In November 2010, then Milwaukee Police Officer Santiago, today a detective illegally stopped Harrison and used excessive force after the victim claimed he had recently went through a shoulder surgery.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
March 5, 2020
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Wednesday, a federal jury in the Jimmy Harris, Plaintiff v. City of Milwaukee et al., Defendants Case No. 14-CV-1002 (presiding U.S. District Court Judge Lynn S. Adelman, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin) found that on November 19, 2010, then Milwaukee Police Officer Forilan Santiago today a detective, made an unlawful stop without reasonable suspicion and proceeded to engage in excessive use of force with assault including battery against Harris and awarded him more than $1.6M for his injuries resulting from excessive use of force, assault and battery, according to federal court records made public by Paul Mozina, a Community Advocate who covered and reported on the three day trial on his Facebook account. Also the federal jury found that Police Officer Santiago arrested Harris without probable cause and Officer Walter McCullough (Sergeant Supervisor) failed to intervene and prevent the illegal arrest of Harris. Two other Milwaukee Police Officers Steven Stelter and Mark Kapusta (Sergeants today) involved in the 2010 incident were found that they did not engage in excessive force along with Santiago.
According to Mozina's reporting, on the second day of trial, the Blue Wall/Code of silence ruled in Room 390 of the Federal Courthouse today as Sergeants Kapusta and Stelter and Detective Santiago took turns testilying (all three were officers at the time of the incident back on 11/19/2010).
All three said they had not received any training at the Academy regarding whether or not you could base a traffic stop solely on the color (or perceived color as the case here) of the car not matching that on the report from the License Plate check.
All three agreed that if officer Santiago had noted Jimmy's name listed as the owner of the vehicle when he looked up the license plate and then compared it to the name on Jimmy's driver's license, that it would have been obvious that the vehicle was not stolen. Detective Santiago had extremely lame excuses for not doing this basic police work, which is SOP (Standard Operating Peocedure) for traffic stops. Santiago never confirmed who Jimmy was. Never told him why he was being arrested or cuffed.
All three agreed that if suspect asks for a supervisor that they should immediately call for one but all three claimed neither Jimmy nor Charita Sims (passenger in Harris vehicle) had made any such request.
All three said that they did not see anyone kick, punch or knee Jimmy, although officer Kapusta did confess that he "tripped" over Jimmy.
Sergeants Kapusta and Stelter said they perceived no evidence that Detective Santiago was intoxicated and that they had not smelled alcohol on his breath (Jimmy would testify to the contrary later).
All three had no explanation for why Jimmy's partner, Charita Sims was not interviewed at the scene or later. Nobody told them too was the best they could come up with.
None of the LEOs could remember what the others were doing during the time the three of them were trying to roll Jimmy onto his stomach so they could cuff his arms behind him.
None of the three LEOs could remember finally putting the cuffs on Jimmy — perhaps Jimmy put the cuffs on himself.
Jimmy's attorney Nate Cade exposed numerous examples of Detective Froilan Santiago, the one who made the stop, contradicting himself. If the jury was paying attention, they would know he is not a credible witness. Santiago denied dashing Jimmy's phone on the pavement or threatening the bystander who was starting to record the incident with arrest if they didn't stop (both statements contradicted by Charita Sims testimony). Santiago claimed he smelled marijuana, that Jimmy told him he smoked marijuana and that there were roaches and roach clips in the vehicle (but none were taken into evidence? Jimmy and Charita contradict this).
Mr. Brian Landers expert witness for the plaintiffs gave devastating testimony regarding many examples of police actions that day that were totally against best practices, incompetent and dangerous. He said there was no legal justification for the stop nor for getting Jimmy out of the vehicle — the whole thing should have never happened and was easily avoidable, many opportunities for de-escalation missed.
Jimmy Harris finally took the stand around 4:00pm.
Had his drivers license and registration ready when Santiago arrived at driver's side door. He asked Santiago why he was being stopped. Santiago asked for D.L. and registration and after barely looking at them said "This is a fucking stolen car — the plates don't list." (because he thought car was black and license plate check said vehicle was gray)
Jimmy told Santiago that he just had rotator cuff surgery, that he had already been through this with the police regarding the color of the car and he asked for a supervisor.
