A former police officer turned mayor accused of murdering three people once beat a suspect so brutally that he lost an eye and was responsible for the death of another, according to two lawsuits.
Jay Ostrem, 64, was jailed on $1 million cash-only bail on three counts of first-degree murder following a shooting on Memorial Day.
Ostrem had previously worked in law enforcement for more than two decades in Wyoming and South Dakota.
While working for the police department in Gillette, Wyoming, Ostrem had two lawsuits filed against him for his use of force.
In 2000, Patrick Wayne Dalby, a clothing store robbery suspect, filed a lawsuit alleging unnecessary force.
Dalby claimed that Ostrem hit him with the butt of a semi-automatic rifle, causing him to lose his left eye while arresting him in April 1999.
Jay Ostrem, 64, was jailed on $1 million cash-only bail on three counts of first-degree murder following a shooting on Memorial Day.
Ostrem, seen here with his wife Lise Victoria, had previously worked in law enforcement for more than two decades in Wyoming and South Dakota.
His original complaint, seen by DailyMail.com, says Ostrem hit him several times in the back, head, face and eyes with the rifle and fired two shots.
District Judge Clarence Brimmer sided with Ostrem and ruled that Ostrem had acted in an “objectively reasonable manner.”
Dalby was sentenced to 15 to 35 years for robbery and two to five years for disarming a law enforcement officer in April 2000.
Another lawsuit filed in 2001 by TaWaynda Owens claimed that Ostrem used “unreasonable, unnecessary and unjustified” force in the death of her husband Michael.
TaWaynda had left her home in Gillette after an incident with her husband Michael in November 2001.
After showing up at her sister’s house and explaining what happened, her sister called the local police and explained that she had been beaten.
While on the phone, Michael Owens, 40, appeared at the home and Ostrem was dispatched to the address.
Along with another officer, Ostrem approached Owens with guns pointed at him and yelled “loudly and aggressively.”
The lawsuit adds that after Owens began driving erratically, Ostrem opened fire on him, firing ten shots at him. Owens died at the scene after being hit ten times.
While working for the police department in Gillette, Wyoming, Ostrem had two lawsuits filed against him for his use of force.
Jay Ostrem is pictured in 2009 while working as a Turner County sheriff’s investigator.
Owens claimed that Ostrem and the other officer had violated her husband’s rights to be free from the “unreasonable, unnecessary and unjustified use of excessive force in making an arrest.”
Once again, a judge dismissed the claims and Ostrem did not pay damages in either case.
The Gillette News Log reported that in 1994 Ostrem shot and killed a suicide gunman.
Warren Thomas had apparently wounded himself with his own weapon when Ostrem and another officer showed up at his home.
When asked to drop the gun he was holding, Thomas raised a revolver toward the other officer, prompting Ostrem to shoot him.
Ostrem had been at Thomas’ home earlier that day after a request was made to check on him. She left after Thomas promised her that he would go to a hospital for help.
On Thursday, Ostrem appeared before a Clay County judge in connection with Monday’s shooting incident.
The former Centerville mayor’s murder charges are three class A felonies and carry a minimum penalty of death or life in prison.
On Thursday, Ostrem appeared before a Clay County judge in connection with Monday’s shooting.
Paul Frankus, 26, left, and his brother Zach, 21, right, were shot to death Monday.
Officers visited the home where the call originated, upstairs, and found the three victims.
A probable cause affidavit identified the victims as two brothers Paul Frankus, 26, and his brother Zach, 21, and Timothy Richmond, 35.
Zach Frankus called police Monday night to report that his brother had been shot by “a guy from across the street” and that the shooter had returned home.
Frankus was still on the phone with an operator when he said he, too, had been shot.
It was described as “frantic”. Frankus then stopped talking, the documents state.
Authorities rushed to the scene, where a Game Fish and Parks officer saw Ostrem leaving the home identified as the scene of the shooting.
Ostrem initially ignored orders to stop before lying on the ground. He was arrested a short time later.
An AR-style rifle was on the ground near him and he had a pistol in his pocket. Police noticed Ostrem was bleeding from his left hand and smelled of alcohol.
Authorities rushed to the scene, where a Game Fish and Parks officer saw Ostrem leaving the home identified as the scene of the shooting.
Officers then went to the home where the call originated and found the three victims.
Ostrem’s wife, who is British, told police that a neighbor, Paul Frankus, had sexually assaulted her on Thursday and told Ostrem about the assault on Monday night.
The couple had been drinking together when he forcibly kissed her, exposed his genitals and pressed himself against her, the Argus Leader reports.
He said Ostrem “got up and stormed out of the house,” according to the document.
She explained to the agents that her husband did not tell her where he was going and that he did not come out armed, although weapons were kept in the house and he probably had some in his car.
Ostrem is scheduled to appear in court on June 20.
