Father arrested, video goes viral

Despite a viral video showing otherwise, the Baraboo High School parent charged with disorderly conduct for disrupting the graduation ceremony falsely claimed it was the superintendent who initiated the physical contact during the disruption.

“I didn’t touch him until he touched me,” Matthew Eddy told Baraboo Police Officer Brandon Meyer, according to video of their conversation recorded minutes after the incident.

Video of Eddy's stunt on stage on May 31, where he put his hands on Baraboo School District Superintendent Dr. Rainey Briggs to stop him from shaking Eddy's daughter's hand, made headlines across the country questioning whether his actions were racially motivated.

Eddy and his daughter are white. Briggs is black.

“I didn't want him to be able to shake his (expletive) hand because he doesn't deserve it from him,” Eddy told Meyer, according to the video.

Eddy does not mention Briggs' race, according to the video, obtained by 12 News Investigates through Wisconsin's Open Records Law.

“I am not aware of any allegations that Dr. Briggs did anything to your daughter specifically,” a district administrator who participated in the conversation with Eddy and Meyer said in the video.

“No, it wasn’t him specifically,” Eddy replies.

Instead, he reveals that he was upset by what he saw as an offense to his daughter during a previous meeting with district officials. He did not specify the incident that led to the meeting, but indicated that the subject of the meeting was possible expulsion.

“He rolled his eyes when I brought up the fact that the same thing had happened to him and it pissed me off,” Eddy recalls in the video, referring to Briggs. “She was kicked out for doing the same thing that was done to her, and nothing was done to the previous people,” he said without elaborating on the incident.

The administrator and Meyer told Eddy there were better ways to handle any perceived grievances against Briggs or the district.

“You can’t go on stage right before graduation,” Meyer said. “Like, you obviously know what was going to happen.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Eddy replied.

“We can't do what we did today because, think about how your daughter feels right now, man,” Meyer added.

On June 6, Sauk County prosecutors charged Eddy with a single count of disorderly conduct.

“Based on Matthew's explanation of events, I believe this may have been something he planned to do,” Meyer wrote in a police report.

“Compared to a sensational story born to boost viewership, the truth is often quite banal,” Eddy's attorney, Jay Englund, wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday. “Contrary to the story circulating in the media, the relatively ordinary evidence in this case appears to involve a father who was angry with a school principal for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with race.”

Briggs has also since filed a restraining order against Eddy.

“Matthew quickly approached the stage and put both hands on me to push me aside, stating, 'You are not going to touch my (expletive) daughter,'” Briggs wrote in a statement, according to court records. “Matthew then began pushing and prying and reached out again to push Matthew away from me. This took place in front of 2-3,000 people. »

“I hope you're remorseful,” Meyer says to Eddy in the video after the incident.

“A little for her,” replies Eddy. “I’ll be embarrassed as soon as I get out of here.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from Matthew Eddy's attorney.

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