Three Milwaukee police officers were criminally charged Monday with the severe beating of Frank Jude Jr. outside a party in Bay View last October. Jon Bartlett was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and substantial battery. Andrew Spengler was charged with substantial battery and Daniel Masarik was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and perjury. All three men turned themselves in Monday afternoon and are all out of jail on a signature bond. According to the criminal charges, Jude and three other people were at a house party in Bay View at a police officer's house when Jude was accused of taking a police badge and wallet. Witnesses said when the group tried to leave, up to 10 off-duty officers surrounded the car and pulled Jude out. The witnesses said the men searched Jude and when they didn't find the wallet, they started beating him. According to one of the first on-duty police officers to arrive at the scene, she "... saw defendant Bartlett put a knife to Jude's neck and say, 'Where's the -- badge? I'm going to kill you if you don't give it up.'" She said she heard someone handcuff Jude and then saw Bartlett "...get up and begin kicking Jude in the head." McCann said depending on how much more cooperation they get, and how bad Jude's injuries end up being, there could be more charges. McCann has been criticized heavily the last few weeks by some who say that he was dragging his feet on this case. He said, considering the lack of cooperation he got from some of the off-duty officers at the party, he did the best he could. But there are still more people he would like to interview. Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty released a statement that said the department will continue with its internal investigation into the event that took place. All three officers are scheduled to be back in court for preliminary hearings March 16. A fourth officer was suspended after the beating, but he was not charged. [more]
- Pictured above: Frank Jude before and after Racist cops beat him down.
WEAK Prosecutor TIMID About Using Hate Crime Law
In explaining his choice not to pursue Hate Crimes claims against police, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann said the hate-crime law applies only when perpetrators target their victims specifically because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic background or some other trait. "To anyone who reviews the whole police file, it is very clear these victims were selected because they were suspected in stealing a (police officer's) badge," McCann said. "If they had been white, black or red - if there had been two white men involved - the same thing would have happened." Jude denies taking a badge, and none was found on him. The criminal complaint charging police officers Jon Bartlett, Andrew Spengler and Daniel Masarik says Spengler, who was hosting a party at his Bay View home, suspected Jude of taking his badge, and that Jude shortly thereafter was pulled from a pickup truck, savagely beaten and stripped. The complaint cites accounts of 12 witnesses, but none mentions racial taunting or slurs. To McCann, the motive seems plausible enough to undercut the idea that Jude was beaten for being black. "You don't use the enhancer just because the person who committed the crime has demonstrated they can be a bigot," said Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, who has used the statute several times. "Any time a prosecutor includes a charge or an enhancer that you cannot prove very well, the jury starts to wonder, 'If the state will make that weak an argument on that point, does that mean everything they present is weak?' "Wisconsin's hate-crimes law, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, can add up to five years to the prison sentence imposed for a felony, one or two year to misdemeanors, and upgrades some misdemeanor offenses to felonies. [more]