WAUPACA COUNTY (NBC 26) — Scott Farmer, the Neenah man sentenced to 37½ years in prison for killing four siblings in a wrong-way crash on Dec. 16, 2023, is seeking to withdraw his no contest plea.
Farmer argues that the warrant used to authorize a blood draw—which prosecutors later used as evidence against him—was not properly authorized by a judge. As a result, he contends the blood test results should have been suppressed and that he is entitled to a new trial.
In a post-conviction motion filed by his new attorney, Nicholas Smith, he argues Farmer should be allowed to withdraw his plea because he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The motion states:
"After taking the deputy’s sworn testimony by telephone and finding probable cause, the issuing judge directed the deputy to sign the judge’s name on the warrant. The deputy did so and entered the time of issuance. A search warrant is, by statute, 'an order signed by a judge,' Wis. Stat. § 968.12(1), and the oral-testimony procedure required the judge to 'immediately sign the original warrant and enter on the face of the original warrant the exact time when the warrant was ordered to be issued,' § 968.12(3)(b)1. Neither occurred. The blood draw was therefore warrantless, the blood-alcohol result that supplied the State’s chemical proof of intoxication should have been suppressed, and trial counsel’s failure to seek suppression was deficient and prejudicial."
Farmer entered no contest pleas in August 2024 to one count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and four counts each of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and operating while revoked, causing death.
The case marked Farmer's fifth OWI offense.
The motion asks the court to hold a hearing and issue "an order vacating the judgment on Counts 1–5, permitting withdrawal of his pleas, suppressing the December 16, 2023 blood draw and its fruits, and granting such further relief as is just."
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion, and no hearing has been scheduled.
