Man charged after screaming at elderly women
A Madison man was charged with disorderly conduct Monday after he yelled at two elderly women in his neighborhood last week and threatened a younger couple who tried to intercede in behalf of the women.
Thomas J. Ryan, 52, of 3701 Brigham Ave., was given a disorderly conduct citation last week for yelling obscenities at a woman in her 80s who is one of his neighbors, and for throwing things at her house, according to police reports, which said the woman was "terrified."
The following day he was back at it again, police said. "When we pulled up on scene," Sgt. Susan Armagost wrote in her report, "Ryan was actually in his back yard, staggering around and clearly highly intoxicated. He started screaming that this was all over some dead cat and he hadn't killed the cat," Armagost said.
Before the police arrived Ryan had been screaming at a second elderly lady who was trying to walk to her house on Brigham Avenue, according to a couple who was trying to restore order.
When Ryan saw the younger couple in the street he screamed "This is war. It's not over. This is the next night and the next night. It's not over," they would tell police.
When police talked to Ryan on his front porch, he continued yelling at them, the reports say. "He was making strange demands about needing a sergeant and the Officer in Charge and this wasn't going to go on anymore," the police reports say. "Very little he was screaming made much sense," wrote Armagost.
Police also noted that inside Ryan's house was a woman who also appeared to be intoxicated. Ryan, when given a preliminary breath test, had a blood alcohol reading of .189, Police eventually arrested him for disorderly conduct, and "Ryan kept insisting he had never been outside screaming threats and obscenities and offers to fight to the neighbors and that he was the victim."
Ryan was released on a signature bond after a brief court appearance Monday and ordered by Dane County Court Commissioner Jason Hanson to have no contact with his neighbors.
