Crime & Safety

Jury to Hear About Tosa Police Clerk's Alleged Conspiracy in Brookfield Murder

Waukesha County Judge Patrick Haughney ruled Friday Tommy Douyette can testify about a deceased Wauwatosa police clerk's alleged involvement in plotting the murder of a Brookfield radio communications business owner.

A convicted murderer can tell jurors what he alleged to police: that a Wauwatosa police clerk plotted for months with a New Berlin woman and steal his identity and wealth, a judge ruled Friday.

Tommy Douyette, 43 – awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty for his role in the brutal murder of John Aegerter, 63, – can testify about alleged meetings he had with Wauwatosa police clerk Mark Finken and the woman, Lynn Hajny, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney ruled.

Also admissible: evidence Brookfield police pulled off Finken's police department and home computers, plus a notebook that prosecutors allege Hajny used to jot notes about the murder plot.

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Hajny, who has been in jail since her arrest the day after Aegerter's body was found in his Brookfield garage June 22, 2011, is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 8 for being party to first-degree intentional homicide.

Jurors will hear that Aegerter, 63, owner of Air Page Corp., other satellite radio companies and dozens of radio transmission towers, was "worth millions" and that the suspects planned to kill him, steal his identity and business assets, Assistant District Attorney Tim Westphal told Haughney in court Friday.

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When police went to Aegerter's home after a coworker was concerned he didn't show up for work, they found Aegerter in his garage, his ankles tied in electrical tape, his face wrapped in duct tape and his head covered with several plastic bags with a white electrical cord around his neck.

Among those taking the stand will be Douyette, 43, who pleaded guilty to a reduced homicide charge in a plea deal that requires him to testify against Hajny.

Defense attorneys had tried to block Douyette from testifying about Finken, who committed suicide about a week after being suspended from Wauwatosa Police Department. The suspension came amid the Aegerter murder investigation and as Brookfield police seized Finken's work and home computers and searched his home.

Suicide note won't go to jurors

Westphal said he planned to have the jurors learn Finken committed suicide but did not plan to introduce his eight-page suicide note. In it, Westphal said Finken denied involvement in the murder.

Westphal told the judge that Finken wrote messages such as "I wasn't involved," and that "Brookfield can have their pound of flesh" and that Finken didn't have "enough money to fight it and the money should go to his (Finken's) daughter."

Defense attorney Michael Hart said he was not objecting to jurors hearing of the suicide but agree with Westphal that the note should not be presented in trial.

Six Brookfield police detectives and officers watched from the back of the courtroom Friday, as they have throughout the case.

Also back in court was Hajny's husband Albert, who police say was unaware of the murder plot and has not been charged.

Suspect's husband visits her in jail daily

Albert Hajny declined to comment about the allegations against his wife but said in an interview that he has visited her in jail daily and the two have written each other numerous letters. Albert Hajny said he was disappointed that new jail rules imposed this month now restrict jailhouse visits to two per week.

"I have one more visit this week," he said.

Douyette told police in a two-day interview that the murder was Hajny's idea and that she even talked at one point about killing her husband. Douyette said Hajny had had a 13-year extramarital affair with Douyette.

Westphal said in court that Albert Hajny will be called to testify to identify his wife's notebook in which there were notes and lists of items Douyette said were to be used in the murder — "gloves, phones, video surveillance.... plastic wrap, freezer."


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