Charged in weekend incident during youth football games, Juan Bahena makes initial court appearance

RACINE COUNTY (WITI) -- A man charged in connection with incidents occurring at Haban Park in Mount Pleasant this past weekend, as youth football games were taking place, made his initial court appearance on Tuesday, September 16th.

31-year-old Juan Bahena faces five charges, including first degree recklessly endangering safety, physical abuse of a child - intentionally causing bodily harm, felony hit-and-run causing injury, reckless driving causing injury and disorderly conduct.

Bahena has been released on a $2,000 signature bond. He's been ordered to have no contact with the victims in the case, and he must stay out of Haban Park.

The complaint against Bahena says police were dispatched to Haban Park on Saturday, September 13th in response to a fight. While en route, police learned an individual had been struck by a vehicle that had fled the scene.

The complaint says witnesses provided police with a description of the striking vehicle -- including the license plate. Witnesses told police they observed the vehicle striking a car, before striking the pedestrian and fleeing the scene -- with one witness taking a photo of the driver.

The complaint says a witness told police Bahena was earlier involved in a fight occurring during the youth football game. That witness says the coach was yelling and swearing at the kids -- at which time two women began a verbal argument. Several people intervened, and that's when the witness says a juvenile football player punched one of the women.

The complaint says the witness told police the 15-year-old football player was then struck by Bahena. After that, the witness says several people tried to stop Bahena, but he got into his vehicle -- driving at a high rate of speed. The witness told police Bahena's vehicle struck another vehicle, before striking a pedestrian in the parking lot.

The complaint says the vehicle Bahena was driving was located at the home of the individual to whom it is registered. That individual and Bahena later came to the police station -- where Bahena admitted to striking the parked vehicle and the pedestrian.

The woman to whom the vehicle Bahena was driving is registered told police four children were in the vehicle with Bahena at the time of the incident.

Bahena has a preliminary hearing scheduled for September 24th.

A 17-year-old boy is charged in a separate case. Details of what he's accused of can be found in the related stories posted below.

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