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Brodhead woman charged with trying to kill husband
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MONROE - A 59-year-old Brodhead woman is charged in the attempted first-degree intentional homicide of her estranged husband at a residence west of Brodhead.

Roxann D. Nordeng appeared in Green County Circuit Court via video relay from jail for a bail hearing Friday, May 11, the same day a criminal complaint was filed against her. About six of her family members and friends came to the hearing.

Judge Thomas Vale set her cash bond at $100,000 on a Class B felony of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, a Class F felony of burglary and a Class A misdemeanor of intentionally pointing a firearm at a person.

"This is an extremely serious case," said Gary Luhman, district attorney, in justifying his request for a large bond. Nordeng had been planning to shoot her husband for "some time," he added, and still posed a threat to the husband and the woman police identify as the husband's girlfriend.

Public defender Guy Taylor countered that Nordeng is a longtime Brodhead resident and homeowner with no prior criminal record. She has grandchildren living in Brodhead, he added, and no ties to any other community.

"She does not have the ability to post $100,000," Taylor said.

According to the criminal complaint and reports from Brodhead Police and the Green County Sheriff's Department:

Nordeng arrived at a home in the N3200 block of Crazy Horse Lane on the evening of Wednesday, May 9, wearing gloves and carrying a loaded Smith & Wesson .380 automatic pistol in a plastic bag. She kicked aside the screen and pounded on the door, and when her 64-year-old husband answered, pointed the gun at him.

The man grabbed the barrel of the gun to point it away from him, and in the ensuing 30-second struggle, the gun fired upwards. No injuries were reported, and she fled the scene.

Green County deputies and Brodhead Police were dispatched to the scene at 8:42 p.m., after the husband's 27-year-old live-in girlfriend reported the incident by calling 911.

Nordeng filed for a divorce from her husband in May 2011.

Nordeng was arrested without incident at her home in Brodhead in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 10.

Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, May 21.