Latest news with #KentLovern
Washington Post
05-05-2025
- Washington Post
Milwaukee prosecutor clears Ohio police of wrongdoing in fatal shooting near GOP convention
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin prosecutor cleared police officers from Ohio of any criminal liability Monday in a fatal shooting last summer near the Republican National Convention. Officers from Columbus, Ohio, were among thousands of officers from multiple jurisdictions providing extra security for the July convention in Milwaukee. According to a letter Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern sent to Columbus Division of Police Chief Elane Bryant on Monday, a group of 14 Columbus officers had gathered in a park near the convention arena for a briefing on July 16 when they saw 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe approaching another man with a knife in each hand. The officers opened fire after Sharpe refused to drop his knives and lunged at the man.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wisconsin budget: Lawmakers, community discuss how to spend money
The Brief Wisconsin lawmakers held a public listening session to discuss the next state budget. Community leaders and the public discussed how they want taxpayer dollars spent. The state budget will ultimately go through the Wisconsin Senate, Assembly and Gov. Evers. MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin state budget isn't just paper, it's something that touches residents' lives. On Friday, the state's most powerful lawmakers – the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee – heard from community leaders and the public about how to spend taxpayer dollars. What they're saying Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern asked lawmakers for more state money for assistant district attorneys. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android "When federal funds expire this summer, Milwaukee County will see an additional 10% reduction of our assistant DA staff, and that actually means laying off 10% of our current ADAs who are today staffing criminal courts in Milwaukee County," he said. For 25 years, Milwaukee County has had an average of 125 to 128 prosecutors. Of the 127 it currently has, federal funds pay for 12.5 – and that money is running out. Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley urged for money for the courthouse, which he said has serious safety and security issues. "Now is the time to work together to construct a new building," he said. What they're saying Tina Quealy, the head of Betty Brinn Children's Museum, asked the state to invest $10 million in a new location. She said the museum needs more room to help more youngsters. "Betty Brinn has never received any kind of governmental funding, so we're here today to advocate for funding for our new museum project," she said. "Betty Brinn will be building a world-class, wonderful, amazing museum in the city of Milwaukee." Residents from around the area spoke at Wisconsin State Fair Park's Exposition Center. Some asked for more money for schools or more state reimbursement for special education. Others spoke about keeping programs open. "Four years ago, I lost my wife. It was devastating. My soul mate was gone, and I was alone, didn't know how to cook," said George Banda, a decorated Vietnam War veteran. "Through the help of the programs that Milwaukee County provided, it helped me get up and out." What's next Gov. Tony Evers has already proposed his budget. After four listening sessions, like Friday's, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee will come up with their own budget. Then, the full Assembly and Senate will vote. The budget then goes to Evers who can sign it, veto it or a combination of the two – the likely use of his very powerful partial veto pen. The Source FOX6 News reviewed Friday's meeting for information in this report.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Yahoo
Milwaukee County tracks officers with credibility problems. But the system is inconsistent and incomplete.
A deputy falsifying jail logs. Officers stealing during a search warrant. An off-duty officer hitting a parked car after leaving a bar, then lying about it. Imagine one of them arrested you. Would you want to know about their past? Under the law, you have a right to that information. How and when you get access to it depends on prosecutors, who file criminal charges and bring a case in court. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has a system for tracking officers with credibility concerns, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges. But it is inconsistent, incomplete and relies, in part, on police agencies to report integrity violations, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found. After reporters provided Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern with their analysis and raised questions about specific cases, he removed seven officers from the database and acknowledged one officer should have been added to it years earlier. The haphazard nature of these tracking systems fails officers and people defending themselves, said Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, who has extensively studied the issue nationwide. 'It does lead to wrongful convictions,' Moran said. 'It leads to people spending time in jail and prison when they shouldn't.' SEE THE LIST: Explore Milwaukee County's never-before-seen Brady list Many criminal cases come down to whether jurors believe a defendant or a law enforcement officer. The system of flagged officers — often known as a 'Brady/Giglio list,' so named for two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases — is meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal duty to share evidence that could help prove someone's innocence. Wisconsin does not have statewide standards for how such Brady information should be gathered, maintained and disclosed. It falls to local district attorneys to decide how to compile and share information about officers' credibility, leading to inconsistencies across the state's 72 counties. Lovern maintains his office is fulfilling its obligations. By compiling the spreadsheet, his office already is doing more than required, he said in an interview. Just because an officer is on the list does not mean he or she was necessarily convicted of a crime or had a sustained internal violation. 