Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor’s district includes much of Madison’s east side, which has not been immune to the plague of shootings by police officers that has galvanized the nation. “In my neighborhood there have been three officer-involved shootings in the last four years,” Taylor notes. “All three people were killed, and none were armed.”
The killing of musician Paul Heenan by officer Stephen Heimsness in November 2012 occurred just a mile from Taylor’s home, and the subsequent investigation by the Madison Police Department included officers who had a relationship with Heimsness. “One was a good friend,” Taylor notes. “I was just stunned by the process of that investigation.”
Taylor began looking into model legislation to prevent such conflicts, and worked with Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) to write a law enacted in April 2014 that requires an outside investigation of any police-involved deaths. In a Legislature riven by partisan conflict, the bill passed unanimously.
Not long after its passage, the state Department of Justice and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen conducted an investigation under the new law of Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney: He had killed Dontre Hamilton, a man with a history of mental illness, shooting him 14 times. Retired Milwaukee police were used to conduct the investigation, and, as in the case of Heenan, their findings helped convince the local district attorney there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the officer.
At the time, Bies told a Milwaukee TV station he thought the state agents’ ties to the Milwaukee department could make the public suspicious: “I would’ve thought that whoever made those assignments maybe would’ve considered those issues and...made a better decision and put a different investigator on.”
Many in Milwaukee have never accepted the decision not to charge Manney, and there have been periodic protests since then.
Van Hollen was succeeded by his fellow Republican Brad Schimel, who is using the same approach to investigate the killing of Sylville Smith in Milwaukee by officer Dominique Heaggan.
This is the killing that ignited a near riot in Milwaukee, with two days of violent reactions, and a subsequent orgy of national media coverage. Smith was African American (as is Heaggan), and the incident fit into the pattern of blacks being killed under hotly contested circumstances in urban areas across America.
This is a delicate, highly charged issue, and surely every effort should be made to assure Milwaukee’s black community that justice is being done.
Schimel, however, seems tone deaf to the situation. For starters, he has been a frequent recipient of campaign donations from the Milwaukee police union, including five donations of $500 between May 2014 and October 2015, as the Wisconsin Justice Initiative has reported, but has declined to return the money as this group has demanded.
And in response to questions about his investigation using retired Milwaukee police officers, his answer has been that if any of them knows Heaggan, they will not be used.
But as Taylor notes, this creates “the appearance of bias” which can result in a “lack of confidence for the public” over any decision reached. Taylor released a statement saying that “allowing former Milwaukee police officers to investigate their former department circumvents the true intention” of the law she helped pass requiring outside investigations. “I have had several meetings with the DOJ to urge them to adopt conflict-of-interest policies to prevent this situation. They have refused to do so.”
The reaction from Schimel’s office was astonishing. His spokesperson Johnny Koremenos launched an ad hominem attack: “It should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with Rep. Taylor’s background — an attorney with no experience in the courtroom...and zero experience in any law enforcement capacity — would come up with this meritless idea. To imply that deeply experienced DCI agents are unable to carry out a thorough and thoughtful investigation...in the search for truth is insulting to all those who wear a badge.... One can only deduce that...Rep. Taylor intends to sow doubt in the public’s mind that law enforcement officers in this state lack the integrity and character our citizens have come to expect.”
Actually, what Taylor was suggesting was exactly what her Republican co-sponsor and former deputy sheriff Bies had said about the Dontre Hamilton investigation. It was in keeping with the spirit of a law passed unanimously, and that Gov. Scott Walker has bragged about signing, while emphasizing the need for independent investigations.
Taylor introduced a bill last session that would prohibit officers from investigating police departments where they used to work. Schimel opposes this. And he clearly intends to conduct an investigation of the Smith shooting that could end up looking tainted to many in Milwaukee. All that’s left is to hope his arrogance doesn’t inflame an already emotionally charged situation.
Bruce Murphy is editor of UrbanMilwaukee.com