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Seven Milwaukee police officers and a supervisor with a long history of misconduct complaints have been stripped of their police powers after several people complained about invasive body searches on the streets of District 5, according to sources familiar with the internal investigation.

The searches are being investigated as potential sexual assaults and civil rights violations, the sources said.

The supervisor at the center of the investigation is Sgt. Jason Mucha, who has been investigated in the past after suspects accused him of beating them and planting drugs on them, according to police and court records.

Mucha has not been disciplined or criminally charged in connection with any of the past complaints. Despite being the focus of a 2006 court case that opened the door for juries to hear about officers' past wrongdoing and giving inconsistent testimony that caused a 2010 federal gun case to fall apart, Mucha has continued to supervise a District 5 anti-gang unit.

Mucha could not be reached Wednesday.

Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz confirmed in an email that seven officers and a supervisor had been reassigned temporarily. She said the investigation was "related to possible policy violations" and that the department initiated the probe, but refused to elaborate.

"As is our standard practice, we will have no further comment while the matter is pending," she said in an email.

Schwartz would not name Mucha or any of the officers. The Journal Sentinel confirmed that Mucha is a target of the police investigation through numerous police sources who did not want their names used because they are not authorized to talk with the media. The names of the seven officers could not be confirmed Wednesday. Although only seven officers had been placed on administrative duty and transferred to separate districts as of Wednesday, more officers could become targets before the investigation is complete.

Sources noted it is unusual for the department to suspend police powers and transfer so many people before the internal investigation is complete.

The case is being investigated by the department's Professional Performance Division and is expected to be referred to the district attorney's office for possible charges, the sources said.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm confirmed police had contacted him about the matter.

"I am in communication with the Milwaukee Police Department while they conduct their investigation," he said.

He would not comment further.

Civil rights cases are often investigated by federal authorities. However, that has not happened in this case, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson, who specializes in civil rights prosecutions in Milwaukee.

"This doesn't have anything to do with us, at least not so far," Johnson said.

But Johnson said he was interested to see how this investigation unfolds. He said there have been several instances in the past where the U.S. Attorney's Office has had questions about searches performed by Milwaukee police officers. None of those cases, however, rose to the level of being actionable, he said. He did not provide details.

Johnson prosecuted former Milwaukee police officer Ladmarald Cates, convicted by a federal jury in January of violating a woman's civil rights by raping her after he responded to her 911 call in July 2010.

Johnson also prosecuted seven Milwaukee police officers convicted in federal court for beating Frank Jude Jr. Jude recently settled his civil rights case for $2 million. However, the tab is likely to top $2.5 million when legal fees and other expenses are included.

Johnson and the FBI also reviewed some of the previous allegations against Mucha in 2007 - after the Journal Sentinel reported that at least 10 defendants in unrelated cases had accused Mucha of beating them, planting drugs or both, and that the police failed to investigate the pattern of incidents.

One of those complaints led to a state Court of Appeals ruling that questioned Mucha's credibility. The ruling also changed the way Wisconsin courts consider cases of alleged police misconduct.

Despite that ruling, Mucha was not placed on a district attorney's list of officers not fit to testify in court, and he continued to take the stand against defendants, the newspaper reported in 2010. That year, a federal gun case fell apart amid inconsistencies in Mucha's testimony.

Although he was not disciplined in connection with any of the earlier complaints, Mucha was among 93 officers disciplined for breaking the department rule against violating laws or ordinances, as reported in the Journal Sentinel's "Both Sides of the Law" series last fall.

Mucha violated that rule twice shortly after he was hired as a police aide in 1996. He was suspended for one day for underage drinking in 1999 and for three days for having an open container of vodka in a car as a passenger in 2000, according to internal affairs records. He was promoted to sergeant in 2005.

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Contact reporter Gitte Laasby at (414) 223-5385 or by email.