Newly Revised Waukesha Ordinance Keeps 3 Sex Offenders From Living in City

Less than a week after going into effect, Waukesha's new limits on releasing convicted sex offenders into the city are already seeing results. 

Three sex offenders that were planned by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections to be released into Waukesha will not be placed in the city because of the new ordinance, Deputy Chief Mark Stigler said Tuesday.

The ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from being released into Waukesha unless the offender was living in Waukesha at the time of the offense. Traditionally, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections releases the offenders into the county where there were convicted. Typically the offenders from Waukesha County are released to Waukesha because it is the county seat with all essential services.

Stigler said the police department met with the DOC and other interested agencies last week to determine the best notification for to alert the community that the three men were going to be released from prison and into Waukesha. That's when the city was able to stop the offenders from being released because of the revised ordinance.

“The three of them were all horrendous cases,” Stigler said. “These are serious, serious sex offenders who were unrepentant and were slated to be placed in our city.”

But, because the Common Council had passed the ordinance that went into effect Friday, the state DOC cooperated with the city and followed the ordinance. Stigler said it was the first time sex offenders were prevented from being placed in Waukesha.

“It couldn’t have come a day later,” Stigler said about the ordinance. “… None of the three of them lived in the city before this, nor did their offenses occur in the city of Waukesha. They were going to be placed here and now they are not.”

Stigler credited the work of aldermen John Kalblinger and Steve Johnson and the city attorney’s office for their work on the ordinance, which was approved by the Common Council on March 15.

“I thank both of them for their foresight in writing this ordinance along with the city attorney’s office because these are the kind of laws that will help to keep our women and children safe from these predatory offenders,” Stigler said.

Who They Were

The three men – Anthony Suslick, Thomas Zaruba and Kenneth McDonald – had varied sexual assault offenses and sentences.

Suslick, 70, was convicted after pleading no contest to third-degree sexual assault, false imprisonment and battery with substantial bodily harm.

Suslick raped and injured a friend who had spent the night, but locked the door to keep him out of the room in July 1996. The woman told investigators she thought the man was going to kill her while her 2-year-old son was in his Town of Oconomowoc apartment, according to the criminal complaint.

Zaruba, 23, was originally from Hubertus, but is convicted of sexually assaulting a then-14-year-old girl when he was 18 while staying with the girl’s aunt in Dousman in September 2005. Zaruba physically harmed the girl after she broke off the relationship with him and feared she was pregnant, according to the criminal complaint.

In one of the instances, the girl was half asleep and he carried her to the place where the assault occurred, the complaint states. Zaruba had consumed a combination of vodka, beer, cocaine and marijuana at the time. Zaruba also wrote the girl a letter in an attempt to keep her from reporting their relationship.

Zaruba is convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child and intimidating a victim/dissuading reporting.

McDonald, 39, is convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child. A second charge was dismissed but read in as a part of his plea deal after he pleaded no contest to one count of sexual assault. Both assaults were reported to have occurred between April 2005 and April 2008.

The criminal complaint against McDonald stated that McDonald invited a woman and her then-7-year-old girl to stay with him in Mukwonago. The complaint states the girl told her mother she was hurt by McDonald, who would sometimes give the girl baths. McDonald also stole the girl’s baby pictures from the mother until the mother demanded them back, according to the criminal complaint.

Soon after, McDonald began staying at a home in Oconomowoc because he needed a place to live and the family needed someone to watch their then 4-year-old daughter. McDonald admitted to molesting the young girl, according to the complaint.