Milwaukee is poised to pay out $600,000 in settlements due to two police misconduct cases that alleged officers violated the constitutional rights of those suing the city.
The city’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee moved forward the two settlements from federal lawsuits on July 28 to the full Common Council for approval. Among the two settlements is one which will likely pay out $350,000 and end a yearslong litigation over the pat down of Isaiah Taylor, which began over a decade ago when police officers stopped him while he was attempting to deliver food to a neighbor.
The other is a lawsuit from Antoine Fuller, who alleged in 2021 that Milwaukee police unlawfully tased him and detained his children for hours as officers responded to a reported killing by another member of the family, for $250,000.
The city committee discussed the two settlements in closed session on July 28 and later unanimously recommended both be passed by the full common council.
The Milwaukee Police Department deferred comment to the city attorney’s office.
Milwaukee City Attorney Evan Goyke is recommending approval of the settlements, but declined comment, citing the settlements still require full council and mayoral approval.
Rick Resche, attorney for the Fullers, declined comment for the same reason, and Mark Thomsen, Taylor’s attorney, could not be reached for comment.
The Common Council’s next hearing is July 31, but the agenda has not yet been released for the meeting.
Taylor settlement will end possibility of a do-over at trial
Isaiah Taylor filed a lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee in 2021 accusing Milwaukee police of racial profiling and of violating his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. He is the son of Lena Taylor, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge and former a member of the Wisconsin State Senate.
His court filing says he was stopped and frisked by Milwaukee police officers Justin Schwarzhuber and Jasen Rydzewski as he ran across the street to deliver a turkey to a neighbor in need on Dec. 21, 2015. The two officers were investigating robberies in the neighborhood and footage cited in the complaint showed Rydzewski told Taylor “a lot of them were juveniles.”
Taylor’s lawsuit said the officers racially profiled him; was subject to unreasonable seizure and search.
In the over four years since the federal case began, a judge found the two officers had qualified immunity and could receive summary judgment on two of Taylor’s claims, and a jury trial later found the two officers not guilty on the remaining claim — that he was subject to an unreasonable stop in length.
However, Taylor appealed those decisions and was granted a new jury trial by a federal appeals court, earlier this year. The new trial would review what the court found to be Taylor’s “viable Fourth Amendment claims”: unlawful stop, unlawful search and unlawful continued detention; but agreed with the district court’s decision to give a summary judgment on Taylor’s equal protection claim against the officers.
Fuller lawsuit alleged officers tased, detained three children
The $250,000 settlement for the Fuller family comes from events that began on Sept. 6, 2021, when Antoine Fuller and his three children, ages 17, 15 and 12 at the time, were visiting Antoine’s father, Abraham Tate, from Chicago, according to the family’s legal filing made in September.
Police would later arrive to investigate a killing that Tate later pleaded no contest to in 2023, according to an online court record. During the officers’ response, a “heavily intoxicated woman” told police that she heard gunshots and mentioned a person wearing a red shirt, and Antoine was wearing one, according to the filing.
One police officer, Adam Rusch, would later say he didn’t ask more questions during the incident because he didn’t want to fill out additional paperwork, the filing said.
The responding officers later asked the father to come out, which he did, and as they grabbed him, he fell to the ground, eventually they used a stun gun on him and placed him in handcuffs, according to the filing. His three children came out as they heard him scream and officers handcuffed them and were later held in police vehicles, according to the filing.
A legal filing outlining the alleged events names 12 Milwaukee police officers as defendants, along with the city. The officers are still employed by the department and include Schwarzhuber, who was also a defendant in the Taylor case; Joel Bandkowski; Megan Broadnax; Alexander Dey; Seth Edwards; Stephon Roby; Rusch; Cameron Scott; Arnisha Thomas; Erin Tully; and Wynald Williamson.
Court filings show the city, and the Fullers reached a tentative settlement agreement last month, according to a June 18 filing in the case.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee committee moves $600,000 in settlements in police civil rights cases forward
Reporting by David Clarey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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