Lawyer: Wisconsin cop can’t be fired for future shooting

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An attorney for a Wisconsin police officer who has fatally shot three people since 2015 says his client shouldn’t be disciplined or fired simply because city officials are worried he might do it again.

Wauwatosa Officer Joseph Mensah, who is Black, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in all three cases.

The most recent shooting took place in February, when Mensah shot an armed teenager during a chase outside a mall. The decision not to charge him in that shooting sparked several nights of protests in the Milwaukee suburb, some of which turned violent.

The city’s police commission suspended Mensah in July and is expected to decide his fate in November. Former federal prosecutor Steven Biskupic issued a report in early October saying Mensah should be fired because the risk that he would kill a fourth person and expose the city to liability was too great. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who cleared Mensah in the mall shooting, agreed that Mensah posed a risk. The o cer’s attorney, Jon Cermele, filed documents with the commission on Wednesday arguing that state law doesn’t allow the panel to fire an officer because of something that might occur in the future. Terminating him would create an “illogical and artificial rule” that o cers can use deadly force a certain number of times.

“In each of the cases identified, O cer Mensah was simply responding to risks he faced,” Cermele wrote. Biskupic “attempts to sway the Board by scare tactics referencing potential financial exposure for a civil rights violation if the Board does not remove Officer Mensah. But he fails to explain that a decision to discharge O cer Mensah — based on conduct that may never occur, and without any medical opinion that he is unfit for duty — would violate O cer Mensah’s due process rights and expose the City to the exact same type of monetary exposure.” The commission is also considering whether Mensah should be disciplined for violating policies that prohibit o cers from speaking publicly about ongoing investigations.

Ceremele wrote that when Mensah spoke to the media in July, he didn’t mention the mall shooting specifically and focused instead on how the city was treating him.