Capitol Chaos: Woman Charged with Sending Threats to Republican Lawmakers

By Heather Shannon

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MADISON - A 26 year old Cross Plains woman named Katherine Windels was charged Thursday with sending threatening emails to Republican lawmakers. 

The criminal complaint said Windels admitted sending the emails because she was: "disgusted and very upset by what they were doing."

Windels' social media pages say she is an elementary school teacher in Madison.

The criminal complaint said Windels threatened to kill Republicans and their families in her email, and said she would shoot them in the head.

"Me being a father of two small children; it was very upsetting to me," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald received several threats during the chaos at the Capitol.  He is a very strong supporter of Governor Walker's controversial Collective Bargaining Law, which strips most collective bargaining rights from state employed union workers. 

Fitzgerald is relieved Windels was charged, but said that's not the end of it.  He received another death threat on Thursday.

"I hope all of these are investigated and I hope people realize what they have done, and the harm, and the uncertainty they have put families through when it comes to legislators," Fitzgerald said.

The criminal complaint said Windels' set up a fake email account, and sent the emails from her parents' home. 

Rick Baas of the Milwaukee County Republican Party was disappointed with the threats.

"You can't go around threatening people, hiding behind emails," Baas said.  "Be man or woman enough to say it to someone's face and do it with some civility."

We tried to get a comment from Windels, but her line was busy.  She told police she would have never gone through with her threats, but she now faces over seven years in prison for allegedly making them.