SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A campground owner charged in connection with a traffic stop — and then with bail jumping and disorderly conduct for actions related to her arrest on outstanding warrants for the first case – still doesn’t have an attorney, keeping the cases on hold.
Ann Retzlaff, 53, is charged with eluding an officer, recklessly endangering safety, and resisting in connection with a May 15, 2021, traffic stop. After missing two court dates last fall, a warrant was issued for her arrest. That arrest happened April 20 at the Harvest Restaurant in Wittenberg. The newest charges are for that event.
Little has changed since Retzlaff’s court appearance last Monday. Although a Shawano County official says she has made 226 calls from the jail, Retzlaff said she has been unable to hire an attorney.
Marathon County Judge Michael Moran asked if her friends and family could assist in the effort to find a lawyer.
“I am trying diligently but when they hear a phone call coming from the jail they reject it because who wants to accept a call from the jail?” Retzlaff said.
She again asked on Monday for the $27,000 cash bond to be reduced so could be released and more effectively find an attorney. Judge Moran agreed to review bail at the next status conference May 19, but said since notice wasn’t given to address bail today, he couldn’t so under the victims’ rights Constitutional amendment.
Once it resumes, the next stage of the case will be a preliminary hearing on the bail jumping and disorderly conduct counts.
Retzlaff owns Annie’s Campground, near Gresham. At various stages of interactions with police and courts, she has claimed to be a “sovereign citizen” who was not subject to the jurisdiction of police or the courts.
In the case the arrest warrant was issued for, police tried to pull Retzlaff over for failure to stop at a traffic light on May 15, but she did not pull over, the complaint states. Eventually, traffic stop spikes were deployed, flattening her tires, and the vehicle stopped. An officer advised her to get out of the vehicle.
“She stated she did not do anything wrong, and she was being wrongfully stopped. She stated she is a sovereign citizen and will not step out of the vehicle,” the complaint states.
A deputy tried to pry a vehicle door open when Retzlaff put the vehicle in gear to drive away. Two deputies had to move out of the way to avoid being hit by the vehicle, it states.
The vehicle was stopped a second time. A deputy “broke the driver window with his baton. The door was then opened, and Ann was taken from the vehicle and escorted to the ground. She was secured in handcuffs,” the complaint states.
Retzlaff told police she was rescuing an employee from sex traffickers, which is why she didn’t stop for police, and maintained she didn’t do anything wrong.
When she was arrested on warrants for not showing up in court on the original case, she allegedly was confrontational with officers.
Retzlaff has been in trouble with the law before. In 2020, she was ticketed for unlawful use of a telephone for posing as a Shawano County sheriff’s deputy. Her campground also came under fire earlier that year for ignoring protocols to slow the spread of COVID-19.
For her November court hearing, Retzlaff sent multiple messages to the court, arguing she feared appearing in court due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s and asserting the court did not have jurisdiction over her. Judge Kussel rejected the arguments as improperly filed, and noting they did not cite any proper legal authority.
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