Newly released bodycam footage captured an officer from the Kenosha Police Department threatening to take the baby of a couple arrested at a Wisconsin Applebee’s to Child Protective Services.
Video obtained by the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal shows Officer Kevin Roepke threatening to take the couple’s 1-year-old baby to CPS after the child’s grandmother, Tekesisha Boyd, came to the restaurant to get the baby.
Boyd arrived after officers mistakenly identified Boyd’s daughter and Jermelle English Jr. as suspects in a hit-and-run car accident and then arrested the two when they objected to being physically detained.
“Who are you here with?” Roepke asked one of the family members on the scene. The man was instructed by Boyd not to talk to the police officers.
“Without you cooperating with me, I can’t give you this child,” Roepke said. After an angry Boyd said she would only speak to a sergeant, an irritated Roepke replied, “Then you don’t get the child. It can go to f—king services,” as he walked away.
“That’s f—ked up,” noted one bystander.
“We wanna talk to your boss,” said Boyd as Roepke replied, “You have a phone. Use it.”
Twenty-four-year-old English and 22-year-old Shayna Boyd were arrested on July 20 at the Applebee’s following a car crash near Highway 31 and Highway 50.
The police arrested the couple after falsely identifying them as suspects in the hit-and-run. When English tried to get up from his booth to take his baby to the bathroom to change his diaper, officers attempted to arrest him while he was holding his young son.
After a bystander grabbed the child, an officer was seen on video beating English while he was face-down. Boyd was pepper-sprayed by one of the officers.
One of the KPD officers received a four-day suspension for hitting English while another was suspended for ten for failing to “decontaminate” Boyd after he pepper-sprayed her.
As the officers were confronting the couple, other KPD officers on the scene were in a restaurant restroom detaining the actual suspects, who had fled to the Applebee’s, and they were arrested. Boyd and English were also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Boyd was also charged with possession of marijuana.
The couple is being represented by attorney Alex Spiro from Jay-Z’s Team ROC.
Kenosha is the same city where Kyle Rittenhouse killed two Black Lives Matter protesters following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020. Blake was shot in the back and left paralyzed in front of his children as police attempted to arrest him on a felony warrant after responding to a domestic disturbance call from the mother of his kids.
Boyd and English’s toddler was taken to the hospital and evaluated by CPS. After a home visit, the baby was finally given to a family member at around 2 a.m.
Kenosha Police Department spokesperson Leo Viola released a statement claiming Roepke was “inappropriate” but that his conduct was not cause for an investigation or suspension.
“Officer Roepke attempted to ask the family members for their information so that he could pass along that information to CPS,” said Viola. “The family was clearly agitated and refused to provide that information. CPS won’t release a child to unidentified people for good reason.”
“Officer Roepke clearly became frustrated by the lack of cooperation and let his emotions get the best of him in that moment,” Viola continued. “He was counseled on that fact, took ownership of his outburst and made a commitment to handling confrontational individuals better in the future.”
Viola also claimed that Roepke “does not have a history of treating others this way” despite him being suspended for using excessive and unreasonable force back in 2021. Roepke was suspended after using a Taser on a confused 77-year-old woman after she refused to follow his commands following a “low-speed pursuit.”
Criminal defense attorney Nate Cade disagreed with Viola’s statement and said Roepke should have been suspended.
“The statements made by the officer were highly unprofessional,” said Cade. “An officer should never threaten a witness for any reason, let alone with a baby involved or threaten to have the baby placed with authorities because a witness would not answer the officer’s questions. I do not believe this reaches the level of termination, but certainly discipline and it should be noted in the officer’s employment file.”
