Drunk driver who hit county highway workers enters plea

Cory Neumueller, who struck and killed one Clark County Highway Department worker and severely injured another in an August 2021 crash, entered a plea in Clark County Court last Thursday.

Neumueller, 30, of Neillsville, pled no contest and was therefore found guilty of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle. Charges dismissed but read into the court record were homicide by use of a vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC), hit-and-run involving death, second-degree reckless homicide, injury by use of a vehicle with a PAC, hit-and-run involving great bodily harm and second-degree reckless injury.

Neumueller’s sentencing is scheduled to take place Aug. 10.

On Aug. 8, 2021, at about 1:18 a.m. the Clark County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call of an accident on County Highway G by Mann Road in the town of Hendren. According to the initial investigation, at around 12 a.m., Clark County Highway Department workers David Murphy and Russell Opelt were sent to clear a tree that had fallen across Highway G.

Murphy and Opelt arrived at the site at about 1 a.m. and started to remove the tree. At about 1:18 a.m., Murphy called 911 to say that a vehicle had struck him. When deputies arrived on scene, they discovered that a vehicle traveling south on Highway G had struck the workers and tree. Neumueller was later determined to be the operator of the vehicle.

Murphy was transported to the hospital where he was treated for his injuries. He had to have his leg amputated. Opelt died at the scene of the crash.

Cory Neumueller