial risk.” It also described him as “deliberately indifferent to that risk.”
It also says Hepp was aware of lapsing in protocol enforcement, but that “he did not take action to attempt to ensure protocols were adhered to.”
One other defendant also agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge on Monday and prosecutors dropped the charges against another. Six defendants are still facing charges.
At least seven inmates, including Williams and Maier, have died at the Waupun prison since 2023. One killed himself, one died of a fentanyl overdose and one died of what investigators suspect was suicide. Two more deaths are under investigation.
Read the full lawsuit below:
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