To which Santiago respond 'If you don't fucking believe me you can come back to the fucking squad and see for yourself.' (don't have the exact quote but that was the gist of it)
Jimmy took pride in his 1999 Chrysler Sebring. It was a special convertible model and he kept the car spotless clean, did NOT allow anyone to smoke anything in it and that there were no marijuana roaches or roach clips in the vehicle.
He agreed to get out the car in the hope that he could straighten it out and he was surprised when Santiago turned him around behind his car and started to pat him down. He did not consent to be searched.
He reminded Santiago that he had recent shoulder surgery and at that time noticed a strong smell of liquor on Santiago's breath. Again he asked for a supervisor and said "You out here drinking, you got liquor on your breath." At which point Santiago became belligerent and made an awkward and unprofessional attempt (per testimony of Mr. Landers) to put handcuffs on Jimmy.
Santiago never did tell Jimmy that he was under arrest or why he was being handcuffed.
Jimmy said that both he and Charita Sims asked for a supervisor at least three times and Santiago became enraged and threw Jimmy's phone to the pavement breaking it.
Detective Santiago finally got Jimmy to the ground and straddled him with one knee on his neck and the other digging into his left shoulder where he just had surgery. He said "Fucking N—— Die, Just Die!"
Then Santiago told Charita Sims to get back in the car and Sergeants Kapusta and Stelter arrived.
Kapusta kicked Jimmy very hard in the rib cage to get him to roll over.
At this point Jimmy was deeply fearful for his life.
They forced him to sit up on the curb and he expressed that he was in tremendous pain. Sergeant Kapusta did call for medical attention but also told Jimmy “If you don’t quit fucking complaining about your injuries, you're not going to like what happens to you in the wagon.”
A supervisor finally did show up, a Black Sergeant named Walter McCullough, and Jimmy thought that he would finally get someone to listen to him but McCullough simply told him to "Shut Up!"
They jerked him up and threw him into the back of the paddy wagon and that is when the ambulance arrived.
The paramedics recognized that Jimmy was in shock. They gave him pain medication (which soon put Jimmy to sleep) and insisted that he be taken to the hospital against the protests of the officers who had assaulted him.
Officer Ratzmann accompanied Jimmy to the hospital and there they handcuffed Jimmy's arms to the hospital bed spread eagle style.
When the pain medication wore off, Jimmy was awakened to the sound of Detective Santiago pacing around in his room talking to himself saying "You should have just taken the fucking ticket." Jimmy asked him "What ticket?" Then Santiago threatened Jimmy telling him that "if he insisted on complaining, well then we're going to find drugs in your car — you know where this is going."
None of the other police wanted to be involved anymore and left Santiago to deal with it. He checked Jimmy out of the hospital before he was even seen by a doctor.
Santiago handcuffed Jimmy again and commenced to driving around looking for jail into which he could check him in. He even called down to the House of Corrections in Franklin presumably but they refused to admit him because he did not have any of the proper paper work.
Finally, Santiago took Jimmy to the District 1 station to upload the Dashcam video and he waved the disks at Jimmy and said "Now it's my word against yours". Jimmy later got the a copy of the disks via Open Records Request and, after finding that there was no audio, he figured out how to re-enable the audio portion of the dash cam video.
At the jail when Jimmy was finally admitted, Santiago was trying to joke around with him like they were buddies or something. Jimmy was appalled.
The following Monday, after 2 days in jail, Charita Sims bailed Jimmy out. The next day he went to District 1 to file a complaint and found out that the Assistant District Attorney wanted to see him. Detective Santiago was also there and the A.D.A. said "I'm sorry Mr. Harris, this should never have happened to you, and you are free to go."
In the hall outside the A.D.A. office, Santiago had this to say to Jimmy: "Next time you see me on the fucking street you better fucking respect me!"
Milwaukee police dash-cam video of Harris being stopped by Officer Santiago on November 19, 2010 at: https://youtu.be/jlugUWBghqQ
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