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Shortly after Frank Jude Jr. was beaten, a Milwaukee Police Department commander investigated a suspected rogue group of officers known as "the Punishers," who wore black gloves and caps embossed with skull emblems while on patrol, according to newly released documents.

Capt. James Galezewski examined what his report calls a "gang," first in 2005 and again in 2007. The police academy supervisor concluded both times the Punishers represented a danger that warranted further investigation and action by the department, according to documents newly unsealed in Jude's federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.

"This is a group of rogue officers within our agency who I would characterize as brutal and abusive," Galezewski wrote in a December 2007 report.

"At least some of the officers involved in the Jude case were associated with this group, although there is reason to believe the membership extended beyond those who were convicted in the case."

According to records and court depositions, the department would later open another investigation into the Punishers, but it appears little was done about the suspected group, named after a vigilante character from comic books and movies.

The department's Professional Performance Division investigated questions about the Punishers as part of the Jude case, said Deputy Inspector Mary Hoerig in her court deposition.

However, there was no mention of the Punishers in the department's 82-page internal investigation of the beating and the department has been unable to produce any reports showing the Punishers were investigated by Hoerig's division.

Former Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty testified she didn't know about the Punishers until after the Jude investigation. She also said she did not recall seeing either of Galezewski's reports on the group.

After a citizen filed a complaint in 2008, the Punishers were investigated again, this time by a different commander, who said he could not confirm the group existed, according to Galezewski's deposition. The 2008 report was not among the newly released documents.

Galezewski said that commander did not contact him about the earlier investigations.

Police Chief Edward Flynn declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement Wednesday, calling the Punishers a "rumor."

"Since 2005 there have been rumors of the existence of an organized group of officers engaged in vigilante-style activity calling themselves 'The Punishers.' There are indications that an investigation took place into these rumors prior to 2008," Flynn's statement said.

"I directed the Professional Performance Division in 2008 to conduct a thorough investigation. PPD interviewed a number of officers, they reviewed the complaint file and could find no evidence that such an organized group ever existed nor is there any record of citizen complaints to any local or federal authority regarding the activities alleged."

Flynn's statement did not address the reports by Galezewski, who has retired from the force and could not be reached for comment.

Warning report

The newly released documents and transcripts, unsealed by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman late last week, shed new light on one of the underground groups of officers long rumored to be operating within the Police Department.

The documents also reveal that at least one officer suspected of belonging to the group remains on the force.

In 2007, Galezewski learned a police recruit had a tattoo of the Punisher logo, a skull with long teeth. The recruit - whose name was blacked out in reports at the urging of the city attorney's office before the documents were unsealed - had been acting arrogantly in police academy classes, Galezewski wrote in his 2007 report.

Galezewski wrote the tattoo demonstrated the recruit posed a danger: "He is sending a clear message that he has every intention of exercising his authority as a police officer in an inappropriate and abusive way, and in my judgment, it would be irresponsible to allow him that opportunity."

Galezewski recommended the recruit be fired. He was not and remains on the force as an officer, according to court documents, in which his name was blacked out.

Police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz, who declined to identify the officer, said he has not been disciplined since joining the force.

Jude was accused of stealing a wallet with a badge in it at an off-duty police party in October 2004. Drunken off-duty officers beat Jude, repeatedly kicking him in the head and groin, cutting off his clothes, jamming pens in his ears and threatening him with a knife and a gun.

Jude, who is biracial, said the white officers used racial slurs during the beating. No badge was ever found.

Basic police procedures were not followed at the beating scene, and the case stalled for months as the suspected officers obstructed prosecutors and their own department, a Journal Sentinel investigation found.

Prosecutors also failed to interview key witnesses, but that changed after the newspaper's investigation was published in February 2005. Three officers were charged the next month in state court. They later were acquitted but then were charged in federal court with civil rights violations. Those three officers plus four others were convicted.

In May 2005, nine officers were fired - the largest purge in the department's 156-year history. Hegerty also suspended three officers and demoted a sergeant.

Tales of the Punishers

According to the newly unsealed police reports and court depositions:

In March 2005, Galezewski was told by a subordinate about the Punishers. The documents give no list of all officers suspected of being involved with the Punishers, but Galezewski wrote that several of the officers who beat Jude were associated with the group.

