A mysterious hit-and-run highlighted in TMJ4’s “Ghosted” investigation raises serious and widespread concerns about accountability and transparency inside the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office, according to a pair of experts.
The station interviewed a policing expert and legal expert about the case.
The concerns include a lack of oversight for investigations, lax discipline, and whether prosecutors are properly tracking law enforcement officers on the “Brady’ list.
“It’s what we call a cascade of failures,” said Chris Mercado, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired NYPD lieutenant.
ACLU Wisconsin President William Sultan said he’s troubled that the main deputy featured in TMJ4’s reports wasn’t on the “Brady” list and that the district attorney’s office refused to release a full list of officers who are.
“We are at a moment in history when the public is asking for more police transparency than ever,” he said. “We’re seeing this in other states, just not in Wisconsin.”
[Editor’s note: TMJ4 obtained a partial copy of Milwaukee County’s “Brady” list. A copy is embedded at the bottom of this report.]
As part of its “Ghosted” investigation, TMJ4 has been covering a woman’s four-year fight to figure out what happened to her on Interstate 94 at an exit near American Family Field.
In January 2020, Monica Nash’s vehicle was hit from behind and slammed into the guardrail.
She had just crawled out of the back window of her crumpled and totaled car, holding her 3-day-old daughter, when a man ran from the vehicle that hit her and demanded her baby.
“He’s like really hyper,” Nash told TMJ4 in an interview. “And he runs up to me and says, ‘Give me the baby. Give me the baby.’"
That man fled in a waiting vehicle after witnesses stopped and before Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputies arrived.
No one was ever arrested.
And that’s despite the suspect’s totaled vehicle being left at the scene, a stack of traffic cameras overlooking the area, and witnesses identifying the owner and seeing the man try to grab the baby.
“This guy is basically a ghost,” Monica told TMJ4. “He’s not charged. He’s not held accountable. He’s not held responsible at all.”
Policing concerns
Mercado said the way the criminal investigation was handled was “appalling” and couldn’t have been handled much worse.
The retired police lieutenant doesn’t understand why the sheriff’s office never criminally investigated what the man wanted with the baby.
“That should have [been] addressed that evening, if not a short period of time after that,” Mercado said.
He added, “That makes absolutely no sense. Why would you do that? And why would anyone want to take someone else’s child? As a law enforcement agency, I’d want to know why another individual was asking for someone else’s child. We can theorize what the other person might have been thinking. But until we have that person in the investigatory box, and after sitting down and asking, ‘What was going on? Why did you do that? What were you thinking?’ It’s all speculation. And that’s kind of scary.”
Deputy Shawn Bacich was on the scene that night and handled the crash investigation.
Dash camera video obtained by TMJ4 shows at least one witness told Bacich about the man “trying to walk away with the baby” and that he was “acting super weird.”
But Bacich did not put anything about the baby in his incident report.
The deputy also failed to document key witness information and falsely wrote that he impounded footage from nearby traffic cameras.
Officials are not able to determine exactly how the traffic camera footage was lost or deleted, internal records show.
Mercado said those issues raise questions about the way MCSO approves incident reports and how it handles and tracks evidence.
“There might be an issue with failure to supervise, failure to instruct, with this individual officer,” he said. “And if it’s one officer, how many other officers are operating under the umbrella that are not being checked by the agency?”
A “cascade of failures” like the ones in this case can damage a law enforcement agency’s legitimacy with the public, Mercado said.
It’s why he believes Sheriff Denita Ball or another top official should publicly address concerns.
“I would have,” Mercado said. “Only because the cover-up is worse than the crime. And if the public perceives a cover-up, it’s going to shake the legitimacy that the public has in the law enforcement community...We derive our power and legitimacy from the public. If we shake that through malfeasance and incompetence, that only goes to make our job that much more difficult going forward.”
Sheriff Ball has declined repeated interview requests for comment.
Legal concerns
The District Attorney’s Office also hasn’t responded to requests for comment and neither have most of Milwaukee County’s elected supervisors.
TMJ4 obtained the following internal email sent on March 29 by Milwaukee County’s legal team to elected officials, telling them not to talk about the station’s reports.