'The database is complete to the best of my knowledge and belief,' he said in a follow-up email in February, adding it always is subject to change with new information. WHERE TO WATCH: TMJ4 News to air full report at 6 p.m. Some of those changes were prompted by this investigation, which found multiple inaccuracies in the Brady list released last fall. One officer was described as being involved in a custody death but he was not. Two were listed with the wrong agency. Another was listed for a criminal case that was expunged in 2002. At least five officers on the list were deceased. After reporters raised questions, a West Allis officer who resigned after admitting he had sex with a woman while on duty at a school was removed from the list because, Lovern said, he did not lie about what he did. That officer was hired at another agency in the county. The inconsistencies in Milwaukee County's Brady list have frustrated defense attorneys and advocates for police officers — one union leader called it the 'wild, wild west' — and are another example of a nationwide problem for legal experts like Moran. 'It's just an ongoing travesty of constitutional violations,' she said. 'It is a huge national problem that should be a national scandal.' The district attorney's office started tracking officers with documented credibility concerns more than 25 years ago. The full list has not been made public — until now. The move came after years of pressure from defense attorneys, media outlets and a lawsuit threat. The decision to release the list was harshly criticized by Alexander Ayala, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers in the city. 'It's only going to be detrimental to police officers or even ex-police officers because they're trying to move on,' he said. The district attorney's office first released the list to media outlets last September in response to public records requests. At the time, Assistant District Attorney Sara Sadowski wrote, in part: 'This office makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the record.' She also said that some criminal cases may have 'resulted in an acquittal, that charges were dismissed, or that charges were amended to non-criminal offenses.' That list, dated Sept. 20, contained 218 entries involving 192 officers and included a wide range of conduct, from a recruit who cheated on a test to officers sentenced to federal prison for civil rights violations. The Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 and Wisconsin Watch spent five months tracking down information about the officers through court documents, internal police records and past media coverage. Milwaukee police officers made up the largest share of officers on the list, but nearly every suburban police agency in the county was represented, as well as the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. At least a dozen officers kept their jobs after being placed on the Brady list, then landed on the list again. One of them was Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy Joel Streicher. Back in 2007, Streicher and five other deputies searched a drug suspect's house without a warrant, according to a previous Journal Sentinel article. It wasn't until 2019 that Streicher was added to the Brady list when he was caught up in a prostitution sting and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. A year later, Streicher was on duty when he ran a red light near the courthouse and killed community advocate Ceasar Stinson. He resigned and pleaded guilty to homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle. Streicher declined to comment when reached by a reporter last month. Criminal cases like Streicher's represent three-quarters of the entries on the Brady list. The other quarter are tied to internal investigations. The news organizations also found: Of the 218 entries on the list, about 47% related to a direct integrity or misconduct issue, such as officers lying on or off duty. The allegations vary: One officer pleaded guilty to taking bribes for filling out bogus vehicle titles and was fired. Another former officer was charged with pressuring the victim in her son's domestic violence case to recant. A lieutenant was demoted after wrongly claiming $1,800 in overtime. About 14% related to domestic or intimate partner violence, and nearly 10% related to sex crimes, such as sexual assault or possessing child pornography. Another 14% involved alcohol-related offenses, most often drunken driving. At least six cases involved officers, most off-duty, who were found to be driving drunk and had a gun with them. Nearly 7% involved allegations of excessive force. One of the officers listed in the database for such a violation was former Milwaukee officer Vincent Woller, who was added in 2009 after receiving a 60-day suspension for kicking a handcuffed suspect in the head, according to previous Journal Sentinel reporting. Woller remained on the force until last year. He recently told a TMJ4 reporter he had testified "hundreds" of times in the past 15 years and never knew he was on the Brady list. When asked to respond, Lovern, the district attorney, removed Woller from the list, saying Woller's internal violation was not related to untruthfulness. Lovern, who served for 16 years as the top deputy to his predecessor, John Chisholm, said he reviews any potential Brady material brought to his attention from the defense bar. In those cases, he said, he often has concluded that while officers' conduct may show 'poor judgment,' it did not relate to credibility or untruthfulness. Others have strongly disagreed with those decisions. Three years ago, the State Public Defender's Office asked for the full Milwaukee County Brady list, only to receive a partial list of about 150 names of officers charged or convicted of crimes. Public defenders then shared police disciplinary records they had obtained while investigating and trying past cases, said Angel Johnson, regional attorney manager for the State Public Defender's Office in Milwaukee. Johnson had expected those officers would be added to the list. 'They were not,' she said. The Brady list is not a blacklist. Eighteen officers are still employed by the Milwaukee Police Department, while five others are members of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, according to representatives for those agencies. In some cases, an officer's past integrity violation or criminal conviction, such as drunken driving, may not necessarily prohibit them from testifying. That means they can still be useful as police officers, officials say. 'For us, it's not about being placed on the list, it is how they will be used by the district attorney's office,' Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in an interview. Norman said he does consider an officer's ability to testify when weighing internal discipline. Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said she does not, instead concluding the internal investigation and deciding discipline before forwarding any information to the District Attorney's Office. 'Somebody can just make a mistake,' Ball said. 