South Milwaukee man pleads guilty in crash that killed 2 bicyclists

A 22-year-old South Milwaukee man pleaded guilty this week to charges of killing two bicyclists in Muskego two years ago.

Brett L. Hartley told police that he had been up for 24 hours without sleep when he crashed into Paul Brown, 45, of Franklin and Anthony Oliver, 54, of Oak Creek in the summer of 2015, according to the criminal complaint.

He originally was charged with two counts of second-degree reckless homicide but pleaded guilty to amended charges of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle in Waukesha County Circuit Court. He will be sentenced June 22.

Hartley had been at party in Richfield and was taking two people home when the crash occurred about 6:30 a.m. June 6, 2015, on Highway 36 near Muskego Dam Drive.

Hartley, then 20, was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 after the crash, court documents show. Although that amount is below the legal level of 0.08 considered proof of intoxication in Wisconsin, it is illegal under state law for drivers under age 21 to drive with any amount of alcohol in their system.

One witness told police the Jeep "could not have hit the bicyclist in any more deliberate of fashion unless it was planned," according to the complaint.

Brown died at the scene and Oliver died at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. The two men were longtime employees at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Brown, who was a member of the Wisconsin Bike Fed, is survived by his wife. Oliver, who worked as an application development director, is survived by his wife and two daughters.