Isaiah Taylor's racial profiling case against 2 Milwaukee officers could get new jury

Yahoo

21-03-2025

A new jury could hear the federal civil case brought by the son of a circuit court judge, who alleges two Milwaukee police officers illegally detained him nearly 10 years ago while he was delivering a turkey to a neighbor.
Stephen C. Dries, a federal magistrate for the U.S. District Court for Wisconsin's Eastern District, handed down the order for a new trial on March 17, online court records show.
"Seventh Circuit victory!" Milwaukee attorney Mark Thomsen, who represents Isaiah Taylor, wrote in a Thursday post on Facebook. "The Court concluded 'that clearly established law bars the type of stop and frisk conducted here.' Even one second of continued detention after an unlawful stop is too long.'
When reached by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday, Thomsen deferred further comment until after he has had a chance to talk with his client and his client's family.
Attempts to reach Taylor or his mother, Lena Taylor, whom Gov. Tony Evers appointed last year to fill the circuit court judgeship left vacant when Audrey Skwierawski became interim director of state courts, were unsuccessful.
Isaiah Taylor filed a lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee in 2021 accusing Milwaukee police of racial profiling and of violating his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Named as respondents are Milwaukee police officers Justin Schwarzhuber and Jasen Rydzewski, and the city of Milwaukee.
Isaiah Taylor had returned home on Dec. 21, 2015, with Lena Taylor, then a state senator, after giving out holiday meals to needy families.
Isaiah Taylor, who was 16 at the time, wanted to take a turkey to a neighbor down the street. On the way, he was stopped by Schwarzhuber and Rydzewski as he was running near North 15th Street and West Capitol Drive.
Court records say the officers frisked him, searched his bag and detained him in their squad car while they checked to see if he had any outstanding warrants. Robberies had been reported in the area beforehand.
The magistrate judge presiding over the case earlier in district court granted qualified immunity and summary judgment to Schwarzhuber and Rydzewski on Taylor's Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claim. The magistrate also allowed it on Taylor's Fourth Amendment claim concerning the initial stop and his being frisked.
However, the court denied qualified immunity to the officers on another Fourth Amendment issue – on whether the officers were operating within the law when they continued to detain Taylor beyond the initial stop and frisk.
A jury found the officers not liable, and the court later denied Taylor's motion for post-trial relief.
That triggered an appeal from Taylor, who argued the court improperly awarded qualified immunity and summary judgment to the officers, and improperly declined to grant him judgment as a matter of law.
Dries concluded the officers aren't entitled to qualified immunity or summary judgment, and vacated both the summary judgment on the stop-and-frisk issue. Dries also vacated the jury verdict on Taylor's continued detention claim and ordered a new trial.
It was unclear immediately when a new trial could be scheduled.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Isaiah Taylor gets new trial for profiling case against 2 Milwaukee officers