'If that's the case, then their employment is retained.' Norman stressed he takes integrity violations seriously and makes his disciplinary decisions after reviewing internal investigations, officers' work histories, comparable discipline in similar cases and input from his command staff. Depending on those factors, an officer can keep their job despite an integrity violation. Officers Benjaman Bender and Juwon Madlock were working at District 7 on the city's north side in 2021 when a man reported that he had just been shot at in his vehicle a few blocks away, according to records from the department and the Fire and Police Commission. The man handed Bender his ID. The officers did not write down his name, inspect his damaged car parked outside, interview witnesses, or ask him any other investigatory questions, even after the man took a call from someone involved in the shooting. Instead, Bender instructed the man to return to the crime scene by himself and told him a squad would meet him there. 'So it's cool for people to just go shoot at people now?' the man replied. 'Just go over there,' Madlock said, as he returned the man's ID. Bender later told a sergeant the man had been uncooperative and that he did not see the man's ID. Madlock told another sergeant the man had walked out on his own. Video from the lobby contradicted their accounts. Internal affairs found both officers failed to thoroughly investigate and had not been 'forthright and candid' with supervisors. Norman suspended each officer for 10 days. They remain employed — and on the Brady list. The department did not authorize the officers to speak with a reporter for this story. In rare cases, the district attorney's office will decide that an officer can never be called as a witness. Only two or three officers in the county have received that designation in the last 18 years and none are still employed as officers, Lovern said. Reporters were unable to track the current employment of every officer on the Brady list because the Wisconsin Department of Justice has refused to release a statewide list of all certified law enforcement officers, a decision that is being challenged in court. The state has released a separate database of officers who were fired, resigned instead of being fired or quit while an internal investigation was pending. A comparison to that database showed at least four officers on the Sept. 20 Brady list were working at different law enforcement agencies in the state. There's no guarantee an officer's past will come up in court. A defense attorney has to decide whether to raise it. And if they do, a judge has to decide if a jury should hear about it. But for any of that to happen, prosecutors must collect and disclose the information in the first place. 'We don't monitor the Brady list,' said Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley, who added that he has never encountered a Brady issue during his 25 years on the bench. 'We get involved once the matter is brought to our attention,' he said. Some prosecutors across the country come up with different systems to learn of potential Brady material. In Chicago, prosecutors started asking police officers a series of questions, such as if they had been disciplined before or found to be untruthful in court, before using them as witnesses. In Milwaukee County, the district attorney's office relies on police agencies to self-report internal violations. Lovern defended the practice, saying the local agencies are 'very direct with us.' But that approach leaves gaps. Out of 23 law enforcement agencies in Milwaukee County, only seven provided a written policy detailing how they handle Brady material in response to a records request sent in November. The Milwaukee Police Department and eight other agencies in the county do not have a written policy, and the other agencies did not respond or the request remains pending. Regardless, prosecutors have a constitutional requirement to find and disclose potential Brady material, whether the records are located in their office or at another agency, said Moran, the law professor. 'Prosecutors still have the ultimate obligation for setting up information-sharing systems,' she said. Sometimes, officers slip through the cracks. Before Frank Williams landed on the Brady list, the Milwaukee police officer had a history of misconduct allegations dating back to 2017. He had been investigated for excessive force, improperly turning off his body camera and interfering with investigations into his relatives, according to internal affairs records. His harshest punishment, a 30-day suspension in 2021, was for an integrity violation after he falsely reported he had stayed at home on a sick day when he instead played in a basketball tournament. But Williams was not added to the Brady list until last year, when prosecutors charged him with child abuse. He later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of disorderly conduct and was forced to resign. Attempts to reach Williams and his attorney by phone and email were not successful. When asked why Williams was not placed on the list earlier, Lovern said the Milwaukee Police Department did refer Williams for Brady list consideration in May 2021 after the integrity violation, and Williams should have been added then. Lovern said he should have forwarded Williams' information to a staff member to include him in the database. He found no record that he actually did. As a result, Lovern's office is now contacting anybody who was convicted in cases where Williams was a named witness in the three-year period he should have been in the database. Officials with the State Public Defender's Office said they appreciated Lovern's decision, but said the case shows what can happen when a Brady list is incomplete. 'The ability to question those witnesses against our client and their credibility is fundamental,' said Bridget Krause, trial division director for the State Public Defender's Office. If the information is not disclosed, it can have devastating consequences. "You can't go back and unring some bells," Krause said. "Somebody who served 18 months in prison and now you're finding out this could have impacted their case, they can't not serve that time." Criminal defense attorneys who regularly practice in Milwaukee County say they rarely receive disclosures about officers' credibility. One said he had been practicing for nearly 20 years and had never received one. Another said the district attorney's office practices amounted to a policy of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Johnson, a manager for the state public defender's office in Milwaukee, has practiced in the county for 10 years and tried numerous criminal cases. She said she's received two Brady disclosures related to officers' credibility. Both came this year. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County's police Brady list is inconsistent, incomplete
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Yahoo
What is Milwaukee County's law enforcement Brady List and why does it matter?
