John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Fourth in a five-part video series examining Steven Avery's $36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc County.

Judy Dvorak Yanda, Manitowoc County sheriff's deputy from 1981 until 1989. Had a direct role in investigation of the Penny Beerntsen rape on July 29, 1985, that led to a wrongful conviction of Steven Avery.

Biography: Born in January 1947, rural Manitowoc County resident since 1970, previously married to sheriff's deputy David Dvorak. Bachelors of science degree in animal science and nutrition from River Falls State University, additional schooling at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay and Fox Valley Technical College.

Role in Avery wrongful conviction: Dvorak thought the rape victim's description of her attacker sounded like Avery, who was Dvorak's neighbor at the time. During the lawsuit testimony, Dvorak revealed she didn't like Avery, who had no history of sexual violence at the time and also had a solid alibi to account for his whereabouts at the time of the rape. Nevertheless, a jury convicted Avery and he lost 18 years of freedom for a crime he didn't commit.

Key moments from sworn testimony of Oct. 13, 2005:

During lawsuit testimony, Dvorak acknowledged she probably had described Avery as a "very vindictive man" to state investigators probing Avery's wrongful conviction.

"If I did say it, it would have been based on my personal observation."

On why Dvorak helped investigate the July 29, 1985 attack of Penny Beerntsten along Lake Michigan's shoreline.

"This was a suspected rape case and I was a female deputy and they wanted a female present."

On what became of Dvorak's own investigative notes and reports surrounding the rape investigation of Avery.

"We had a house fire; it was a furnace blow up. It wasn't actually a fire-fire (sic) but the furnace caught on fire and it threw soot throughout the house and destroyed a lot of different things ... in the late 1980s."



Dvorak went on to say:



Dvorak went on to say: "Then in '99 anything that I had left was in the basement, and I had a builder that exposed everything and we had a lot of rain that spring and everything was under a foot of water and it was totally a mess and I threw it out."

RELATED: Avery lawsuit video: Ex-sheriff Ken Petersen

RELATED: Avery lawsuit video: Sketch artist Gene Kusche

RELATED:Avery lawsuit video: Lt. James Lenk

Source sworn testimony: Magne-Script Video Court Reporting

John Ferak: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter@johnferak