Embezzler spent decades as a beloved mother, friend, volunteer
Dec. 10, 2015/ Stoughton Courier Hub
This story is built not only on sitting in court at Deanna Braaten’s hearing, but also following the story from it’s revelation. It can’t be understated how much this rattled the community–even the front desk receptionist at Unified Newspaper Group knew Deanna. Furthermore, the Stoughton Vikings Wrestling Club was one of, if not the, most celebrated sports clubs in the city, having been founded by a Stoughton native who would go on to wrestle at the Olympic level (he was so torn up by the news that, even upon visiting his home directly, he refused to talk about it). In addition to winning 2nd place for “General News” from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the story also garnered an angry phone call from the wrestling club’s president. He can be forgiven for not understanding how news coverage works (and, thus, screaming profanities at me for publishing anything remotely nice about her). What was interesting about that, however, is that I interviewed him for one of the earlier stories, and he was remarkably diplomatic in discussing Deanna and her (at the time, alleged) crimes, emphasizing that the focus was on mitigating the impact for the athletes.