MILWAUKEE (CN) – A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against Milwaukee police officers involved in the arrest of a man who died at the scene six years ago will go to trial later this month.
Derek Williams, a 22-year-old African-American man with three children, died of sickle cell crisis while being detained by Milwaukee Police Department officers in July 2011.
His minor children and his estate sued the city of Milwaukee and various police officers accused of violating his constitutional rights in the events leading up to his death.
On the evening of July 5, 2011, Williams visited his girlfriend, Sharday Rose, and three children, Tanijah, Derek III and Taliyah. Williams and Rose’s stepfather, Tyrone Mathis, left the home that night to go buy snacks, according to court records.
Shortly after midnight, Williams crossed the street and approached a couple, Samuel Tooke and Zhanna Godkin, who were returning from the Summerfest music festival. Williams allegedly told Mathis he knew the couple.
“Williams did have a mask over his mouth ‘with a sinister smile printed on it, which looked much like the smile of the ‘Joker’ character from the old Batman series.’ He also held a cell phone under his clothing which suggested that he was armed,” according to Friday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller. “Mathis, however, states that he and Williams never discussed a robbery and saw no indication that Williams intended to rob Tooke and Godkin as he approached them.”
MPD Officers Jeffrey Cline and Zachary Thoms stopped their squad car in the street and Williams ran. Cline ran after him and lost Williams in an alley and began to search nearby yards. Thoms moved the car and two other officers named in the suit, Jason Bleichwehl and Gregory Kuspa, joined the search.
The other officers named in the suit – Richard Ticcioni, Patrick Coe, Robert Thiel, Todd Kaul, Chad Boyack, Craig Thimm and David Letteer – allegedly responded to the scene to set up a containment perimeter.
“At 12:44 a.m., Ticcioni and Coe found Williams hiding under a table in a backyard, curled up in a ball. This was approximately eight minutes after Williams first ran away from Cline. To reach that position, Williams had run about 200 to 300 yards and jump[ed] over a fence,” the ruling states.
Williams reportedly complied with officers’ orders to show his hands. When Ticcioni tried to grab Williams’ arm, his hands slid off because Williams was soaked with sweat, court records show.
Officers Thoms, Kuspa, Cline and Thimm arrived as Ticcioni and Coe detained Williams. Ticcioni flipped Williams onto his backside and put his knee on his back as Coe handcuffed him. After handcuffing him, Ticcioni allegedly remained on top of Williams.