Justice for Paulie (please repost)
Jan. 13th, 2013 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Originally posted by
barrelofrain. Reposted by
ladyhadhafang at 2013-01-13 23:11:00.
There's a letter writing campaign to try to get justice for Paulie Heenan, a friend of mine who was murdered by Madison Police in November. Please take a minute to send a letter to the following people. Sample text is behind the cut, and if you're not familiar with the case, there are a bunch of links at the bottom.

Please copy and sign your name to this letter and send it to the officials listed below the title RECIPIENTS and please send it to editor of a news organization of your choice.
Thank you a million times for your care and support!!
RECIPIENTS:
Mayor Paul R. Soglin
City of Madison Mayor's Office
210 MLK Jr Blvd, Room 403
City-County Building
Madison, WI 53703
Attorney General JB Van Hollan
Wisconsin Department of Justice
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
US Attorney John W. Vaudreuil
United States Attorney's Office
Western District of Wisconsin
660 West Washington Avenue, Suite 303
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 264-5158
FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson
330 E. Kilbourn Avenue
Suite 600
Milwaukee, WI
53202
Office(414)276-4684
Fax (414)291-2400
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. J Holder, Jr.
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Governor Scott Walker
Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison, WI 53702
govgeneral@wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-1212
Wisconsin Senator Fred Risser
Room 220 South
State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707-7882
Sen.Risser@legis.wisconsin.gov
Wisconsin State Representative Chris Taylor
Room 306 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953
Madison, WI 53708
US Senator Tammy Baldwin
14 West Mifflin Street, Suite 207
Madison, WI
53703
Phone: 608-264-5338
no email
US Representative Mark Pocan
10 East Doty Street
Suite 405
Madison, WI 53703
no email
All City of Madison Alders
210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Room 417,
Madison, WI 53703
The Madison Police and Fire Commission
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Fabiola Hamdan
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
George R. Kamperschroer
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Wesley N. Sparkman
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Michael J. Lawton
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
THE LETTER:
To Whom It May Concern,
In light of the recent tragedy of Paul Heenan's (Paulie) death at the hands of a Madison police officer, the conflicted nature of the District Attorney’s (D.A.) relationship with area Police Officers and the damage to our community’s trust as a result of both this event and the investigatory process, I am writing to demand the abolishment of “Home Rule”, in the state of Wisconsin statues.
These statues give each Local Police Department the freedom to review themselves with bias at the department level, called an Internal Organizational Review. “The local Chief then passes judgment on the performance of his organization, his own policies, and his own abilities. They do not provide for a centralized professional review, called an External Professional Review” and without one, law enforcement has both the appearance of bias and the freedom to employ their bias in reality, whenever they wish. “There are no external checks and balances to maintain objectivity in the current investigation process” and it is in this culture, police policies and procedures are created and interpreted. I demand an impartial, independent agency be brought in to re-investigate this case and all future police shooting cases. I demand an impartial board of experts be appointed by our Attorney General to oversee the re-investigation of this case and the initial investigation of all future ones. I demand policies and procedures of all Wisconsin Law Enforcement agencies be reevaluated and revised by internal and external experts, free from the inherent biases of “Home Rule” and for these policies to reflect a justice we the public, can identify clearly.
In the State of Oregon, any case involving an officer shooting is investigated by an outside agency and goes before a grand jury, for obvious reasons.
(http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/chapter/132).
Our District Attorneys constantly use police officers when presenting their trials. Police officers, as witnesses, are generally essential to D.A.s winning their cases. There is an obvious and inherent conflict of interest in allowing the D.A.'s office to investigate a police officer's misconduct, when that police officer and his colleagues must remain "friendly" to the D.A.'s office in order for the D.A. to pursue future prosecutions.
Here are some other concerns that reveal biases and injustices in the Paul Heenan Case:
1) The incomplete questioning of neighbors on the street where Paulie was shot would imply a lack of professionalism and/or that there are facts the detectives wish to conceal from the public. This also happened in Officer Heimsness’s case with Jacob Bauer. Why?
