WI - Frank Jude beaten by off-duty Mikwaukee PD officers, 2004

Ang50

New Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Messages
1,205
Reaction score
8
Local news is reporting that a verdict is in in this case, although the jury is deadlocked on one issue.

This is the case of 3 off-duty cops accused of beating a man outside a party. It's been shown live on Court TV these past two weeks. Fascinating case... it's like everything's backwards - cops are doing the "no snitching" bit, definitely (IMHO) committing perjury, the jury's all white but the prosecution complains...

http://www.jsonline.com/archive/index.aspx?id=AH326
 
I've been watching the trial. It's a case of EVERYONE involved--the cops, the victim, their friends--all being stupid as dirt.
 
They were aquitted of all but one charge that they were deadlock on concerning Bartlett. I really think the cops got away with this one.
 
JDB said:
They were aquitted of all but one charge that they were deadlock on concerning Bartlett. I really think the cops got away with this one.



I watched the trial and I'm telling you those cops weren't talking. None of them. Now they will get their jobs back. Do cops ever get convicted? Someone kicked the crap out of Frank Jude and stuck.. they believe it was.. a pen in both of his ears until they bled. ER doc said she had never seen anything so horrible in her 15 yrs working the ER.

I don't think there ever was a police badge that was missing. They searched the two girls and the two guys that they accused and none of them had the badge and wallet. They say it was never found...ya I'll bet. I did think that there were two cops...one in plain clothes and one in uniform that should have been arrested too. I think that Blue Code Of Silence was to thick and the people who were accused of stealing the badge and wallet didn't know any of the off duty cops so it was hard for them to put the right names with the right faces. I'll bet the cops really think they are big chit now.
 
Bobbisangel said:
I watched the trial and I'm telling you those cops weren't talking. None of them. Now they will get their jobs back. Do cops ever get convicted? Someone kicked the crap out of Frank Jude and stuck.. they believe it was.. a pen in both of his ears until they bled. ER doc said she had never seen anything so horrible in her 15 yrs working the ER.

I don't think there ever was a police badge that was missing. They searched the two girls and the two guys that they accused and none of them had the badge and wallet. They say it was never found...ya I'll bet. I did think that there were two cops...one in plain clothes and one in uniform that should have been arrested too. I think that Blue Code Of Silence was to thick and the people who were accused of stealing the badge and wallet didn't know any of the off duty cops so it was hard for them to put the right names with the right faces. I'll bet the cops really think they are big chit now.
I totally agree, Bobbisangel! Esp about that badge. That was just an excuse to justify kicking the crap out of that guy. I couldn't believe the acquital. Jude will probably still get a settlement from the city and they sweep the rest under the rug.

Milwaukee? Wasn't that the city Bambi was from? She always claimed she was framed by her cop hushand, and I am not so sure she wasn't.

So what message is this jury sending out to the community? If you can't tell which cop did it, nobody gets punished even when they were all in on it together? What the kids who rob the corner store and shot the clerk? If we don't know which one pulled the trigger, will they all get off too? (No, we will send all of them to jail!!) This really sucks!
 
Bobbisangel said:
I watched the trial and I'm telling you those cops weren't talking. None of them. Now they will get their jobs back. Do cops ever get convicted? Someone kicked the crap out of Frank Jude and stuck.. they believe it was.. a pen in both of his ears until they bled. ER doc said she had never seen anything so horrible in her 15 yrs working the ER.

I don't think there ever was a police badge that was missing. They searched the two girls and the two guys that they accused and none of them had the badge and wallet. They say it was never found...ya I'll bet. I did think that there were two cops...one in plain clothes and one in uniform that should have been arrested too. I think that Blue Code Of Silence was to thick and the people who were accused of stealing the badge and wallet didn't know any of the off duty cops so it was hard for them to put the right names with the right faces. I'll bet the cops really think they are big chit now.
Actually, they had all been fired before the trail started, so nobody's getting their jobs back.
 
Bobbisangel said:
I watched the trial and I'm telling you those cops weren't talking. None of them. Now they will get their jobs back. Do cops ever get convicted? Someone kicked the crap out of Frank Jude and stuck.. they believe it was.. a pen in both of his ears until they bled. ER doc said she had never seen anything so horrible in her 15 yrs working the ER.

