By Jessica La Plante
News-Chronicle
A 19-year-old man who threatened Green Bay police, saying he had a gun and wasn't afraid to use it, during a lengthy standoff with the city's SWAT team pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct Wednesday.
Johvany Barajas-Rizo could face up to $1,000 in fines and 90 days in jail for the misdemeanor conviction stemming from a kidnapping report last week.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Brown County Circuit Court, Barajas-Rizo complicated a police investigation of a 911 call last Thursday by refusing to come out of his Harold Street apartment. Because Barajas-Rizo claimed he was armed and dangerous, Green Bay officers were forced to call in a SWAT team, tying up about 15 to 20 officers, said Lt. Keith Knoebel.
Barajas-Rizo was one of two suspects arrested in connection with a kidnapping report that proved to be a false alarm. After speaking with the 22-year-old woman who was allegedly abducted, police determined no kidnapping had taken place. The woman told investigators she had voluntarily left her apartment with the two suspects.
According to a criminal complaint, the woman was at her Clement Street apartment Thursday afternoon talking with her ex-boyfriend when Barajas-Rizo showed up at her doorstep, accompanied by another man. When the woman invited the two visitors inside, a fight ensued between Barajas-Rizo and the woman's ex-boyfriend. During the fight, the ex-boyfriend told the woman to call police. The woman left her apartment with the two visitors.
The complaint said the ex-boyfriend called 911 and told dispatch workers the woman had been abducted by two strangers. He claimed one of the men punched him in the face several times. The ex-boyfriend gave police the license plate number of the van allegedly used in the abduction.
Police were able to locate the van at a Preble Avenue residence and took the vehicle's 18-year-old driver into custody.
Meanwhile, police received a lead on the missing woman's location. They traced a phone call the woman placed with her sister back to a Harold Street residence. At about the same time, Brown County dispatch received a 911 hang-up call from the Harold Street apartment.
Police were sent to the apartment to investigate, but the occupants failed to come out. Knoebel said that's when the suspect told police he was armed and dangerous.
"The subject was in the apartment and had spoken to an officer at the station (over the telephone)," Knoebel said "There was some mention that he had a gun and wasn't afraid to use it.
"Not knowing if a gun was involved, a SWAT team was calling in. The officers arrived at the address to set up a perimeter and tried calling him out several times on the phone."
Knoebel said the suspect failed to answer the telephone calls, but walked out onto a balcony with the missing woman. The two disappeared back inside the residence before surrendering to police. Knoebel said the officers searched the apartment for a gun, but did not find any weapons.
When police interviewed the woman, she said she was never kidnapped and had voluntarily left her apartment with Barajas-Rizo and the other man. The woman explained Barajas-Rizo was her boyfriend who she had been dating for the past three months.
Barajas-Rizo is scheduled to return to court for a Nov. 7 sentencing hearing. The other man arrested in Thursday's incident was released from custody after a court commissioner ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge the 18-year-old with disorderly conduct.