Village turns to courts to rid itself of battered house

The Village of Fredonia is asking a judge to order that a battered and boarded-up house that was the scene of a 38-hour standoff with authorities in May be repaired or razed, but it will have to wait a little longer for a decision.

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams last week extended the deadline for NewRez LLC, which holds the mortgage on the two-story house at 139 Fox Glen Dr. owned by Matthew K. Novak, to respond to the village’s petition.

NewRez, a Fort Washington, Pa., company that also does business as Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, asked for the deadline to be extended to Dec. 8 to give it additional time to investigate the condition of the home. The original deadline was Nov. 6.

The village turned to the courts last month — naming both Novak and NewRez as defendants in the civil action — in search of relief from a house that for more than six months has stood as an eyesore and a reminder of a terrifying incident that forced neighboring residents to either evacuate or shelter in place as the sound of gunshots and flash-bang grenades rang out.

Village officials said the house has, understandably, been the source of ongoing complaints from neighbors.

In its petition, the village notes that nearly all the windows in the house have been destroyed or removed and are now boarded up.

The exterior doors of the house, as well as the garage door, were also destroyed and have been boarded up. 

In addition, there are holes in the exterior walls of the house — the result of authorities breeching the structure to keep eyes on Novak and eventually turn a fire hose on him — that have left the structure exposed to the elements.

The house, in fact, was so badly damaged during the standoff that the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office had to hire a contractor to shore it up before it could be searched. Once inside, investigators found four handguns, nine rifles, ammunition that included armor-piercing rounds, night vision goggles and thermal optics, Sheriff Christy Knowles said. 

Fredonia Building Inspector Henry Derler issued a notice of public nuisance that was sent to NewRez on Aug. 27 and delivered to Novak on Sept. 10, but no action to remedy the defects in the house have been taken, according to the village’s petition. 

Now the village is asking Williams to declare the house a public nuisance and order Novak to make repairs within a reasonable amount of time. If Novak fails to comply with such an order, the village is asking the judge to appoint a receiver or authorize the demolition of the house. 

The repair or demolition of the house has been complicated by the fact Novak, who was arrested May 10 after authorities blasted him with a water cannon and shot him with a beanbag round, is being held in jail in lieu of $1 million bail. He is charged with six felonies.

In August, Williams determined that Novak was not competent to stand trial and committed him to the custody of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for treatment, effectively pausing the case for months. Last week, Williams ruled that Novak is now competent and the case against him can proceed. (See related story.)

During his bail hearing in May, Novak appeared via video from the county jail and throughout much of it he gestured dramatically, at one point flipping the camera off. He appeared to be screaming, but his microphone was muted.

Ozaukee County District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay said during that hearing that Novak repeatedly expressed disdain for law enforcement officers and the federal government during the standoff. After his arrest, he told authorities he wanted to die a martyr and was upset that the standoff was covered only by local news outlets, not the national media, according to the complaint.

He also told investigators that he barricaded himself in a room that allowed him to watch for people entering his house, who he intended to kill if he considered them a threat, the complaint states.