Victim's family not happy with plea deal for mother who supplied alcohol

WAUKESHA COUNTY (WITI) -- A mother supplied three teenage boys with alcohol in July. Hours later, the teens wrapped their car around a pole, and were killed. On Monday, March 18th, that mom reached a plea deal for the incident, but one victim's family was not happy with the results.

"I don't feel that there's justice for the children that have passed away," a victim's family member told FOX6 News.

This past summer, three lives were lost when on July 24th, the car carrying Ian Glidden, Timothy Peters and Kody Koepke slammed into a utility pole at more than 50 miles per hour.

The 18-year-old driver was drunk.

On Monday morning, March 18th, Charlene Wetzel and her family pleaded guilty to a total of six citations for serving alcohol to the boys -- a consequence one victim's family says doesn't go far enough.

"The alcohol was given to them. If they wouldn't have had the alcohol, would this have taken place?" a victim's family member told FOX6 News.

Anthony Cotton was the defense attorney who helped work out the plea deal. By explaining to the court the Wetzel family lives with remorse over what happened and does not have a lot of money, he was able to have 20 of the original 26 citations dismissed -- something the district attorney agreed to.

"There's never been a point in any of our discussions where they've avoided responsibility, where they've felt like they should get out of this entirely.  It was just a question of what was a fair resolution?" Cotton said.

"We gauge the size of a forfeiture or fine based on someone's resources.  Someone with more to lose would have lost more today," District Attorney Brad Schimel said.

The Wetzel family's resources played a big role in determining how much they were fined. They were not criminally charged because the boys were all 18. Had they been 17, the district attorney could have pushed for felony charges.