[This is another great example of how screwed up our country has become. - ST]
Clyde, N.Y. — A Wayne County man is now facing four charges for Endangering the Welfare of a Child after he interrupted an act of vandalism at a home he was renovating for his father-in-law.
The incident unfolded around 9 p.m. Saturday when Jesse Daniels said he told his wife to call 911 after he heard loud noises coming from the home next door and saw an individual striking a wall with a hammer.
Daniels tells 13WHAM News he ran next door and found four children, ages eight and ten, doing damage to the property. Daniels said he took a hammer from one of the kids and corralled them into a closet while he waited for police to arrive. Daniels estimated that the damage to his father-in-law’s property exceeds $40,000.
The Times of Wayne County was the first to report and investigate this incident. By reading this report you can find out how much Daniels and his father-in-law can expect to recover for damages if the boys are found guilty.
Clyde Village Police took the children back to their parents and filed felony criminal charges of Burglary 2nd Degree and Criminal Mischief 2nd Degree. Those cases will be handled in Family Court and the results of each case is likely to remain sealed.
On Monday police returned to Daniels’ home and arrested him on four counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
The parents of the children insisted on the charges according to authorities. They claim that their children were shoved into the closet, that one was grabbed around the neck, and that Daniels’ threatened them with the hammer.
Daniels was arraigned on those charges and is due back in court later this month. The maximum sentence on each charge is one year in county jail.
Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy tells 13WHAM News that the entire incident is still under investigation and he is still gathering information. While Healy can decide not to prosecute he said he does not have enough information at this time to make that decision.
How It All Started
Daniels tells 13WHAM News that around 7 p.m. on Saturday the boys had been riding dirt bikes or ATV’s in the area and that his wife told the boys to get off their property. He suspects that the boys later returned to the home next door as a way of retaliation. Some of the words written in paint on the walls of the home were derogatory slangs about women.
Daniels said his wife had gone to bed early and he was watching TV when he first heard the sounds coming from his father-in-law’s home next door. He looked out the window to see the lights on in the home and the boys in one of the rooms.
“One person was sitting on the floor and the other ones were swinging, just swinging crazy,” Daniels said while motioning the way he recalled the boys striking the dry wall.
He said he woke his wife and told her to call 911 while he ran next door to confront the boys.
The Confrontation
There are now a few accounts of this confrontation but we know only Daniels and the four boys, ages 8 and 10, were inside that home until police arrived. According to Daniels the officer was present when the boys were let out of the closet.
“So I grab the one hammer and the other three (boys) got hammers, now I don’t know what to do here, I said you guys put that stuff down, what are you doing? Now they’re startled because now they’re caught,” recalled Daniels of the confrontation. ”I was fortunate that they were in that room that had a closet, so I put them in the closet.”
Daniels said he managed to corral the boys into the closet, “I said listen you guys are staying here until the police come, period.”
Daniels said one of the boys told him he was bleeding and showed him what Daniels described as a small scratch on the child’s torso.
“I said listen when the police come they’ll take care of you just be cool man, just be cool, don’t worry about anything I can’t let you go,” said Daniels of that moment.
But the boys told their parents and police a different version of this story. A police report shows how the boys claim Daniels threatened them, shoved them into the closet, and grabbed one of them by the throat. The parents of two of the boys say their children are traumatized by the incident.
The Damage
Daniels said he’s spent years working with his father-in-law to renovate the Orchard Street home that is next door to his home. He took photos of the damage and said 17 windows were broken, the basement was barricaded with debris, and all the heat was turned on but electrical fixtures were smashed so he could not adjust it. Photos show holes in the dry wall, paint spilled and splattered throughout the home, chunks of porcelain chipped off of a bathroom tub, and a bathroom sink and toilet smashed to pieces.
“It just looked like a bomb went off it really did I can’t believe the power that it took to send (electrical) outlets six-inches into the wall,” said Daniels. ”I’m very happy the children didn’t get hurt because porcelain shatters any one time they could’ve been blinded, they could’ve been slashed in the throat with a piece of porcelain.”
The smell of gas and paint and paint thinner products also filled the home according to Daniels.
“I’m thankful that it didn’t light because with the oil-based paint, one of them children could’ve been torched in a second, in a second,” said Daniels.
He estimates the damage could total $40,000 but admits that is just a guess.
The Father of 2 Boys Wants More Charges
Paul Bowler lives not far from Daniels’ home and the home that was vandalized and he made no excuses for the actions of his boys and their two alleged accomplices when 13WHAM News confronted him.
“No not at all there’s no excuses to be made,” explained Bowler. “I understand they were in the wrong but there are other ways to handle it. He (Daniels) knew who the kids were it’s not like they were strangers and send the kids home and call the cops then. You don’t sit there and torment them and tell them you’re going to bash their skulls in with a hammer.”
Bowler said his two boys are traumatized by the incident and their mother showed 13WHAM News a picture of the incident that she says one of them drew. Bowler also provided 13WHAM News with a photo of the neck of one of his boys because he said Daniels grabbed his son by the neck and left a mark.
“Oh they’re traumatized, they haven’t been to school they don’t sleep until the sun comes up,” said Bowler.
“I don’t know why he didn’t get more charges than just Endangering the Welfare of a Child because if you’re asking me that’s imprisonment, that’s unlawfully dealing with a child,” said Bowler.
“I would like to see them (the charges) dropped against me because I was just protecting my family and had the house torched it would’ve affected my home and everything,” Daniels responded. ”I hope the children learn a lesson, I don’t want to see them grow up to be bad people. I mean they’re intelligent kids. What happened\ happened and I just want to get it over with and not have any more problems that’s all I want.”
ABC 13
