Frank Nitty files lawsuit over Hoan Bridge arrest, proposes new policies for sheriff’s deputies.
Activist proposes new sheriff’s deputy policies
Frank Sensabaugh, more commonly known as Frank Nitty, has marched and protested for justice and systemic change in law enforcement in Milwaukee and across the country — literally.
Now, he’s taking his fight to the courts.
Nitty has filed a lawsuit alleging a violation of his First Amendment rights, excessive force and racial profiling when Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputies threw him to the ground during an arrest on the Hoan Bridge in June.
As part of the lawsuit, Nitty wants the Sheriff’s Office to adopt a lengthy anti-racism and anti-discrimination policy, which among other things would require deputies to wear body cameras, which they currently do not.
The lawsuit, recently filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, comes as Nitty and other Milwaukee activists finish their march to Washington, D.C., where Nitty was a featured speaker Friday. He is being represented by longtime Milwaukee civil rights attorney Mark Thomsen of Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs.
“When I first watched the video of the deputies’ unlawful attack on Frank Nitty, I never imagined that it would take filing a lawsuit to get my county’s new leadership’s attention or make anti-racist law enforcement a reality here,” Thomsen told the Journal Sentinel.
“But as the young men on the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers have recently pointed out, elected officials continue to fail to make the necessary changes.”
Thomsen also represents Bucks player Sterling Brown, who has an ongoing civil rights lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee after Milwaukee police officers tackled and tasered him over a parking violation in January 2018.
Brown and his Bucks teammates have marched in Milwaukee and this week they decided not to play to bring attention to racial injustice and call for change from Wisconsin lawmakers after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. The team’s decision has rippled across the league and into other professional sports.
Nitty singled out for arrest, lawsuit says
The lawsuit details Nitty’s June 2 arrest on the Hoan Bridge, which was seen on the activist’s own livestream and that of several others who were filming.
Nitty “was threatened with death by a deputy pointing a firearm at point blank range, singled out while white protesters were left alone, body slammed by another, and piled on by about half a dozen others, leaving him bleeding from his right elbow, hand and wrist, and left arm,” the lawsuit says.
After his arrest, Nitty was taken to a hospital where he received six stitches in his left arm and three in his right hand.
Nitty has said he was singled out, and the lawsuit reiterates his account, citing video evidence that Sgt. Michael Krznarich instructed Deputy Brandon Rogers to “take his arrest team and take” Nitty “into custody at the earliest possibility.”
In an official report, Krznarich wrote he saw Nitty swinging a glass water bottle and Nitty’s backpack “full of busted glass” on the freeway, but video footage showed Nitty was moving backward, was not holding a glass bottle and did not have a backpack, according to the lawsuit.
The Sheriff ’s Office referred two felony charges of resisting an officer, causing injury, and a misdemeanor count of unlawful assembly to prosecutors. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office declined to issue any charges against Nitty.
“We conducted a thorough investigation, the result of which was that the sheriff ’s reports were refuted by several citizens and in many ways, were just not credible,” said attorney Craig Mastantuono, who represented Nitty in that portion of the incident.
Proposed policy to limit use-of-force, require anti-discrimination training
The lawsuit also noted the use of tear gas and pepper spray on Nitty and other protesters the day before at the intersection of North Port Washington Road and West Silver Spring Drive where law enforcement vehicles had blocked the marchers’ path.
“None of the protesters, including Frank Nitty, presented a threat to law enforcement officers,” the lawsuit says. “The attack by law enforcement was unprovoked ... (and) breached a promise to Frank Nitty and others that law enforcement would not gas peaceful protesters and marchers.”
The policy language proposed by the lawsuit would include limits on when deputies could use those chemicals and require stronger language on the use of lethal force, saying it must be used “as a last resort.” It also outlines requirements for anti-discrimination, anti-racism and de-escalation training.
The opening of the proposed policy reads: “As part of the County of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee County Sheriff ’s Office (MCSO) shares the responsibility for fighting racism and discrimination in the County of Milwaukee. In that regard, the MCSO operates as an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory law enforcement department and requires every member of the force to serve our shared community as anti-racist, anti-discriminatory public servants.”
A representative with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said Friday the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The Office of the Corporation Counsel did not respond to a request for comment.