Franklin City Neighbors

Franklin Arrested Milwaukee Officer Accused of Excessive Force

Jul 23, 2002

Officer on tape was arrested in 1999
Franklin police say Henry became 'belligerent' while in their custody

By JESSICA McBRIDE
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: July 20, 2002
The Milwaukee police officer accused of roughing up a man on videotape showed "extremely unacceptable conduct" when Franklin police arrested him following a 1999 drunken-driving crash, Franklin's police chief said Saturday.

"He was extremely argumentative," Police Chief Kenneth Bohn said of Robert A. Henry.

According to reports, Henry told Franklin officers that he would "go off and tear up this place" if they didn't release him quickly following his arrest outside a local strip club. When an officer asked whether Henry was threatening him, Henry said no but added that "he could mop up the floor" with another officer.

The reports list Henry as 6-foot-5 and 305 pounds.

Henry denied driving the purple Ford pickup truck involved in the accident, but the other driver and a friend of Henry's said Henry was the driver, the reports say. And, according to reports, Henry told Franklin officers that he expected preferential treatment because he worked out with officers from a nearby department.

Had one of his own officers displayed similar conduct, Bohn said, he would have sought to fire him. Bohn, who is running for sheriff in Milwaukee County, said Franklin police alerted Milwaukee police about Henry's behavior, and internal affairs looked into it.

Henry's Milwaukee police personnel file shows the only discipline he received since being hired in 1998 was a one-day suspension in April 2001 for failing to observe laws and ordinances in another jurisdiction.

Henry, who did not return a call Saturday, was convicted of drunken driving after the Franklin incident. According to court records, his driver's license was suspended for seven months, and he paid a fine.

It is unclear from Henry's personnel file whether the one-day suspension was for the drunken-driving conviction.

Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones could not be reached for comment, nor could Milwaukee Police Association President Bradley DeBraska, who has earlier spoken in Henry's defense.

A Milwaukee police surveillance tape March 20 captured Billy Miles, a man who had been taken into custody for disorderly conduct, gesturing toward Henry at the 5th District police station.

In the videotape, Henry, 33, walks toward Miles, shoves him against a wall, grabs him by the neck and wrestles him onto a table. Other officers then help handcuff Miles. Later, Henry is seen flexing his biceps muscle at Miles.

After Miles was handcuffed, he spit in another officer's eye, a criminal complaint says. Miles was charged March 22 with "assault by prisoner: expel bodily fluids."

After news broadcasts of the videotape last week, Milwaukee police launched an internal affairs investigation, and the district attorney's office started its own investigation.

Miles' attorney, Robert D'Arruda, said of Henry's conduct in the Franklin incident: "The way (Henry) acted on that videotape, it doesn't surprise me if he did the same thing when he was in custody himself."

According to Franklin police reports:

Sometime after 2 a.m. on Nov. 22, 1999, police responded to a call about an accident near On the Border, a strip club. Upon arriving at the scene, they found Henry, who produced a Milwaukee police identification card.

Henry told police he had been rear-ended by a black Ford Escort. The officer examined the damage on Henry's vehicle and advised him that it was not consistent with being rear-ended. The other driver said Henry had driven into his traffic lane.

A preliminary breath test showed Henry had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22, about twice the level at which the law presumes intoxication for driving. Police then took Henry into custody.

At the station, Henry refused to take a more sophisticated breath test, claimed that he was not driving and became "belligerent and started yelling," reports say.

"You guys come in here, you are going to have to spray me down," he allegedly yelled.

The Franklin officers began tape recording the incident, at which point Henry became more cooperative. Franklin police say their copy of the tape no longer exists but that Milwaukee police were given a copy.


Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 21, 2002.