Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Haunted House Owner Preyed On Teen Boys For Sex

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

John Schwarz bragged about his haunted house, Scare USA, and the volunteers that made it such a hit in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. But police said Schwarz was targeting the teen boys who worked for him for sex and telling them no one would believe them if they told anyone. Schwarz was recently sentenced as body camera footage reveals his reaction to being charged. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the video and Schwarz's sentence in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Andrea Lewis https://x.com/andrealewisesq1CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The owner of a haunted house appalled as he's accused of a sex crime, but guess what? It was all an act. Now he's learned his punishment. I have the body camera footage where police confront John Schwartz, and I'll tell you how much time the judge gave him. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Every year around Halloween, people love to go to haunted houses. They're spooky and scary,

and they're fun. But there's one haunted house in Wisconsin where the DA said the owner was targeting volunteers who were working there and sexually assaulting them. We have a combined effort with the volunteers here up to about 16 to 17 years. But this is your number two is ScareUSA and this is what we're branding it as now. That's John Schwartz. He owns ScareUSA in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. I worked in Wisconsin a long time ago. It was my first reporting job. And so I know a little bit about Two Rivers. Let me tell you about it. Two Rivers is a city of about 11,000 people on Lake Michigan. It's about 40 miles south of Green Bay. So it's a small town. A lot of people know each other. Scare USA was a haunted house owned by John Schwartz. It opened back in 2013, according to its website, and claims to be the top 31

haunted attraction in the entire United States. The site says about Schwartz, John began entertaining at a young age, quickly favoring Halloween over any other holiday. His passion is to create, to be artistic, to entertain people, and to do so in any way possible. His resume stands tall for he has been established in the entertainment industry for over two decades. John's experience ranges in DJ and MC voiceover, acting, TV and film, also being an affiliate of the haunted attraction industry since 1998. Haunted USA was definitely a big hit in Two Rivers. And John Schwartz appeared to be an upstanding member of the community. In December of 2021,

the Two Rivers Police Department posted on Facebook a special thank you to John Schwartz and the staff at ScareUSA for partnering with us and donating $500 to the canine program. Back in October, they held a special event that was well attended by pets and their humans alike to raise funds for the canine program. Thanks, guys. That's right. Schwartz had helped raise money for a police dog.

But less than two years later, in October 2023, a different post was on the police department's page announcing John Schwartz's arrest. The Two Rivers Police Department received information regarding possible sexual assaults of employees slash volunteers that occurred at a haunted house attraction, Scare USA, in the city of Two Rivers. Detectives investigated these reports and a suspect, 37-year-old John Schwartz Jr., was arrested on 10-12 of 2023. Schwartz was taken into custody and transported to the Manitowoc County Jail. One charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child, repeated acts, two counts of child enticement, and one count of exposing genitals or pubic area to a child were referred to the Manitowoc County District Attorney's Office against Schwartz. This case about John Schwartz is scary for sure,

especially if you're a parent to a teenager. I decided to look him up on truthfinder.com to see what I could find. Truthfinder is one of the largest public record search services. Schwartz came up in my results and the charges he faced in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin were definitely under the criminal and traffic records results. That's what's great about truth finder. It will give you those results along with past and current addresses, social media accounts, possible relatives, and phone numbers. And another thing that I love about Truthfinder, it will show you the addresses of sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. You should give it a try, and I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information

about almost anyone. Now take a look at this. Here's a detective who's going to tell Jason Schwartz that he's under arrest. Okay, so I'm Detective Swampion. Welcome to the net. So the charges that I have, It's going to be sexual assaults of a child by a person who works or volunteers with children, exposing genitals or pubic area to a child, enticement,

and then that repeated acts, second degree of sexual assault of a child who hasn't attained the age of 16. So, that is... child who hasn't attained the age of 16. So they're under the age of 16. So you are in custody, so I do have to read the Miranda warning to you.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with a lawyer before questioning and to have a lawyer present with you during your questioning. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you

