“The strip search episode was not a ‘wimpification’ of the Milwaukee Police Department,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said. “It cannot be defended or described as anything but a violation of civil rights.” Credit: Calvin Mattheis

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The Milwaukee Common Council Tuesday approved a proposed $5 million settlement with 74 African-American residents who say they were subjected to illegal strip searches and body cavity searches by police officers looking for drugs.

The payment is part of a sweeping settlement of more than a dozen federal civil rights lawsuits pending against the city over the search practices. Four Milwaukee police officers were convicted of crimes in connection with the illegal searches and forced to resign.

In two separate actions, Aldermen Mark A. Borkowski and Russell Stamper II voted against settling and paying.

Borkowski said the settlement was evidence of the "wimpification of police" and railed against the plaintiffs and their attorneys, calling them "ambulance chasers."

His comments were quickly condemned by other council members and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who said Borkowski needs to "learn how to separate fact from fiction."

"The strip search episode was not a 'wimpification' of the Milwaukee Police Department," Barrett said. "It cannot be defended or described as anything but a violation of civil rights."

After the meeting, Borkowski added that there are "policies and procedures that need to be abided by" among officers but said that there were only a couple of "bad apples" involved.

He added that the settlement is part of "a disturbing trend," citing it and the city's pursuit policy as examples of the Milwaukee Police Department not being tough enough on crime. He traced such problems to the leadership of Chief Edward Flynn.

"The criminal has the upper hand," Borkowski said. "We know that many of the beneficiaries of the settlement are known drug dealers."

Some fellow aldermen promptly slammed his comments.

Ald. Terry Witkowski called Borkowski's statements "outrageous."

"We don't get to choose whose constitutional rights we decide to respect," Ald. Ashanti Hamilton said. "I also reject that all of the plaintiffs are drug dealers."

And Ald. Nik Kovac said that he agrees that officials need to be tough on crime but added that there are clear procedures that need to be followed when it comes to searching suspects.

"There's a way to do it without raping someone," Kovac said.

Union levels criticisms

Michael Crivello, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, called the strip search situation "unfortunate," but he also criticized the settlement.

"The Common Council decision, while fiscally prudent, was also unfortunate, ultimately doing little more than rewarding criminal behavior," Crivello said.

Like Borkowski, he blamed Flynn and his policies.

The Milwaukee Police Department declined to comment Tuesday.

But attorneys for the plaintiffs bristled at Borkowski's comments.

"To have an elected official make those kinds of comments embarrasses the City of Milwaukee," Chicago-based attorney Flint Taylor said.

He said that the attorneys' investigation showed that far more than 74 people were violated, but that many were too intimidated by the police to join the lawsuit.

"It's outrageous for an elected official to call reining in police for their unconstitutional, racist and criminal conduct a 'wimpification,'" Taylor said.

Attorney Jonathan Safran added that he was "certainly surprised" by Borkowski's comments.

"Despite what he may believe about some of our clients, this is clearly a case, again, where Milwaukee police officers violated constitutional rights that individuals have," Safran said.

Although one of the officers, Michael Vagnini, often did find drugs in suspects' scrotal areas or in their rectal cavity, some suspects claimed he planted the drugs, and other searches did not reveal any drugs.

Stamper and Ald. Milele Coggs raised concerns about the conditions placed on the settlement. Before any of the plaintiffs can collect, they must clear any warrants and pay off a collective $900,000 in government debts, including criminal restitution and back child support.

Such conditions have never been placed on any city settlement before, according to Stamper and Coggs.

"It almost seems punitive to me to include in restitution so many categories that we've never done before," Coggs said.

The city already has methods of recovering funds for tickets or other outside debt and for clearing warrants, she said.

Of the $5 million in the proposed settlement, $2.3 million would go to the plaintiffs' attorneys — the Chicago law firms Loevy & Loevy and The People's Law Office, and Milwaukee lawyers Safran, Alex Flynn and Robin Shellow.

The plaintiffs were grouped into three categories, based on which officers were involved, where the search occurred, the type of search and other factors. Fifteen people would get $60,000 each, 47 would receive $40,000 payments and 12 would receive $15,000.

Of the four officers, Vagnini was convicted of felony offenses and was sentenced to 26 months in prison. The others were convicted of misdemeanors.

Both sides arrived at the settlement after mediation before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who presided over some of the larger lawsuits. A few were settled previously, for about $90,000 each, and in one case that went to trial, a jury awarded $506,000, an amount later reduced to $60,000 by the judge.

Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.