Luke Wenke: Cattaraugus County Jail Records

I obtained the following records regarding Luke Wenke’s time at the Cattaraugus County Jail in Little Valley, New York through the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Luke Wenke was detained at the facility from October 3rd, 2023 to December 8th, 2023 following his arrest for multiple probation violation charges.

Luke Wenke’s 2nd Probation Violation Arrest

As court records show, Luke Wenke was accused of sending letters to the parents of his romantic obsession, Ryan/Benjamin (including one that was almost entirely about me). He also allegedly forged my signature in letters to Ryan’s family and the Minnesota lawyer he had previously served prison time for stalking (referred to on this website as “Victim 1”).

At the time, Ryan’s father had a no-contact order of protection against Wenke that was issued out of the state where the family lives. As a condition of Wenke’s probation, the judge required Wenke to abide by all protective orders against him, including those issued by non-federal courts. Prior to Wenke’s October 2023 arrest for these alleged violations, the judge had also specifically banned Wenke from contacting Ryan’s family. But Wenke seemed to believe that third-party contact was allowed, as he pointed out in this letter to the judge, stating:

“I know you know very well I have been doing the ‘Only Lauren [last name]’ letter thing. It is not illegal in one way shape or another [illegible] after re-reading legal paperwork from Frank Passafiume, but I am remembering former Congress candidate Nate McMurray’s brother Todd McMurray screaming at his mother on the phone at Niagara County Jail even though she had an order of protection against him and the judge felt bad anyways.”

One Conviction, FOUR Dropped Charges.

On November 7th, 2023, Luke Wenke pleaded guilty to one violation charge for contacting Ryan’s family. In exchange for his plea, the judge dropped four other violation charges, including for contacting the Minnesota lawyer (“Victim 1”) and myself. Prior to this batch of charges, he had been found guilty of one previous violation for contacting a victim just weeks after his release from prison, bringing the grand total of violation convictions to two out of six charges.

As far as I can tell, all the victims who Wenke was accused of contacting procured letters and other evidence strongly pointing toward him as the person responsible for the unwanted correspondence. Despite this, an overly-forgiving judge continued to give Wenke undeserved leeway while seeming to believe that mental help could transform him into a decent, contributing member of society.

Sadly, America’s trash plea-out system makes it easy for me to understand why Luke Wenke thinks he’s above the law. This same system seems to corner possibly innocent suspects into taking plea deals to avoid risking the potentially harsher consequences that could come with taking their cases to trial. How anyone could call this way of doing things “justice” is fucking mind-boggling.

After pleading guilty to one out of five probation violation charges, Luke Wenke remained at the Cattaraugus County Jail for another month before the judge released him on an ankle bracelet while awaiting sentencing. Perhaps not surprisingly, Wenke landed back in custody six days after being freed on GPS monitoring, with a docket entry from December 14th, 2023 stating:

After hearing argument from the parties and probation, Court finds that there are no longer any conditions or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community and orders the defendant detained pending sentencing.

From my understanding, plans for Wenke’s court-mandated mental health treatment fell through. Wenke’s online behaviour was also a factor in the judge’s decision to detain him, as evidenced by some emails that were exchanged among those tasked with monitoring Wenke’s social media posts..

Luke Wenke Sent Lots of Mail, Received Very Little

As the records below show, Luke Wenke sent 37 letters from the Cattaraugus County Jail over a roughly two-month period. He sent five letters to his public defenders, while four went to the federal district court judge overseeing his case. Another letter was addressed to “Andrew, Krystie, Matt, David.” Andrew and Krystie are the names of the two FBI agents who led the original investigation into Wenke’s activities, and I’m guessing Matt and David are also federal employees.

Wenke sent the remaining 27 letters to civilians, including three to Ryan’s mother. Other letters went to relatives, a public official (who Wenke has Tweeted about obsessively in the past), and someone who very openly dislikes Wenke.

The recipients also include one of the few non-relatives who maintained contact with Luke Wenke in recent years. The man passed away last year.

Wenke’s mail log shows a large volume of outgoing letters while incoming mail trickled in at best. He received just six pieces of mail, including four letters from his public defenders and two from his godmother.

The records below include Wenke’s booking sheet, which lists his height as 5’8″. I’ve seen other records listing his height as 5’8″, but last I checked, I was 5’8″ and several inches taller than Wenke. The sheet lists Wenke’s religion as Baptist, which strikes me as odd for several reasons. (I only recall Wenke practising a seemingly half-made-up, concocted brand of Catholicism crossed with his interpretation of witchcraft.)

The records also consist of information about why Wenke was in jail (federal remand without bail), a disclaimer about his rights under PREA (the Prison Rape Elimination Act), and a list of jail-issued items he received upon being booked into custody.