I don't think there ever was a police badge that was missing. They searched the two girls and the two guys that they accused and none of them had the badge and wallet. They say it was never found...ya I'll bet. I did think that there were two cops...one in plain clothes and one in uniform that should have been arrested too. I think that Blue Code Of Silence was to thick and the people who were accused of stealing the badge and wallet didn't know any of the off duty cops so it was hard for them to put the right names with the right faces. I'll bet the cops really think they are big chit now.
I think the badge was stolen, especially since one of the guys ran off and was only found later. It was testified to that he was trying to bum bus change from passers by because "he had to throw everything in his pockets away." No doubt down a sewer drain.

What appeared to be the trigegr for the beat down, though, was the victim's baffling decision, when the cops poured out after them onto the street, to tell them HE was a cop TOO. This was from the victim's own testimony, mind you. When asked as to who his CO and precinct number was, he replied "I don't know". That's when it started to REALLY go down hill.
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
Actually, they had all been fired before the trail started, so nobody's getting their jobs back.
You gotta be kidding. Those cops are going to sue for their jobs so they can collect all that back pay if they win. After all, they were acquitted so they were fired for something they didn't do. At least not officially. They would be idiots to just walk away.
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
I think the badge was stolen, especially since one of the guys ran off and was only found later. It was testified to that he was trying to bum bus change from passers by because "he had to throw everything in his pockets away." No doubt down a sewer drain.
Didn't he empty his pockets to show these cops that he didn't have it?

Besides, he was not even the one the cops said they saw coming out of the bedroom. Jude was one they fingered.

BillyGoatGruff said:
What appeared to be the trigegr for the beat down, though, was the victim's baffling decision, when the cops poured out after them onto the street, to tell them HE was a cop TOO. This was from the victim's own testimony, mind you. When asked as to who his CO and precinct number was, he replied "I don't know". That's when it started to REALLY go down hill.
That was weird but it could just be one of those oddball coincidences that I don't normally believe in but sometimes do indeed happen. He had no way of knowing they thought he took a badge unless he took it, and if he did, why on earth would he say he was a cop, too, and make himself look even more guilty?

I think there was something about these two that set one of the cops off and he made up the story about the badge to get his drunken buddies to join in. The goal was to beat the crap out of Jude. They didn't care about the other guy. It was Jude they wanted and Jude they got. I heard today that one of girls had dated one of the cops and that may have been what set it in motion.

Bottomline, the cops lied through their teeth and the jury let them get away it AND that brutal beating no perp deserves, guilty or not. In my town, a couple of cops went to a house, knocked on the door, and asked for the teenaged resident. His mother told them he was in the back yard. They went back there and beat the crap out him and then left. They were teaching him a lesson for stealing the purse of another cop's wife. The boy had already been charged with it which is how they knew who he was, but that wasn't enough for them. But here these cops were fired and arrested and convicted for it. Which is the way it should be. I think that jury should be ashamed of themselves. I would like to know why they voted the way they did.
 
Goody said:
You gotta be kidding. Those cops are going to sue for their jobs so they can collect all that back pay if they win. After all, they were acquitted so they were fired for something they didn't do. At least not officially. They would be idiots to just walk away.
One of them is also awaiting trial for phoning in a bomb threat, and there will be at least one, possibily more civil & federal trials within the next year or two. So, no, they're not getting their jobs back.
 
Goody said:
Didn't he empty his pockets to show these cops that he didn't have it?

Besides, he was not even the one the cops said they saw coming out of the bedroom. Jude was one they fingered.

.
The friends of the victim was wearing ultra-baggy pants, and apparently was not patted down. But he was the one who ran away, not the victim.

What baffled me was the woman's decision to pick up a stripper and his friend, neither of whom she knew, at a bacheleorette party and then go to a house party she knew would be full of cops, simply because she'd had a threesome with one of the cops a couple days before. At least that's what I was able to untangle from all the stuff on the stand. There was also soemthing about a truck and a weiner dog.

