Police could be to blame for Williams’ death, judge says

Federal civil rights lawsuit against city set to proceed

A federal judge dealt a serious blow to the city and to the Milwaukee Police Department on Friday in refusing to throw out any of the civil rights claims made by the family of Derek Williams, who died after begging for help in the back of a squad car in 2011.

After a ruling by the same judge earlier this year in a case involving a different officer-involved death — that of Dontre Hamilton — the city quickly agreed to a $2.3 million settlement.

A trial in the federal civil rights suit filed by Williams’ family is set for Aug. 28.

For 15 minutes before he died, Williams, his hands cuffed behind his back, repeatedly told officers he couldn’t breathe. None of them called for medical attention until after he slumped over in the back of the police car, pulseless and not breathing, according to court records.

Nearly eight minutes of his struggle to breathe were captured on police video.

In requesting that the suit be dis-

missed, city lawyers contended it was “objectively reasonable” for more than half a dozen officers to disregard Williams’ pleas for help because they thought he was “playing games,” according to court records.

The judge, J.P. Stadtmueller Jr., ruled Friday that a reasonable jury could find the officers’ conduct caused Williams’ death.

“Neither Williams nor anyone else intervened to prevent them from calling for medical assistance, and Williams in fact begged for it repeatedly,”

wrote.

Under the ruling, the jury also would be allowed to determine whether the police department shares the blame for Williams’ death in failing to properly train officers about respiratory distress and in allowing a “code of silence” to persist among officers.

At the time of Williams’ death, police department training taught officers if someone was speaking, he could breathe.

In 2009, Fire Department first responders told police this was not accurate, and in 2010, arrestee James Perry died after saying he couldn’t breathe, according

Stadtmueller

to the motion. The training was updated after Williams’ death.

Finally, Stadtmueller refused the city’s motion to prohibit three of Williams’ expert witnesses from testifying. One, a lip-reading expert, believes Williams said, “I’m gonna’ die” in a portion of the squad video without sound. Another, a law enforcement expert, determined that both the officers’ actions and the department’s policing practices were deficient. A third concluded that had Williams received emergency treatment before he lost consciousness, “it is highly likely that he would not have died.”

The Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office initially ruled Williams’

death natural, but it changed its conclusion to homicide and an inquest was convened after the Journal Sentinel uncovered evidence that officers had used force during the arrest.

The inquest jury recommended state misdemeanor charges of failure to render aid to a prisoner against three officers: Jeffrey Cline, Richard Ticcioni and Jason Bleichwehl. Special Prosecutor John Franke went against that advice and declined to issue charges, saying there was “no reasonable likelihood” of convictions. However, Franke concluded officers were careless, used poor judgment and delayed getting Williams the medical

help he needed.

Reached Friday, Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys for the Williams family, said he was pleased with the decision.

“We think that it’s well past time for the city to take heed of what the judge is saying here and stop defending the indefensible in this case,” he said. “We would be extremely disappointed if they decided to appeal this now instead of moving forward and doing the right thing by resolving this case.”

A representative from the city attorney’s office declined to comment.