Fricke talked hidden cash in calls from jail

Days after Jordan Fricke was arrested in the fatal shooting of a Milwaukee police officer who was part of a team searching his home for drugs and weapons, he made calls from jail talking about hidden cash, records show.

Fricke, 27, is currently on trial for first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Officer Matthew Rittner, a member of the department’s Tactical Enforcement Unit.

Homicide Detective Matthew Bell sought a search warrant Feb. 11, 2019 — five days after Rittner was killed — looking for evidence of harboring or aiding a felon and drug dealing.

According to the search warrant affidavit: Another detective was monitoring Fricke’s phone calls from jail.

On Feb. 9, the detective heard Fricke call a man known as “Feddie,” whom police identified as a boyfriend of one of Fricke’s relatives.

Fricke said someone had been “snitching” and did a controlled buy from him.

Fricke told the man to go to his house and check the basement near the tub for “20K,” which commonly means $20,000.

Twenty minutes later, the man called back and said he was in the basement of Fricke’s house, 2945 S. 12th St., and had found an opening by the shower.

Fricke told him the cash should be in a sock. The man confirmed he found it and then asked: “Where else?”

Fricke told him to go upstairs where “there is 40 in his bedroom” and to remove two screws or break some wood where the money is hidden, the court record says.

Then, a woman spoke to Fricke on the phone, saying the man was using a drill to open something up.

In the affidavit, Bell wrote that a search of Fricke’s residence could show evidence the man took cash an earlier informant used to buy marijuana from Fricke and, in the process of doing that, tried to help Fricke avoid prosecution.

A judge granted the search warrant. When police searched the residence on Feb. 12, they took photos of the spots described in the jail call where money was believed to be hidden.

The man believed to have removed the cash is not facing any charges, according to online court records. It is unclear whether police recovered the money.

As of early Thursday, the jail calls have not been brought up in Fricke’s homicide trial, but more details have emerged about the drug and gun investigation that led the specialized unit to search his home using a “no-knock” warrant.

In opening statements, District Attorney John Chisholm told jurors Fricke’s door had been opened by Rittner’s three strikes with a battering ram the morning of Feb. 6.

Only then, Chisholm said, did Fricke shoot. Fricke’s attorney, Michael Chernin, said his client had been awakened by loud noises, a boom, and his barking dog.

He grabbed the gun from his bedside and acted in self-defense based on “an unknown threat,” Chernin said.

Fricke, a concealed-carry license holder, has no prior criminal record.