MILWAUKEE — It’s a question we’ve been trying to answer for months. Did a Milwaukee County sheriff’s lieutenant witness an attack on a corrections sergeant and just walk away?
The sheriff’s office wouldn’t tell us. It took several open records requests and months of waiting to confirm what happened.
Surveillance video that was leaked to TMJ4’s Lighthouse team by insiders at the sheriff’s office shows the scary attack in downtown Milwaukee.
“He pulled out his knife. He came at me. It went from there,” Sergeant Randall Wilborn told investigators.
Audio records of interviews conducted by the sheriff’s office and obtained by TMJ4 tell us what happened in the early morning of March 5.
We start with the victim of the attack, Corrections Sgt. Wilborn.
“I was focused on fighting for my life,” Sgt. Wilborn said.
The left side of the surveillance video shows Sgt. Wilborn trying to fend off a former inmate who ambushed him.
Watch: Investigation shows a sheriff's lieutenant didn't try to stop the stabbing of a corrections officer.
“There were a lot of people coming into work at that time. Did you see anybody else around?” an investigator asked.
“I did not. It seemed like at that moment in like the street, just me and him.”
But it wasn’t just the two of them.
“I saw it unfold,” said Lt. Jeremy Franke.
Investigators say one of Sgt. Wilborn’s colleagues witnessed the attack. He’s seen on the right side of the surveillance video walking toward the assault on the other side of the road.
Sheriff’s office documents identified him as Lt. Franke.
“I saw two people like shoving each other,” Franke told investigators. “They’re kind of just pushing each other and tussling around.”
Investigators say Franke admitted to them he witnessed what he thought was just a scuffle on the street and walked away.
“At the time, what duty equipment did you have on you?” an investigator asked.
“I didn’t have any duty equipment on me,” Franke replied.
“OK, firearm?” the investigator asked.
“No,” Franke replied.
Franke told investigators he decided not to intervene while off-duty in part because he forgot to bring his department-issued firearm to work that day.
Another supervisor told investigators Franke later confided in colleagues he chose not to get involved because he believed the two people to be homeless.
“He thought it was two bums fighting,” said Deputy Director Rugaber. “A human life is a human life and that really kind of wore upon the lieutenants a little bit.”
Franke said he didn’t realize Sgt. Wilborn was the victim until Wilborn approached the front door of the jail.
“I noticed that was Sgt. Randall Wilborn and he’s like, said something to the effect of ‘I need help. I’ve been stabbed’. And I was like, 'What??.'" Franke said.
Court records show Sgt. Wilborn was stabbed in the neck, shoulder, back and chest. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police arrested the suspect a short time later.
Sheriff’s office documents show he reassigned Franke from the jail to its patrol division.
“That brought a lot of scrutiny toward you and probably still does, right?” an investigator asked.
“It does,” Franke replied.
A few days later, sheriff’s office documents show Franke wound up at the center of another internal investigation.
“It’s still very much a blur to me what happened,” Franke said.
This time for discharging his department-issued gun inside a sheriff’s office patrol locker room.
“There was a loud ringing and there was a moment of like disbelief as to what happened because I didn’t pull the trigger with my finger,” Franke said.
Franke told investigators he had no clue how his gun fired a bullet through a locker while other deputies were inside the locker room.
A supervisor analyzed the gun and found it was functioning properly.
“What percentage of certainty do you have then that that trigger was pulled in this incident?” an investigator asked.
“100 percent,” the supervisor replied.
The internal investigation determined Franke negligently fired his service weapon.
Between the incident outside the jail and inside the locker room, Franke was demoted from lieutenant to deputy and given a 60-day unpaid suspension.
That’s the longest Milwaukee Co. Sheriff’s Office suspension TMJ4 could find going back at least a year. But before it went into effect, Franke quit.
His resignation email said, “This is your way for forcing me out.”
Three days later, the Bayside Police Department posted this picture on Facebook celebrating the hiring of Franke. Someone the sheriff’s office wanted off the streets for more than two months.
Ever since TMJ4 has been asking Bayside’s police chief if he knew what the internal investigations found.
After weeks of silence, TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan showed up at Bayside village hall.
Jordan: "Hi there. I’m Ben Jordan with TMJ4."
Chief Liebenthal: "Hi Ben, you must not have checked your email. I sent you a reply to your email a little bit ago."
Jordan: "Could we have a few minutes to talk about Officer Jeremy Franke?
Chief Liebenthal: “I have nothing else I’m going to comment at this point in time."
Jordan: "You know what we’d like to talk about. The fight outside the Milwaukee County Jail. He allegedly thought it was two bums on the street. It ended up being one of his brothers in blue. Is that acceptable behavior for a Bayside police officer?"
Chief Liebenthal: "I’ve already sent my response to you."
That email Chief Liebenthal mentioned didn’t come until minutes after Jordan arrived at the village hall.
It reads in part, “As he begins his one-year probationary period, Officer Franke already is developing strong relationships with our community.”
An investigation from The Badger Project shows Franke’s situation isn’t uncommon in Wisconsin. It found more than 300 officers are back on the force with different agencies after being fired or forced out.
Village trustees also didn’t want to answer on camera whether they approved of the chief hiring Franke, an officer who said himself that his former employer forced him out.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
