Mother charged with child neglect again after child found in traffic

A 43-year-old woman who was convicted last year of neglecting her daughter was charged last week in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with a similar crime after the same girl, now 6, was found wandering by herself in the middle of a busy Falls Road in Grafton.

Crystal S. Schultz faces one felony count of chronic neglect of a child. 

According to a criminal complaint, at 3:53 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, police officer Patrick Brock was called to the area near Walgreens at the corner of Falls Road and Wisconsin Avenue and arrived to find a traffic jam, with several vehicles stopped on Falls Road and one driver leading a girl from the road to a sidewalk. 

Another driver flagged down Brock, who was told by several motorists that the girl was seen crossing First Avenue, then walking down the middle of Falls Road carrying an electronic tablet. The motorists said they stopped to help because they were concerned about the child’s safety since she was walking alone in the middle of a busy street.

Brock reported what he had learned to the dispatch center, then was told that another officer was familiar with the girl and knew she was 6 and lived on First Avenue about four blocks from where she was found.

Meanwhile, a witness looked at the girl’s tablet and found a name in the settings. Brock was then notified that Schultz had called authorities to report her child was missing, the complaint states.

Brock is familiar with Schultz because of recent contacts with her, including one on Thursday, Aug. 7, when authorities received a report of a child wearing only a diaper running around in the area of Falls Road and First Avenue, according to the complaint. 

Brock made contact at the time with Schultz, who said she had been upstairs folding laundry and forgot to lock the front door of her home. She said her 6-year-old daughter has autism and does not speak, adding that she was working to have an alarm system installed so her children aren’t able to leave the home without her knowing, the complaint states.

A week later, authorities received a report that the 6-year-old girl had ran away from a hardware store and into a street while she was in Schultz’s care, the complaint states.

When Brock went to Schultz’s home on Aug. 26, she told him that she had been upstairs working on a project and her daughter must have left the home through the back door since it was open when Schultz went downstairs, according to the complaint.

Schultz said she believed her daughter was trying to walk to McDonald’s since she had told her children that she planned to take them to the swimming pool, then McDonald’s.

Schultz told Brock that the back door to her home was equipped with a child latch lock and alarm that sounded when the door opened, but said the lock sometimes fails to latch and the alarm did not activate, the complaint states. 

Schultz attempted to show Brock how the safety latch sometimes fails but couldn’t, then said she wasn’t sure if the latch had been closed, according to the complaint.

During an Aug. 28 court hearing, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams set Schultz’s bail at $1,000 and ordered her not to have unsupervised contact with her 6-year-old daughter and another child.

On July 11, 2024, Schultz pleaded no contest in Washington County Circuit Court to a felony count of child neglect and was placed on probation for 30 months. She was ordered to comply with the conditions imposed by Child Protective Services and participate in any counseling, treatment programs and parenting classes deemed appropriate by her probation agent.

Schultz was the second woman charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last month after a child with autism was found wandering in traffic.

Rebecca B. Hammond, 45, was charged with child neglect after an Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy found her 5-year-old son on Highway 32 in the Town of Grafton at 5:47 a.m. Friday, Aug. 15.

According to the criminal complaint filed in that case, Cpl. Timothy Whalen was driving north on Highway 32, which is a four-lane highway, when he spotted the child running across the northbound lanes near Frontage Road north of I-43.

Whalen slammed on his brakes, skidding to a stop about 10 feet from the child. As he was attempting to get out of his vehicle to grab the child, the boy ran back across the northbound lanes and into traffic in the southbound lanes.

The driver of a minivan who was headed toward the child never slowed or swerved but didn’t hit the boy.

With more traffic approaching, Whalen activated the emergency lights on his vehicle and blocked both southbound lanes to shield the child. The driver of a pickup truck had to skid to a stop to avoid hitting the patrol vehicle and child.

Whalen grabbed the child, then saw Hammond standing in the nearby driveway of their home. She said she was upstairs when she realized the child was outside, the complaint states.

Whalen noted similar incidents have happened in the past. The child, who has been diagnosed with autism, has a history of running away from home and onto Highway 32, according to the complaint.

Hammond was arrested, then released from jail in lieu of $1,000 bail. She has been ordered by Williams not to have contact with the child or other children unless it is supervised and within the rules set by the Ozaukee County Human Services Department.