Sheriff disputes viral Facebook post alleging harassment
By Brandi Makuski
The Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office is disputing a public allegation against deputies that’s already been shared more than 400 times on Facebook.
The July 4 post, made public by Stockton resident Kimberly Feltz Borski, alleges that deputies are unfairly targeting her son, 18-year-old Cruz Borski, with traffic citations. The post went viral, having been shared approximately 440 times before Feltz Borski removed the post from Facebook. A screenshot of the post can be seen at the end of this story.
“It has been ticket after ticket, for vehicle things mostly, sitting on our road waiting for us to pull out, harassing even us as parents,” the public post reads in part. “A neighbor about a mile away that hates kids, calls in and stats [sic] he saw our kid so [sic] something, even with no proof, not even a pic, and bam citation. So what [sic] you don’t have to be proven guilty anymore, this neighbor did the same thing to other kids before we moved in the area. This is not just happening to my kid, but any others in this County as well. This last thing was the last draw [sic].”
Feltz Borski said in her post that she’s sent letters to Governor Tony Evers, Assemblywoman Katrina Shanklin, and Congressman Ron Kind, asking for some help.
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Feltz Borski, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, said in her post the most recent incident occurred on June 27 while she was away from the home. In her lengthy post, she shared two video surveillance clips from her driveway showing two Portage Co. deputies photographing her son’s pickup truck and measuring his tires’ width before leaving the property; actions she feels are illegal.
In her post, Feltz Borski also said she’s met with a lawyer who told her “that was completely illegal and they could not just come I [sic] our yard without a warrant nor with no one home to snoop,” and that she was sharing the information publicly at her lawyer’s suggestion.
When asked for comment on the allegations, Sheriff Mike Lukas said the incident was taken out of context and the story shared in the post is “completely false.”
According to the incident report regarding the June 27 incident, deputies were called to the 2000 block of North Ln. in the Township of Stockton at 1:51 p.m. when a caller reported being threatened by Cruz Borski.
A resident of the neighborhood told responding deputies he was in his front yard when he first heard, then saw, Borski driving a yellow three-wheeler and a female acquaintance who was driving a go-cart. Both vehicles were reportedly very loud.
When Borski saw the man watching him, Borski reportedly shouted, “What’s your problem?” and flipped his middle finger at the man, the report said.
Borski then left in his white F-250 pickup truck and returned a short time later, immediately driving into the neighbor’s driveway and exiting his vehicle to speak with the man, who by then was joined by other family members on his front porch.
Borski yelled phrases like, “Didn’t you ever have kids,” “I can do whatever I want; we live in the country,” and “We’re going to have this out,” at the man, who said he repeatedly asked Borski to leave his property. Borski also called the man a number of vulgar names. The man said he did not respond because he “did not want to reciprocate the namecalling” but he asked his wife to call 911 because he felt threatened and “I was afraid there would be an altercation,” the report said.
The man told deputies that Borski regularly drove vehicles, including the F-250, that had excessively loud exhaust and at high rates of speed. He said he contacted law enforcement previously out of concern for the young children and elderly residents of the neighborhood who regularly walk along the road. Neighbors say Borski has also left a number of black “burnout” marks on the North Ln. surface, the report said.
Two deputies approached the Borski home and knocked on the door to speak with Cruz Borski. Although deputies had strong reason to believe he was in the house, no one answered the door. Lukas said the deputies took photos of the suspect’s vehicle—the F-250 in the driveway, “which witnesses described, to a T,” he said and measured the width of the tires, which were six inches past the truck’s fender. Under state law, tire widths cannot protrude more than two inches from the fender, Lukas said.
Lukas said it’s standard procedure to dispatch two deputies to any scene where a complaint or threat of violence has occurred. The two deputies who responded were not only within the limits of the law, he also described their actions while on the call as “excellent.”
Lukas also said his office has records of 19 complaints from 14 different complainants about Borski’s driving from various areas in the county.
For the June 27 incident, the Portage Co. District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against Borski of felony bail-jumping and disorderly conduct. His initial appearance is scheduled for Aug. 2.
Wisconsin Circuit Court Access shows Borski has had 29 criminal or civil traffic citations or forfeitures in Portage, Shawano, Marathon, and Wood counties since 2019. The offenses range from a Wisconsin DNR violation for operating a snowmobile without a trail sticker or operating in a reckless/careless way, to a felony charge for possessing an electronic weapon (a taser) after eluding officers in August 2020. Ten of Borski’s cases in Portage Co. are currently pending resolution.
Lukas said he feels his deputies are being unfairly blamed when they did nothing wrong, adding some of them have received harassing messages on their personal social media accounts—all based on inaccurate information. He said it’s painted his deputies in a negative light just for doing their jobs, and he can’t allow that.
“You’ve got to look at the facts; this spread like wildfire that these officers are terrible and did everything wrong. Watch the videos; you’ll see they did nothing wrong,” Lukas said on Wednesday. “You know what? I’ve had it. This has been shared over 400 times and it’s not true.”