2) Officer Heimsness’s abhorrent record of excessive use of force should have kept him from patrolling alone at bar time.
3) The damaging selective release of our neighbor’s and the second officer’s full statements as means to win public support. Is that the behavior of an impartial group?
4) No mention or response to the question about whether there was a dash board camera in Officer Heimsness’s vehicle.
5) The D.A. and Madison Police Department (MPD) applied rules to their gag order that would suggest they were trying to win a game of public relations. They were supposed to be holding an impartial investigation, so why the charade of selective transparency? They can’t be impartial and have such obvious bias.
6) The MPD’s history of being far more lenient with officers than civilians who’ve committed similar acts and, in some cases, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars on leave while they are being investigated.
7) The damaging misinformation revealed during Chief Noble Wray’s first, premature press conference. For example:
a) Using the word “knife” instead of “pocket knife” the former being one that could be misconstrued as a “weapon.”
b) Saying in interviews that the neighbor “dropped when the officer gave his orders to “get down”, when in fact the neighbor never did.
c) Dodging the question, “Did the neighbor say anything to Officer Heimness?” knowing full well there was no good reason to keep this information from the public if the investigating body was impartial.
d) Never once mentioning that the officer failed to announce himself.
8) No blood sample was taken from the Officer Heimsness, no policy requires for a blood sample to be taken from the offending officer or for an examination of their prescriptive drug use. The detectives took a blood sample from Paul and ransacked his room. This is an obvious and dangerous bias.
9) Officer Heimsness, knowing he had back-up, drew his weapon immediately, failed to announce himself and had ¼ block to do so. He ambushed the neighbor and Paulie after observing mild disorderly conduct and no weapon.
10) Officer Troumbly failed to announce her arrival to the dispatcher until she was ½ way down the block and "she didn't know why". Had Officer Heimsness known she was so close, with a taser ready, he might have made a different choice. According to her story, she was at most, 10 steps away when the shots were fired.
11) The D.A.’s strategic or ignorant statement, “This [accidently entering the wrong house while intoxicated] just doesn’t happen” when it actually does occur on occasion. Frankly, entering the wrong house is not nearly as dangerous as compared to, say, operating a vehicle or shooting a gun while intoxicated.The difference is, if the police are called, the vast majority of them don’t address the situation using lethal force first so the chances of a death are minimal
12) The D.A.’s statement suggesting when a civilian says something, they cannot trust it was actually said unless an officer claims to have heard it and backs them up. He completely disregards the fact that Mrs. O’Malley was interviewed independently by investigators and also heard Mr. O’Malley’s statement, from inside the house.
A ten second Google search revealed several instances of intoxicated individuals entering the wrong house, including one example involving an MPD officer. None of them resulted in death.
I look forward to hearing your response including a plan for bringing in an independent impartial body to investigate Paul's death in addition to changes to the 125 year old, outdated state statues for investigating our law enforcement.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
(Your name, address and # here)
Sources
Statutes
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/prefaces/toc
Michael Bell
http://www.michaelbell.info/ChangeTheProcess.html
Officer Heimsness Record of using Deadly Force
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=5uicxyDO0TU
:07 What witnesses saw were Heimsness giving intentional blows to the head.
:48 Civil Rights Attorney Jeff Scott Olson doubts police investigating their own officer will result in discipline.
1:01 Officer shot out tires of a car in a downtown parking ramp. Police found his claim to have been in imminent danger to be false.
1:23 Formerly suspended on 2001 for violating the deadly force policy.
Chief Noble Wray's Press Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7_OXqK5DzU
3:08, He fails to mention the neighbor shouting 'He's my neighbor!'.
3:14 No one's story matches Officer Heimsness’s here. It's unlikely that Officer Twombly could have seen this. In fact, Officer Heimsness quickly explained to Officer Twombly after the shooting that, “He went for my gun.” Why would he have to tell her that if she was there to see it?
