What happened in that assault in downtown Wausau
A few Wausau crime updates as Thomas Schroeder faces murder charges, and Cody Mayotte is charged with leading police on a chase from the southern metro to downtown Wausau.
What exactly happened in the case of an assault downtown that led to a murder charge? And what was up with that crazy chase a week ago?
The Wausonian set out to find out what happened.
Starting with the downtown assault/murder, we learned a lot more about the situation - but unfortunately, the “why” of the case is still a mystery.
According to the criminal complaint, a witness told police that he saw Thomas Schroeder following another man, the victim in the case, yelling something at him. At one point the other man finally turned around and confronted him.
The witness told police Schroeder took a swing at him and missed, but knocked the victim into the roadway on 4th and Washington streets. Schroeder swung again and this time landed, hitting him in the face. The witness said the blow knocked him out cold, with his head striking the pavement in a sound he described as “terrible.”
Schroeder, according to the complaint, stood over the man and said “That’s what I $%#&ing thought.”
The witness called 911 and followed Schroeder for some time, keeping a distance because he had his wife and kids in the car. He was able to keep police informed about Schroeder’s general location until they could get to the scene.
A police officer stopped Schroeder a short time later. Schroeder admitted immediately to being involved in the incident. At one point in the discussion, Schroeder told the officer to “throw him in jail.”
Later, the complaint says, Schroeder lunged at that officer with his shoulder while they were taking him to his feet. He popped the officer’s knee and left the other knee hurting, the report says.
That happened on Aug. 18. On Aug. 20, the man Schroeder is accused of assaulting died of his injuries. That resulted in Schroeder being charged with murder.
Schroeder, who is listed in CCAP as being homeless, is being held in Marathon County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond. He faces a charge I don’t see much: Felony Murder — Battery. It’s a class U felony. That’s not in the typical felony set so it’s not entirely clear what the potential penalties would be. 1
What we didn’t learn from the complaint is what started the altercation. Typically police would include the results of an interview with the suspect but none appeared in the complaint. And the witness said he didn’t hear what had started it.
High-speed chase and Grand Avenue crash
Many people probably saw the crash on Grand Avenue on Aug. 24, a Saturday. But many probably didn’t know where it began.
Police around 8 pm Saturday went to an address on North Road in Kronenwetter to deal with an arrest warrant for a Bryse Drake. Police saw who they thought was Drake get into a vehicle. They signaled for them to stop but, instead, the driver later identified as Cody Mayotte took off, according to the complaint.
The Kronenwetter officer turned on his lights and followed, but the complaint says that Mayotte began driving in an erratic manner, nearly hitting a parked car. The officer ended the high-speed pursuit but kept following, which seemed to calm Mayotte down. Eventually, a Marathon County deputy joined in the chase.
The same thing happened one more time, where officers turned on the lights and pursued Mayotte, only for him to speed up and start veering into oncoming traffic. They backed off again.
Eventually Mayotte crashed into a silver car on Grand Avenue near Henrietta Street, near the Wausau Police Station. That crash injured someone else. Surprisingly, police noticed a third man on the scene, Ray Collins, who they say instructed the two men to run for it.
Mayotte failed field sobriety tests and police arrested him on operating while intoxicated charges. Drake was arrested on the warrant, and is in jail awaiting transport to another county. Collins was arrested on disorderly conduct charges. And Mayotte is in Marathon County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond, facing charges of fleeing an officer causing injury and damage, harboring/aiding a felon, second degree recklessly endangering safety, possession of THC, operating while intoxicated and possessing drug paraphernalia.
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Law firms often have posts on their websites laying out potential penalties for various classes of felonies. None of them mention a Class U felony, which I’ve learned is an unclassified felony. I struggled to find anything in the state statutes themselves clarifying what exactly this means.