By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
Village of Mukwonago Police Chief Kevin Schmidt confirmed Thursday morning that Kenneth McDonald was taken into police custody Wednesday afternoon in Waukesha, after walking by an elementary school, which was a violation of his parole.
“Hopefully the communities can rest easier now,” Schmidt said.
McDonald had been released from prison on Tuesday, but was homeless. An alert had been put out by the Department of Corrections to warn Waukesha residents McDonald would be released into the community. Wednesday morning reports of McDonald being in the Mukwonago area began coming into the police station and were seen on Facebook.
“We anticipated he would probably head back to this area,” Schmidt said. “He grew up here and we kind of expected him to come back, we were on look out.”
Mukwonago Area School District Superintendent Shawn McNulty said Wednesday afternoon the Village of Mukwonago Police Department had notified the district that a child sex offender, Kenneth McDonald, had been sighted in the district.
McNulty said parents were notified of the situation via email Wednesday as soon as the district received the information.
By Wednesday afternoon, McDonald was back in police custody, Schmidt said. “It was like 24 hours or almost 24 hours after he had been released.”
Schmidt said this type of situation is something the police have to deal with because of the way the system is set up.
“The Department of Corrections has to release them, even if they have no home,” he said.
“I don’t know what the courts are thinking in a case like this. I don’t get it,” he continued. “It’s like, ‘Here you go, we’re letting you out of prison with no where to go.”
McDonald is on the lifetime sex offender registry after being convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child in 2005. He was required to wear a GPS ankle bracelet to law enforcement can keep track of his movements as part of his probation.
