- Police Brutality Watch

Prosecutors haven't questioned eye- witnesses

More than three months after Frank Jude Jr. was severely beaten by a dozen men who identified themselves as off-duty Milwaukee police officers, prosecutors investigating the matter have not questioned a friend who was with Jude that night. They set up an interview with Lovell Harris Monday, the day after the Journal Sentinel first published Jude's photo and reported new details about the Oct. 24 attack outside a party at an off-duty officer's home in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin, the lead prosecutor in the case, is set to interview Harris today. Harris' attorney, Michael Bishop, said a man from the party cut Harris' face with a knife, and told him to turn around, threatening to cut his buttocks, but Harris ran. Jude was beaten by others, stripped of his pants and threatened with a knife, according to Jude's attorney and witnesses. The investigation has been hampered by officers who were there but won't tell everything they know, either because they committed crimes or are protecting those who did, District Attorney E. Michael McCann said last week. Jude can't identify his attackers, and two women who witnessed it can pick out only a couple of suspects. Harris could fill in more of the picture. Reddin and other prosecutors have questioned Jude several times, and last month they interviewed two women who witnessed the beating, but never called for Harris, Bishop said. [more]