“It is my understanding that all of you received the below email requesting a comment on the recent reporting regarding Monica Nash. Ms. Nash has filed a Notice of Claim with the County which is a prerequisite to commencing a lawsuit. Given that it appears litigation is imminent, OCC respectfully request that you decline to comment on the story at this point. If you feel a need to respond at all, I recommend something like: ‘Thank you for your inquiry, however, I must respectfully decline to comment on that matter at this time. As it pertains to potential litigation, it's important for us to exercise caution and refrain from making any statements that could impact the legal proceedings.’ I have substantial background on this matter and would be happy to brief you individually upon request. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great weekend!”
The county declined to discuss the “substantial” background with TMJ4 when asked about the email.
Nash filed a notice of claim in June 2023.
On April 12, 2024, she filed a federal lawsuit against Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office.
Nash filed a case without an attorney.
Her lawsuit seeks a criminal investigation into the Sheriff’s Office, a new criminal investigation into her hit-and-run, and money for a violation of her rights and other damages.
ACLU Wisconsin President William Sultan called the county’s email “outrageous.”
He said elected leaders have a duty to the public that goes beyond protecting the county’s mistakes.
“I expect our elected leaders to do the right thing,” Sultan said. “First of all, it’s bad legal advice. Lawsuits normally happen because of a lack of transparency, not the other way around.”
Two county supervisors did agree to speak with TMJ4: Sheldon Wasserman and Ryan Clancy.
County Exective David Crowley also called the station’s investigation “concerning.”
'Brady' list concerns
Sultan said he was also troubled by the fact that Bacich is apparently not on the “Brady” list.
The district attorney’s office refused to confirm whether Bacich was on the list. But an MCSO official said he was not based on their records.
Sultan believes that signals much bigger issues with how Milwaukee County tracks officers with integrity issues.
“It means there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of officers in our state that have demonstrated similar bias, untrustworthiness, that the public doesn’t know about,” Sultan said.
The “Brady” list gets its name from a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.
In 1964, the court ruled in Brady v. Maryland that police and prosecutors can’t hide exculpatory information in criminal cases. Over time, the court has ruled that officials need to disclose information about officers with documented histories of dishonesty, criminal activity, and bias.
TMJ4 obtained Bacich’s misconduct file, which documented at least 10 disciplinary actions in his 24-year career.
The actions include five suspensions.
Bacich was suspended five days for how he handled Nash’s crash.
In 2016, he received another five-day suspension for going to a Walgreens drunk and making “racially inflammatory remarks” to Black people, records show.
Witnesses said he yelled “Why do Black lives matter?” and “You’re going to f***ing explain to me, just fess up for your people, what the f*** do I owe you people?”
Sultan said that’s “absolutely ‘Brady’ material.”
“It also demonstrates a failure on the law enforcement agency to effectively discipline its employee,” he said. “I think we can all agree that people exhibiting racist behavior should no longer be police officers.”
Bacich resigned on March 15, records show. He did not respond to several requests for comment for “Ghosted” ahead of his resignation.
TMJ4 filed an open records request with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office to obtain their full “Brady” list.
The office agreed to provide a partial list that only includes officers who have been “charged with a crime or forfeiture action.” An assistant district attorney said other names, including officers with documented histories of dishonesty, are exempt from disclosure.
“That’s clearly wrong,” Sultan said. “The public has an interest in knowing that the people who carry guns and have arrest powers, the ability to take away your freedom, are dangerous people, whether they're trustworthy people, whether they're honest.”
See the partial 'Brady' list obtained by TMJ4
Closing Letter 2024-106 With Documents. by TMJ4 News on Scribd
Full “Brady” lists are considered public records in other states.
In one example, TMJ4’s sister station in Phoenix (KNXV-TV) has done extensive reporting on issues with how Brady lists are tracked in Arizona. Through a series of public record requests, KNXV was able to compile and publish a comprehensive public database.
“The public deserves to know that somebody they’re coming into contact with, and has the ability to arrest them, whether that’s a dangerous person,” Sultan said.
[Editor’s note: Dave Biscobing is the Chief Investigative Reporter for KNXV-TV (TMJ4’s sister station) in Phoenix, AZ and serves as a corporate trainer for Scripps investigative news teams. For this story, he can be reached at David.Biscobing@TMJ4.com.]
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