MILWAUKEE — In our special Lighthouse series "Duty to Disclose," we’re revisiting the tasing and arrest of former Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown.
Just one Milwaukee police officer, Erik Andrade, was placed on the Brady list following the arrest that made national headlines.
The Brady list tracks officers with alleged credibility concerns due to past accusations of crimes, untruthfulness, bias, and other integrity issues.
Brown’s attorney questions why a sergeant didn’t make the list.
"He helped orchestrate the takedown of Sterling Brown, and he was the sergeant,” Mark Thomsen said. “He’s absolutely more culpable and guilty than Andrade. Every second of the day. No one will ever convince me otherwise."
Body camera footage takes us back to 2018, when a Milwaukee police officer found a car parked across handicapped spots at a south-side Walgreens.
The officer approached Brown to ask why he parked there.
“I own this right here,” the officer said.
“You don’t own me, though,” Brown replied.
Within minutes, several officers responded to the scene. One of them was Sgt. Jeffrey Krueger. He’s seen on body camera video shining a flashlight in Brown’s car. A short time later, he grabbed Brown’s arm, leading to the takedown, tasing, and arrest.
During an internal affairs interview, Sgt. Krueger was asked to explain why this escalated so quickly.
“He got really agitated with me looking into his vehicle, and now I see this gun,” Sgt. Krueger said during the internal interview.
Watch: Lawyer questions why Sgt. isn’t on Brady list after wrongly claiming he saw gun
During a deposition in court, Thomsen questioned Sgt. Krueger about what he claimed to have seen by investigators.
"You tell Sgt. Astacio in quotes, ‘He got really agitated with me looking into his vehicle and now I see this gun,’” Thomsen said to Sgt. Krueger. “It wasn’t true."
“Yeah, I did not see a gun,” Sgt. Krueger replied. "It was my belief that he was armed or possibly armed after seeing targets in his car.”
“So if you never saw a gun, why are you telling internal affairs you saw a gun, sir?” Thomsen asked.
“I must have misspoke and nobody caught it, sir,” Sgt. Krueger replied.
For his role in the arrest, M.P.D. records show Sgt. Krueger was suspended for 10 days after the department determined he "failed to be a role model."
"Nobody makes that kind of mistake,” Thomsen said. “Not a sergeant with all the experience in the world. What he knew is he had to have sufficient threat to justify what he did to Mr. Brown."
The arrest never resulted in charges for Brown. The city paid him $750,000 to settle a civil lawsuit.
TMJ4 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are revisiting this story because we’re investigating Milwaukee County’s Brady list. Brady material has to be turned over to defense attorneys if a Brady list officer is called to testify. It’s required due to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case dating back to the 1960s.
"The reason I’m concerned about Krueger is because when the sergeant who’s supervising is able to say to internal affairs a lie and everyone knows it’s a lie and keeps their job, what message does that send institutionally?" Thomsen said.
During a joint interview in January with Milwaukee County’s top criminal justice leaders, District Attorney Kent Lovern said Sgt. Krueger doesn’t belong on the Brady list.
"People make misstatements, people have misperceptions, people have a perception about one thing and then when they think about it later, realize they were incorrect about,” D.A. Lovern said. “That doesn’t mean those were dishonest statements."
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman declined to comment on the issue.
“I don’t talk about specific cases with bits and pieces, especially not being a part of that particular investigation, not having notification,” he said.
Sgt. Krueger never responded to TMJ4’s interview request. In an email, M.P.D. said it wouldn’t authorize him to talk about the case.
Ultimately, eleven officers were disciplined or retrained after the tasing and arrest of Brown. Erik Andrade was fired and put on the Brady list after he made racially insensitive posts about the incident on social media.
"They pulled a bunch of stuff from Facebook, made me out to be a racist,” Andrade told TMJ4 last fall.
"I would disagree with the DA on this question of Krueger,” Thomsen said. “When you say that to the internal affairs, you’re saying here is my factual ascertain on why I had reasonable suspicion to take down and attack Sterling Brown. To me, that is much, much more egregious than Andrade’s after-the-fact post and his violations of social media. I would believe Andrade before I would Krueger.”
If you want to see all of the current and former officers on Milwaukee County’s Brady list, our database in partnership with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Watch can be found below.
See all Duty to Disclose stories as they are posted here.
The Brady list is a compilation of current or former law enforcement officers deemed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office to have credibility issues. The underlying allegation can range from lying on exams to violent crimes. Just because an officer is on the list does not mean he or she was necessarily convicted or charged with a crime, or found guilty of internal misconduct. According to the office of District Attorney Kent Lovern, some cases may have resulted in an acquittal, been dismissed, or were amended to non-criminal offenses. The office says, "the database is accurate to the best of our knowledge as of February 27, 2025."
About this project
“Duty to Disclose” is a joint investigation by TMJ4, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Watch. The collaboration was prompted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s decision in 2024 to release its “Brady List,” a closely-guarded list of law enforcement officers with alleged credibility issues, after pressure from the news organizations.
TMJ4 Lighthouse reporter Ben Jordan, Journal Sentinel investigative reporter Ashley Luthern and Wisconsin Watch investigative reporter Mario Koran spent four months verifying the hundreds of officers on the list, discovering that it is frequently incomplete and inconsistent.
Readers with tips about the Brady List are encouraged to contact reporter Ben Jordan at ben.jordan@tmj4.com.
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