Criminal Conviction
According to a criminal complaint, Michael (Mike) Perrine was 22 years old in 2006 when he coached girls basketball at Holy Rosary Catholic School in Kenosha. An 8th grade little girl, 13 or 14 years old at the time they met, caught the eye of Perrine. The two started to talk on the phone and text each other. The young girl’s mother found out and told her daughter not to have contact with Perrine any longer. Even after being told not too, the child still saw Perrine, riding her bicycle to the storage unit facility he worked at to see him. Her mother thought that the two had sexual intercourse so she took her for a sexual assault examination. The girl and Perrine both admitted to kissing and other explicit sexual activity. When the girl’s father found out about the sexual relationship, Perrine quit his job as coach. Perrine told the girl that he was risking going to prison for the rest of his life.
Perrine was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child. Two Judges recused themselves from the case because they were “acquainted with the Perrine family.” The third judge to be assigned, the late Michael Wilk did no such thing. The prosecutor at the time was Michael Graveley who is now Kenosha’s District Attorney. Apparently Graveley was very light-on-crime back then also. He worked out a plea deal with Perrine that resulted in him pleading guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child. The other two counts were dismissed but read-in. Judge Michael Wilk accepted this plea deal. Perrine was sentenced to not a single day in jail. There were a lot of upset family members that day. Mad at the prosecutor for being weak on a serious crime, and a weak Judge who approved most plea deals without a second thought.
Lifetime Sex Offender Registry
Thankfully, weak prosecutors and judges can’t get around one thing – the sex offender registry. Perrine is required to register for life. Perrine is compliant with the registry and is not wanted by police.
Food Trailer
Perrine is a landscaper by day, but recently started a food trailer called “BLU Popper.” It is modeled after his grandfather’s restaurant called Fon Tan Blu that was operating in the 70’s. The “Positive News Only” website Kenosha.com recently wrote an article about BLU Popper, praising the idea and people behind it. We reached out to Kenosha.com because we wanted to know if they were aware of Perrine’s past when they ran the story. They didn’t return our communication.
Kenosha is a very liberal city, so its no surprise that some organizations overlook this type of behavior in the name of tolerance. The Kenosha Harbor Market founded by the late Raymond Forgiani welcomed BLU Popper and Perrine. He was operating his food truck Saturday, June 5, 2021 with some young-looking girl employees. Did they know about his past? Someone snapped some photos of his trailer on Saturday, the inaugural day for the business at the market.
Submitted Photo
Submitted Photo
We reached out to Ray’s daughter, Andrea Forgiani who is now the executive director of the Kenosha Harbor Market. We wanted to know if she knew that the owner-operator of the trailer was a sex offender. There may have been a logical explanation and we wanted to report the truth. Unfortunately, instead of responding, Andrea called Perrine to tell him that we were asking questions. Perrine then started to tell others that he was going to sue the Kenosha County Eye if we write a story about him. Well Michael, the 1st Amendment is under attack in the USA, but it is still alive and well. We have the right to write about you. You can’t stop us.
Kenosha Public Market
We spoke to a representative of the Kenosha Public Market, the competing market on Saturday mornings. They didn’t want to speak in much detail about Blu Popper, but did tell us “BLU Popper applied to have a spot at our market and our board decided against it”.
Kemper Center
We were told that the Kemper Center is allowing Blu Popper but not Perrine himself. We emailed them to confirm and they didn’t respond. The Kemper Center is run by Ed Kubicki and we’re not sure if he uses email.
Opinion
Second chances are great and most of us deserve one. However there are some things that don’t mix – sex-offenders and children. When we received the tip about Perrine, we thought it was bogus. “There is no way that family-friendly places like the Kenosha Harbor Market would allow someone convicted of Sexual Assault of a Child to be near their customers’ children”, we thought. We were wrong. Common sense doesn’t seem common anymore.
The Kenosha Public Market did the right thing. They made the tough choice to deny somebody a spot at their market who might be a risk to their customers. If you’re looking for the safest market you might choose this one.
Hopefully the Kenosha Harbor Market switches course and does the right thing.
Our advice for the day – If you own a business that attracts families and kids, do your best to keep child sex offenders away from your business as legally as possible.
30 Responses
This guy is “partners” in the food truck with a young couple who also have very young children , if I were them I would be very concerned! Kenosha is a liberal town but openly supporting a child molder who is now in a position to hunt in full view of the public.
The fact the young couple he has partnered with show no concern about this guy being
Around there kids is very concerning!
Just wondering, do you guys do this for every vendor at kenosha harbor Market? Or you just seem to have a problem with this one.
