Milwaukee Cop who Shot Black Man to Death will not Face Criminal Charges

 
The US attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin wanted to criminally charge a Milwaukee police officer in the fatal shooting of a motorist but was overruled by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to documents obtained by a newspaper. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Tuesday that correspondence between Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson and the attorney for the motorist's family said federal prosecutors met with Justin Fields' mother and her attorney last August and told them that they planned to charge officer Craig Nawotka in Fields death. But Johnson wrote to the family's attorney, Mark Thomsen, last week and informed him that the prosecution could not proceed, the newspaper said.  U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said there is just one federal statute that would apply to a fatal police shooting. That law makes it a crime for someone acting under the color of law to willfully deprive someone of his or her constitutional rights. "We don't have manslaughter or reckless homicide or any lesser offense,'' he said. In sworn depositions, two officers said race might have played a role in Fields' death. Further, the Milwaukee police sergeant who investigated the shooting said his findings - that Nawotka's actions constituted excessive force and that Fields "did not have to die" - were ignored by his superiors in the department's internal affairs division.[more] and [more]

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