What gets me is who in their right mind goes to a COP PARTY, especially under those circumstances? Was she trying to make the cop jealous or was it a case of an unexceptional-looking woman wanting to show off a "hot dude" for her own reasons? It baffled me. And, personally, from looking at Jude, I would have pegged him as American Indian.
 
I'm in Madison and I'm OUTRAGED. I am so pissed about this verdict, I still cannot see straight over it. HOW could this happen??????
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
And, personally, from looking at Jude, I would have pegged him as American Indian.
Not that it matters but he's biracial right? And the jury is all white? And they dismissed the last three black jury polls because they were inattentive during questioning?

Hmmm something sounds hinkey don't it?
 
Personally, I'm very pleased with the verdict. I wish more cops would handle problems on the street instead of making arrests and tying up the courts.
 
duke said:
Personally, I'm very pleased with the verdict. I wish more cops would handle problems on the street instead of making arrests and tying up the courts.
So you are saying let the police disobey the laws and beat the hell out of someone because they think he did something?I hope it never happens to you. In this case the badge was never found or no one is saying it was. Then they cuffed Jude and still proceeded to kick him. That is going over the line. I am ashame of this verdict.
 
I'm sorry, but you enjoy the police protection afforded to you, right? You wouldn't want a bunch of off duty cops rolling up on you, accusing you of some stupid theft, and then beating you to a bloody pulp (to the point that your facial X-Ray looks like someone laid a spider web over it).
 
JDB said:
So you are saying let the police disobey the laws and beat the hell out of someone because they think he did something?I hope it never happens to you. In this case the badge was never found or no one is saying it was. Then they cuffed Jude and still proceeded to kick him. That is going over the line. I am ashame of this verdict.
The jury obviously didn't agree that this is what happened. But to answer your question: If I go to someone's party and steal from their house - and I'm convinced that's exactly what happened in this case - I think I deserve some street justice. Maybe it was a bit over the line, but I wouldn't want to send these guys to prison for that.
 
I am very hopeful that federal charges will be filed in this case, since the accused officers that took the stand were dumb enough to say they put themselves on duty in order to "arrest" Jude. That's color of law - a violation of USC 1983 - and adds a new way to hold the officers accountable.

The officers have not yet lost their appeals for their jobs - they have been and are still getting paid (MKE's system is really screwy) and can petition for reinstatement as well before the Police and Fire Commission. They don't have to go back before the Chief that fired them.

I was most upset by officers in uniform who took the stand and, IMHO, lied through their teeth that they were on the scene and saw nothing.

Finally, the accused officers were charged party to a crime. The jury didn't have to find that any of them actually kicked or punched Jude, just that they aided and abetted those who did. This shouldn't have been a high threshold to beat - and whether Jude was resisting or not really didn't matter for the legal analysis. And all of that may have been the fault of the prosecution's arguments... BUT - I think ultimately the jury just didn't want to convict cops, and being an all-white jury, it's not so much racism, just less experience with the concept of police brutality. The verdict is an embarrassment for a city that's already the most segregrated in the U.S.
 
duke said:
The jury obviously didn't agree that this is what happened. But to answer your question: If I go to someone's party and steal from their house - and I'm convinced that's exactly what happened in this case - I think I deserve some street justice. Maybe it was a bit over the line, but I wouldn't want to send these guys to prison for that.
But where is the proof that the badge was taken?There isn't any anI knew what the Jury was going to come back with when I found out they were all white.Street justice as you call it is fine. But they went overboard. And you know that if it you or I with some buddies doing the same thing. The key would be thrown away. It is called the Code of Silence that got these 3 off. But Bartlett is still not out of th ewood. maybe then Justice will be done. And he also faces calling a Bomb Threat in to the station. Yep sounds like one of Great Cop.
 
duke said:
Personally, I'm very pleased with the verdict. I wish more cops would handle problems on the street instead of making arrests and tying up the courts.

:eek: You scare me.




JMHO
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
60
Guests online
2,449
Total visitors
2,509

Forum statistics

Threads
590,011
Messages
17,928,964
Members
228,038
Latest member
shmoozie
Back
Top