A judge on Tuesday ordered one of two inmates charged in connection with a Wisconsin youth prison counselor’s death this summer to stand trial.
Online court records indicate that 17-year-old Rian Nyblom waived his right to a preliminary hearing and Lincoln County Circuit Judge Galen Bayne-Allison bound him over for trial. Nyblom’s attorney, Joseph Bauer, declined to comment when reached by telephone.
The preliminary hearing is the step in the criminal justice process in which prosecutors must convince a judge enough evidence exists to justify a trial. Judges rarely end criminal cases at that stage, reducing the hearing to little more than a formality.
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Nyblom faces one count of being a party to felony murder-battery and one count of being a party to battery in connection with Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes School counselor Corey Proulx’s death on June 24. A 16-year-old inmate faces a first-degree reckless homicide charge as well as two battery-by-prisoner counts.
According to court documents, the 16-year-old was upset with a female counselor whom he felt was abusing her powers. He threw soap at her, punched her and then punched Proulx, who fell, hit his head on concrete pavement and later died.
The 16-year-old has been charged as an adult but The Associated Press is not naming him because his attorneys could press to move his case into juvenile court, where proceedings are secret.
Nyblom told investigators that he knew the 16-year-old was upset with the female counselor and wanted to splash her with conditioner and then start punching her, according to a criminal complaint.
Nyblom said about 15 minutes before the fighting began he got extra soap and conditioner from counselors and secretly gave it to the 16-year-old, the complaint said. Nyblom said that he didn’t see the 16-year-old punch the female counselor but he watched as the boy punched Proulx and Proulx hit his head, according to the complaint.
