Facing tax charges, dentist detained after name spat
By Kevin Murphy | Special to the Tribune
MADISON — A federal magistrate in Madison on Friday ordered a La Crosse dentist detained until trial on tax evasion charges, ruling that Frederick G. Kriemelmeyer’s prior escape conviction and refusal this week to respond to a summons made him a flight risk.
Appearing in a Columbia County jail uniform and representing himself, Kriemelmeyer, 58, verbally sparred with Magistrate Theresa Owens over how his name should appear on mail from the court.
“If it’s addressed in all caps would you open, read and comply with it?” Owens asked.
“I’ll open anything with my name on it,” Kriemelmeyer said.
Owens appeared to give Kriemelmeyer a chance to be released on conditions if he would accept mail from the court in the way the court uses all capital letters in the address. However, Kriemelmeyer declined to give Owens the assurance she sought about complying with future mailed requests of the court and Owens ordered his continued detention.
“This is not (the) game show, ‘Deal or No Deal’. That’s not where the court wanted to go… but the defendant refuses to accept how the court (works),” she said.
Kriemelmeyer was arrested Wednesday after the summons mailed to him was returned after delivery was refused.
In the detention hearing Friday, Kriemelmeyer told Owens that he wasn’t the person named in the case because the way he spells his name, “Frederick-George: Kriemelmeyer,” didn’t appear on the summons.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman said the defendant’s name appeared on his Web site, driver’s license and passport in upper and lower-case letters and without the hyphen or added punctuation.
Owens cut short Kriemelmeyer’s argument, telling him that the government had sufficiently identified him but he could file a motion if he wanted to contest the matter further.
Altman introduced La Crosse Tribune articles to support her contention that the holistic dentist was a flight risk. She mentioned a 1994 story published after Kriemelmeyer failed to appear for a sentencing on tax evasion and a 1996 article detailing the seven-month sentence Kriemelmeyer received for escape.
The article quoted District Attorney Scott Horne saying Kriemelmeyer had a successful professional career before he got into tax trouble.
Kriemelmeyer contested detention, saying he had patients who rely on him for dental care and it would be difficult to continue to represent himself on pending charges that he underreported his income on federal tax returns filed from 2000-04.
Kriemelmeyer’s trial was set for Aug. 13 and is expected to last a week.