D.A. Ozanne’s Press Release doesn’t mention the neighbor trying to save Paul or the officer not announcing himself.
http://madisonneareast.channel3000.com/news/news/78085-da-no-criminal-liability-officer-involved-shooting
D.A. Ozanne Doesn't think People Enter Wrong Homes Drunk
http://www.channel3000.com/news/Family-of-man-shot-by-Madison-police-release-letter-to-chief-DA/-/1648/17797066/-/arjc4pz/-/index.html
Officer Grogan Kicks Door Down
http://host.madison.com/news/th-police-officer-in-months-on-paid-leave-madison-officer/article_75eb7d0f-b687-51eb-80aa-3301b94134ee.html
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/cut-off-paychecks-of-rogue-cops-the-outrageous-case-of/article_59be02b1-f8a9-5b58-89ee-e3297497674e.html
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=6411
http://host.madison.com/news/local/no-reinstatement-for-ex-cop-michael-grogan-had-been-convicted/article_aae40726-c326-504b-8d95-d623d0c440b3.html
D.A. Ozanne’s response to the O’Malley’s story
http://www.wkow.com/story/20513404/2013/01/06/report
:37 Ozanne’s message is, what civilians hear themselves say, even if backed up by other civilians, isn’t real unless an officer agrees.
Drunk People Entering the Homes of Others
http://www.cityofmadison.com/incidentReports/incidentDetail.cfm?id=13006
http://www.cityofmadison.com/incidentReports/incidentDetail.cfm?id=13006
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/intruder-wasn-t-burglar-but-drunken-man-who-went-in/article_32637d00-8813-11e1-ad4d-0019bb2963f4.html
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/crime_and_courts/stranger-in-house-was-talking-to-family-dog-police-say/article_4bdc44b4-25ae-11e1-a590-0019bb2963f4.html
#reformmpd
#justiceforpaulie
#paulheenan


There's a letter writing campaign to try to get justice for Paulie Heenan, a friend of mine who was murdered by Madison Police in November. Please take a minute to send a letter to the following people. Sample text is behind the cut, and if you're not familiar with the case, there are a bunch of links at the bottom.

Please copy and sign your name to this letter and send it to the officials listed below the title RECIPIENTS and please send it to editor of a news organization of your choice.
Thank you a million times for your care and support!!
RECIPIENTS:
Mayor Paul R. Soglin
City of Madison Mayor's Office
210 MLK Jr Blvd, Room 403
City-County Building
Madison, WI 53703
Attorney General JB Van Hollan
Wisconsin Department of Justice
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
US Attorney John W. Vaudreuil
United States Attorney's Office
Western District of Wisconsin
660 West Washington Avenue, Suite 303
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 264-5158
FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson
330 E. Kilbourn Avenue
Suite 600
Milwaukee, WI
53202
Office(414)276-4684
Fax (414)291-2400
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. J Holder, Jr.
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Governor Scott Walker
Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison, WI 53702
govgeneral@wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-1212
Wisconsin Senator Fred Risser
Room 220 South
State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707-7882
Sen.Risser@legis.wisconsin.gov
Wisconsin State Representative Chris Taylor
Room 306 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953
Madison, WI 53708
US Senator Tammy Baldwin
14 West Mifflin Street, Suite 207
Madison, WI
53703
Phone: 608-264-5338
no email
US Representative Mark Pocan
10 East Doty Street
Suite 405
Madison, WI 53703
no email
All City of Madison Alders
210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Room 417,
Madison, WI 53703
The Madison Police and Fire Commission
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Fabiola Hamdan
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
George R. Kamperschroer
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Wesley N. Sparkman
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
C/O Attorney Scott Herrick
Michael J. Lawton
Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
16 N. Carroll St. Ste. 500
Madison WI 53703
THE LETTER:
To Whom It May Concern,
In light of the recent tragedy of Paul Heenan's (Paulie) death at the hands of a Madison police officer, the conflicted nature of the District Attorney’s (D.A.) relationship with area Police Officers and the damage to our community’s trust as a result of both this event and the investigatory process, I am writing to demand the abolishment of “Home Rule”, in the state of Wisconsin statues.
