Door-To-Door Candy Sale Leads To Battery, 3 Kids Arrested: Police

GREENDALE, WI — Greendale police say the Oct. 17 arrest of a Black man and three juveniles who were selling candy door-to-door in Greendale stemmed from disorderly conduct and interference.

Now, a relative of the kids who were arrested says the situation should have been handled differently by officers and a local group is asking for more answers from police.

In a news release posted Monday, the Greendale Police Department recounted a day full of "repeated distraction" and unproductive interaction with a juvenile battery victim, male adult chaperone and family despite police attempts to locate suspects in their battery report.

The group's arrests came the same day of the battery complaint. The adult chaperone was arrested in the front yard of a Greendale home after he was found making discredited accusations of battery about the homeowner's teenage son, police said. The juveniles were arrested alongside the adult for interfering, police said.

On Monday, a protest was held in front of the Greendale Police station in support of the juveniles who were arrested, CBS 58 reported.

In a news release a local organization, P.A.G.E, said of the incident "it appears it led to a disagreement between the boy’s family and a white Greendale family that, although unpleasant and heated, should easily have been de-escalated by a well-trained police force.

"They didn't really try to de-escalate the situation," Angelica Laurant, the mother of one of the kids who was arrested and the aunt of another, told Patch. "I feel like some officers need corrective action or they need to go back through training, these officers need to be looked into more because if they have more stuff like this on their record they need to be terminated."

Laurant recounted her nephew's and son's descriptions of the event for Patch, but she said she was not present throughout each encounter with police that day. Laurant said she witnessed the arrests from nearby, but at different times she was somewhere else attempting to find jumper cables because one of the group's cars had broken down.

Laurant said she was upset with how police handled the situation toward her child, nephew and their juvenile friends.

It Started With A Candy Sale

The incident started to unfold around 1 p.m. that Sunday. The group of juveniles and a male chaperone were selling candy door-to-door in Greendale. Around that time, Greendale residents called police to report the candy sale was taking place without a permit, police said in the news release.

Officers say they told the group a permit is required, and police said the group agreed to leave the area.

Police said around 2 p.m. they received a call from a resident saying one of the juveniles going door-to-door was attacked by a group of kids on bikes.

The battery victim told Laurant, his aunt, that a group of white boys on bikes approached him and asked about the candy. He told her the boy got mad when he refused to sell him candy for $2, then the boy hit him.

"He [Laurant's nephew] said he hit him back, and that's when the other boys jumped off the bikes and they were pretty much all jumping on him," Laurant said. The battery left him with a bloody nose and blood on his shoes.

Police said in the news release they attempted to investigate the battery, but they were met with minimal information from the juvenile victim.

Police also said the adult male chaperone was uncooperative and that he said he would take matters into his own hands. According to police, officers searched the area for possible battery suspects, but nobody was immediately located.

Police said the investigation into the battery complaint is continuing but no further leads have been developed beyond the information provided by the juvenile.

The Greendale Police Department asked anyone who has information related to this incident to contact (414) 423-2121.

According to police, the chaperone made multiple statements to Officers that he was looking for the juveniles who committed the battery.

The chaperone and juveniles were then seen driving through the area for over two hours following the initial battery investigation, police said.

Police said several people reported the car as suspicious, and that they received calls saying the adult chaperone was going through yards and questioning owners of bicycles into their involvement in the possible battery.

The situation turned into arrests when police said the man who was chaperoning the candy sale showed up at the front porch of a Greendale resident's house. The homeowner called police. He told them the group threw objects at his house and damaged property on his lawn.

The resident told police the chaperone was there accusing his teenage son of committing the battery.

Police said they reviewed security footage from the home and it proved the teenager was home when the battery occurred. The adult chaperone refused to leave the property, according to the news release

According to police, the chaperone said he would not leave the Greendale home until the teenager was arrested or until he could confront the teenager himself. Police claim in the news release it was around then the chaperone and juveniles started to make threatening statements when referencing the teenager who was accused of battery.

Police say they arrested the chaperone for disorderly conduct. Police said the juveniles interfered during the arrest and refused to leave the area so they were also arrested. Police say they were warned multiple times before their arrests but each warning was ignored.

The day of the battery, Laurant posted a different version of events on her Facebook.

According to the post, the group's car had broken down in front of the home where the juveniles and adults were later arrested. The post said that at one point the homeowner approached the group and the nephew thought he saw one of the juveniles who attacked him step out from the home. That's when things went bad, the post read. A video posted shows the adult and juveniles in handcuffs.

The Facebook post also said there was a gun involved. Police made no mention of the gun in public statements, but Laurant told Patch she saw the gun. According to the post, the man from the home "told his son to go get his gun and his son came back outside with the gun. The man called the police and lied on us said we were threatening him."

Aunt Speaks Out

"Race definitely played a key in this factor today. If this was 5 black kids that jumped on a Caucasian boy they would literally be grabbing every single African American boy that fit the description of being black," Laurant later posted on her Facebook.

"What should have happened, I feel like it should have been more of an investigation. At least people contacting us, letting us know how far they got. With that happening to a child, there should have been more communication," Laurant said.

"Pretty much, it was like they didn't believe nothing we were saying, as you can see in the press release, they still don't believe anything we were saying. They weren't trying to listen to us, they still aren't trying to listen to us," Laurant said. "I can't speak on any other person's actions I can just speak on what happened to my child and my nephew."

"They had handcuffs so tight, he was screaming. He even got into the back of an ambulance handcuffed," Laurant told reporters about her nephew in a conference at the protest Monday. "If he's a victim, why is he being treated like that?"

Laurant said she met with Greendale Police Chief Ryan Rosenow on Monday following the protest, but that the conversation felt like the blame was being put on her nephew for what happened.

Local Group Calls For Action

People Advocating For Greendale Equality, a local organization that in its mission statement says it works to challenge and dismantle racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of injustice in Greendale, called for action from the Greendale Police Department:

"P.A.G.E. calls on the Greendale Police Department, and particularly on Chief Rosenow, to explain and apologize for the actions of several Greendale PD officers last weekend, and to enter into mediated conversation with the family involved and their legal representatives regarding reform and other means to make amends to the family."

"P.A.G.E. calls upon Chief Rosenow and his staff to perform a full and transparent investigation of the officers’ behavior, calling in outside agencies if necessary, and to keep the parties updated on developments in this internal investigation, as well as on investigations into the events that led up to this incident."

The first Greendale Police news release is available online, as of Monday.

A second Greendale Police news release is available online, as of Wednesday.

The People Advocating for Greendale Equality news release is available online.