MONROE — Stephen Duane Detra, the Albany man on probation for felony child neglect and bail jumping, faces new charges that he drunkenly crashed his motorcycle.
Detra, 45, is currently serving a six-month sentence in the Green County Jail as a condition of his three-year probation from convictions in earlier cases this year.
The latest case against him stems from an incident that occurred while those cases were still pending.
According to court records filed in September, Detra crashed his motorcycle on 5th Avenue in New Glarus at about 10 p.m. July 28 after getting kicked out of a nearby bar.
A responding police officer arrived to see Detra “covered in what appeared to be blood” running away from a motorcycle tipped on its side. On the officer’s orders, Detra stopped running and was escorted to an ambulance.
Witnesses told police Detra had been lying facedown in a pool of blood when they first found him and when he heard police were coming he tried to drive away but a witness stopped him.
The officer noted that Detra suffered serious injuries in the crash, including a possible collapsed lung and broken ribs. His blood-alcohol content was reported to be 0.18%, more than twice the legal limit for driving.
As a result, Detra faces charges of second-offense operating while intoxicated and operating with a prohibited blood-alcohol level, both misdemeanors, as well as five counts of felony bail jumping. He is next in court for a preliminary hearing Nov. 15.
About two weeks after the accident, Judge Thomas Vale accepted a joint recommendation of probation and jail time for Detra’s convictions of child neglect, drug possession, domestic abuse and bail jumping, but Vale said it was a “close call” not to serve a harsher sentence.
At the sentencing, Detra’s attorney, Corinne Frutiger, told the judge Detra had been in a downward spiral after his father died in a car accident in 2018 and he “unfortunately made the decision to self-medicate.” She said Detra deserved a break to care for his “multitude of children.”
District Attorney Craig Nolen concurred that Detra “has been making fairly decent progress” toward reuniting with his children.
Detra’s ex-girlfriend and codefendant in the child neglect and drug cases, 30-year-old Ashley Shawntae Smith, entered an 18-month deferred prosecution agreement in September. Stipulations of the agreement include seeking alcohol counseling or other drug counseling and continuing to work with her Child, Youth and Families social worker at Green County Human Services.
The cases against Detra and Smith stem from an April 9 search warrant on the house they shared at 305 W. Nichols St. in Albany. Police reported finding it littered with drug paraphernalia and emitting an “overly pungent smell of urine and garbage.” Officers observed a crack pipe and cocaine “within reach of young children.” Police found no specific injuries or harm to the children, but witnesses reported physical abuse and infrequent diaper changes. Two children, ages 1 and 3, were removed from the home as a result.
Then, in June, Detra and Smith faced more charges stemming from a fight during which they reportedly broke each others’ phones, threatened each other with knives and he choked her until she lost consciousness.