DARLINGTON - Cash bail was set Tuesday, April 2 at $5,000 for an Argyle man arrested in connection to a fight that fatally injured his brother.
Shackled and weeping, Danial D. Saalsaa, 29, appeared in Lafayette County Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon with about a dozen family members in attendance at the hearing.
He was jailed on a tentative felony charge of aggravated battery after his sister-in-law, Argyle Police Chief Hayley Saalsaa, was called by family members to a fight on North Broad Street in Argyle.
His brother Aaron D. Saalsaa, 27, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and died Monday in the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, according to a news release Monday night from Lafayette County Sheriff Scott Pedley.
Danial Saalsaa is not yet formally charged.
"This case is still pending investigation," District Attorney Kate Findley told Judge William Johnston. Results from an autopsy Tuesday were also not yet available at the time of the hearing, she said.
Pedley has tasked Monroe police with investigating the incident, to avoid a "potential conflict of interest," given the Argyle police chief's family connection to the Saalsaa brothers and her close working relationship with the sheriff's department.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelley said his detectives are still interviewing people connected to the case. According to a preliminary investigation, the Saalsaa brothers were fighting outdoors early Sunday on North Broad Street when a 911 call requesting an ambulance came at 3:16 a.m. No weapons were used in the incident.
Monroe attorney Gregory Knoke represented Saalsaa at the hearing. He did not object to Findley's cash bail request or her stipulations that Saalsaa not drink and not leave Wisconsin without prior court approval - "although I don't believe there's a concern about Mr. Saalsaa leaving the state," he clarified.
"We're prepared to meet the terms of bail this afternoon," Knoke said. Online court records show no prior criminal history for Saalsaa.
Kelley described the situation as a "tragic result" of a domestic dispute between brothers with a history of fighting. The younger brother's organs are being donated, he said.
Shackled and weeping, Danial D. Saalsaa, 29, appeared in Lafayette County Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon with about a dozen family members in attendance at the hearing.
He was jailed on a tentative felony charge of aggravated battery after his sister-in-law, Argyle Police Chief Hayley Saalsaa, was called by family members to a fight on North Broad Street in Argyle.
His brother Aaron D. Saalsaa, 27, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and died Monday in the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, according to a news release Monday night from Lafayette County Sheriff Scott Pedley.
Danial Saalsaa is not yet formally charged.
"This case is still pending investigation," District Attorney Kate Findley told Judge William Johnston. Results from an autopsy Tuesday were also not yet available at the time of the hearing, she said.
Pedley has tasked Monroe police with investigating the incident, to avoid a "potential conflict of interest," given the Argyle police chief's family connection to the Saalsaa brothers and her close working relationship with the sheriff's department.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelley said his detectives are still interviewing people connected to the case. According to a preliminary investigation, the Saalsaa brothers were fighting outdoors early Sunday on North Broad Street when a 911 call requesting an ambulance came at 3:16 a.m. No weapons were used in the incident.
Monroe attorney Gregory Knoke represented Saalsaa at the hearing. He did not object to Findley's cash bail request or her stipulations that Saalsaa not drink and not leave Wisconsin without prior court approval - "although I don't believe there's a concern about Mr. Saalsaa leaving the state," he clarified.
"We're prepared to meet the terms of bail this afternoon," Knoke said. Online court records show no prior criminal history for Saalsaa.
Kelley described the situation as a "tragic result" of a domestic dispute between brothers with a history of fighting. The younger brother's organs are being donated, he said.