By Mike Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Waukesha, Wis. — A man accused of stealing a police officer’s Taser gun and appearing on YouTube as he and his father stunned each other was sent to prison for two years Wednesday for violating the terms of his probation in a separate case.
The Taser allegations against Paul M. Crowell, 22, prompted the state Department of Corrections to revoke his probation for 2003 convictions for taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and for fleeing police.
As part of probation in that case, Crowell was required to stay out of trouble and not to consume alcohol.
The department recommended that Crowell be sent back to prison for one year and four months, but Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Linda Van de Water gave him two years, saying that it was the second time his probation had been revoked in the 2003 case.
She also noted that Crowell had just been released from prison in December and that in no time at all, he was in trouble again.
Van de Water chastised Crowell for possessing alcohol and for stealing the Taser in January from an officer who was helping to pull Crowell’s car out of a ditch on Highway 20 near Highway L in Walworth County during a snowstorm.
“You seem to be unable to be supervised. You continue to say you’re going to change, and you continue to come back to court in violation of your supervision,” Van de Water said.
Before Van de Water made her remarks, Crowell told her, “I know what I did. I just made a poor decision. . . . I need to change now, otherwise I’m going to be coming through the courts 20-30 years down the road.”
Crowell, of North Prairie, and his father, Paul J. Dupey, 42, of the Town of Waukesha, each were charged in February in Waukesha County Circuit Court with illegal possession of an electric weapon.
According to the criminal complaint, Crowell took the Taser while he was warming himself in an East Troy police officer’s squad car after his car went into the ditch on New Year’s Day.
Crowell and Dupey then videotaped themselves stunning each other and put the video on the Internet hours after the Taser was stolen.
Authorities tracked them down from the video clip posted on YouTube.
The video shows Crowell and his father taking turns holding the probes and firing the Taser, according to court records.
East Troy Police Chief Alan Boyes had said his department discovered the Taser was missing a short time after the theft and saw the video on YouTube within one or two days.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department searched the father’s home in the 5100 block of S. Big Bend Road on Jan. 3. They recovered a Taser and confiscated a camera and computer equipment, according to the search warrant.
In addition to being charged in Waukesha County, Crowell also has been charged in Walworth County with disarming a peace officer and possession of an electric weapon, both felonies, and theft-movable property, a misdemeanor.
He is scheduled to appear May 15 in Walworth County Circuit Court on those charges.
Dupey, meanwhile, is scheduled to appear in Waukesha County court March 27 for a preliminary hearing.