The Milwaukee police
officer shown punching a drunken driving suspect on Water St. in a widely
circulated video had his police powers temporarily suspended two years ago due
to mental health issues, and his ex-wife has twice sought domestic violence
restraining orders against him, according to court records.
"He abuses legal
and illegal drugs, resulting in unstable, highly explosive episodes of rage
over minute issues," his ex-wife wrote in 2010. "In the past, he has
grabbed me, held me down, shook me and slapped me, resulting in bruises, pain
and neck pain."
The officer, Eric
Ratzmann, 42, was not disciplined in connection with either incident, according
to his personnel record.
Police also quickly
cleared Ratzmann of wrongdoing in the April 12 incident on Water St. But
internal affairs is reinvestigating because officials recently realized the
suspect in the case, Jeffrey R. Strasser, complained of excessive force when he
was booked that night, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Friday.
The complaint was not
documented at the time, Flynn said.
Ratzmann, who has been a
police officer since 2004, is again on desk duty while the review is pending.
He did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Strasser was arrested on
preliminary charges of driving drunk in a friend's Lamborghini. A smartphone
video of the incident shows Strasser lying facedown as Ratzmann strikes him
twice in the face and head with a closed fist - a use of force that violates
police training, according to one of the department's own experts.
Strasser does not appear
to be resisting in the video. Flynn said he was on his hands and refused to put
them behind his back and be handcuffed. Strasser's only injuries were scrapes
on the knuckles and the tops of his hands, Flynn said.
Officers are allowed to
use force in order to get suspects to comply with their demands. However,
striking someone in the head or face is only permissible if he is "coming
at you," Milwaukee Police Capt. Stephen Basting testified in the federal
criminal case against officers in the 2004 beating of Frank Jude Jr.
Officers are trained
that it is not permissible to punch someone in the face if they are prone, or
facedown, said Basting, who conducts that training.
" . . . (T)he
chances are you're going to cause significant injury," he testified.
"It gets to that great bodily harm type situation."
Nonetheless, Flynn said
he believes Ratzmann acted appropriately.
"We do not have any
information now that indicates that the 1.5 seconds of force employed to get
this individual's hands behind him for handcuffing were on their face clearly
beyond the policy and training that our officers were subjected to," Flynn
said. "We don't have anybody going against what they were trained to
do."
Case sent to DA
Strasser faces only a
ticket for first-offense drunken driving, since a previous violation on his
record is more than 10 years old, according to Flynn. The case against him was
sent to prosecutors on Friday, Flynn said, but it's likely no charging decision
will be made until next month.
Flynn declined to
discuss Ratzmann's previous issues at Friday's news conference.
"Now I'm sure if
you dig enough into anybody else's life, you're going to find something bad
about them," he said. "That doesn't necessarily address the facts
before us."
Ratzmann's ex-wife's
affidavit says he was placed on desk duty in 2010 due to depression.
"He cannot be
reinstated to full duty until he has medical clearance," she wrote on Feb.
8, 2010. "He goes every five weeks to a psychiatrist, and they have not
cleared him yet."
She filed a second
affidavit two months later, on April 15.
"He is physically
and verbally intimidating," she wrote. "He threatens to 'make me pay'
and 'ruin me.' "
The couple were in the
midst of a divorce at the time. Although police were called to the home, there
is no indication Ratzmann was arrested. His ex-wife was twice granted temporary
restraining orders but did not follow through with making them permanent,
according to court records. Ratzmann later agreed to pay her alimony, according
to records in their divorce case.
Ratzmann is among 18
officers whose spouses or romantic partners have filed for restraining orders,
also known as domestic violence injunctions, according to a Journal
Sentinel investigation published in October.
Seven have had
restraining orders imposed against them by a commissioner. Of those, three
orders were later dismissed - two by the women and one by a judge when the
woman didn't show up at an appeal hearing.
In another 11 cases,
including Ratzmann's, officers' spouses or romantic partners filed for
restraining orders that were not granted by a commissioner in the first place,
either because there was not enough evidence or because those who filed for
them did not follow through with the cases. One was later granted by a judge
after the victim appealed.
Ratzmann is the second
Milwaukee officer in recent weeks with a history of domestic violence
complaints to make the news. Last week, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent
Lovern confirmed that prosecutors are considering a request by the department
to file theft charges against Sgt. Charles Cross for claiming overtime he did
not earn.
Cross, who is assigned
to the city jail's property division, was convicted of criminal damage to
property in August 2007 for kicking in the door of the apartment he shared with
his girlfriend, according to court records. According to the criminal
complaint, he kicked in the door of the west side apartment, pulled out his service
revolver and threatened to kill himself.
He was fined $500 then.
Prosecutors offered him a deferred prosecution agreement on the charge of
domestic violence related disorderly conduct. He got treatment for depression
and alcohol abuse, and the charge was dismissed.
Cross was fired by
then-chief Nannette Hegerty, but was reinstated by the civilian Fire and Police
Commission.