Woman is charged with attacking her grandfather

A 28-year-old woman convicted last year of trying to take her children from Ozaukee Elementary School in Fredonia after she had lost custody of them to her grandparents was charged last week with attacking her 85-year-old grandfather who is suffering from cancer at his Town of Saukville home.

The woman, an Elgin, Ill., resident who Ozaukee Press is not naming to protect the identities of her children, went to her grandparents’ house Wednesday night, June 26, after getting out of jail, demanded money from them and blamed them for taking her children before getting into a physical altercation with them, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

The woman is charged with one felony count of physical abuse of an elderly person and two misdemeanor counts of domestic abuse disorderly conduct.

She is being held in the county jail in lieu of $5,000 bail as well as a hold for violating the conditions of her probation in the previous case against her, which included not being at her grandparents’ home or having violent contact with them.

The woman was arrested on June 26 after the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 8:58 p.m. from a person who reported that she was at her grandparents’ house and had become physical with them, the complaint states. The dispatcher who handled the call reported hearing screaming and cursing in the background.

A deputy who responded to the call said the woman was poking her grandfather in the chest and screaming at him when he arrived, the complaint states.

The deputy separated her from her grandparents and was told by the woman that she arrived at her grandparents’ house at 6 p.m. to get money to pay for modeling school, adding that she deserved the money and that her grandparents had taken her children from her. She said she screamed at her grandfather and he punched her in the face.

Her grandparents told the deputy that the woman came to their house after getting out of jail to do laundry and asked them for money to pay for modeling school.

Her grandfather said he told her that they didn’t have the money and didn’t want to help her financially, which is when the woman began screaming at them.

At one point, her grandparents said, the woman asked for a gun so she could kill herself.

The woman then ground her knuckles in the chest of her grandfather, asked him if he wanted to fight and swung her hand at his face, knocking off his glasses, according to the complaint.

Her grandfather said that at one point during the altercation, he attempted to grab the hood of the woman’s sweatshirt to fend off her attacks and may have accidentally hit her in the face. The deputy noted that he had blood, apparently from a cut to his elbow, soaking through his shirt.

The woman also poked her grandmother in the chest.

The woman now faces time in prison, not just for the latest case but the previous one as well.

When she pleaded guilty to two felony counts of attempting to interfere with the custody of her children in February, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy sentenced her to two years in prison but stayed the sentence. He then placed her on probation for four years and ordered her to serve three months in the county jail as a condition of probation.

If she violated the conditions of her probation during the June 26 incident, the stayed sentence will be imposed.

In addition, physical abuse of an elderly person is punishable by a maximum three years in prison, and because the woman is charged as a repeat offender, that sentence could be increased by four years.

The case that landed the woman in jail initially dates to  May 2, 2023, when Ozaukee Elementary School Principal Lynn Kucharski reported that the woman had shown up at the school and tried to take her two 5-year-old children without the consent of their great-grandparents, who are their guardians.

The woman claimed she was taking the children to doctor appointments, but when Kucharski checked with one of the children’s great-grandparents she was told the kids did not have medical appointments and were not to go with their mother.

Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy Santino Valente, who works as the Northern Ozaukee School District resource officer, followed the woman to a car with Illinois plates that was waiting for her outside the school.

When Valente asked her if she knew she was not supposed to have contact with the children, she said she was aware of that but added that she wanted to spend time with her kids and the courts can’t keep them apart.

She said she planned to bring the children back, but when Valente asked where she planned to leave them, she did not have an answer.

During a subsequent interview with a detective, the woman said a Sheboygan County judge led her to believe she had custody of her children. If that was the case, the detective asked, why did she lie to the principal about the doctor appointments? The woman said a friend told her to say that, according to the complaint.

The woman also told the detective that the children’s father, who she lives with in Illinois, told her to get the children and they would go to Mexico, the complaint states.

An order signed by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain on April 6, 2023, grants full guardianship of the children to their great-grandparents and states that parental visitation is at the discretion of the guardians.

When Valente spoke with the children’s great-grandparents, they confirmed the children did not have doctor appointments and their mother did not have permission to pick them up from school on May 2.