Lawton & Cates in the news
Domestic violence an issue in shooting case
Reprinted with permission by The Forest Republican. Author: Northwoods Media Staff, The Forest Republican, Issue 48, Volume 117, pages 1A and 4A
A judge will decide in March whether a lawsuit brought by the families of several young people killed by off-duty police officer Tyler Peterson in October 2007 will move forward.
Judge Mark A. Mangerson was expected to rule next month on motions filed by Forest County and the city of Crandon to dismiss the case but the hearing has since been moved back to March 16.
In an 80-page brief in opposition to the defendants' motion for dismissal on summary judgment, the victims' families again assert their contention that Peterson had a mental defect (narcissistic personality disorder, they allege) and argue the Forest County Sheriff's Department and the Crandon Police Department kept him armed with an assault rifle "after signs and reports of his escalating mental instability" came to their attention.
The families say they have a legally viable case that should be decided by a jury. "The defendants ask this court to deprive the families of the victims their day in court. The record in this case does not support such a decision, and a jury should decide whether the defendants are responsible for arming a mentally ill young man with an assault rifle he used to go on a killing spree," plaintiff's attorney James A. Olson argues in the brief. During the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2007, Peterson, 20, showed up at the home of his estranged girlfriend, Jordanne Murray, apparently looking to reconcile.
Murray was hosting a post-Homecoming party and had several friends over. The two argued and Murray asked Peterson to leave. He complied but came back with his police assault rifle and started shooting. Bradley Schultz, 20, Lindsey Stahl, 14, Lianna Thomas, 17, Katrina McCorkle, 18, and Aaron Smith, 20, died with Murray, 18, in the rampage. A seventh person, Charlie Neitzel, 23, survived the attack by playing dead.
Peterson died by his own hand later that day in a wooded area in the town of Argonne.
The Smith and Murray families are not participating in the lawsuit which was filed Oct. 7, 2008.
In their latest brief, the families argue a jury could find the two departments were negligent in the hiring and supervision of Peterson because they did not subject him to a pre-hiring psychological examination and failed to take his weapon away following an alleged domestic abuse incident.
"(Peterson) was involved in a domestic abuse incident against one of the (shooting) victims. The defendants did a cursory investigation. They were on notice after this incident that Tyler Peterson may be a problem. Tyler Peterson began stalking one of the victims, and the defendants knew about it. They took no steps to investigate the stalking and no steps to end this behavior. The defendants did not take the simple precaution of taking the assault weapon away from Peterson until his behavior could be examined," Olson writes.
Specifically, the families claim the Crandon Police Department failed to follow proper procedure for the investigation of domestic abuse incidents when Murray and a friend reported a problem with Peterson in August 2007. The families say Murray summoned the officer after Peterson "lost control (and) was yelling at and degrading (her)" and refusing to leave the premises.
According to the plaintiffs, the officer did not get out of his squad car, did not look for signs of a struggle inside the apartment and did not interview the neighbors or Peterson himself. The families also say there are no written reports regarding this incident.
Several pages of the plaintiffs' brief are devoted to Crandon Police and Forest County Sheriff's Department procedures for the investigation of domestic violence complaints, and law enforcement standards for the investigation of officer-involved domestic violence complaints, which the families say were not followed in this instance.
In its brief filed in December, the city of Crandon said the officer didn't get out of squad car because Murray assured him she and Peterson were merely having "a childish argument" and there was nothing to be concerned about. "Based on what (the officer) saw and heard while he was there, he concluded that he had just wandered into a relationship break-up" and determined based on his training and experience that it was not a reportable incident, the city argued.
The city also noted the officer did tell Crandon Police Chief John Dennee about the incident and he followed up with Murray. According to the city's brief, Murray denied Peterson had harmed her and claimed not to be afraid of him. Both municipalities have repeatedly argued in court papers they followed proper procedure when they hired Peterson and had no way to predict that he would ever commit mass murder.
In their briefs, the city of Crandon and Forest County argue they were under no obligation to have Peterson tested by a mental health professional. According to their interpretation of the administrative code, prospective police officers need only be examined by a licensed Wisconsin physician.
Peterson was examined by Dr. Rebecca Perry of Crandon who found no indicators of mental illness and pronounced him "a pretty normal, healthy young man."
In their briefs, both municipalities stress that Peterson was on vacation the day of the shootings and argued if the plaintiffs prevail law enforcement agencies across the state would be liable for any off-duty acts of their police officers. Such a ruling would also force law enforcement agencies to "devise a screening technique or device that would be able to predict a candidate's future, off-duty behavior."
No such screening technique exists, they argue.
