The questions raised by 18-year-old Joshua Schladweiler’s fatal Muskego motorcycle crash involve two separate processes: whether prosecutors would file criminal charges against his mother, Angela Schladweiler, and whether Big Bend would take action on Papa Stache’s liquor license. FOX6 News Milwaukee reported that nearly four months after the crash, police had referred four charges to the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office, which was reviewing the materials and had not filed charges at the time of the report.
The police referral included second-degree reckless homicide, criminal recklessness, and alleged sales of alcohol to an underage person and to an intoxicated person, according to FOX6. A referral is not a filed charge or a finding of guilt. The report also said a complaint had prompted a municipal review of Papa Stache’s liquor license and several staff members’ operator licenses.
The accompaniment question
Wisconsin law generally prohibits providing alcohol to an underage person unless the person is accompanied by a parent, guardian or spouse of legal drinking age, as stated in Wisconsin Statute 125.07. The statute alone does not establish whether that exception applies to the reported circumstances. In a separate 2014 underage-drinking case involving a father and son in Monroe, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals said accompaniment entails individualized supervision and control while the underage person is drinking. That ruling offers legal context, not a decision about the Schladweiler case.
A separate 2006 Wisconsin Court of Appeals wrongful-death case concerned an underage driver who obtained alcohol from another person before a fatal crash. The court held that providing the alcohol alone did not establish civil concerted-action liability without a common plan to drive while intoxicated, according to the court’s decision. That civil ruling does not decide whether criminal charges or license action are warranted here.
What is known about the crash—and what the data cannot show
FOX6 reported that police said Joshua arrived at Papa Stache with his mother shortly after finishing work and that surveillance video showed him drinking there. Investigators said witnesses later placed him at roughly 100 mph before he crossed the center line near Woods Road and Parkland Drive and struck a van. He died at the scene; his blood alcohol concentration was 0.171, the report said. These reported details describe the investigation, but do not themselves resolve the legal questions.
State figures offer broader context, not proof about this crash. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation recorded 155 alcohol-related motorcycle crashes in 2013. Its report also said alcohol and/or speed were primary contributing factors in 46% of fatal single-unit motorcycle crashes that year. Those older statewide figures do not establish the cause of Schladweiler’s crash or show how often alcohol-impaired riders were involved in fatal crashes.
A separate municipal decision
The liquor-license review is distinct from the prosecutor’s decision. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s municipal licensing guide says a municipality may suspend or revoke a license if its governing body determines a complaint is true; that general rule does not predict the result in Big Bend. FOX6 reported that a due-process hearing on Papa Stache’s liquor license was scheduled for November 30 at 6 p.m. The report also said the district attorney’s office was still reviewing the police referral, so neither outcome was established at that time.
