City aims to crack down on prostitution
Milwaukee files lawsuit against owner whose property linked to crime
Two pastors were propositioned by prostitutes as they walked into Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church on Sunday for Pastor Joel Jaeger’s retirement ceremony.
“Propositioned on your way to church. That’s really sad,” Jaeger said. “That’s a sad statement of what the conditions have become in this neighborhood.”
Jaeger joined south side Alds. Bob Donovan and José Pérez and Assistant City Attorney Heather Hough Monday in front of the Greenfield Ave. church for a news conference to announce a lawsuit the City of Milwaukee has filed against the owners of a nearby property linked to prostitution and drug use.
And they said more lawsuits will be coming as part of a crackdown on prostitution in the area.
Richard Williams and Jacquline Kiefer are accused of allowing prostitution at the property, which is located at 2412
W. Greenfield Ave. Williams acknowledged to Milwaukee police officers that he “personally engages in prostitutionrelated activity at the property,” court documents say.
“Obviously, there is a crisis of prostitution in this area,” Hough said. “It’s always been an area of high prostitution activity, but it’s just becoming more and more blatant.”
She said complaints from neighbors and the aldermen spurred an investigation by the Milwaukee Police Department and action by the city attorney’s office.
“This is just going to be one of many, and if you’re enabling this behavior we’re going to hold you accountable,” Pérez said. “We’re saying stop.”
City officials argue the property is a public nuisance. Hough said the
June 30 lawsuit is the first time the city has used the “bawdy house” nuisance statute as the basis of a lawsuit.
“It is the first of many. There are other candidates that the Milwaukee Police Department has identified through their investigations that the city will be targeting in the days to come,” Hough said.
The lawsuit alleges that prostitution has been taking place at the home since at least 2012. Court documents include affidavits and police records detailing repeated problems with drug and prostitution activity at the property.
“I learned through field interviews that known prostitutes are allowed to engage in prostitution-related activity in the basement of the property,” Officer Erin Jackson said, according to a June 23 affidavit.
Omar Bravo, the community liaison at Christ Saint Peter Lutheran School, said he has observed
prostitutes loitering near the school and has found used condoms, condom wrappers and hypodermic needles on school property.
The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, included a letter from Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn to Williams listing repeat
police calls to the property in recent months, including a resident being beaten with a firearm, a heroin overdose and a fatal shooting.
Police reports filed in the case detailed problems with prostitutes standing on the curb in front of the property trying to flag down passing
motorists. Another report said a man caught shoplifting condoms and hair gel at a nearby Walgreens led officers back to the property, where a prostitute was waiting for him.
Milwaukee police spokesman Tim Gauerke said officers have worked closely with those in the community and other agencies to combat prostitution, adding that 73 prostitution-related arrests were made in District
2 last month.
Donovan celebrated the lawsuit, but stressed that the problem is “serious and out of control.”
“When I have a pastor, a Lutheran pastor, who lives right across the street and he contacts me because pimps — pimps — are stopping traffic on Greenfield Avenue so that the prostitutes can approach cars easier, we’ve got a serious problem,” Donovan said.