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A state appeals court today ordered Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fielder to open a John Doe investigation into allegations that a fight on State Street turned into a racial beating. In reversing Fielder's decision to dismiss Oscar Williams' request for the investigation because it "would be a waste of time," the District 4 Court of Appeals said Fielder wrongly based his decision on assessing credibility and choosing between competing inferences, criteria not allowed at the threshold stage of these proceedings. According to the decision: Williams alleged that Joseph Heise attacked him after he rejected Heise's panhandling request for spare change while outside a restaurant on Dec. 18, 2002. Others present allegedly heckled Heise, taunting him, "Are you going to let that nigger talk to you like that?" Williams, the only black present, left but was knocked to the ground when kicked in the back by Heise, who said he was going "to kick (Williams') black ass." Heise began to punch Williams in the face and was joined by two white males who joined in the beating, calling Williams a "nigger" and to "never talk back to a white man." Williams was taken to the UW Hospital for treatment of his facial injuries. Williams claims Madison police investigated the incident, but didn't refer it to the Dane County district attorney for a charging decision. [more]