Jim White, Common Council candidate, admits there have been loud arguments at his home but never violence.
A neighbor of Jim White, one of the candidates running for the Common Council’s District 2 seat, says he has called police twice to report domestic disputes at White’s home.
The most recent police call was placed shortly before midnight on May 22, 2018. Police came to White’s ground-floor apartment at 1340 E. Dayton St., after the neighbor’s complaint about a loud argument that “sounded physical.”
According to the police report, officer Kevin Costin heard arguing when he arrived. He knocked on the front door and announced his presence; the yelling stopped, but no one came to the door. “I attempted to look through the window and saw what appeared to be a male crouching in the kitchen behind a pet gate and attempted to gain his attention by flashing my flashlight using a strobe function.”
A resident from another unit let the officers into the building, and after police knocked some more, White answered the door. White was holding a phone — he told police that it was on speaker phone and his lawyer was providing counsel.
“I asked James if everything was okay, to which he advised that everything was fine,” the report reads. “James acknowledged that he had a roommate but would not allow us to go inside.”
The roommate eventually came out and talked to police. Costin “determined that there was no probable cause for any domestic related crimes,” advised the men to keep their volume at a “reasonable level,” and left.
About three years earlier, on Feb. 24, 2015, the neighbor called the police reporting there was “lots of yelling” in White’s home and thought someone “got hit.” However, the responding officer did not file a report in the incident.
The roommate no longer lives in the home, but remains friends with White. When contacted by Isthmus, he asked not to be named in this article. He admits that there were at times loud arguments when he lived with White, but says it never became violent.
White also denies any violence ever occurred. Asked if he’s ever been violent with a roommate or romantic partner, White says “no.”
Isthmus reporter Dylan Brogan, who lives next door to White, confirms that there have been numerous domestic arguments at White’s house, but has never called the police because of the incidents.
“My partner and I have been woken up by the fights because the yelling was so loud. Some incidents last for hours,” says Brogan. “A couple times I heard objects being thrown, what sounded like a person being slammed into the wall. I can’t say for sure whether physical violence occurred. But it wasn’t just that there was a loud argument. I heard Jim White verbally abusing someone multiple times.”
White blames the noise complaints on the fact that the homes in his neighborhood are close together. “You can hear everything from everybody, from all of our neighbors,” he says. “At no point have the police followed up on anything because nothing ever happens here.”
The neighbor who asked for anonymity says that he has heard frequent arguments and fights from White’s home.
“The two times I called the police, the arguments had been going on for awhile, 30-45 minutes worth of shouting back and forth,” the neighbor explains in an email. “I called the police once I heard things getting physical. The two situations were nearly identical from my standpoint; shouting continued until I heard what sounded like furniture being knocked over and thrown around. It sounded like someone being slammed against the wall, and the ‘Ow, ow, my head! My head!’ was a pretty clear indication that it had already escalated too far.”
In the April 2 election, White will face Patrick Heck for the council seat now held by Ledell Zellers, who is not running again.
The neighbor says that fighting has recently become less frequent, but “there is still audible shouting at least monthly, and more often than not, well after midnight.”
The neighbor was nervous about calling the police on White and talking to Isthmus, even without attribution.
“But I sincerely just want people to know the true character of the person they may be voting for,” the neighbor adds. “And a person who cannot stop themselves from screaming at their partner/roommate/friend at 2 a.m. is not the kind of person who should be in any kind of position of power.”
