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The suspect arrested for mowing down marchers and spectators at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., last month once wrote to a judge that he could not meet his child support obligations because he continued to be locked up.
The revelation stems from letters Darrell Brooks, who allegedly killed six people and injured 60 others, wrote to a Wisconsin judge in 2011 during a paternity case, according to Fox News.
In two letters spanning a two-year timeframe, the details of which were seen by the network, Brooks spelled out “details of his life, criticized the mother of one of his children and implied that he was unable to pay child support because he kept ‘getting incarcerated,'” the report said.
The letters were linked to a child support case for one of his children; in the first, he asked the court for one “more shot” while also claiming that he was not being treated fairly.
The second letter, which Fox News Digital managed to obtain via a records search, is longer than the first one — a total of three pages — and was sent to Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Pieper, in which Brooks asked not to be sent back to the Waukesha jail.
According to the records and one person who knows him, Brooks has three children. And as of Nov. 16, 2021, he owed $41,239.36 in back child support for a son, the records show.
“He sent the second letter in late August or early September 2011 – at which point his child support-related debts had surpassed $17,300 – from Wood County Jail to Pieper and the clerk of courts,” Fox News Digital added.
The correspondence provides further details about the life of a man now facing a half-dozen life sentences if he is convicted on murder charges relating to the Nov. 21 Christmas parade incident, in which he is charged with plowing a maroon SUV into crowds. One of those killed was an 8-year-old boy.
At the time of the letters, Brooks said he had been locked up since March and was serving an 11-month sentence, but did not say why.
“It is my understand that I have [a] warrant in Waukesha County due to a court proceeding that I attempted to be present at by phone on 12-3-10,” he wrote in one letter in which he noted that the case regards his son, whose name was withheld by Fox News Digital. He added that the last time he appeared in court he was “given 45 days huber,” which is in reference to a work-search program and related facility.
“Since my release, I’ve had all kinds of trouble personal and legal,” he went on to explain.
He told the judge in his letter he suffered from mental health issues and was getting Supplemental Security Income benefits because of those issues. He said he had been getting the benefits since he was a child and had been “deemed disabled by the Federal Government.”
“The reason my benefits were stopped, was because I was getting incarcerated,” he wrote. “My benefits were scheduled to start back up in May of last year, at which time I would have been able to pay my support. This did not happen because I was incarcerated from Feb. – May 31st of last year.”
“Everytime your (sic) incarcerated, your benefits are held up … If your (sic) familiar with this process, it [c]an take months, even years to recieve (sic) your benefits back,” he explained.
Fox News Digital reached out to the mother of Brooks’ son, who said that the two dated in high school but that she had not been in contact with him much over the past 20 years.
“He’s always been in and out of jail — he hasn’t been present,” the woman, who asked not to be identified, told the outlet. “I raised my son without him.”
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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