Three guards resigned or were fired following deaths at the Milwaukee County Jail in 2020 and 2021
No criminal charges will be issued for any of the four deaths in the Milwaukee County Jail between January 2020 and April 2021, but three corrections officers involved in two incidents are no longer employed with the county.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office determined there was no criminal liability related to the deaths of Nicholas Sonsthagen, 41, in March 2021 and Anthony Walther, 26, the following April. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has previously reported on the circumstances of, and the district attorney’s review of, the deaths of Nicholas L. Stadtmueller, 34, in January 2020 and Joseph A. Behling, 38, the following November.
But documents recently obtained through an open records request detail the circumstances of Sonsthagen's and Walther’s deaths, as well as the internal investigation into the death of Behling.
Records show Sonsthagen died by suicide two days after being taken off suicide watch. Walther died of acute heart failure around the time a recently hired guard missed a cell check. That guard was later fired, but not for reasons related to Walther’s death.
All four deaths were investigated by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department and reviewed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. But only one incident was the subject of an internal investigation for potential rule violations by staff, and it did not launch until almost a year afterward.
That investigation regarded Behling’s suicide, which involved two guards asking him multiple times to remove a covering he placed on his cell window but walked away from his cell before making sure he did so. He was later found unresponsive in the cell.
Both guards resigned by the time the probe concluded.
A review of the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department investigation of Stadtmueller’s death showed no rule violations and no internal probe was performed, according to James Burnett, the spokesperson for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office declined the Journal Sentinel’s request to interview Sheriff Earnell Lucas or a jail official for this story. The office has been navigating an extreme staffing shortage since at least 2019, with just over half of 251 budgeted positions filled as of Thursday, Burnett said, and overtime costs climbing.
The new details come after 21-year-old Brieon Green also died in the jail in late June. His death was ruled a suicide by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. An investigation by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department is ongoing.
Here is a rundown of the new information on the incidents, according to investigative documents:
Guard missed cell check during Walther’s medical event
Walther had been in the county jail since mid-February 2021 and was found unresponsive in his cell shortly after noon April 5.
That day, a corrections officer named Vernisha Jefferson, who had been on the job for just over four months, was supervising the area of Walther’s cell. She had no medical training and had not received a state jail officer certification at the time.
In Wisconsin, jail staff are not required to receive that certification until a year from their date of hire.
Jefferson told investigators she saw Walther lying down in his cell with the door closed and lights out when she checked on him around 10:30 a.m. and again at exactly 11:03 a.m., according to video surveillance.
One minute after that last check, Jefferson left the area for a break. She did not return until 11:57 a.m., skipping a half-hour cell check.
Shortly afterward, as other jailed people were leaving their cells for lunch, one of them called out to Walther if he was coming along. When he did not answer, the man entered Walther’s cell and realized he needed medical attention.
Jefferson radioed for assistance at 12:01 p.m. First responders attempted to resuscitate him but pronounced him dead at 12:44 p.m. The medical examiner’s office later determined he died from acute heart failure.
Burnett said Jefferson, who was a probationary employee, was fired weeks later, before Waukesha County’s death investigation finished, for unrelated reasons. He declined to specify further.
No internal investigation followed, Burnett said. The Journal Sentinel was unable to reach Jefferson for comment.
Officers involved in Behling’s death resigned
In November 2020, Behling died by suicide in his cell and was able to take his own life because he hung a covering over the window of his door to conceal his actions. Two officers, Mitchell Glidewell and Marissa Lehn, interacted with his cell a total of four times in a span of 22 minutes before radioing for assistance.
In the first two interactions, Glidewell and Lehn took turns making verbal contact with Behling. They told him to remove the covering but walked away before watching him do so after hearing him say he would.
On the third, Glidewell appeared to try seeing past the window covering, then went to help Lehn escort another person to his cell. On the fourth occasion, Lehn attempted to make verbal contact with Behling and when he did not respond, she called for help.
Records show the death investigation by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department wrapped in January 2021, but the internal investigation looking into potential staff violations didn’t launch until the following October.
Lehn resigned long before that, in July of that year, Burnett said. Glidewell resigned in December, before the internal probe finished and concluded that he deserved a 10-day suspension.
Standard operating procedures for the jail require officers to “see some portion of the inmate’s anatomy and must make a determination that the inmate is not in any obvious physical distress” when conducting a cell check. A captain with the sheriff’s office told investigators that means an officer would have to remain at the door until the covering is taken down.
Glidewell told investigators he was trained to radio for assistance if someone refused to take down a covering, but no radio call happened until Behling stopped responding verbally.
“We probably should have called it right away,” Glidewell told investigators. “If I could do different, I’d make the call right away.”
Chief Deputy Denita Ball found that Glidewell violated county and sheriff’s office rules about inspections, following departmental rules and performing duties of an assigned position. Although he already resigned, she determined a 10-day suspension was appropriate.
Lehn was not a subject of the probe since she resigned months before it began, but a lieutenant in the sheriff’s office’s Professional Standards Division, the equivalent of a police department’s internal affairs division, asserted she also violated the inspections rule.
Lehn told Waukesha County investigators that it is common for inmates to try covering the windows of their doors. Since Behling had twice acknowledged their order to remove the covering, she said they had no indication he was under any distress.
Sonsthagen taken off suicide watch two days before death
After being taken off suicide watch in the Milwaukee County Jail, at least four people heard Sonsthagen make suicidal remarks before his death, but apparently did not report it to jail staff.
Sonsthagen arrived at the jail March 10, 2021, and was put on suicide watch the same day after a corrections officer heard him make a suicidal comment during dinner service. Those under suicide watch are checked by guards every 15 minutes.
During a meeting with medical staff on March 13, Sonsthagen was cooperative and denied having suicidal thoughts. He was returned to the jail’s general population that day.
But his suicidal remarks continued. Sonsthagen phoned two people and pleaded with them to bail him out. They said he made suicidal comments after telling him they did not have the money. One of them said she heard him make similar comments before and did not believe he would follow through on them.
At least two inmates also said they heard him make similar remarks but apparently did not report them to officers. One said everyone “talks stupid in here” and did not take Sonsthagen seriously.
Sonsthagen took his own life the evening of March 15, in between half-hour checks from officers. A review of surveillance camera footage showed that officers saw Sonsthagen in his cell during checks at 10:27 p.m. and 10:54 p.m. He was found unresponsive at 11:22 p.m.
An internal review of Waukesha County’s investigation showed no rules violations, and an internal investigation was not performed, Burnett said.
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 guards fired or resigned after 4 deaths at Milwaukee County Jail
