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Man charged with threatening Sojourner Center in Milwaukee, forcing lockdown

TMJ4

By: Madison Goldbeck

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MILWAUKEE — A Franklin man is facing criminal charges after prosecutors say he made several threatening phone calls to the Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee, forcing the center into a lockdown.

Coriuntae Wallace, 20, is facing one felony count of terrorist threats (create risk of causing result) and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Police were dispatched to the Sojourner Family Peace Center on Aug. 23 following a series of threatening phone calls from Wallace.

The center serves as a domestic violence shelter and houses the Milwaukee Police Department's Sensitive Crime Unit, the Child Advocacy Center, and other community partner's office units, including the District Attorney's Office Domestic Violence Unit.

The head of security at Sojourner told police Wallace called the center and said he knew his girlfriend was staying in the shelter and she had some of his property, the complaint says. The security head told Wallace he was unable to relay any information to the woman. That's when Wallace allegedly threatened to "Air out that [explicit] if I don't get my stuff dropped off outside." He allegedly made six more calls to Sojourner.

Due to the threat, Sojourner was forced to go into lockdown for nearly an hour.

A shelter supervisor also says she spoke with Wallace on the phone, though he wouldn't provide his name. He demanded to speak to his girlfriend and allegedly told the supervisor if his girlfriend did not bring his stuff outside in ten minutes "they are going to feel it" and that he had six other people with him, the complaint says. The supervisor says he then told her, "You got ten minutes... you know what you'll hear" before hanging up.

The supervisor said she took these threats to mean he would either shoot up the shelter or make an attempt to get inside. The woman Wallace was trying to get in contact with told the supervisor that Wallace said "if she didn't meet her somewhere with his bag, he was going to do something to her mother."

The woman told authorities she was staying at the shelter after Wallace allegedly lit her apartment on fire, the complaint says. [Court records indicate Wallace was charged with felony arson in August of this year.]

A cash bond for Wallace was set at $15,000. He returns to court on Nov. 13 for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, he faces a maximum of nearly four years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week: