A determined citizen studied the law, and now 2 officer-involved deaths are being re-examined

Since 2004, some residents of Columbia County have wondered how a man handcuffed behind his back could shoot himself in the head in the presence of three Portage police officers, a circumstance officials determined was a suicide.

Residents also have suspicions about a 2010 officer-involved fatal shooting in Pardeeville that officials ruled justified.

Those deaths and a more recent complaint about excessive force by police against a man restrained in a hospital are now being reviewed by a special prosecutor appointed by a judge who took a rare step in response to a citizens' John Doe petition.

Last month, Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock — a recent appointee of Gov. Scott Walker who is now running for Wisconsin Supreme Court — found enough evidence to support "a reasonable belief a crime has been committed" during the three incidents.

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State law provides that when someone feels the district attorney for a jurisdiction has ignored a crime, or may be involved in a crime, they can directly petition a judge about their concerns, who can then appoint another prosecutor to review the complaint.

Mike O'Grady, who filed the John Doe petition last year on behalf of himself and 20 other residents, said he was a bit surprised by Screnock's decision but pleased.

"Judge Screnock is the first one, in my view, who actually read the statute and did the right thing. I’m still absorbing his decision," O'Grady said. "It gives me hope."

Doug Kammer, a veteran lawyer and former state bar president who ran as an independent against Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey last year, said he was surprised by Screnock's decision.

"It's wonderful, it's just terrific," he said, because many residents in the county told him during the campaign they're upset with perceived coverups of police misconduct.

He said he didn't know about the John Doe petition until after Screnock's order and gave O'Grady credit for teaching himself the law about John Does.

"The books are out there. O'Grady got it right."

Kohlwey has been in office since 1999. She said each death was investigated by the state Division of Criminal Investigation, and that because the suicide seemed so unusual, she took the extra step of holding an inquest.

She said Screnock is just following the law and doesn't think his decision to appoint a special prosecutor suggests she didn't handle the matters properly when they happened.

"Government is supposed to be open to challenges of officials' actions," she said.

Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell has 90 days to review the complaint and Screnock's order, though he said he expects to decide whether to file any charges much sooner.

3 incidents in question

Though O'Grady's petition raised several other claims that Screnock said were too speculative, he found the petition met the threshold for further review of three incidents.

Keith Galster was arrested outside his home in 2004 by Portage police. While his hands were cuffed behind his back, three officers led him back inside as Galster herded his dogs inside. An inquest jury later ruled his death a suicide, following the officers' testimony that Galster fell to the floor in front them, grabbed his gun from near a bed and shot himself in the head.

Kammer called that outcome appalling and a lie.

"It was so unbelievable the city's insurer didn't believe it either and paid $1 million," he said.

In 2006, the city settled a civil rights suit brought by Galster's estate for $950,000.

Robert Gingras, the Madison lawyer who represented the estate, said, "I believe this should have happened long ago," referring to Screnock's appointment of a special prosecutor.

"The experts we had concluded it was definitely not a suicide."

Another was the 2010 death of Kelly Bishell as he was being arrested by sheriff's deputies in Pardeeville. The complaints say he was wrongfully shot and that officials concealed and tampered with evidence and staged the scene to fit their story that Bishell fired at them, hitting two deputies, before he was killed.

While Screnock called much of that complaint speculative, he noted two points that he felt could support a reasonable belief that a crime occurred: The owner of the home where Bishell was staying says he never gave deputies permission to enter, and the trajectory of bullets fired from a .22 caliber gun, purportedly fired by Bishell from a stairway, conflict with a sheriff's lieutenant's version of events.

Kohlwey, the DA, earlier had found no basis for criminal charges against the officers and deputies involved in the two incidents.

Lastly, Screnock thought the March 22, 2013, injury to Keith Wall deserved an independent review. Wall was under arrest in a hospital examining room in Portage when he suffered a puncture wound to his skull, which a physician determined came from a pointed, metal object.

The petition accuses Portage Police Officer Robert Bagnall — who was also one of the three officers present when Galster died — of manipulating Wall's head as part of a "compliance hold" despite the fact Wall was already fully restrained for a forced blood draw after his arrest on suspicion of operating with a prohibited blood alcohol level.

The threshold that a citizen John Doe complaint must clear for a judge to appoint a special prosecutor is not particularly high, but it is still a rare event.

Sewell, the special prosecutor, said he has never handled one before, but said the statute requires him to make a decision based only on the complaint and Screnock's memorandum decision.

If Sewell declines to file charges, he said, Screnock could proceed to a full John Doe investigatory hearing — or just accept Sewell's determination.

Kohlwey has taken criticism before about how she handled crimes involving law enforcement officers.

In 2008, she admitted to “a serious judgment error” for how she resolved a 2005 case of a former Sauk County sheriff’s deputy charged with hit-and-run involving great bodily harm after backing over his girlfriend with a truck.

Kohlwey appointed a special prosecutor in that matter and let the defendant plead out in a nonpublic hearing, without informing the victim, earning Kohlwey a reprimand from the Crime Victims Rights Board.

Just days after Screnock's order, there was another officer-involved fatal shooting in the county. On Aug. 21, a sheriff's deputy shot and killed Thomas Selje, 64, at his home in Pardeeville. The State Division of Criminal Investigation said Selje had fired at the deputy, who was responding to a call about a domestic incident.

Department of Justice spokesman Johnny Koremenos said the DCI's report was delivered to Kohlwey Sept. 18.