SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A teenager will stand trial in connection with racially charged graffiti at three schools.
Payton Pagel, 18, faces six counts — three of criminal damage to property, three of making lewd, obscene or indecent drawings — for the July 22 and Aug. 7 incidents. However, all were originally charged as felonies with hate crime enhancers, but court records show the cases are now just misdemeanors.
A final conference is set for March 2, according to court records.
He also faces more than a dozen other charges, including criminal damage to property, theft and bail jumping, for other incidents. Arraignments on those charges are set for March 2, as well, after Pagel waived preliminary hearings Friday.
In the vandalism case, the damage was done at the middle school, high school, and Olga Brener School, according to the criminal complaint.
A swastika, male body part, a threat including a racial slur, and an obscene reference to a woman were among the messages. Pagel admitted to the graffiti at the high school and told an investigator it was meant to be funny.
Pagel implicated two others in the graffiti but the complaint says police are still investigating their involvement — or if they even exist, according to the complaint.
Pagel also faces charges in another case for allegedly stealing two cars on two days last week, and then vandalizing mailboxes during his joyrides. He made an initial appearance, in that case, Thursday, and returns to court Sept. 3, court records show.
“Pagel stated Shawano is boring and there is nothing for kids his age to do. Pagel stated it has been boring for about four years now. Pagel stated it was just teenagers and teenager stuff. Pagel stated he and his friends would be sitting around and looking for things to do and this is the kind of things they thought up,” according to the criminal complaint.