These statues give each Local Police Department the freedom to review themselves with bias at the department level, called an Internal Organizational Review. “The local Chief then passes judgment on the performance of his organization, his own policies, and his own abilities. They do not provide for a centralized professional review, called an External Professional Review” and without one, law enforcement has both the appearance of bias and the freedom to employ their bias in reality, whenever they wish. “There are no external checks and balances to maintain objectivity in the current investigation process” and it is in this culture, police policies and procedures are created and interpreted. I demand an impartial, independent agency be brought in to re-investigate this case and all future police shooting cases. I demand an impartial board of experts be appointed by our Attorney General to oversee the re-investigation of this case and the initial investigation of all future ones. I demand policies and procedures of all Wisconsin Law Enforcement agencies be reevaluated and revised by internal and external experts, free from the inherent biases of “Home Rule” and for these policies to reflect a justice we the public, can identify clearly.
In the State of Oregon, any case involving an officer shooting is investigated by an outside agency and goes before a grand jury, for obvious reasons.
(http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/chapter/132).
Our District Attorneys constantly use police officers when presenting their trials. Police officers, as witnesses, are generally essential to D.A.s winning their cases. There is an obvious and inherent conflict of interest in allowing the D.A.'s office to investigate a police officer's misconduct, when that police officer and his colleagues must remain "friendly" to the D.A.'s office in order for the D.A. to pursue future prosecutions.
Here are some other concerns that reveal biases and injustices in the Paul Heenan Case:
1) The incomplete questioning of neighbors on the street where Paulie was shot would imply a lack of professionalism and/or that there are facts the detectives wish to conceal from the public. This also happened in Officer Heimsness’s case with Jacob Bauer. Why?
2) Officer Heimsness’s abhorrent record of excessive use of force should have kept him from patrolling alone at bar time.
3) The damaging selective release of our neighbor’s and the second officer’s full statements as means to win public support. Is that the behavior of an impartial group?
4) No mention or response to the question about whether there was a dash board camera in Officer Heimsness’s vehicle.
5) The D.A. and Madison Police Department (MPD) applied rules to their gag order that would suggest they were trying to win a game of public relations. They were supposed to be holding an impartial investigation, so why the charade of selective transparency? They can’t be impartial and have such obvious bias.
6) The MPD’s history of being far more lenient with officers than civilians who’ve committed similar acts and, in some cases, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars on leave while they are being investigated.
7) The damaging misinformation revealed during Chief Noble Wray’s first, premature press conference. For example:
a) Using the word “knife” instead of “pocket knife” the former being one that could be misconstrued as a “weapon.”
b) Saying in interviews that the neighbor “dropped when the officer gave his orders to “get down”, when in fact the neighbor never did.
c) Dodging the question, “Did the neighbor say anything to Officer Heimness?” knowing full well there was no good reason to keep this information from the public if the investigating body was impartial.
d) Never once mentioning that the officer failed to announce himself.
8) No blood sample was taken from the Officer Heimsness, no policy requires for a blood sample to be taken from the offending officer or for an examination of their prescriptive drug use. The detectives took a blood sample from Paul and ransacked his room. This is an obvious and dangerous bias.
9) Officer Heimsness, knowing he had back-up, drew his weapon immediately, failed to announce himself and had ¼ block to do so. He ambushed the neighbor and Paulie after observing mild disorderly conduct and no weapon.
10) Officer Troumbly failed to announce her arrival to the dispatcher until she was ½ way down the block and "she didn't know why". Had Officer Heimsness known she was so close, with a taser ready, he might have made a different choice. According to her story, she was at most, 10 steps away when the shots were fired.