at public expense before or during any questioning, if you so wish. Do you understand each of those rights? Yeah. Okay. Realizing that you have these rights, are you now willing to talk with me? I mean, I wouldn't need a lawyer at this point. You wouldn't? I would. So John Schwartz asked for a lawyer, that's his right. So the detective can't question him anymore. The interview ends,

but listen to this next part. I don't understand where it started from. Okay. I mean, I've had difficulties with people in general. Okay. Over the years. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's totally fine. Now it would be interesting to know what Schwartz means when he says he's had difficulties with people in general. I think you will be able to use the phone at jail. It's a lot, I mean, I do a lot. After the detective leaves the room, Schwartz murmurs to himself.

So right there, Schwartz basically wonders to himself, who's making up this stuff about me? Then there's a discussion about detectives seizing Schwartz's phone. Wait, you got to keep my phone here? That's the business phone too. Yeah, the phone is going to stay here. For how long? Until the detective has done with it. So I'm going to put you back in handcuffs and transfer you to the jail.

How am I supposed to do the business that that's the phone? I can explain the phone. So I'll be obtaining a search warrant for your phone to try and obtain some evidence. Sure. So that can take a while, but it just depends if I get that search warrant or not. So if a judge signs off on it, it could be longer. If they don't, then that will be returned to you. Okay.

Yeah, I think. Do you have any other questions on that? No, that's just rough. I don't know how I do any of that business stuff. I know you did. Yep, so the rest of your belongings will get logged in at jail. Schwartz is cuffed and taken to jail. Scare USA closed immediately posting on its Facebook page. We regret to inform you that Scare USA will be closed effective immediately due to unforeseen

circumstances. The well-being and satisfaction of our patrons has always been our top priority, and we deeply apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this closure may cause. The company promised refunds for those who had purchased tickets. The investigation determined this was not Schwartz's first offense. In fact, his behavior dated back to 2014. He was having sexual contact with several minor volunteers and workers at the haunted house. According to the DA, Schwartz told the victims no one would believe them if they reported the assaults. Schwartz's attorney had asked to dismiss two of the counts saying the statute of limitations had passed. In a motion, she wrote, according to the criminal complaint,

Child provided a full disclosure to his school counselor and police in November 2018. The original criminal charge associated with the allegations was filed on October 16th of 2023. The district attorney's office then filed an amended complaint with added charges, including these misdemeanors, on October 20th, 2023. There is nothing in the complaint to indicate that there was a prior warrant or summons issued, an indictment found, or an information filed within the three years following the alleged commission of the offenses. Schwartz's attorneys basically said law enforcement knew about these alleged crimes for five years and didn't file charges. And while they were disclosed in 2018, the incidents happened before that time.

John Schwartz has pleaded no contest to sexual intercourse with a child 16 or older and fourth degree sexual assault, along with another charge. He was sentenced to nine months in jail with time served. He'd been in jail since October of 2023 and was sentenced last month. He'll also be on probation for five years. Andrea Lewis is a former felony prosecutor who now represents victims of sex crimes in civil cases. Andrea, your first thoughts on this? I mean, this is a guy who's in a position of trust in the community running a popular haunted house and he's apparently molesting having sex with his volunteers who are there at the haunted house. You're absolutely right. This is really shameful. And, you know, this is a man who is providing a

some to some extent, right, a service to the community during the Halloween months or whenever it is. He has something that's supposed to be fun for children. So he's been employing children. And what we now know is he's doing horrible things to them. And what's even more shocking is the sentence that he got in relation to this. Yes, he might have served some jail time and got time served. But in reality, it seems that his sentence is frankly, you know, this is not a very stiff sentence considering what he's done to, you know, to this young victim. And it really makes you think, is the reason for that the victim's age? You know, would this have been different if the victim was quite a bit younger? Is the fact

