INGESTED MUSHROOMS, SAYS SUSPECT IN JOGGER'S DEATH

Dustin J. Ripp was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms when he struck and
killed a Middleton man as he jogged on a road just north of the city,
according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Ripp, 19, was charged Tuesday with homicide while driving under the
influence of a controlled substance, first-degree reckless homicide and
failure to render aid causing death in connection with the death Saturday
afternoon of Jim Beyer, 40, an executive at Famous Footwear.

He was also charged with hit and run in connection with a crash with
another vehicle that occurred moments earlier.

Witnesses said they saw Beyer jogging on Pheasant Branch Road when a car
driven by Ripp sped down the road and struck Beyer, who was killed
instantly, according to the complaint.

"All I remember is I took the shrooms today and everything got weird," Ripp
told Deputy Peter Hansen after the crash, the complaint states. "Then I got
in this car and I crashed. Now I'm here."

Ripp was released from the Dane County Jail on $12,000 bail ordered Tuesday
during a court appearance before Dane County Court Commissioner Todd
Meurer. Ripp, a 2003 graduate of Middleton High School, is a graphic design
student at MATC, said his attorney, Stephen Eisenberg. He lives with his
mother in Waunakee. (

According to the criminal complaint against Ripp:

David Gibbon, a Middleton alderman, was jogging on Pheasant Branch Road
when he saw Beyer, then saw Ripp's car. After the car passed, he said, he
heard a loud impact and saw pieces fly off Ripp's car, then saw Beyer's
body fall from the car. He ran to Beyer but found he had no pulse.

After the crash, Ripp got out of his car and walked up to Cory Acker, who
was working on his truck in his driveway, and said "take me to my bed."
Acker told police that Ripp, whom he knew from high school, did not seem to
be himself. Acker said Ripp then got back into his car and drove it into a
cornfield, attempting to make a U-turn.

Gibbon said he ran after the car and pounded on the driver's side window
until Ripp stopped. Gibbon opened the car door and pulled Ripp from the car
and, joined by a neighbor who had also seen the incident, held Ripp down
for police.

Several times, Gibbon said, Ripp told him, "I'm high."

Ripp later told Dane County Sheriff's Detective Kevin Hughes that earlier
that day, he had gone to a friend's house and consumed hallucinogenic
mushrooms, and afterward, smoked marijuana. He told Hughes that he got
scared and started "freaking out" and drove off in his car, determined to
get home.

A little later, and moments before the crash that killed Beyer, Ripp struck
a minivan from behind while driving northbound on Pheasant Branch Road. The
van's driver said a man later identified as Ripp got out and showed him a
marijuana pipe in one hand and a lighter in the other.

"I'm stoned. Don't call the police," Ripp told the other driver, before
getting back into his car and driving off.

Madison police Lt. Brian Ackeret, commander of the Dane County Drug and
Gang Task Force, said psilocybin or "magic mushrooms" are drugs the task
force encounters infrequently. He classifies them as experimental drugs
that are typically used only a few times because of the side effects -
stomachaches and vomiting.

Psilocybin usually produces effects similar to LSD, but not quite to the
same degree, experts say. Effects include relaxation, intensification of
color, sense of well-being, separation from surroundings and feelings of
heaviness or lightness. Effects usually begin within 30 minutes of
ingestion and last two to four hours.