The man charged with setting a fire at Congressman Glenn Grothman’s office in Fond du Lac has been convicted.
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney explains that Caiden Stachowicz entered a no-contest plea yesterday (November 10th) in Fond du Lac County Court to one count of arson.
The 20-year-old suspect now faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and fines up to $100,000.
A criminal complaint says that Fond du Lac Police were called to Grothman’s Wisconsin office in the 500 block of N. Peters Avenue in January just after 1:00 a.m.
Stachowicz was standing by his vehicle and admitted to one officer that he purposely started the fire as police were trying to put it out. After his arrest, Stachowicz stated that he did it because he didn’t like the 6th district congressman for voting to ban the social media app TikTok.
There was also evidence that the 20-year-old tried to break into the building, with him saying he wanted to set it on fire from the inside.
Extensive fire damage was later found outside the back door to the office, along with damage to the west of the door, where siding had been burned off the building.
Stachowicz will return to court on March 5th for sentencing.
DA Toney said of the conviction, “Political violence has no place in society, and we will aggressively prosecute anyone who commits or attempts to commit violence against government officials, regardless of their political affiliation, to protect our democratic process.”