that they were a teenager at the time, is that why we don't see a sentence really in the range that I think many would argue it should have been in? Let's dig into that a little more. I think you make a really good point there. The victim was 16 or older, but younger than 18. So 16 or 17, but still a kid, still a volunteer or an employee of John Schwartz. And really it doesn't matter because you're still a kid. And if this is my kid as a parent, I'm thinking to myself, you're still in high school. You're still up here, not fully developed. And you're with this guy who apparently told the kids that were volunteering for him that he had victimized. Well, you can go tell somebody, but guess what? Nobody's going to believe you. I'm John Schwartz. I gave money to the canine program at the police department. Now I'm just

adding that part in. But he was on the Two Rivers Police Department two years before this, before he was charged. And he had given money to the police department to buy a police dog. So, yeah, he's telling them, well, you can do what you want, but nobody's going to believe you. Right. And what does that tell us about him? He's using manipulation tactics. They're subtle threats. He's using his influence not only over the children, but over the maybe individuals within his local community to suggest that basically you don't have any options. what I'm telling you to do or else. And that really shows us a window inside what this man's capable of. And then we have to ask ourselves, is a probationary sentence really appropriate for someone who is capable of doing that?

Does that sound like somebody who may repeat these behaviors if given a slap on the wrist? I mean, I think that's a real danger here. And as you just noted, we really have to look at this through the prism of the fact that this is a child, yet 16, maybe a little bit older, it doesn't matter. It's a child, their brains are not fully developed and the law recognizes them as minors. Now, I handle a lot of these cases in my day-to-day practice, and I will tell you, unfortunately, this is not uncommon when you see that the

survivor of a sexual assault is actually a teenager. For some reason, the sentences are not nearly what they would be and should be, in my opinion, despite the fact that they are the victims of a violent and horrific crime. And really we have to ask ourselves as a society, is that right? Do we want people who prey on children, maybe some that are a little bit older, to get a slap on the wrist? Or do they deserve the same sanctions as somebody who victimizes an 11, 12, 13-year-old? What is the real difference there? Now, there was a victim in this case. They read a victim impact statement at the sentencing, the prosecutor did. And the victim's impact statement said in part,

the resurfacing trauma has made me feel like I'm back at age 15. So this victim that they read the statement from was actually 15, not 16 to 18. And I'm back at age 15, terrified and ashamed of what had been done to me. When triggered by the events, my whole body will tense up and tremble, making it impossible for me to calm down. Now, there had been a repeated sexual assault of same child, at least three violations of first and second degree sexual assault. That charge was dismissed and read in. So maybe that charge related to the child who was 15. That was actually a felony level charge. What is going on with this? I mean, we know that his attorneys had tried to get some of these charges dismissed, saying that these were reported back in 2018, but it occurred in 2014, and the cops knew about this

for a long time, so the statute of limitations had passed. Obviously, that didn't fly with the judge, and now he pleads guilty to these other charges, these lesser charges. So I'm just not getting it why the D.A. agreed to this, because this seems like somebody who's in the community running a haunted house. It's almost like the ice cream truck, you know, the scary ice cream truck driver or something running around trying to lure kids using a haunted house to victimize kids, to lure volunteers and workers in, telling them he can get away with it because of whatever. And the DA agrees to this. And I reached out to the DA, did not call me back, made no comment, did not return my call. I don't get it because obviously you're reading this statement and and the victims wanted prison time and it's not happening he got five years probation nine months time served well and you just hit the nail on the head there and and isn't that the problem because what we have here and is as is

very common is you have predators people that are clearly have a um that are clearly looking to victimize young children. They find themselves in positions where they're surrounded by young children in the community. We see that with coaches in various schools. You see that on the TV all the time. There are teachers, substitute teachers. There are ice cream truck men, as you just noted. There are clowns, people that go to children's parties. So we have to ask ourselves, are these individuals who are in these jobs and positions and then decide to go victimize children?