For more than 25 years, the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has maintained a list of law enforcement officers who have been accused of dishonesty, bias or crimes. Often known as the "Brady list," it is meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal obligation to turn over evidence that could help defendants. But a joint Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Watch and TMJ4 News investigation found that the list is inconsistent and incomplete, raising questions about how useful it is in practice. Here's what to know about Brady lists. The Brady list is a compilation of law enforcement officials who have been accused of lying, breaking the law, or acting in a way that erodes their credibility to be a witness. It's also sometimes known as the do-not-call list or the Brady/Giglio list. The name comes from the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, which ruled that prosecutors cannot withhold material that might help the defense at trial. The type of misconduct that can land a law enforcement officer on the Brady list is broad, ranging from violent crimes to workplace issues. An officer does not have to be found guilty of a crime or even charged with a crime to be placed on the list. Of the names on Milwaukee County's Brady list, the majority involve criminal cases. Roughly a quarter involve internal investigations. The offenses range from crimes like domestic violence or drunken driving to integrity issues like falsifying police documents or cheating on police training tests. The District Attorney's Office is responsible for prosecuting crimes. If a law enforcement officer is referred for potential criminal charges, prosecutors would know about it because they make charging decisions. But if an officer is facing an internal violation and not a criminal charge, it is up to the officer's law enforcement agency to report the information to prosecutors, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern. Not all of them. The media organizations sent records requests to 23 law enforcement agencies in the county asking for any policies governing how to handle Brady material. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and six other agencies provided a written policy. The Milwaukee Police Department and eight other agencies in the county said they do not have a written policy. The remaining agencies did not respond or the request remains pending. No. Being placed on the list only means that prosecutors have to disclose that officer's history to the defense. If defense attorneys wish, they can raise the officer's credibility issues with the judge. At that point, it is up to the judge to decide whether or not the officer is credible enough to testify. In rare cases, the district attorney's office has determined an officer could never be relied upon to testify. Lovern said that has only happened two or three times in the past 18 years, and those officers are no longer employed as law enforcement. Yes. Just because a law enforcement officer is on the list does not mean they are necessarily prohibited from testifying. That means they can still be useful as police officers, officials say. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball say they carefully consider the facts and severity of each case before deciding whether to keep an officer on the force. In Wisconsin, there is no single Brady list. District attorney's offices in each county are responsible for maintaining their own lists. But there's no consistency to how prosecutors in Wisconsin maintain Brady lists. In an investigation last year, Wisconsin Watch filed records requests with prosecutors in each of the state's 72 counties. Many denied the records request or said they didn't keep track. The counties that replied disclosed a list of about 360 names. You can find Milwaukee County's Brady list here. Nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officers are on the list, which dates back about 25 years. Some are accused of multiple offenses. Of those on the list, the majority are from the Milwaukee Police Department, but nearly every suburban police department is represented. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What is Milwaukee County's police Brady list and why does it matter?
