Recent Mischief

http://www.nbc4.com/news/13365473/detail.html

Police: Man Dressed As Clown Robs Pharmacy
May 22, 2007

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Fredericksburg police said a man in a clown outfit robbed a pharmacy Sunday night.

Police said the man went into the CVS store in the 500 block of the Jefferson Davis Highway wearing a black top hat, fake hair and clown face paint. They said he walked to the pharmacy counter and gave the clerk a note demanding prescription narcotics from the safe.
The man told the clerk he had a gun, police said, but the gun was never displayed.

Authorities said the man also demanded cash from the register.

The clown-dressed man took the money and the drugs and fled, police said.

The robber was described as a white man about 18 to 20 years old and standing 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds. He wore blue jeans, a black T-shirt and white tennis shoes and was carrying a white shirt.


AND, FROM THE WEEK BEFORE:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=606313

Clown had child porn, police say
He's jailed on sex assault, domestic abuse charges
By DAVID DOEGEddoege@journalsentinel.com
May 15, 2007

Waukesha - A professional clown jailed on sexual assault and domestic violence charges had child pornography on a computer seized from his home in Brookfield, according to an affidavit police filed Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court.
Ronald E. Schroeder

Ronald E. Schroeder, who entertains as Silly the Clown and Mr. Silly, had "numerous" images of child pornography on the computer, according to the affidavit and a search warrant, prompting Brookfield police to seek a new court order expanding their investigation of Schroeder's activities.

The initial investigation concerned allegations that Schroeder beat a girlfriend, illegally accessed her e-mail and text messages, and took nude photographs of her after she passed out in his home after a night out. But a preliminary examination of a computer seized after those allegations were made turned up images indicating that Schroeder sexually assaulted the woman while she was unconscious, according to a criminal complaint.

A continuing examination of the computer over the weekend revealed child pornography, according to the affidavit and search warrant filed in court Tuesday. That prompted police to seek a court order authorizing an examination of a wide array of items seized from Schroeder's home this month to see if they contain images of child pornography.

The new items being examined include two laptop computers, several cameras, external hard drives and two safes.

Schroeder, 37, is being held in the Waukesha County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail on two counts of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim; 27 counts of capturing an image of nudity; and one count each of illegally accessing computer data, battery and possession of a switchblade. He is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on those charges Friday.
Schroeder, who was a suspect in the unresolved 1991 death of his infant daughter and was questioned about injuries to another daughter in 2005, has been performing in southeastern Wisconsin as a clown since 1989, according to his Web site. Court records indicate that he also earned a living in recent years in the mortgage industry.

Roommates alerted police

He is separated from his second wife and had been living until recently with two male roommates, according to court records. Those men moved out of Schroeder's home "after they witnessed a domestic battery committed by Schroeder . . . in the early morning hours of April 30," according to a police affidavit filed in Circuit Court this month.

When police went to Schroeder's home to investigate those allegations, according to an affidavit, they noticed blood drops on a floor.

Schroeder "claimed that his nose has a tendency to bleed and he picked his nose earlier that morning," the complaint says. "He then started to pick his nose profusely in order to try to make it bleed, but the officer told him to stop immediately."

The domestic violence charge filed last week accuses Schroeder of accessing a woman's e-mail account to keep track of her Internet communications and physically abusing her by throwing her against a wall and "jamming" his fingers up the woman's nostrils "until her nose started to bleed."

The sex charges accuse him of sexually assaulting the woman after she passed out in his bed and taking numerous pictures of her while she was nude and passed out.