11) The D.A.’s strategic or ignorant statement, “This [accidently entering the wrong house while intoxicated] just doesn’t happen” when it actually does occur on occasion. Frankly, entering the wrong house is not nearly as dangerous as compared to, say, operating a vehicle or shooting a gun while intoxicated.The difference is, if the police are called, the vast majority of them don’t address the situation using lethal force first so the chances of a death are minimal
12) The D.A.’s statement suggesting when a civilian says something, they cannot trust it was actually said unless an officer claims to have heard it and backs them up. He completely disregards the fact that Mrs. O’Malley was interviewed independently by investigators and also heard Mr. O’Malley’s statement, from inside the house.
A ten second Google search revealed several instances of intoxicated individuals entering the wrong house, including one example involving an MPD officer. None of them resulted in death.
I look forward to hearing your response including a plan for bringing in an independent impartial body to investigate Paul's death in addition to changes to the 125 year old, outdated state statues for investigating our law enforcement.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
(Your name, address and # here)
Sources
Statutes
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/prefaces/toc
Michael Bell
http://www.michaelbell.info/ChangeTheProcess.html
Officer Heimsness Record of using Deadly Force
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=5uicxyDO0TU
:07 What witnesses saw were Heimsness giving intentional blows to the head.
:48 Civil Rights Attorney Jeff Scott Olson doubts police investigating their own officer will result in discipline.
1:01 Officer shot out tires of a car in a downtown parking ramp. Police found his claim to have been in imminent danger to be false.
1:23 Formerly suspended on 2001 for violating the deadly force policy.
Chief Noble Wray's Press Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7_OXqK5DzU
3:08, He fails to mention the neighbor shouting 'He's my neighbor!'.
3:14 No one's story matches Officer Heimsness’s here. It's unlikely that Officer Twombly could have seen this. In fact, Officer Heimsness quickly explained to Officer Twombly after the shooting that, “He went for my gun.” Why would he have to tell her that if she was there to see it?
D.A. Ozanne’s Press Release doesn’t mention the neighbor trying to save Paul or the officer not announcing himself.
http://madisonneareast.channel3000.com/news/news/78085-da-no-criminal-liability-officer-involved-shooting
D.A. Ozanne Doesn't think People Enter Wrong Homes Drunk
http://www.channel3000.com/news/Family-of-man-shot-by-Madison-police-release-letter-to-chief-DA/-/1648/17797066/-/arjc4pz/-/index.html
Officer Grogan Kicks Door Down
http://host.madison.com/news/th-police-officer-in-months-on-paid-leave-madison-officer/article_75eb7d0f-b687-51eb-80aa-3301b94134ee.html
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/cut-off-paychecks-of-rogue-cops-the-outrageous-case-of/article_59be02b1-f8a9-5b58-89ee-e3297497674e.html
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=6411
http://host.madison.com/news/local/no-reinstatement-for-ex-cop-michael-grogan-had-been-convicted/article_aae40726-c326-504b-8d95-d623d0c440b3.html
D.A. Ozanne’s response to the O’Malley’s story
http://www.wkow.com/story/20513404/2013/01/06/report
:37 Ozanne’s message is, what civilians hear themselves say, even if backed up by other civilians, isn’t real unless an officer agrees.
Drunk People Entering the Homes of Others
http://www.cityofmadison.com/incidentReports/incidentDetail.cfm?id=13006
http://www.cityofmadison.com/incidentReports/incidentDetail.cfm?id=13006
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/intruder-wasn-t-burglar-but-drunken-man-who-went-in/article_32637d00-8813-11e1-ad4d-0019bb2963f4.html
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/crime_and_courts/stranger-in-house-was-talking-to-family-dog-police-say/article_4bdc44b4-25ae-11e1-a590-0019bb2963f4.html
#reformmpd
#justiceforpaulie
#paulheenan