VIOLA — Robert Bayliss, accused of shooting at sheriff’s deputies as their armored vehicles converged on his rural Viola cabin, was described Tuesday as a smiling and helpful friend, clever with computers but short on cash, and someone who did not trust Richland County government.

Of the nine charges so far lodged against Bayliss, 60, in Richland County Circuit Court, two are for attempted first-degree intentional homicide. The spider-web gunshot marks on the thick, bullet-proven windshields of the special armored vehicles testify to the dangers deputies encountered in arresting Bayliss.

The drive through a hillside of trees to Robert Bayliss' burned home, impassable in the winter, is now posted no tresspassing by both Bayliss and the Richland County Sheriff's Department. The property was the site of a standoff last week that started when sheriff's deputies attempted to serve legal papers to Bayliss. George Hesselb erg photo

He remained in the Richland County Jail on Tuesday, awaiting word from a public defender. Two assaults by tactical squad members from several counties on his home off Highway G south of Viola on March 31 and Thursday left the home destroyed by fire, a law enforcement helicopter hovering over the village and friends speculating on what happened and why.

They said Bayliss blamed the county for ruining his well during road construction blasting several years ago.

Criminal complaints against Bayliss detailed deputies’ first unsuccessful attempt to serve legal papers on Bayliss, who had not paid property taxes since 2000, and the siege that led to his arrest. The county took over his 18-acre property earlier this year.

But little information was released on the background of the forest loner who reportedly met deputies with weapons drawn more than once in the past several years.

The Richland County Register of Deeds office reported Bayliss owed $5,737.01 in property taxes from 2000 to 2006. He bought the triangular hilltop parcel on a land contract for $7,500 in 1974, and had the contract paid off by 1978.

Friends and area residents said Tuesday they were relieved Bayliss wasn’t dead, but would not directly criticize sheriff’s deputies for responding with force.

“The whole thing was a big shame,” said Debi Smith of Viola. “The best thing about it was that they didn’t have to kill him. We were all worried about that,” she said.

Smith’s friend, Matt Jordan, of LaFarge, said residents feared the worst Thursday when they could see smoke rising from the hill that hides Bayliss’ home.

“People were upset at first at the way they handled it, then we saw the smoke, and the helicopter flying around made it pretty obvious what was going on. Everybody thought he was going to get shot. It’s hard to (criticize the deputies), you know — the guy was shooting at them.”

Complaint: Bayliss fired on officers

According to the complaint, on March 31, four deputies tried to approach Bayliss at home to serve civil process papers. When they came within 50 yards of the home, they “began taking gun fire from what sounded like a large caliber rifle.”

The complaint relates a previous incident of deputies hearing gunfire when approaching the home in 2007, and another deputy confronted by an angry Bayliss, armed with a handgun, in 2001.

With an arrest warrant based on the March 31 incident, an armored police vehicle was brought in from La Crosse County three days later. Again, “Bayliss opened fire from the second story,” according to the complaint. Five shots hit the vehicle’s bullet-proof glass, and “the vehicle retreated.”

Two more armored cars were brought in and the assault continued. Bayliss “deployed at least two improvised explosive devices,” but after gas canisters were fired into the house, Bayliss emerged and was subdued, uninjured, with propelled beanbags. The house burned, and a search turned up fire-damaged gun barrels, an ammunition box of coins, a loaded Colt .45, two rifles, including a Winchester 30-30, miscellaneous ammunition and a 1989 Toyota pickup.

In a statement, Richland County Sheriff Darrell Berglin said, “It was Mr. Bayliss who decided how this day was going to begin and how this day was going to end.”

Friend: 'He was sore at the government'

Al Cutler, a neighbor and friend of Bayliss for 25 years, went to visit him at the jail Tuesday but was turned away. The Sheriff’s Department also would not allow a State Journal reporter to see him Tuesday.

Cutler said his friend, a former volunteer firefighter in Viola, was a sonar technician in the Navy and lifelong bachelor with no family in the area. He used to deliver the Wisconsin State Journal, Cutler said, and held various jobs, including cleaning typewriters and cash registers, and as a power company meter-reader. But he hadn’t worked a steady job in some time, said Cutler.

“He is something of a computer wiz, he could put them together and take them apart easy,” said Cutler.

“I know he didn’t have much money,” he said, but that may not be the sole reason Bayliss did not pay his property taxes.

“He was sore at the county,” said Cutler, adding that he didn’t think his friend could be called a “survivalist” or generally anti-government.

Several years ago, when Highway G was being straightened alongside Bayliss property, the limestone hillside had to be blasted away and “Bob lost his well,” Cutler said. The blasting had ruined the submersible pump, and he couldn’t pull it because rocks had fallen, so he was left without water. The county refused to restore water or the well whole, Cutler claimed.

“In the fall, Bob would pick apples in Gays Mills to make money to buy groceries at ALDI’s to last the winter,” said Cutler. “I think he was always poor, but he wouldn’t take money from anybody. He wired my shed in exchange for firewood. He would help just about anybody who needed help.”

Cutler said his friend had a heart attack years ago and lost a lot of weight. A small claims court judgement filed by La Crosse Lutheran Hospital for more than $3,000 remains on his record from 1997.

Acquaintance: 'maybe a little eccentric'

Another acquaintance, Eugene Winchell of Viola, an apple-picking colleague, described Bayliss “maybe a little eccentric, but he was good to work with picking apples, always with a smile on his face. I don’t think there was a bad bone in his body.”

It was difficult for Winchell to connect the Bayliss he knew with the one facing charges of attempted homicide, endangering safety, resisting arrest, possession of explosives and first-degree reckless endangerment.

No preliminary hearing date has been set, and court records show prosecutors may request a bail of $1 million.

The same records quote Bayliss as wondering about the state of his home, and asking for help retrieving “a box of silver coins in a pickup truck ... probably his only assets.”

Bangor, Wis., native George Hesselberg is a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.

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