Dash cam: Sauk Prairie Police officer allegedly obstructed crash investigation of his own car

PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. -- Newly released dash cam footage from the squad car of former Sauk Prairie Police Officer Joel Ludowitz shows the moment prosecutors say he tampered with an investigation into a crash on New Years Eve 2022.

Six months after the crash, Ludowitz was charged with a misdemeanor for obstructing an officer. The charges came just days after the News 3 Now Investigates team reached out to the district attorney asking for an update on the case. On Friday, Ludowitz plead no contest to the charge. The court withheld conviction and ordered Ludowitz to complete an 18-month deferred prosecution program.

The footage shows Ludowitz arriving to the Great Sauk Trail just below the Highway 60 bridge where he found his own car totaled. He was the second officer to arrive on the scene.

Ludowitz had reported the car stolen earlier that morning. He told Dane County Sheriff's deputies he'd last seen the car parked in his driveway around 10 p.m. the night before, adding that his motion-activated home security cameras had turned on around 2 a.m. that morning and showed an empty driveway which led him to believe the car was stolen around that time.

According to a crash report, the car careened down the embankment and crashed below at around 11:41 p.m. that night. During the investigation into the allegedly stolen car, Dane County Sheriff's deputies spoke with a friend of Ludowitz's who said she saw him out at a local bar that night along with another Sauk Prairie Police officer Paul Deuman. Deuman was the first officer to respond to Ludowitz's crashed car the next morning. Ludowitz's friend told deputies he gave her a ride home at around 10 p.m. that night and could have stayed at her house for up to an hour.

READ THE FULL INVESTIGATION: A Sauk Prairie police officer and a mysterious crash

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