Witnesses Recall Man's Beating at hands of Police Officers - Black Man Went to Party with White Women

 
Testimony in the trial of three former Milwaukee police officers has been dominated by issues of identification and discrepancies between statements witnesses made to investigators and in court.

• Witness: Cops planned cover-up after beating unarmed Black man. As a police car approached the scene where several off-duty police officers were allegedly beating an unarmed man, a witness told a 911 operator that she could hear members of the group plotting a cover-up, according to testimony Tuesday. Jurors in the  heard the frantic, profanity-laced 911 call Tuesday that Kristen Antonissen, a college student at the time of the incident, placed as she watched a group of 10 off-duty officers allegedly punch and kick Frank Jude. "They're beating the s--- out of him right now," jurors heard Antonissen shout into the phone. "We're being harassed by cops, and I want my mom here."  In the phone call, the anger in Antonissen's voice turned to shock as she related to the operator the conversations she heard as the squad car appeared in the distance. "They just warned each other that the cops are coming, isn't that f---ing nice," she said. "They're trying to frame him for stealing someone's badge." After the tape ended, Antonissen clarified her statements in the garbled and noisy phone call, which she placed from the street in front of Spengler's house around 2:51 a.m. the morning of Oct. 24, 2004. "[The officers] were saying that they were going to say he was resisting arrest when the cops came," Antonissen testified. "There was also mention of saying it was a traffic stop." [more] and [SEE VIDEO]
  
• Other Witness who Accompanied Jude:  Katie Brown, 24, a financial analyst with a nursing home, and Kirsten Antonissen went to an off-duty officer's party in the Bay View area with Jude and another Black man. As they left after a brief stay, the four were accused of stealing a badge. Brown testified she made the first 911 call, despite instruction from Spengler not to. "I wanted cops in uniforms," Brown said. Brown said she saw Jude on the ground with 10 to 15 people around him, with five kicking and punching him in the head. "They were taking turns," said Brown. "I did not want to watch it. It was disgusting." She said the beating continued after on-duty officers arrived, but that the on-duty officers didn't strike Jude. When Jude was lifted up, "His head was completely covered in blood, his pants were around his ankles and he was cuffed," she said.
• Emergency Room Doctor: In other testimony Thursday, an emergency room doctor who treated Jude the morning of Oct. 24, 2004, testified he had the worst ear injuries she had ever seen in 15 years of practice. Kathleen Shallow said she took pictures of the injuries because there were so many. Besides his ears, Jude had two factures, to his sinus and nasal bone, an eye swollen shut, a grossly swollen hand, marks on his neck consistent with choking and cuts and bruises over much of his face and body, she said. "Mr. Jude had numerous injuries, too numerous to document reliably," Shallow said.
  
• Witness who invited Jude: Army reservist Tina Schultz testified Thursday that she was the conduit through which the victim, Frank Jude Jr., and two of her friends arrived at the ill-fated party in the home of defendant Andrew Spengler. Schultz testified she was a college student in October 2004 when she met Spengler and his friend at a bar and returned to Spengler's home where she had sex with both of them. Schultz and two female friends, Katie Brown and Kirsten Antonissen, arrived at the party at about 2:40 a.m. with Frank Jude and a friend of his who was black. The group was there less than 10 minutes before detecting a "weird vibe" from the mostly white crowd and deciding to leave. "Kirsten leaned over to me and said 'Tina, are these people here prejudiced?'" the 24-year-old witness recalled. The group quickly "stormed" out of the house and piled into Antonissen's truck. Before they could leave, a group from the party surrounded the vehicle and accused them of stealing Spengler's police badge. As the situation escalated, with Spengler ordering the group out of the car and one of the men producing a knife, Schultz testified, she ran back into the house. "I kind of just wanted to leave the situation so I went into the house and curled up on the couch," Schultz testified as the defendants, dressed in crisp suits, sat listening emotionless. "A, I had to pee, and B, I was really scared."
• Milwaukee Police Officer Involved in Beating Case arrested for Failing to Testify. Also Thursday, Joseph Stromei - a former officer fired for his role in the Jude beating - was arrested in the courtroom for failing to honor a subpoena to testify. Stromei had ignored a subpoena and left town, prosecutors said. He came to court Thursday after a warrant was issued. [more] and [more] and [more]