Wisconsin Rapids Teen Accused of Faking Post From Another Teen on Social Media Appears in Court

Friday, July 28th, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(Karen Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune) One of two Marshfield 18-year-olds, facing felony charges after a threatening message that looked to be from a Lincoln High School student was found on the school's Facebook page, appeared in Wood County Court.

According to Karen Madden with the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Brandon L. Phelps and Faith R. Brockman each faces charges of being a party to the crimes of identity theft causing harm to someone's reputation, false reporting of an emergency and making terrorist threats.

Wood County Circuit Judge Greg Potter previously set $5,000 signature bonds for each of them. According to the criminal complaints, on Feb. 5, someone posted a message to the Facebook page of Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids.

The message, which appeared to be from a Lincoln High School student, said the poster wanted people dead in the high school. The poster said she loved to kill people, do drugs and cut herself, according to the complaint. The message named a person the poster wanted dead.

She said she, her boyfriend and his friends loved to, "blew up schools and the cops and the gov." The poster also made a racist comment, according to the complaint. A Wisconsin Rapids officer met with the female student whose name and photo were on the account that posted the message.

The girl said she didn't post the message and hadn't given permission to anyone else to use her name or picture, according to the complaint. Wisconsin Rapids officers learned the Facebook account that sent the message had just recently been created.

They were able to trace the sender to Phelps and Brockman's Marshfield residence, according to the complaint. A Marshfield officer went to the address, talked to Phelps and Brockman and got the two to turn over their cellphones.

A Rapids detective did a download of the phones and found images of the Lincoln High School girl whose identity had been used to create the account used to make the threatening post, according to the complaint.

The detective found pictures of a laptop computer open to the posted threat made to Lincoln High School. The detective also found a video on one of the phones that showed the laptop with the threat and a voice the detective believed belonged to Brockman saying, "You see it says Lincoln High School." The voice also said. "We got this bro. We got your back. Posted."

The video also had a voice the detective believed belonged to Phelps saying "And also on VPN so they can't track me," according to the complaint. The detective also found an email sent the day the threat was made that contained the photo used to create the phony Facebook account.

The email was sent from Brockman to Phelps, according to the complaint. If convicted, each faces a maximum of 13 years in prison for the three felony counts and an additional 90 days in jail for a misdemeanor count of being a party to the crime of using a computer to send a threatening message.

During a competency hearing on Monday, a report on Phelps found him incompetent to stand trial, but with the ability to obtain competency. The court ordered the defendant to participate in the outpatient competency reservation program. His court proceedings have been put on hold for now.

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