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• Trout limits relaxed on upper Kinnickinnic River
• River Falls man charged with multiple burglary and theft crimes
• River Falls man charged with repeated sexual assault

EAU CLAIRE - Special fishing regulations on the upper Kinnickinnic River are being dumped because they didn't work, according to officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"The special regulations are being eliminated on the Upper Kinnickinnic because they didn't work," said Marty Engel, a DNR senior fisheries biologist.

The upper Kinnickinnic River and its primary tributary, Parker Creek, are Class I brook and brown trout streams, popular with anglers throughout the Midwest.

Officials say that with the opening of the 2008 inland fishing season, special Category 5 fishing regulations have been eliminated on the upper Kinnickinnic River, including Parker Creek.

The Category 5 slot limit for trout -- protecting fish 10 to 14 inches long -- will remain in place on the Lower Kinnickinnic River, downstream of the dam at Glen Park in River Falls.

The daily bag limit below the dam remains at five trout with just one trout in the bag longer than 14 inches.

The popular, 15-mile-long Upper Kinnickinnic River and 5-mile-long Parker Creek will revert to Category 2 regulation - a 7-inch minimum size limit and a daily bag limit of five fish.

By Jason Schulte, RiverTown Staff

Within a 15-day span in March, Jonathan Nitchals went on an alleged crime spree in the City of River Falls that could land him in jail for a long time.

Nitchals, 22, 105 E. Elm St., Apt. 1, River Falls, made his first court appearance Monday in Pierce County Circuit Court, as he was charged with five counts of misdemeanor theft, four counts of entry into a locked vehicle, and criminal damage to property, three counts of burglary and one count of methamphetamine possession.

The burglary and possession are the only felony charges.

The charges relate back to March 26 when, according to the criminal complaint, Nitchals was arrested in River Falls at his residence on a probation violation, as he admitted to using both marijuana and methamphetamine.

While conducting a search warrant of the home, River Falls police noticed in the refrigerator and freezer items that had a sticker addressed on the package to the South Fork Caf .

Just earlier that week, the caf reported they were burglarized and the items taken matched the items found at Nitchals' apartment.

In addition, River Falls police seized from the apartment a CW gear backpack that held a Garmin GPS, a Cobra radar detector, an alpine stereo and a DVD player, along with a Nikon camera and boxes from the meats found in the freezer.

The complaint states that, on those boxes, were stickers that had the name South Fork Caf .

When River Falls police tried to gather more information from Nitchals, they noticed the shoes he was wearing had a similar tread pattern to footprints found at a burglary reported earlier that week at 1431 Wildcat Ct., in which seven people reported damage and/or burglary to their garage units.

Further investigation showed the tread pattern was similar to what was found at that crime scene.

Get the complete story in this week's print editions of the Pierce County Herald and the River Falls Journal.

By Jason Schulte, RiverTown Staff

A River Falls man was charged last month with repeated sexual assault of child. The maximum penalty for this felony is $100,000 and 40 years prison.

Matthew A. Bunnell, 26, 249 Foster Street, was accused of committing three or more sexual assaults on a girl, now 15. His next court appearance is 1:45 p.m. May 12 on a pretrial conference.

Members of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Human Services and River Falls Police interviewed the victim in late March.

She described meeting Bunnell for the first time when she was five. He was a family friend.

When the victim was about 10, Bunnell began living with her family off and on for a couple of years. She described their relationship as "just friends." They played video games together, and he sometimes babysat her.

When she turned 12, she said the relationship became more intimate with some kisses exchanged between the two. The victim told investigators that Bunnell said he loved her just after she turned 14.

The first alleged sexual contact occurred while the pair was on a camping trip. The two had sex for the first time at the girl's home in River Falls and then 10 other times in the following months.

Both of the victim's parents became suspicious about the relationship between the two, but Bunnell told the victim's mother that nothing had happened.

The mother then asked the victim last December and she admitted to that the pair had relations once. She later admitted that she and Bunnell had been together several times.

The mother than confronted Bunnell and asked him what he was thinking. "I wasn't thinking, but I love her," was his response.

Get the complete story in this week's print editions of the Pierce County Herald and the River Falls Journal.