Or do they choose these jobs within the community because it gives them easy and continuous access to young children. And I think the question or the answer there is pretty obvious. So now we know that this man is in doing haunted houses where he is opening them up to children. He is getting a continuous cycle of children, especially around the holidays. He's inviting children within the community to come work there because it sounds like a fun job. And then, you know, all of this, I would suggest, you know, to your viewers is certainly an orchestrated plan and plot in order to get more victims in the door. So then when we think about it in that aspect, how calculated this was. Is a probationary sentence really appropriate? I go back to that because I think that there is so much more here. And we heard

from the victim, this isn't something that goes away. It's not something that you go and you have therapy for a couple sessions and you forget about it. The science here and the studies are concrete. People who have been victims of sexual abuse, especially as children, have oftentimes lifelong consequences that live with them with self-harm, substance abuse. They have difficulty dealing with it. It creeps into their relationships. They have trust issues with adults. This creeps into their relationships. They have trust issues with adults. This is something that's far reaching. And for these poor, at least we know of one person, possibly more, that this has happened to, you know, when does it end? This is something

that's going to follow them for the rest of their lives. It is lifelong trauma. And just to any ice cream truck drivers, I'm not trying to single you out. I'm sure that there are probably lovely, lovely ice cream truck drivers. So no shade at them. But, you know, there are, you know, just gets me thinking about people who do do these jobs and they probably do get into these jobs because they do have easy access to children. Probation is not easy. I mean, it's not easy. He's going to have to check in with a probation officer. But this type of stuff doesn't just stop. It would take hard work and it would take somebody determined to go to therapy to treat whatever is going on with them to target children. So what do you see happening with this guy? I mean, it really, you have to like, in your mind to change, you have to be determined to change.

A hundred percent. And I mean, look, the studies are there. This isn't something that gets changed or fixed with probation. Frankly, in my experience, oftentimes offenders on probation get little, if any, treatment for the underlying problem, whether that is substance abuse, some type of an aggressive behavior that they're exhibiting, or in this case, whether there is some psychological

problems that are underlying what is making him do this. Unfortunately unfortunately we don't have a system here in america that is really set up to rehabilitate people oftentimes it is really meant to punish just try to keep them in line for a short period of time and then release them back into the world and that's what i fear will happen here it's just really upsetting uh you know another thing that I think is really upsetting about this Andrea is that we have the body camera footage of when he was brought in uh to police and he's saying who's making this stuff up about me and stuff like that and he refused to talk to police which is well within his right of course we all have the right to not talk to the police. He wanted a lawyer and that's his right.

But he, you know, put on a little bit of a show and who's making this stuff up. Now he's pleaded guilty to the charges. We know that he he did. He did this. He admitted to it. It's just it's just fairly upsetting. And I think this is a perfect example for parents who might be watching this about how you just gotta, gotta, gotta

keep an eye on your kids and know who they're hanging out with and not let them be alone with people. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're 14, 15, 16, even 17 years old, you have got to know where they're hanging out and who they're volunteering with, who they're working for. Even if they seem like a nice guy in the community who's donating money to the police department for a police dog, it doesn't matter.

Absolutely. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I mean, we as parents, we need to ask questions. And I will say this too, having met a lot of parents over the years whose children have unfortunately been in situations similar to this where they are survivors of sexual abuse, there is a common theme. And a lot of it's not fair, right? Because no one has a crystal ball and you don't know everything that your children are doing at all times. But many times the parent says, I knew there was something off about that person, or I knew that my child was acting differently around that person. Dig in. Have those uncomfortable conversations.

Ask them, why don't you like that person? I notice you're a little more uncomfortable around them. Could you tell me why? And don't accept no for an answer. You know, really, really take the time to communicate with your child. And most importantly, let them know that you as a parent, you're a safe space. I'm willing to believe you. If you tell me that something has happened, you don't have to worry about it. I'm not going to doubt you or criticize you. I'm here to listen. And I think that really helps. And then when they do, if they do open up and tell the parent that something has happened, take action and follow through with your word. Go talk to the

school. Go talk to the person. Get them away from the person that they're concerned about. And, you know, be the parent that they deserve. And I think that is, that's a lesson that all of us can take away from these horrific situations. Yeah, most definitely. Andrea Lewis, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.