Driver charged with hitting vehicles, struggling with officers

By BILL SCHANEN IV

Ozaukee Press staff

A 27-year-old man accused of rear-ending a vehicle in the Town of Grafton, then driving away and slamming into another vehicle in Cedarburg before struggling with officers recently is charged with multiple felonies in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

Israel R. Stokes of Milwaukee, who was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, was charged on Aug. 13 with two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety, attempted battery to a law enforcement officer and spitting at a public safety worker as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting an officer, hit and run, violating an ignition interlock device order and operating a vehicle with a revoked license.

According to a criminal complaint, at 1:31 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a hit-and-run accident on Ulao Road near Lake Shore Road in the Town of Grafton and spoke to a woman who gave them the license plate number of a BMW that she said hit the car she was driving from behind.

A deputy checked Wisconsin Department of Transportation records and learned that the BMW is owned by Stokes, whose driver’s license had been revoked and who had been ordered to have an ignition interlock device installed on his vehicle. In addition, the car’s registration was suspended because it did not pass an emissions test.

The driver of the vehicle that was hit said she was heading east on Ulao Road when she noticed the BMW coming up from behind her fast. Fearing it was not going to stop, she swerved into the westbound lane and was hit from behind. The woman and her passenger said they didn’t believe Stokes even attempted to slow down before hitting them, the complaint states.

The woman said Stokes stopped and apologized but did not provide insurance, registration information or his name when she asked. She then told her passenger to start recording the interaction because she believed Stokes was going to drive away, which he did, according to the complaint.

Stokes headed east on Ulao Road  to Lake Shore Road, where he did a U-turn through the front yard of a house under construction and drove away, the complaint states.

He was spotted next at 1:43 p.m. in the City of Cedarburg by an officer who was running radar on Portland Road at Highland Drive when he noticed a silver BMW headed west on Portland Road near a residential area traveling at more than 60 mph in a 25-mph zone.

The officer turned around to pull the BMW over when it hit a pickup truck, suffering serious front-end damage.

Stokes got out of the car but refused to comply with the officer’s commands to take his hands out of his pockets and sit on the ground. The officer drew his taser, but Stokes continued to disregard the officer’s orders, according to the complaint.

When officers tried to handcuff Stokes, he struggled with them and was eventually taken to the ground and restrained. But when Stokes was being led to a patrol vehicle, he planted his feet and continued to ignore the commands of officers, asking them, “What are you going to do, shoot me?” the complaint states.

Stokes called the officers vulgar names, said he had done nothing wrong and accused them of arresting him because he is Black. He kicked an officer in the leg, then started yelling that he wanted to go home, according to the complaint.

An officer noticed Stokes smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy.

A sergeant arrived at the scene and authorized officers to use a WRAP restraint device on Stokes, who was then loaded into an ambulance. Stokes, who refused to perform field sobriety and breath tests, spit on a paramedic as he was being taken to a hospital, the complaint states.

At the hospital, Stokes was put into a medically induced coma because of the suspected injuries he suffered in the crashes.

Officers searched his car and found several suspected marijuana cigarette butts in the cup holders and noticed the vehicle didn’t have an ignition interlock device.

Stokes was ordered to install the device on his car and his driver’s license was revoked after he was arrested for first-offense operating while intoxicated on June 18 in Mequon and refused to provide a blood sample.

On July 31, he was also charged with resisting an officer in connection with the Mequon incident, which began with a report of Stokes backing his BMW into a Porsche at a car wash.

Officers noticed that Stokes seemed impaired and gave him a preliminary breath test that indicated he had a blood alcohol level of .223, according to the complaint filed in that case.

Stokes, whose demeanor ranged from calm to agitated, struggled with officers at the scene of the accident. At a hospital, he promised to remain calm if officers removed his handcuffs, but he then became agitated and screamed at an officer, “When I snap, that’s when you’re going to pull that gun and you’re going to shoot me,” the complaint states.

Stokes continued to struggle with officers, telling them they needed to “hurt him,” until he was handcuffed to a bed, according to the complaint.

The most serious charge Stokes faces in the case stemming from the Aug. 9 crashes — second-degree recklessly endangering safety — is punishable by a maximum five years in prison and five years of extended supervision, but if convicted he would face additional prison time because the people injured in the Cedarburg accident are considered elderly under the law and because Stokes is accused of using his car as a dangerous weapon.