A left-wing radical judge in a deeply conservative county allowed Deonta Rashad Harmon to walk free on a felony battery charge. Four days later, he killed a man in a triple shooting on Water Street in Milwaukee.
Lincoln County Circuit Judge Jessica Fehrenbach, a liberal jurist who ran unopposed for her seat in a county that gave President Trump nearly 62% of the vote in 2024, stayed a 60-day jail sentence for an 18-year-old felon just four days before he was charged in a Milwaukee triple shooting that killed one man and wounded two others.
Fehrenbach, celebrated as the first female judge in Lincoln County, handed down a stayed sentence and a mere 24 months of self-imposed probation on March 18 to Deonta Rashad Harmon after he admitted to felony battery behind bars. As part of that case, Harmon had three class H felonies dismissed but read in. A Class H felony is the second-least serious type of felony in Wisconsin, but it can carry a prison sentence of up to 6 years.
This all began with a brawl at Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, where Harmon was already serving a previously stayed sentence for fleeing police.
Just days after walking out of Fehrenbach’s courtroom, Harmon was facing charges in Milwaukee County for first-degree reckless homicide in the killing of 22-year-old Dylan Jackson, plus two counts of first-degree reckless injury for wounding two others in the same Water Street bloodbath, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Harmon, previously sentenced as a 15-year-old in Milwaukee County to a stayed 60-day jail term and probation for fleeing or eluding, had violated that probation before the Lincoln County case.
Fehrenbach spent 14 years as a public defender before being elected without opposition in April 2025 to succeed retiring Judge Robert Russell.
She was sworn in August 1st, and formally invested in September at an event that featured retired liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley as the main speaker.
“I am extremely honored to be the first female judge in Lincoln County,” Fehrenbach said during her investiture. “I bring a unique and diverse background and set of life experiences with me to the bench.”
During that ceremony, she signaled her intent to use her position as a judge to implement alternatives to criminal prosecution and sentencing.
“This position also allows me to reform the system from within through programs like a mediation program and a family treatment court. It will take some time to get a family treatment court started in our county, and it will require resources, but long term, it will help end intergenerational cycling of families through the system.”
