Norway-Butcher gets into trouble.

NORWAY- BUTCHER IN TROUBLE.

A Salem salesman has been charged with threatening to injure or accuse a woman of a crime more than a year ago because she refused to buy meat he was selling.

Richard E. Conrad, 46, appeared in Racine Circuit Court on Thursday in the case and is free on a $1,000 signature bond. He has a May 6 preliminary hearing for threats to injure or accuse of a crime, which is a felony. He also was ticketed for not having a seller’s permit.

Maximum penalty upon conviction of the crime is six years of prison and supervision and a $10,000 fine.

The criminal complaint alleged:

Conrad, apparently known as "Rick the Meat Man," on April 22, 2008 told a town of Norway woman he would sue her because her dog supposedly had bitten him a month earlier. However, he said he wouldn’t file legal papers if she bought meat from him for "the rest of her life."

The woman then bought $159 worth of meat but made him add to the purchase receipt a promise that he wouldn’t sue her.

Conrad had visited the home about a month earlier and said the dog had bitten him then. The woman looked at the man’s leg at that time and saw what she believed to be an old black and blue spot but no bite marks or blood. She told him at the time that she didn’t believe the dog had bitten him.

The woman called police after the purchase and showed them the meat, from a company called Skyline Beef. She called a phone number listed on the box in order to return the meat. Conrad returned to the house to retrieve the meat and told a deputy that he now wanted to file a dog bite claim and sue the family "because they won’t purchase any meat from him."

An officer contacted Conrad on April 27, 2008 by phone, but he became argumentative and hung up, the complaint alleged.