2 MPD officers disciplined in Bobbie Lou Schoeffling case withdraw appeals, others get reduced suspensions

Two Milwaukee police officers have withdrawn their appeals and will keep the suspensions handed down by Chief Jeffrey Norman in the wake of an internal investigation into the homicide of Bobbie Lou Schoeffling.

Norman suspended a total of four officers for their responses to two calls from Schoeffling on July 11, 2022.

That night, Schoeffling, a 31-year-old mother of two, had been reporting abuse and threats from her ex-boyfriend. None of the officers filed any reports based on the calls.

Schoeffling was found shot to death two weeks later, on July 26, 2022. Her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Howell, was convicted of killing Schoeffling earlier this year and sentenced to life in prison.

Michael A. Budziszewski and Shaundae S. McIntosh were suspended for 10 days, Gregory L. Carson Jr. received eight days and Shemar Moore received seven days, according to disciplinary summaries released by the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.

The officers appealed to the commission. Last month, a panel of commissioners reduced the suspensions for Budziszewski and McIntosh to six days.

Carson and Moore were scheduled for an appeal hearing Thursday, but withdrew their appeals before then, according to the city's Fire and Police Commission.

Any suspension of five days or more, up to termination, can be appealed to the Fire and Police Commission, the city's civilian oversight board.

The appeal process is similar to a trial. The City Attorney's Office represents the police chief's position, the officers have outside attorneys and a hearing examiner oversees the proceedings. A panel of three commissioners makes the final decisions, similar to a jury.

The appeal process is split into two phases. During the first phase, the commissioners must determine whether a rule was violated. If it is decided a rule was violated, the second phase determines whether the discipline imposed was appropriate.

What happened during the appeal for Officers Michael Budziszewski and Shaundae McIntosh

Budziszewski and McIntosh, his partner, were dispatched to a 911 call around 9:20 p.m. July 11, 2022.

The officers encountered Schoeffling and a friend, and their children. Schoeffling described abuse and threats from her ex-boyfriend, whom she did not want to name because "he really will come kill me," according to body camera footage of the incident.

Schoeffling said she and her children were going to stay the night with her friend.

Internal affairs determined the officers did not ask detailed follow-up questions or file an incident report, in violation of the department's core value of competence, specifically the guiding principle that "investigations shall be conducted and reports shall be prepared in a prompt, thorough, impartial and careful manner to ensure accountability and responsibility in accordance with the law."

Body camera footage of the interaction was played during the appeal on May 23.

It showed that Schoeffling asked them not to write a report, though she ultimately did provide Howell's name. In the footage, Schoeffling's phone rings several times because Howell was calling her.

“The information given to us from Ms. Schoeffling, how she was acting, the totality of the circumstances, I believe we did everything we could for her at that time," Budziszewski said.

The officers gave her a contact card with local resources listed on it and parked outside her house for about 10 to 15 minutes to see if Howell would return.

“We were satisfied because she had somewhere safe to go for the night or numerous nights," McIntosh said. "She wasn’t in any form of direct harm or danger and the kids weren't also in any harm or immediate danger.”

Both said they would have arrested Howell, Schoeffling's ex-boyfriend, had they encountered him since he had an open felony violation of probation warrant.

Attorneys offered differing views on what was asked of officers that night

One of the officers' attorneys, Steven C. McGaver, repeatedly noted the role of hindsight and how everyone has things they would do differently in retrospect.

“The officers did not fail to investigate," McGaver said. "I concede that this is an incomplete, imperfect investigation but cops aren’t perfect."

Katherine Headley, an assistant city attorney, pushed back on that characterization.

"The city is not requiring perfection from its officers,” she said.

“Perfection’s not an issue," she added. "Competence is at issue here.”

Headley, through her questioning and arguments, repeatedly listed what the officers failed to do at the call:

They did not separate Schoeffling or her friend for interviews. They did not interview the children who were present.

They did not ask follow-up questions to determine if it was a domestic violence situation, though Budziszewski did ask two of the four questions required.

"When provided information that Mr. Howell had bags of his belongings at Ms. Schoeffling’s home, (Budziszewski) didn't ask the follow-up question as to why, did he previously live there?" she said. "Which would have triggered an additional report and a mandatory arrest.”

Schoeffling provided possible locations on the city's east side where Howell might be. The officers did not ask their colleagues in that district to check those areas for Howell to arrest him on his open warrants.

FPC panel agreed two officers broke department rules but gave lower punishment than chief

In a unanimous decision, Commissioners Ruben Burgos, Miriam Horowitz and Bree Spencer found both officers failed to conduct a thorough investigation, breaking department policy.

In the second phase of the appeal, the commissioners unanimously decided to reduce their suspensions from 10 days each to six days.

Assistant Chief Craig Sarnow said Norman, the chief, had arrived at a 10-day suspension with input from the command staff. They weighed several factors, including the discipline matrix, past cases of similar discipline, degree of harm and the need to maintain community trust.

Budziszewski and McIntosh, and their attorneys, asked the commissioners to reduce their punishment to four days, highlighting comparable cases that showed officers receiving no more than five days for similar conduct. Both officers said they had learned from the experience.

Sarnow acknowledged that 10 days was a more severe punishment than similar internal cases the department has investigated, but said it still fell within the discipline matrix and that the circumstances warranted it.

"When we looked at this case, it was clear to us that they failed," Sarnow said. "They failed to protect and serve the night of July 11 when they had contact with Ms. Schoeffling."

What the investigation into Officers Gregory Carson and Shemar Moore found

At 12:07 a.m. July 12, Carson and Moore, his partner, were dispatched to a second call from Schoeffling reporting threats from her ex-boyfriend to burn down her house.

The officers never went to her residence. Instead, Carson called Schoeffling. He told internal investigators that Schoeffling said she was no longer at the residence, was safe and did not know the location of the suspect. Carson said he called Schoeffling about two hours after the 911 call was created.

The officers did not file an incident report. Carson did not turn on his body camera to record his phone conversation with Schoeffling.

Carson told internal affairs he did not think he violated any department rules and he thought the other officers had investigated the earlier battery report. He said he did not turn on his body camera because he had been in a loud area of the district station.

The internal investigator noted he had cleared the call in only 31 seconds. Carson said after he spoke with Schoeffling, he asked the dispatcher to mark them "on-scene" and "make note that she was spoken with and was no longer at the residence," according to Milwaukee police records.

Carson said he typically did not handle calls over the phone but felt it was a "unique" situation based on his conversation with the officers who responded to Schoeffling earlier.

Moore told investigators he only got the "gist" of the assignment from Carson and he believed filing a report was not necessary because the caller said they were safe and did not know where the suspect was.

Neither officer verified if anyone had an open warrant even though the call was dispatched as a "subject wanted."

Moore said he and Carson took in "good faith" the information provided by the other officers and believed they had done their "due diligence" to determine if a person was wanted by authorities, according to Milwaukee police records.

The officers were found to have violated the department's core value of competence by failing to conduct a thorough investigation and write reports in a prompt, thorough and impartial manner.

Carson and Moore each received a seven-day suspension for failing to conduct a proper investigation. Carson also received an additional day for failing to activate his body camera.

Ashley Luthern can be reached at ashley.luthern@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 2 MPD officers get reduced suspensions in Bobbie Lou Schoeffling case