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Yahoo
Milwaukee's new District Attorney discusses outlook at press club
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner) Nearly a month after being sworn in as Milwaukee County's 32nd district attorney, Kent Lovern says the job is exactly what he prepared for. 'It's everything I expected it to be,' Lovern said during a luncheon hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club Wednesday. With 27 years of prosecutorial experience under his belt, much of it as an assistant DA in the Milwaukee office, Lovern said that he's facing both the challenges and opportunities in the office head on. Lovern discussed his work with cases involving domestic violence, firearms enforcement, long-term drug and gang investigations over the years. 'My general approach to crime is that violent crime, including reckless driving, deserves a strong response,' he said. And, he added, he is 'very familiar with what that means…And it ultimately means removing people from the community for some period of time, in response to their transgressions.' But Lovern, who succeeded John Chisholm as district attorney, also said that not every transgression needs to be addressed through the 'punitive justice system.' People dealing with mental illness and addiction could be handled with therapeutic treatment, he said. Lovern also highlighted the use of community prosecution units, which he described as partnerships to address criminal justice issues at the neighborhood level. He stressed the need for collaboration across the criminal justice system and with community organizations, nonprofits and people who work with vulnerable residents. Community collaboration, plus attracting family-sustaining jobs to Milwaukee County, will go a long way towards building safer communities, he said. During the luncheon, Lovern took questions from a panel of local news reporters. He noted that reckless driving continues to be a top concern in Milwaukee, even in neighborhoods where gun violence is common. 'Years ago there used to be a term for this — they would call it 'joy riding',' said Lovern. But there is nothing joyful about 'endangerment to people out there in the roadway,' he said. Asked about a Milwaukee County Court Watch finding that, in reckless driving cases, judges gave lighter sentences than prosecutors recommended 69% of the time, Lovern said prosecutors will continue to make recommendations for tougher sentences. To work cases, however, you need lawyers, and those are in short supply across Wisconsin. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys are in need of more staff in Milwaukee County, Lovern said. 'We have an office that is very young, in terms of experience,' he said, adding that of the 125 lawyers in his office, 'over half of those prosecutors have less than five years of experience.' More funding from the state Legislature would help a lot, he said. Lovern said that 12 and a half positions within the district attorney's office were supported by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding. That money replaced losses in other grant funding. Statewide, district attorney's offices are looking at possibly losing 28 total positions. 'The state is the funding source, legally, of DA positions across the state of Wisconsin,' said Lovern. 'I think the role of government is to give us what we need, and not more,' said Lovern. 'And I'm asking for what we need.' Not having enough attorneys worsens backlogs of cases, creating a cascade of effects. Everyone from lawyers to suspects to crime victims need to wait longer for the legal process to play out. 'It's important that our system functions at the highest level possible,' said Lovern. He stressed that 'I want to see a fully staffed public defender's office, and of course private bar, too. It's imperative that our system function at the highest level possible.' Resources for crime victims increases their survival rate Lovern said. He recalled that during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who were crime victims — such as for domestic violence — stopped sharing information with prosecutors and law enforcement. The pandemic isolated people, including those in dangerous situations and in some cases, Lovern said, victims lost their lives. Lovern also addressed issues with the Milwaukee County Criminal Justice Facility, jail, and courthouse. The massive concrete complex, which he described as 'crumbling,' wasn't designed for the roles it now must serve. Lovern noted that victims and suspects don't have different hallways in which to leave court proceedings. In those drab, windowless hallways, lawyers have to review documents with their clients on trash bins instead of tables, Lovern said. Recently, the need for more security in Milwaukee courts was raised. Lovern stressed that Milwaukee County needs to be safe in order to grow. Although the press club's media panel noted that Milwaukee Police Department data suggests crime is trending downward, polls during the presidential election showed that people still felt unsafe in Milwaukee County. 'Perception drives reality,' Lovern said, asserting that he will be tough on crime. During the luncheon, two cases were on the public's mind. There was the homicide of Sade Robinson, who was found dismembered in Milwaukee County in 2024. Lovern was asked if there were any updates as to the prosecution of Maxwell Anderson, who was arrested for Robinson's murder, but he declined to comment. Likewise, the district attorney declined to comment on the death of D'Vontaye Mitchell, who died during an altercation with hotel security shortly before the Republican National Convention in 2024. Three of the hotel staff charged in Mitchell's death took plea deals. There were also questions about TMJ4 finding that the Milwaukee's Housing Authority was at risk of illegally using federal funds, to which Lovern said that nothing has been brought to his office. The district attorney was also asked about his office's use of reckless homicide charges in overdose cases. While reckless homicide charges after a fatal drug overdose were originally intended to go after drug dealers, advocates fear that drug users who report a friend or spouse's overdose may be arrested, which could discourage people from calling for help. Lovern said that drug overdose investigations are very complex, and the question of exactly what drug killed someone is harder to answer than people think. 'We see a handful of these every year,' said Lovern, adding that police send a small number of drug overdose reckless homicide cases to the district attorney's office. While some cases are charged, other times charges for possession with intent to deliver are used. Lovern said that he couldn't recall any cases where a spouse was charged, but because drugs like fentanyl can be lethal and are dangerous. 'We're going to prosecute those cases where we have the evidence to do so,' he told Wisconsin Examiner. 'There's no question about that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
