Homestead students charged with sexual assault of child

Two 18-year-old students from Mequon were charged Friday with sexual assault of a child under 16 at Homestead High School.

Brent P. Anderson and Deangelo D. Dantzler were both charged with a Class C felony.

Police booked and released the two men. If found guilty of the charges, the two students would face penalties ranging from probation to a maximum of 40 years in prison and a fine of $100,000, District Attorney Adam Gerol said.

Earlier Friday, the superintendent of Mequon-Thiensville School District issued a statement regarding the arrests this month of four Homestead High School students amid allegations of sexual assault on the campus.

In a letter to parents, Demond Means said Homestead administrators first heard of the Nov. 3 incidents a week later and jointly investigated with the school's police liaison officer. They interviewed each student involved - a 14-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and two senior boys - and determined the sexual acts were consensual.

Children under 16 cannot legally consent to any kind of sexual contact in Wisconsin.

All the students "received both school-level and legal consequences for their misconduct," Means wrote. He declined to comment on what that discipline entailed, citing student confidentiality.

Administrators scheduled follow-up meetings Nov. 21 with the students and their parents, "to reinforce behavioral expectations moving forward, ensuring as much as possible that future voluntary acts of misconduct did not occur at school."

The girl's parent did not make her available until Wednesday, Means wrote, when district officials learned for the first time that she now alleged some of the acts were not consensual. Means wrote that district officials immediately reopened their investigation and notified Mequon police, and agreed to meet Thursday.

But on Thursday, according to Means, the girl, her father and their attorney said they would not be coming to the meeting.

Thursday evening, WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) reported details of the alleged incidents and interviewed the girl's father, who was unidentified and seen only in shadow.

"The long and short of it is upon receiving investigative evidence and information on Nov. 10 and 11, we were able to indicate the four young people were willing participants in the activity," Means said in an interview. "The first time we heard she was not a willing participant was in the meeting of Nov. 30th."

Means said the two men who were charged "remain students in our high school and in our district."

"We are disappointed and devastated that these young people decided to engage in this activity," Means said. "We are shocked by the new allegations brought forth by this young lady. We're investigating these new allegations as we speak."

Anderson and Dantzler could not be reached for comment. Both students were members of the school's football team.

In the criminal complaint, the 14-year-old girl admitted to a school liaison officer that she had sexual activity with both Anderson and Dantzler in an open practice room at the school. She said Anderson offered her a drink out of a can and that she recognized it was an alcoholic beverage.

She also said she had sexual activity with another student, the 15-year-old who was interviewed, according to the complaint.