Nobody will be charged with making the phone calls that caused the UW-Madison campus to be locked down in September.
But that isn 't for lack of trying, said Dale Burke, assistant UW-Madison police chief. Police believe the culprit was Jesse Miller, 20, who was later charged with other crimes, but they don 't have enough proof to recommend charges to prosecutors.
"We know where the calls came into, we know where he was, out in San Diego, " Burke said. "But trying to connect the dots for certain was impossible. "
On Sept. 25, UW-Madison canceled classes in the west campus area and searched buildings and parking ramps after a report of a suicidal man who claimed to have a weapon and wanted officers to shoot him. They didn 't find anyone but said they were looking for Miller.
Two days later, police received a call, purportedly from Miller 's brother, claiming Miller was at an address in Madison. Police did not find him there, either.
That call was traced to the Naval Academy Medical Center in San Diego. It was later determined that Jesse Miller made that call. He was arrested in San Diego and sent back to Madison.
Miller, who had been released from the Dane County Jail on Sept. 8 for a medical appointment, was charged with escape. He was also charged with obstructing police for posing as his brother.
Police were able to trace the Sept. 25 telephone threats to San Diego, where Miller was at the time, Burke said, and to a particular building but could not connect those calls to Miller.
"We ran with it pretty much as far as we could, " he said. "There finally came a point in time where I had to say, Enough is enough, he 's where we want him to be and we 've done what we can. ' "
Miller pleaded no contest to the obstructing charge in December but still faces the escape charge and two others related to his conduct in jail. Miller 's attorney, Eric Schulenburg, said Miller has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to those charges.
-- Ed Treleven
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