DOJ releases new evidence in Kewaskum killing spree

Wisconsin's Department of Justice has released pictures, video and audio from the February night that a man went on a killing spree near Kewaskum.

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Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times On Tuesday, in an outcome explicitly informed by the police killing of George Floyd, a state court judge vacated an earlier ruling that affirmed her firing, essentially rewriting the end of her police career, and granting her the back pay and benefits she had previously been denied. “The legal system can at the very least be a mechanism to help justice prevail, even if belatedly,” the judge, Justice Dennis E. Ward, wrote. 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A spokesperson for Buffalo’s mayor, Byron Brown, said the city had “always supported any additional judicial review available to Officer Horne and respects the court’s decision.” The 2006 encounter that led to Horne’s firing began as a dispute between a woman and a former boyfriend whom she had accused of stealing her Social Security check. When officers tried to arrest the former boyfriend, the situation turned violent. Horne said she saw Kwiatkowski put the man in a chokehold. Kwiatkowski said he had grabbed him around the neck and shoulders in “a bear hug headlock from behind,” according to court documents. In Kwiatkowski’s telling, Horne struck him in the face, pulled him backward by his collar and jumped on him. An internal investigation cleared Kwiatkowski of all charges; Horne was offered a four-day suspension, which she turned down. After hearings in 2007 and 2008, the Police Department found that her use of physical force against a fellow officer had not been justified. 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After the killing of Floyd and the demonstrations that followed, he said, “the timing was perfect.” The law also gives officers who have been terminated in the past 20 years for intervening to stop the use of force a chance to challenge their firings. In an unusual twist, the suit cited the law named for Horne to argue for that outcome. Horne’s lawyers said that although she had been fired for wrongfully intervening in an arrest, her actions had been consistent with what is expected of police officers: She had kept a civilian safe. “And after George Floyd,” Eggleston, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, said, “we really understand what happens if officers don’t act like that.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

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