Galezewski, who spoke with six officers about the Punishers, wrote in his 2005 report that the group's members were white officers who worked primarily on the late shift in District 7. Some had Punisher skull stickers on their cars, lockers and memo books.

Andrew Spengler, who was convicted of beating Jude, had a Punisher skull with the number "7" on his truck. Jon Bartlett, who also was convicted, had a Punisher tattoo. Bartlett was also convicted of trying to buy an assault-style rifle similar to the one used by the comic book character while he was out on bail - a violation of federal law.

Emblems reported

Members of the group wore black gloves and black knit caps with the Punisher emblem on them, according to the report. One officer told Galezewski the officers in question are "cowboys" who get "carried away." Galezewski also learned that a member of a supervisor training class was linked to the Punishers.

The Punishers had been around for at least a year and appeared to be common knowledge in the department, Galezewski wrote in his 2005 report.

Galezewski's report quoted the lead character in the Punisher movie who says he is seeking justice outside the law because the law is inadequate. "No, not vengeance, punishment."

"I am frankly alarmed that a group of officers might think of themselves in this light," Galezewski wrote. "I think a group like that, anything they stand for is pretty much outrageous. It shouldn't have any place in the Milwaukee Police Department."

Galezewski said in his deposition he gave his report on the Punishers to the Professional Performance Division. However, Hoerig testified in a September deposition she did not recall seeing the report.

Hoerig said her investigators examined the Punishers but only as part of the Jude beating case.

"We were looking into any relevance to this notion that there was such a group," Hoerig said in her deposition.

Hegerty, the former chief, testified last July she did not recall seeing Galezewski's reports. She also said she didn't initially know the significance of a Punisher sticker during the Jude investigation.

Asked if she would consider a skull with a "7" on an officer's work locker inappropriate, Hegerty said in her deposition:

"Well, it depends on what it portrays, and if you're not familiar with what it portrays, then it may not be considered inappropriate."

Galezewski said in his deposition the Punishers came up at a command staff meeting.

"Captain Hoerig said in a meeting that some people thought nothing got done about 'the Punishers,' " he said, "but the district (seven) captain had them all in and talked to all of them about the membership in this group or something along those lines to try and dissuade this or break it up or something."

That captain, Anna Ruzinski, who is now chief in Menomonee Falls, did not return a call for comment.

Another look

Two and half years after his first report on the Punishers, Galezewski examined the group again after learning a recruit had a Punisher skull tattoo.

Galezewski wrote that because the recruit was a probationary employee, the department could fire him for any reason.

"From the information that I had from the previous report, this sounded like a group of individuals that we certainly didn't want in the Milwaukee Police Department and here we have somebody who is young and just starting out and apparently already has some connection to this group," Galezewski testified in November.

Galezewski addressed his reports to his boss, Deputy Inspector Ramon Galaviz. Galaviz did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.

Federal prosecutors learned there was some evidence of a group of officers known as the Punishers, but the decision was made early on not to bring it up at the Jude trial, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson.

Johnson said ultimately the federal case depended on evidence the officers beat Jude, not whether they belonged to any group, he said.

"We made a conscious decision not to use it," he said of using the Punishers evidence.

The Punishers was raised by a different federal prosecutor during the sentencing of Bartlett on federal gun charges in 2007.

2008 probe

In 2008, then-Lt. Kurt Leibold investigated the Punishers after the department received a complaint.

Leibold had been one of the PPD supervisors summoned to the scene after Jude was beaten in 2004. He worked for Hoerig and supervised the department's internal investigation into officers involved in the Jude beating.

Flynn said Leibold's 2008 report found the Punishers never existed. That report has not been released.

Galezewski, who said he was never contacted by Leibold about the Punishers, understands Leibold's report differently.

"I think he's saying that the existence of 'the Punishers' in 2008 is unfounded," Galezewski said in his deposition.

Jude filed his lawsuit against the city and former officers in late 2006, seeking $30 million. Other plaintiffs have settled with the city. Jude himself is in prison after his probation was revoked.

Jude's attorney, Jonathan Safran, declined to comment. The city attorney's office did not return a call for comment.