Menomonee Falls anesthesiologist faces drug charges

A Menomonee Falls doctor has been charged with illegally possessing drugs police say he planned to use for ending his own life after a violent argument with his wife prompted by discovery that he had been spending money on an escort service.

Jesse VanBommel, 39, had gone to the hospital where he worked as an anesthesiologist and gathered a syringe, tourniquet and double doses of drugs that he told police would have killed him in five minutes, according to a criminal complaint.

But police, with the help of VanBommel's wife, had acted on a hunch that he might try exactly that, and had arrived at Community Memorial Hospital just ahead of VanBommel on Sept. 15. As they asked hospital security to be on the lookout for VanBommel, they saw him drive into the parking garage. He got to the interior of the hospital before police could reach him but later emerged dressed in hospital scrubs and carrying the potentially fatal Propofol, Fentanyl and Rocuronium, a paralytic.

When police confronted him in a hallway, VanBommel sank to the floor crying and was arrested.

VanBommel is charged with possession of narcotic drugs, a felony, possessing illegally obtained prescriptions, a misdemeanor, as well as criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct, domestic abuse, both misdemeanors.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police first responded to VanBommel's home for a domestic dispute. He agreed to stay in the basement, but later went upstairs and destroyed items in his office by smashing a telescope through a Beatles painting and the wall on which it hung, and knocking two doors off their hinges before leaving the house.

His wife called police again, and while they were there, VanBommel called his wife. He apologized, and told her how to access all his money because he was going to kill himself.

His wife told police he had tried to kill himself about 10 years earlier by taking drugs he got from a different hospital where he was working then. That sent police off to Community Memorial, where they were able to intercept VanBommel.

He told police he had first considered jumping off the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee and had gone over it several times before deciding he didn't want to die that way and went to get lethal drugs from the hospital.

The criminal complaint was not issued until Friday. At a court appearance, VanBommel was ordered to comply with the orders of a civil commitment, not go near Community Memorial Hospital, and not possess weapons or any drugs not prescribed for him.

He was released from custody Monday after signing a $5,000 signature bond and is scheduled to next appear in court Oct. 15.