Just the vendors that have been convicted of the sexual assault of a child
Did you read the article? This is a major problem.
I’m going to go ahead and say they do this with everyone who is on a sex offender registry for hooking up with a child.
J Frank Wilson, my brother had no idea of the past history when he went into this partnership. It was news to him this week also
Once again the KCE publishes a very important story that the other local media did not. I would bet a round of drinks that the tipsters to the KCE also went to the News who did nothing. I am very happy that the KCE exists.
I was always bothered by that well-connect family getting away with so much in the past. This is just another example. Kenosha people in the know know exactly what I am talking about.
Isn’t this guy one of Lou Perrine’s children?
No
No he is not.
WOW! and the amount of kids in that area along with parks isn’t against this? My kids won’t be near there!!
I think this wrong in so many ways?
The absolute audacity some people have to allow their children around sex offenders is astonishing. This is why I’m leaving the state of Wisconsin altogether. People up here are too weird for me. I couldn’t imagine buying even his food, who knows what’s really in it. I have two little girls. No… just no.
Just wrong, so I see he never disclosed his past to his business partners that in it self speaks volumes. JMO
The whole “Kenosha is a very liberal city” being synonymous with acceptance of sexual predators is ludicrous. Get over yourself.
Renee, I’m going to to go out on a whim and take a guess that you’re either liberal, a sex offender, or both! The liberals in this city want to see it burned to the ground! If it were completely up to them, we’d have no laws at all!
Can we keep in mind the food truck is also run by a small family trying to start a business. They’ve done nothing wrong & are good people. They shouldn’t have to suffer for someone else’s life choices. Also, their children are WELL taken care of & don’t need to be brought up in this conversation.
An Apology To Our Community
“An egregious mistake I made over a decade ago has resurfaced with the opening of Blu Popper, a local food truck in which I am an investor. I make no excuse for my past mistake, and I apologize to those involved. Through counseling, therapy, and prayer, I have strived daily to become a productive member of the Kenosha community.
Every day I focus on giving back to our city – especially by supporting small businesses in Downtown and Uptown Kenosha. I love my hometown of Kenosha and am proud to be an active business owner in our great community.
With that in mind, I was encouraged to be an investor in a food truck that would elicit nostalgia for many Kenoshans, and resurrect one of my father’s businesses – Fon-Tan-Blu. I partnered with an entrepreneur husband and wife to help make their dream of owning and operating a restaurant a reality, and they run the day-to-day operations of Blu Popper. I am sorry for the adverse attention this has brought to our community.”
~ Michael Perrine, Investor
Nice try! Way to spin it. What happened to the young girl is disgusting and you not going to prison was a huge mistake. We know why. Why not mention what you were charged with and why not tell any other the children’s family that you are a registered sex offender? Way to start a business by not telling your “partners” about your past. There is a reason you are on the sex offenders list for life. What was done to that little girl will haunt her for the rest of her life and the citizens should have a right to know.
Now they are deleting all the negative comments on their post! Nice PR work. Whoever is managing their social media should work for Ghislane Maxwell..
for f’s sake she was a teenager who very willingly hooked up with a guy in his early 20s, yeah he should’ve known better than to get involved with a teenager, but the story says she rode her damn bike to go see him there, hes not going out snatching up kids, he was just dumb enough to let his dick take control when a teenage girl was literally asking for it.
He lured in and also regularly drove her there after practice. It’s OK for 22 year old men to try to sleep with 13 year olds? What coach singles out their players to a storage unit?
Lol okay Mike. You ever wonder what that poor child has to deal with everyday after you violated her!? You’re disgusting, there is no room in our community for someone as vile as you. Do that poor family a favor and never step foot in the food truck, if after this they even have the chance of business ever again. I am sadden by your disgusting actions and will never step on any grounds near you.
She was riding her bike to go see him after her mom told her not to, everything she has to deal with is from people like you who decide that a girls fling with a older dude has to be public news and she has to be shamed over it
John friedman You must be a pedophile too if you find this OK. Kids are impressionable and easily manipulated, he was older and did just that.
I can’t believe how many people on FB are supporting this dude like he’s the victim. Might as well give pedos ice cream trucks at this point.
John freeman You must be a pedophile too if you find this OK. Kids are impressionable and easily manipulated, he was older and did just that.
Kenosha is liberal?
Don’t make me laugh.
Kenosha is full of flag-waving Trump supporting dimwits and disgruntled former auto workers who can’t stop complaining about how “NAFTA and the liberals took muh job.”