Effort to reopen investigation of 20-year-old police killing takes a novel turn

A courtroom and a judge's gavel. (Getty Images creative)

The Kenosha man seeking a new investigation of his son’s death at the hands of police two decades ago is pursuing his goal through an unprecedented strategy: Deploying  a Wisconsin agency that was established to represent the interests of crime victims.

Michael M. Bell’s longtime ally, retired Kenosha police officer Russell Beckman, has filed a petition on Bell’s behalf with the Wisconsin Crime Victims Rights Board. Beckman’s petition has been filed against Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and another Department of Justice employee. It argues that Bell is a victim of a crime by public officials, including Kaul, who have ignored Bell’s request to give his son’s death another look.

At a hearing in Brown County Circuit Court Wednesday, a judge could rule on whether the effort will be allowed to go ahead or wind up being blocked.

“It’s a very novel case,” Beckman said in an interview this week.

A Kenosha police officer shot and killed Michael M. Bell’s adult son, Michael E. Bell, in November 2004 after the younger Bell was taken into police custody in the driveway of the home where he lived with his mother. The Kenosha Police Department conducted its own investigation and cleared the officers in less than three days. In  2010 the city of Kenosha agreed to a $1.75 million settlement of a civil lawsuit Michael M. Bell filed over his son’s death.

Bell went on to advocate for a Wisconsin law requiring outside investigations of officer-involved deaths.

Despite the settlement, the elder Bell has continued to pursue demands for a new investigation in his son’s death.

The officer who fatally shot Michael E. Bell did so after another officer on the scene thought the younger Bell had seized the second officer’s service weapon.

Michael M. Bell contends that there are significant discrepancies between the police account and other evidence from the incident. Based on that other evidence, the elder Bell argues that the officer who fired the fatal shot should have known he was not in danger despite his fellow officer’s panic.

By digging into those discrepancies, Bell contends, Kenosha police could learn more about what happened in the incident and perhaps make procedural changes to prevent a recurrence.

Bell has argued that the Kenosha Police Department, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley as well as the Kenosha mayor’s office have all effectively covered up the circumstances of his son’s death.

City and county officials have all repeatedly rejected the assertions made by Bell and Beckman.

In 2021 after asking Attorney General Josh Kaul on 10 or more separate occasions  to look into the case, Bell filed a complaint against the attorney general with Gov. Tony Evers. Evers subsequently rejected the complaint, and in a letter to Bell, Evers’ chief legal counsel at the time, Ryan Nilsestuen, raised the possibility that Bell might pursue his concern through the Crime Victims Rights Board (CRVB).

The Legislature created the Crime Victims Rights Board in 1997 “with legislative authority to issue sanctions for violations of statutory or constitutional victim rights by public officials, agencies or employees,” the Wisconsin Department of Justice states on its website.

In December 2022, Beckman, who has been working with Bell to develop new evidence in the case of his son’s shooting death, filed a complaint on Bell’s behalf with the board.

“Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, WI DOJ Administrator Tina Virgil, and other top WI DOJ officials have violated the rights of crime victim Michael Bell, under the Wisconsin Constitution, in their refusal to respond to many attempts by Mr. Bell and his ‘lawful representative’ to consult with them regarding newly developed information about the crime,” the complaint states.

The complaint also argues that the failure to act is more than just a violation of state law. Under the 2020 amendment known as “Marsy’s Law,” which gave the state’s victim-protection laws greater force by making them part of the Wisconsin Constitution, the violations are constitutional ones, the complaint alleged.

In November 2023, the CVRB found that there was “no probable cause” for the complaint. The court summarized the complaint’s allegations to say that DOJ officials “were unresponsive to [Bell’s] citizen complaint and thereby participated in efforts to conceal what occurred on that day in 2004.”

Nevertheless, “The Board does not find that the conduct alleged are crimes that confer victim status,” the CVRB concluded. The actual victim, according to the board, is government.

“The Board does not find that the alleged acts, if committed, would be committed ‘against’ the complainant,” the CVRB declared. “The alleged conduct is against the government and its administration, not against individual persons.”

That conclusion has shocked Beckman. “This ruling could actually apply to teachers who sexually assault their students,” he said.

Beckman has appealed for a judicial review of the board’s conclusions, while the CVRB and the state Department of Justice want the court to dismiss the petition. “The attorney general has ignored our extensive and well-documented efforts to contact him and report these crimes,” Beckman said.

At a hearing Wednesday in Brown County Circuit Court, a judge will decide whether to grant the dismissal or give the complaint a new lease on life.

“This case isn’t about money,” Beckman said. “This is about protecting the constitutional right to Marsy’s Law for all Wisconsin’s citizens.”

Beckman, who is not a lawyer, has been representing himself in the complaint. He’s hoping that will change.

“I have been trying very hard to get representation,” Beckman said. “I’m not having any luck.”

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