Former deputy sent to prison for burglary

JUNEAU — While the Lake Mills community mourned the loss of firefighter Christopher Truman in January 2019, prosecutors reported Janelle Gericke was attempting to break into his residence. It was an addiction to opioids that led her to use the obituaries as an avenue to find possible targets for burglaries.

The 30-year-old Jefferson woman was a deputy in the jail division of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office from 2016 to July 2019, when she was terminated after her potential involvement in a burglary was discovered by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.