Woman accused of arson pleads to lesser charge

A 57-year-old Fredonia woman who was charged with arson after a witness said he saw her walk out of her neighbor’s house with a lighter as smoke billowed out of the home in 2024 pleaded no contest recently to a lesser felony.

Laura K. Berweger’s plea to an amended charge of criminal damage to property was accepted during an April 15 hearing by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain, who sentenced her to 18 months in prison followed by two years of extended supervision.

Cain ruled that the prison time be served concurrently with the sentence Berweger is serving for fifth-offense drunken driving.

A felony count of burglary was dismissed as part of a plea agreement but read into the record, which means Cain could consider the facts surrounding that charge when sentencing Berweger.

According to a criminal complaint, shortly after the fire at a house in the 400 block of Fredonia Avenue on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, Berweger told Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office investigators that she knew the family that lived in the house well, adding that she has watched the children and cooked meals for the family in the past.

She expressed concern for the family because one of the members suffers from a serious medical condition and said the house was filled with trash and debris and was probably “caving in” because a previous owner had removed a support post in the basement, the complaint states.

At one point, a detective suggested to Berweger that she started the fire because she believed it would help a family that didn’t have the means to repair and maintain the large, old house they lived in, according to the complaint.

Berweger responded by denying she was in the house the day of the fire and saying she would never do anything to hurt the family. When told by a detective that a neighbor said he saw her leave the house with a lighter in her hand, she said, “No they didn’t,” the complaint states.

Firefighters from three departments and sheriff’s deputies responded to the fire at 5:54 p.m.

A witness told deputies that he smelled smoke and went outside to see his neighbor, Berweger, leaving the house with a lot of black smoke following her. He said Berweger was holding a long lighter in her right hand, according to the complaint.

The man and another area resident ran to the house, opened a back door and, after seeing smoke and flames, yelled out to try and determine if anyone was home. They received no response.

One of the witnesses said as they were going to check on the house, Berweger called out to him and asked if he could help her with a project right away. He told authorities that he believed Berweger was trying to prevent him from checking on the house.

Deputies who responded to the fire had been told that several people live in the house, including one with a serious medical condition, and they broke a window to try to determine if anyone was home. Authorities then contacted one of the people who live in the house and were told that no one should have been home at the time except a dog. The dog was later found unharmed.

The family member arrived at the scene and was distraught. He said everyone who lives in the house had been gone for three to four hours, there were no electrical problems in the house and the stove was not left on. When deputies noted the house was extremely cluttered, the man said the trash had built up over time and he was trying to get a dumpster to clean out the home.

The man told authorities Berweger did not have permission to be in his house and, when asked if he knew why Berweger may have started the fire, he said the only reason he could think of is that she was drunk, adding that he has seen her extremely intoxicated numerous times, the complaint states.

One of the witnesses told deputies that Berweger had been at his house earlier that  day and was drunk, although he said that is not unusual, according to the complaint.

Firefighters said when they entered the house the kitchen floor was on fire and a burner on the stove was on. A detective who ruled out weather and gas or electrical problems as causes of the fire determined it was deliberately set.

Berweger told authorities that earlier in the day she retrieved some of her flowers that had blown toward the house and yelled out to see if the children were home but did not go into the house. She said that the man who said he saw her walking out of the house with a lighter mistook her for another female neighbor, according to the complaint.

She said she didn’t like going into the house because the amount of trash in it made her nervous. Expressing concern about the family’s ability to maintain the house, Berweger asked, “Why did they come up to Fredonia?” the complaint states.

At the time of the fire, Berweger, who had been sentenced in March 2020 to 2-1/2 years in prison and three years of extended supervision for her fifth driving while intoxicated conviction, was serving the extended supervision portion of that sentence, a condition of which was to maintain absolute sobriety. Her extended supervision was revoked in January 2025 and she was sentenced to additional prison time for the drunken driving conviction.