GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A Portage man is scheduled to go on trial next month accused of beating his girlfriend following a night out in Green Bay.
24-year-old Clayton Roberts Jr. is charged with five counts including substantial battery, battery and false imprisonment.
According to the criminal complaint, Green Bay police were called on June 15 for a possible disturbance in the 1100 block of Smith Street.
Officers arrived and spoke with a woman who said that her sister had been, “dragged off to an unknown location by her boyfriend.” That man was identified as Clayton Roberts Jr.
The woman claimed that Roberts became physical with her sister and that she tried to break the couple apart. That’s when Roberts allegedly punched her several times. She then ran back into the house to call the police while hearing her sister, “screaming for her to help as she was being dragged down the street.”
On scene, officers looked around for the couple but could not find them. Police then radioed an “attempt to locate” both the woman’s sister and Roberts. The officers left to begin writing up their report.
The complaint states that a couple hours later, an officer called the sister to find out if there were any updates on her sister and Roberts. The call went to voicemail, and officers drove back to her house.
Once there, officers could hear voices speaking inside. One of those voices was a man, while the other was female. Then, a female was heard screaming out in pain and another woman say, “Reno, stop.”
Backup was requested by the officers on scene, and then they saw a white man leaving the house through a back door. That man noticed the cops and began to run away. A chase ensued involving multiple officers and after an unsuccessful deployment of a Taser, one cop was able to tackle the man between a narrow fence and the side of a garage.
The man was identified as Clayton Roberts, and he fought being taken into custody while down on the muddy ground. Due to the struggle, a rescue squad was called in to check out Roberts.
One officer walked back to the house where they were able to get the victim into an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital. While at the ER, the victim had told her sister that Roberts had tried to kill her. She was saying that she was, “very scared and that she was fearful for her life.”
The victim told police that when they got back from the bar, Roberts, “flipped out on her and began to argue with her and then punched her in her eye.”
Roberts, according to the victim, pulled her into an alleyway afterward and starting assaulting her. Someone had poked their head out of a window of a nearby house that the victim knew and she was begging for help. Roberts, who is referred to as Reno, told that person, “I’m Reno, I’m just giving this *** what she deserves.”
According to the complaint, the victim tried to beg the person to help but they wouldn’t. Roberts threatened to kill her, but then got, “emotional and started crying and apologizing and saying that he wanted to kill himself.”
The victim told officers that she believed if she could keep Roberts calm, he would let her live. Then went back to the house at that point. After speaking with Roberts, trying to reason with him, he started threatening her again.
That’s when the second round of Roberts physically attacking the victim began. Her sister started to call police, but then he allegedly attacked her.
Online court records show that Clayton Roberts was previously convicted of physical abuse of a child-intentional harm on December 12, 2011.
Roberts returns to Brown County court on August 29 for a final pre-trial hearing. His jury trial is scheduled to take place September 14. If convicted on all counts, Roberts faces nearly 20 years in prison.
