Former Cops Sentenced For Beating

Ex-Milwaukee Officer Gets 17 Years, Another Gets 15 Years For Violating Rights Of Biracial Man

(CBS/AP)  Two former police officers were sentenced Thursday for the beating of a biracial man in a case that outraged Milwaukee and sent protesters into the streets.

A judge sentenced Jon Bartlett, 36, to 17 years and four months in federal prison. The sentence also includes three years supervision and payment of $16,365 in restitution.

Daniel Masarik, 27, was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison.

Bartlett and Masarik were convicted with another former officer for taking part in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. outside a housewarming party in October 2004.

The third former officer, Andrew Spengler, 28, was scheduled to be sentenced later Thursday.

Bartlett was the ringleader in the attack, Jude wrote in a statement submitted to the court Thursday. Jude feared for his life and had hoped U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert would give Bartlett the maximum 20-year sentence, he wrote.

"You and your fellow police officer friends attempted to kill me and take my life," he wrote. "Mr. Bartlett, you are a disgrace, a disgrace to all police officers, and every public official in the world."

Bartlett apologized to Jude in court Thursday, but he stood by his claim that he had to deal with unruly suspect.

A state jury had already convicted Bartlett of calling in a bomb threat to his former police district station, resulting in 4 1/2 years in prison. He later pleaded guilty in federal court to trying to buy a semiautomatic rifle and pistol, 875 bullets and high-capacity magazines for each weapon while he was facing felony charges. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in that case, reported the Milwaukee Sentinal-Journal.

A federal jury determined in July that the three violated Jude's civil rights and conspired to assault him while acting as officers. Officer Ryan Packard was acquitted of federal charges.

The trial is the second round in a case that has haunted Milwaukee. The three men were acquitted of most state charges by an all-white jury in April 2006, angering the community. Federal authorities filed the civil rights charges six months later.

In the days after the state trial, black and white residents, including the mayor, expressed their outrage at community meetings. Up to 2,000 people marched from the Milwaukee County courthouse to the federal courthouse.

Jude, 29, said he had been at a party on Oct. 24, 2004, when a group of white men who identified themselves as off-duty officers kicked and punched him, put a knife to his throat and jammed a pen in his ears as he begged for mercy. Jude said he heard Spengler call him a racial slur.

"They came close to killing Mr. Jude," said his attorney, Jonathan Safran. "They caused him serious permanent physical injuries and mental injuries he and his family will have to deal with the rest of their lives."

Jude said the confrontation began as he and a friend were leaving the party, when a group of men surrounded their truck and dragged him out, accusing him of taking Spengler's badge. No badge was ever found.

The community has cried injustice since the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a front-page photo in February 2005 showing Jude's swollen, misshapen face just after the beating.

Reading a statement on behalf of Jude, attorney Jonathan Saffron called Bartlett's actions "those of a terrorist."

"You violated my civil rights and you attempted to kill me. You took my life. You are a disgrace to the police uniform," but added that he would pray for Bartlett's soul, reports the Journal Sentinal.

The police department disciplined 13 officers after the beating, including nine who were fired. Two of the fired officers won back their jobs, including Packard after a 20-day suspension.

Four others have pleaded guilty to similar federal charges. One has been sentenced to two years in prison and another a year in prison along with a year of probation, a fine of $3,000 and 100 hours of community service.


Two others are scheduled for sentencing Dec. 6.

[kailumego1]

Dan9111, the race issue is paramount here, because I haven''t read many cases where white officers have viciously attacked a white male/female.

Denial isn''t going to turn the truth into a lie, or lie into the truth, the truth this was a racial attack on a black man..

[dan9111]

This is for the good of the police--public respect is really all they have to maintain their authority.

Posted by andor3

Authority is a false concept. Cops have more tools to do violence, and we obey them to not be on the receiving end. Cops have no moral superiority, they are just humans.

The racial-spin is wrong here. It is actually hatred of the ordinary citizen that most cops openly demonstrate. Otherwise they would not enforce "laws" which were never agreed to by any of the cops'' victims.

[andor3]

"Beating up some guy could get you up 2-3 years,
but [...] 17 years?"

Cops are rightly held to a higher standard because of their position and the extra laws they need to protect them. So when a cop crosses the line, the penalty should be both severe and a warning to other officers that their power is not unlimited. This is for the good of the police--public respect is really all they have to maintain their authority.

[kansas1946]

A state jury had already convicted Bartlett of calling in a bomb threat to his former police district station, resulting in 4 1/2 years in prison. He later pleaded guilty in federal court to trying to buy a semiautomatic rifle and pistol, 875 bullets and high-capacity magazines for each weapon while he was facing felony charges. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in that case, reported the Milwaukee Sentinal-Journal.
**************
This guy was a cop????? I am sure there were many, many, warning signs that this guy was a ticking bomb, that were covered up by fellow officers. I understand loyalty, but officers should police themselves and weed the bad apples out immediately. Otherwise those bad apples give a bad name to everyone on the force.

[kailumego1]

Arrogant, selfish, and demonic white folks don''t care about anyone but themselves, and the identical can be stated about arrogant, selfish and demonic blacks, Arabs, Asians, etc., evil is as evil does.

"Jim Crow" and the KKK mentality lives on in the collective consciousness of white Americans, just like "Africanization" or "Black Judas syndrome" lives and breathes throughout black communities.

Both races need to "steam" clean and disinfect their own houses, so that incidents such as this one and the constant barrage of violence in black communities will end....

[kailumego1]

This is a case which merits "teeth", Sharpton and Jackson and black communities everywhere should have marched the Milwaukee courthouse all the way to Capital Hill outraged and vehemence over what happened.

"An all-white jury", I''m not at all surprised, and white folks want to scream bloody murder over the O.J. verdict, at which an all-black jury found him not guilty.

Clean your house before you talk, it is no way on this earth these so-called police officers should have been acquitted, and I don''t care if the color of the jury had been "purple"..

I just find it amusing when a majority of white folks are quick to assume in incidents such as this automatically the black individual is guilty, as though white folks don''t lie or commit such hideous acts of violence...

This isn''t the first I''ve heard of this case, I was simply curious why Sharpton and others didn''t take a more pro-active aggressive stance in protesting this "racial" abuse.

Like the 92 year old black woman who was viciously gunned down by police officers, why did Sharpton and others wait so long to get on board, as oppose to nonsense cases like "Jena Six" or the "Duke Rape Scandal"..

The jurists and judge are inhuman Neanderthals to validate these officers blatant disregard for human life, by rendering a not guilty verdict..

[billpl-2009]

these cops are both ignorant and scum
but neither being ignorant nor scum is illegal.

Beating up some guy could get you up 2-3 years,
but tack on the race card and you get 17 years?
Racial crimes are both bad and real,
but we need to stay real when it comes to convicting people of them.

Personally I''d be more comfortable if the Fed''s got them AND their buddies on the Rico Act instead.
they''re obviously a mob
then you could lock them ALL up
and throw away the key

[michellem99-2009]

It is just a matter of time before Tucker the cop retaired has a field day with this. Skin colour has nothing to do with it. Abused of police power. That happens more than is reported in the news. Good.

[gunownerdan]

Can you believe that some people actually think only cops should be allowed to own guns?
If anything, only civilians should be allowed to own them!
When only the police can have guns, it''s called a police state.

[cepe10-2009]

jury and judge tried to get these thugs off... - those jurors and the judge should be facing charges...

where are all the LEO apologists to condone this one with the excuses?