Habitual Criminal Caught Lurking in Two Tosa Schools

A 54-year-old Milwaukee man with a habitual criminal past is facing new charges after he was caught skulking around inside two Wauwatosa schools last week.

William Earl Brooks Jr. was charged Thursday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of obstructing officers. If convicted, he faces up to nine months in prison and $10,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Sept. 27, Brooks was spotted inside the library at Eisenhower Elementary School, 11600 W. Center St., by Principal Kristin Bowers.

Bowers said she called out to him to ask what he was doing there, and Brooks said he needed to use the bathroom. Bowers asked if he was there to pick up a student but again, Brooks just said he needed to use the bathroom.

Bowers said he couldn’t use the bathroom and asked once more if he was there to pick up a student – to which Brooks replied that he was there for “Michael Jackson.”

Bowers said there was no student by that name at the school, so she escorted Brooks out of the building, and school officials contacted Wauwatosa police.

A school resource police officer then contacted nearby St. Joseph’s School, 12130 W. Center St., to alert them of the strange man, and a staff member there said Brooks had just been seen inside that school as well.

Brooks was asked what he was doing there, and according to staff, he  appeared nervous and told them he was checking out the school to see if he wanted to send his children there.

A staff member gave him an information packet for the school, and then Brooks asked if he could use the bathroom, police were told. The staff member later told officers she didn’t feel comfortable letting him do so, but had him escorted to the bathroom where someone waited for him to leave.

Police were given a description of Brooks and his car, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, and officers spotted him driving nearby. He was pulled over and identified himself to officers as Robert Nash. A female passenger had a purse that contained identification cards for another woman.

Police soon learned Brooks' true identity from crime data and found that he is a habitual criminal with an extensive record of arrests, charges and convictions.

Besides multiple convictions for property theft, misappropriating identification to obtain money and failure to pay child support dating back into the '90s, Brooks has three criminal cases pending: Filed in January in Racine County, seven counts of misappropriation of ID; filed in March in Waukesha County, property theft; and filed in Waukesha County in May, five counts of misappropriation, one of property theft, and one of bail jumping.