Archive: Prosecutors haven’t queried key witness in Frank Jude case

This story originally ran Feb. 10, 2005.

More than three months after Frank Jude Jr. was severely beaten by a dozen men who identified themselves as off-duty Milwaukee police officers, prosecutors investigating the matter have not questioned a friend who was with Jude that night.

They set up an interview with Lovell Harris Monday, the day after the Journal Sentinel first published Jude’s photo and reported new details about the Oct. 24 attack outside a party at an off-duty officer’s home in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood.

Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin, the lead prosecutor in the case, is set to interview Harris today.

Harris’ attorney, Michael Bishop, said a man from the party cut Harris’ face with a knife, and told him to turn around, threatening to cut his buttocks, but Harris ran. Jude was beaten by others, stripped of his pants and threatened with a knife, according to Jude’s attorney and witnesses.

The investigation has been hampered by officers who were there but won’t tell everything they know, either because they committed crimes or are protecting those who did, District Attorney E. Michael McCann said last week.

Jude can’t identify his attackers, and two women who witnessed it can pick out only a couple of suspects. Harris could fill in more of the picture.

Reddin and other prosecutors have questioned Jude several times, and last month they interviewed two women who witnessed the beating, but never called for Harris, Bishop said.

Reddin said Harris was interviewed by police the day of the incident, and the report from that interview had given prosecutors what they needed. He said one reason Harris is being interviewed now is to judge his demeanor and what he would say in a trial.

Jude’s and Harris’ criminal histories would likely be targets for defense attorneys in a trial.

Jude, 26, a former part-time stripper, was convicted of felony marijuana dealing and bribing an officer in 1996 and of other misdemeanors later, including battery. He served a year in prison.

Harris pleaded no contest to aggravated battery for his part in a 1990 double shooting in which Vanessa Cameron was killed and Claude Daniels was critically injured, according to newspaper accounts. In 1998, Harris, 32, was convicted of having a gun as a felon and given four years in prison, according to an online index of state court records.

Reddin acknowledged that the criminal histories would likely surface in court.

"A person’s criminal background is fair game, but it’s not a barrier to prosecution," he said.

Ald. Mike McGee criticized McCann’s office for not bringing Harris in earlier. McGee plans to lead a protest in front of the DA’s office today.

McCann did not a return a call for comment.

Reddin said the investigation is complicated, but progressing.

Police Chief Nannette Hegerty suspended four officers — Jon M. Bartlett, Andrew R. Spengler, Ryan P. Packard and Daniel L. Masarik — in connection with the beating. Police reports identify a former officer, Michele Bartlett, as also being present at the incident. Frustrated by some officers’ silence, Hegerty asked for a secret John Doe investigation in which officers could be subpoenaed to testify.

On Oct. 24, Jude and Harris went to a bar with two women — Kirsten Antonissen and Katie Brown. They met at a bachelorette party earlier that night where Jude had performed. The four were invited by another woman to a party at Spengler’s house.

Brown and Antonissen said that when the four walked into the party, many of the people, who were white, stared. After a couple of minutes, Antonissen said Jude asked if the people there were racist. Jude and Harris are black. Antonissen said she still doesn’t know why Jude asked the question. She said she didn’t know the people there and offered to leave.

Jude has declined to discuss what happened that night.

Off-duty officers said Jude stole one of their badges and resisted when they confronted him, police reports said. Brown and Antonissen said nothing was stolen and Jude never resisted.

The officers confronted the four outside. Jude was dragged out of a pickup truck by several of the men and beaten while others held him facedown in the street, Antonissen and Brown said. They called 911, and Antonissen told the dispatcher that responding officers held Jude down and also beat him. Antonissen told the dispatcher a man was twisting her arm behind her back and then the line went dead.

Harris was arrested for theft an hour later. He has not been charged.

Jude was arrested on suspicion of theft and resisting, handcuffed and taken by police wagon to a hospital, where he spent 2 1/2 days. His car was later found heavily vandalized.

"What happened to me and Frank that night, it is horrific," Harris said Wednesday, in his first comments about the case. "These guys are supposed to serve and protect."