State wants bond raised for driver

By Steve Sharp of the Daily Times staff
Friday, May 16, 2008 10:28 PM CDT

Jennifer L. Yelk makes an appearance in Jefferson County Circuit Court Friday to face an ammended charge of homocide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. She is accused of causing the death of Trisha A. Kerr of Lake Mills, who died Thursday from injuries sustained in an accident on May 8. She is pictured with her attorney, Joseph Fischer. (John Hart/Daily Times)

JEFFERSON - A 30-year-old Lake Mills woman, who is charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle relating to an accident May 8 in Aztalan, made a brief appearance in Jefferson County Branch II Circuit Court Friday afternoon for a bond modification. The judge, however, decided to leave modification of the document to the judge who will be handling the case in the coming weeks.

Jefferson County Branch II Circuit Court Judge William Hue opted Friday afternoon to allow Branch IV Circuit Court Judge Randy Koschnick to decide whether or not to grant the state's request of Friday afternoon to increase cash bail on Jennifer Yelk, 30, of Lake Mills, from $25,000 cash to $112,000.

Yelk's charge of causing injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle was upped Friday to homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle after the crash victim, Trisha A. Kerr, 30, of Jefferson, died Thursday at a Madison hospital from injuries she sustained in the two-vehicle collision that occurred May 8 at 8:10 p.m. on Ziebell Road. The crash site was between Jefferson and Aztalan on the rural road. Yelk was treated and transported to Fort Memorial Hospital where she was further treated, then released to police custody.

If she is convicted of being intoxicated in connection with this crash, it could amount to a fourth-offense operating while intoxicated for Yelk because a case of third-offense drunk driving is pending against her in Dane County.

According to investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, the collision occurred when Kerr's Ford Focus was hit head-on by Yelk's 2003 Ford Expedition that had crossed the centerline on Ziebell Road. Kerr was eastbound and Yelk was westbound when Yelk deviated from her lane.

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The sheriff's department's major accident investigation team determined it appeared Kerr saw Yelk on the wrong side of the road, applied the brakes, then made an evasive maneuver into the westbound lane in an attempt to avoid the collision. Yelk's vehicle struck the Kerr vehicle, pushing it backwards and eventually onto its roof. Yelk's vehicle continued into a flooded field. Kerr required extrication from her vehicle.

Yelk is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on the unmodified $25,000 cash bond.