Police Chief Edward Flynn, speaking at a news conference Friday, says he believes officer Eric Ratzmann acted appropriately in the arrest of Jeffrey Strasser. Credit: Tom Lynn

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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.

Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.