KEWAUNEE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against three teens for allegedly damaging mailboxes earlier this year, causing more than $6,000 in damage.
Jacob Beauchaine, 18, Nick Froelich, 17, and Valentina Flannery, 18, are each charged with one felony count of party to the crime of criminal damage to property.
All are scheduled to make their initial court appearances on May 24th.
According to the Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department, it received multiple calls regarding damaged mailboxes on Feb. 6th.
A vehicle windshield and road signs were also damaged.
The criminal complaint lists more than 40 victims, including the municipalities of Carlton, Casco, Franklin, Luxemburg, Montpelier, West Kewaunee, and Kewaunee County.
More than 30 residential mailboxes were damaged.
Flannery, identified as Froelich’s girlfriend, said she was a passenger while Beauchaine was driving.
Beauchaine, Froelich, and another boy, age 15, would take turns getting out of the truck and smashing mailboxes with a baseball bat or a hammer.
All three “had taken turns with a 12-gauge pump shot gun and fired at mailboxes,” she said, according to the complaint.
Police then talked to the other teens. Froelich admitted his role in smashing mailboxes, though he denied shooting any.
Beauchaine also admitted to his role in the vandalism.
Flannery denied causing any of the damage, which Froelich and Beauchaine confirmed, the complaint states.
Damages totaled $6,032.11, the complaint says.
The 15-year-old boy is expected to face charges in juvenile court.
In Wisconsin, those age 17 and older are charged in adult court.
