Tanya Weyker, who suffered a broken neck in a crash caused by a deputy and was falsely accused of drunken driving, appears Tuesday with her attorney at a news conference about her federal civil rights lawsuit aginst Milwaukee County sheriff officials. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff

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Lawyers filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of a Franklin woman who was severely injured and falsely accused of drunken driving after an on-duty Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy crashed into her and lied about causing the accident.

The federal lawsuit contends that Deputy Joseph Quiles conspired with fellow deputies and supervisors to cover up his actions and shift the blame to the woman, Tanya Weyker.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office sharply rebutted the allegations of a conspiracy.

"The accusation with no proof that this office was then involved in some scheme over a traffic accident is not even an allegation, it is a lie that will never be proven because it did not happen," spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin said Tuesday in a statement on behalf of the agency.

The lawsuit contends that county officials knew of video footage within a week of the crash that showed Quiles was at fault, but continued to pursue criminal charges and citations against Weyker. It also contends that Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. either knew or should have known of the misconduct of his subordinates.

Also named in the lawsuit are deputies Byron Terry and Scott Griffin, who arrested Weyker; their supervisor, Sgt. Matthew Paradise, and Milwaukee County.

The county's corporation counsel, Paul Bargren, declined to comment Tuesday.

Weyker and her attorney, Jon F. Erickson of Erickson & Oppenheimer in Chicago, held a news conference Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee, where Erickson answered questions from reporters on Weyker's behalf. Erickson and Michael D. Oppenheimer recently represented one of the so-called Dixmoor Five, a group of five men who were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder of a teen girl in the 1990s and who last month received a $40 million settlement from Illinois State Police.

"We entrust police officers to protect us," Erickson said. "We put our lives in their hands. We trust our public officials — our elected public officials — to supervise those beneath them in the chain of command and this case represents a gross breach of that trust. This lawsuit is filed today to shine a light on what occurred to make sure it does not happen again."

According to law enforcement records:

In the February 2013 crash, Quiles ignored a stop sign and crashed into Weyker's 2004 Toyota Camry, causing her car to spin and hit a tree in the median. Weyker broke her neck in four places and needed surgery to fuse her vertebrae. Her passenger, Eloy Mena, was taken to a hospital for a lacerated spleen.

Milwaukee County sheriff's Deputy Scott Griffin arrested Weyker on allegations of first-offense drunken driving and four other traffic offenses, which later were dismissed. Griffin noted that her eyes appeared "glassy and red" and her speech slurred and that Weyker had said she had shared an alcoholic drink with a friend earlier in the night.

Weyker also told the deputy that she had a pain medication prescription when her wisdom teeth were removed, but that she had not taken it in a week or more.

"The driver told officers from both agencies that she had consumed alcohol before the crash. Officers had an obligation to determine if and what role alcohol may have played in the crash," McLaughlin said. "A blood test for alcohol is how that is determined conclusively, not an officer or driver's verbal statement. That is standard procedure in serious crashes like this one."

Weyker was unable to perform field sobriety tests or a breath test because of her injuries, and blood tests later showed that she was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

Video of the crash, which occurred on S. Howell Ave. and E. Hutsteiner Drive near Mitchell International Airport, also showed that Quiles lied when he said he stopped at a stop sign.

The squad car crash, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. Feb. 20, 2013, was investigated by the Milwaukee Police Department, which is standard procedure for the sheriff's office, Clarke has said.

Milwaukee police officer James Johnson wrote an accident report on Feb. 21, 2013, and did not issue any tickets in the crash because of the conflicting statements from those involved. At the time, the officer did not have access to the video evidence, and in his report, he noted that Griffin had arrested Weyker.

On March 5, 2013, blood results from the state lab showed Weyker had no alcohol or drugs in her system. The sheriff's office then initiated an internal affairs investigation on March 8, 2013.

On Dec. 5 — some nine months later — Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Ron Dague reviewed the case and closed it without charging Weyker. He noted that Quiles' "squad failed to stop/yield to an auto in the active traffic lane."

When Quiles was interviewed Dec. 17 by internal affairs at the sheriff's office, he admitted his failure to stop.

Quiles told investigators that when he wrote the original report, he believed he had come to a complete stop. Asked if he believed he was at fault for the accident, Quiles replied, "That's correct." Quiles is facing a nine-day suspension related to the incident, a punishment Erickson called "grotesque" in its insufficiency.

Before the 2013 crash, Quiles had been investigated for off-duty road rage and was suspended for watching a movie in his squad car instead of monitoring traffic at a fatal accident scene, records show.

Seven years ago, Clarke sought to fire Quiles for falsifying records — something Quiles had previously been ordered not to do.

As a result of injuries suffered in the 2013 crash, Quiles has filed for duty disability retirement, which would allow him to be paid a portion of his salary, tax-free, for life. His disability claim is still undergoing medical review, a spokesman for the county executive said Tuesday.

Separate from the federal civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday, lawyer Todd R. Korb of Hupy and Abraham had filed a notice of claim with the county last year for injuries Weyker suffered in the crash. The claim demands $250,000, the most available under state law.

In the federal lawsuit, Weyker is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

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