A federal magistrate judge has ruled in favor of Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs client Isaiah Taylor, who was detained and questioned as a minor while he was attempting to drop off a frozen turkey for one of his neighbors for Christmas.

At about 7 p.m. on the night of December 21, 2015, police officers Justin Schwarzhuber and Jasen Rydzewski observed a young African American boy — later identified as Taylor, the son of State Sen. Lena Taylor — run across the street holding what appeared to be a bag.

As Taylor passed the squad car, the officers turned on the squad’s lights and ordered him to stop. Taylor immediately complied and was given a pat-down search. The search did not uncover a weapon. Instead, it revealed that the brown paper bag Taylor carried contained a frozen turkey.

At this point, the officers did not let Taylor go and placed Taylor in the back of the squad car where he was questioned further and held while they ran his name through the database, hoping to find an outstanding warrant. The officers only released Taylor after the records check came back negative for an outstanding warrant.

Because the officers released Taylor without an arrest or a ticket, they did not write any reports about the incident. The computer-aided dispatch report indicated that the officers stopped a black male for suspicious activity and the whole stop lasted about 20 minutes.

After the family’s concerns about the incident went ignored by the City of Milwaukee, Sen. Taylor urged her son to file a civil rights lawsuit against the two involved police officers and the City of Milwaukee in April of 2021. The family’s attorney is GTW partner Mark Thomsen.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers violated Isaiah’s constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by keeping him in their squad car and continuing to question him, even after it was discovered he was carrying a frozen turkey in the bag.

“I have been pushing my city to get it right for a long time,” said Mark Thomsen. “The judge was very, very clear that once they knew it was a turkey, they had no right to detain him, arrest him, put him in the car and question him, even though they didn’t handcuff him, even though they were allegedly nice.”

The judge’s ruling that there is sufficient evidence to establish that Taylor’s constitutional rights had been violated is now in the hands of the Milwaukee City Attorney, City Council and Mayor to decide whether the City will continue to use taxpayer dollars to defend the officers or reach a settlement.

“Until my department, my city, insists on training its officers to do the right thing and act in a constitutional manner, we’re going to continue to have unlawful stops,” said Mark Thomsen.

Read the decision here.

Additional News Coverage:

https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/1-on-1-with-isaiah-taylor-detained-by-mpd-while-delivering-frozen-turkey-in-2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1loJk20xhU

Partner Paul Kinne of Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs has filed a lawsuit against four Dane County Sheriff’s Deputies, Wellpath Mental, Medical Healthcare and one of its nurses on behalf of client Jimmie Joshua. The lawsuit states that Joshua’s constitutional rights were violated when the deputies used excessive force, resulting in a dislocated hip, fractured hip socket and nerve damage that required reconstructive surgery.

The lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred on December 23, 2020. At the time, Joshua was positive for COVID-19, so he was only allowed one hour outside of his cell each day. When he was ordered back into his cell before the allotted hour was up, Joshua started arguing with Deputy Isaac Wachholz.

Despite disagreeing with the early lockdown, Joshua did back toward his cell as ordered. Before he was able to enter his cell, Joshua was thrown to the floor by Wachholz.

Wachholz then called for other deputies, and two more entered Joshua’s cell. One of the deputies grabbed and lifted Joshua’s leg. The three of them then threw him to the floor and two of them climbed top of him.

Joshua was in extreme pain and requested that the deputies get off of him, but instead he was told to “stop resisting.” A nurse then checked Joshua’s vital signs, but did not check his hip and concluded that he wasn’t seriously hurt.

The lawsuit states, “Mr. Joshua knew as soon as he was thrown onto the ground by the deputies that he was seriously injured. When he was slammed into the ground on his right side, he felt his hip was broken because he could feel it popping out of his skin.”

Joshua was eventually placed in a restraint chair and moved to a cell on another floor. Once in the cell he was in so much pain he couldn’t move.

When Joshua’s fiancee, Allison Davidson, called the next day, Joshua told deputies he couldn’t get up to get to the door. Davidson was told by jail personnel that he was “probably lying.”

Another deputy and a nurse went to Joshua’s cell and determined he needed medical help. He was finally taken to UW Hospital, more than 16 hours after the incident occurred.

“He was very upset with the events surrounding his injury,” Joshua’s orthopedic surgeon wrote in his chart. “I can understand why.”

Joshua’s hip was repaired on December 24, 2020, with a metal plate and eight screws. He will eventually need a full hip and knee replacement.

Additional News Coverage:

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-dane-county-jail-inmate-sues-deputies-over-treatment-hip-injury-sustained-in-jail/article_e34b983c-2e10-5136-bfd8-cc6bf2e8aeb4.html

https://madison365.com/former-dane-county-jail-resident-sues-county-over-broken-hip-neglect/