MILWAUKEE — Montel Brown has racked up so many tickets, his driving record is a surprise even to seasoned police officers.
"Oh, my goodness, what is this?" mumbled the officer checking Brown’s driver’s history during a July 2019 traffic stop.
In August 2020, an officer handed Brown a ticket and a scolding.
"So, you are revoked because of your driving record. It's pretty awful, to be honest with you," said the officer.
Over the last decade, Brown has likely heard an earful from Milwaukee Police.
They have written him traffic tickets 115 times, making Brown the number one repeat offender in the city.
All those tickets helped earn Montel Brown an elite status among the worst of the worst drivers in Wisconsin.
Brown is what the state calls a "habitual traffic offender."
HTO status is earned after a dozen moving violations, like speeding or running a red light; or four major violations like OWI, reckless driving, or vehicular homicide.
Once a person is notified they are a habitual traffic offender by the Department of Transportation, their license is revoked for five years.
The penalty for driving while revoked as an HTO is up to six months in jail, on top of any other sentence for the underlying offense.
Court records show Montel Brown got his 12th moving violation on June 20, 2018.
According to WISDOT, that is the day he became a habitual traffic offender.
But Montel Brown kept on driving.
Since then, he's been cited for operating while revoked ten more times.
Not once was he ticketed or prosecuted as a habitual traffic offender.
TMJ4 News discovered two reasons why the HTO law was never used:
First, and primarily, the way the law is written gives police little way to use it.
Under state law, operating while revoked is nothing more than a traffic ticket and a fine.
That ticket lands the offender in municipal court.
The habitual traffic offender penalties defined by state statute only apply in a criminal court.
A Catch-22 which renders the HTO law largely toothless.
Milwaukee Police Captain Jeffrey Sunn explained his officers have little recourse, even for the most egregious repeat offenders.
"It would be nice to have that, but as of right now, we're not able to use that," said Sunn.
State Senator Van Wanggaard has seen all our reports on Milwaukee's worst repeat offender.
Wanggaard said he feels compelled to do something about drivers like Brown, because the idea you can break the law this many times shows other people there is no consequence for their actions.
"The word gets around. When you have people repeatedly violating the law, and it's the same law, and they violate it again and again and again and again, something has to happen to get it to another level," said Wanggaard.
To Sen. Wanggaard, the next level is fixing the flaw that keeps police from using the HTO law.
Wanggaard’s office has drafted a bill that would make driving while revoked as a habitual traffic offender a felony with up to six years in prison.
"That's a whole different ballgame because now you're looking at jail time," he said.
There is a second reason why the HTO law was never used against Montel Brown: the discretion of Milwaukee County prosecutors.
TMJ4 News found in rare cases where a habitual traffic offender has landed in criminal court, prosecutors in Milwaukee County have ignored the law.
An example of that, once again, Montel Brown:
In February 2021, Brown was picked up for driving while revoked because of an OWI conviction.
Driving while revoked for OWI-related reasons is a criminal charge.
A check of court records shows the D.A.'s office never applied the habitual traffic offender law to Brown’s case.
In May, TMJ4 News asked for an explanation.
A spokesperson for the Milwaukee County D.A. emailed us this:
"I would agree the enhancer could have been used in that case. And based on what we're seeing here, there are other similar cases without that HTO enhancer being added,” a spokesperson responded.
When TMJ4 News last month asked John Chisholm's office to sit down and explain why that happened, he refused.
Their explanation came in another email.
"The [revoked driving] cases that are charged criminally carry a 12-month potential jail sentence, which is generally sufficient exposure."
Montel Brown didn't get the message about "sufficient exposure."
There he was again, in November 2022, driving while revoked after an OWI.
Again, Brown was put in handcuffs and taken to be booked for yet another charge where he would not feel the full effect of the law.
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.
