As the toll from illegal strip searches mounts, a jury hands down a $386,000 verdict against Milwaukee in a police civil rights case

In the latest case involving the conduct of a former Milwaukee police officer that has led to millions of dollars in legal settlements, a jury has issued a $386,000 award against the City of Milwaukee after finding the officer violated another man's civil rights.

The jury also found that another officer falsely arrested the man in another incident in which he said he was then forcibly administered a powerful laxative.

The eight-person jury found that only two of the four officers named as defendants — former Milwaukee police officer Michael Vagnini and current officer Michael Valuch Jr. — violated Jerpaul D. Spencer's constitutional rights in interactions with him in 2011.

Vagnini served prison time due to his illegal strip and body cavity searches, and the city has paid more than $6 million in settlements and costs. The case on which the jury decided late Friday was one of more than 30 lawsuits that had been filed against Vagnini.

It took the jury about 8 hours to come back with the verdict and monetary award — $168,500 of that sum in punitive damages.

Police never found anything illicit on Spencer, attorney Nate Cade told the jury, and he argued for $2.4 million in damages, with $1.8 million of that amount in punitive damages to send a message.

"You need to send a signal to these defendants and to others who might do this in the future that this is wrong," he said in closing arguments following a weeklong trial in federal court in Milwaukee.

Assistant City Attorney Anthony Jackson contended that Spencer's story had evolved to serve his interests.

"You lie about a little, you lie about everything," he said, adopting a phrase Cade had introduced.

In a message via Cade, Spencer told the Journal Sentinel after the verdict that he was at peace with the jury's finding that Vagnini and Valuch violated his civil rights. However, he expressed disappointment with the finding that then-officer Jacob Knight and current officer Keith Garland Jr. had not.

Cade called the verdict a "hard fought victory" and said he expected the cost to taxpayers would be higher than the jury award because he planned to petition the court for legal fees of between $180,000 and $200,000.

He also slammed Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman over his opposition to a proposal from the City Attorney's Office to settle the case for $270,000 and avoid a trial. Cade argued that Bauman's objection to the proposed settlement was due to a "vendetta" against the City Attorney’s Office and would mean taxpayers would have to pay more.

The Judiciary and Legislation Committee and the 14 Common Council members present at a March meeting rejected that proposal.

On Monday, Bauman denied any vendetta.

"At the time presumably we thought we had a better case than what the jury agreed to," he said.

Milwaukee Common Council President José G. Pérez said before commenting he'd need to talk with Ald. Ashanti Hamilton, who chairs the Judiciary and Legislation Committee, regarding what the committee learned that caused members to recommend that the council not approve the settlement.

A February memo from the city's Legislative Reference Bureau indicated that in all, the settlements and other costs in cases against the former officer have cost the city more than $6.3 million. Eight previous settlements have ranged from $35,000 to $5 million, according to the memo.

Neither the city nor the Milwaukee Police Department were listed as defendants in Friday's case, but the officers are indemnified by the city.

The city is self-insured, meaning taxpayers ultimately bear the costs.

Spencer claimed that in three separate incidents between May and July 2011 he was illegally stopped, assaulted and searched via invasive pat downs.

Cade told the jury that in one of the incidents involving Garland and Valuch, medical personnel at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital were told by police that he had swallowed a bag of drugs, prompting the medical workers to ultimately forcibly administer a laxative that caused him to continually defecate.

The jury, however, found that Garland had not violated Spencer's rights but that Valuch had violated his rights by falsely arresting him.

Jackson said the officers had acted reasonably in taking Spencer to the hospital and had not forced medical staff to perform the treatment he received there.

He said he thought Spencer, then 17, may have "had some words" for the officers who stopped him, prompting them to take him to the hospital to teach him a lesson. Except, he said, the medical treatment was more intense than they had expected.

But Jackson contended that if the officers had lied about their belief that Spencer swallowed a bag of drugs, they would have been risking the credibility that is central to their jobs in law enforcement.

"They would be risking their careers," he said.

The jury also found that Vagnini had used excessive force against Spencer in a June 25, 2011, interaction but that Knight, whom Spencer claimed held him during the incident, had not violated his rights.

In a second interaction involving Vagnini, the jury found that Vagnini had violated Spencer's rights by stopping him without reasonable suspicion and conducting an unreasonable search.

Jackson said Knight and Vagnini denied the allegations against them, and that Vagnini said he had no contact with Spencer on June 25, 2011.

Vagnini, who performed illegal strip and body cavity searches on dozens of drug suspects, was sentenced in 2013 to 26 months in prison and an additional 34 months extended supervision. Four felony convictions of misconduct in public office cost Vagnini his job while the underlying conduct, conducting illegal strip searches, accounted for four misdemeanor convictions.

Seven sexual assault charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

State law and police procedures prohibit officers from conducting body cavity searches, a procedure limited to medical personnel only when police have gotten a search warrant.

Knight in 2013 pleaded no contest for his role in illegal strip searches and was sentenced to 20 days in the Milwaukee County House of Correction.

The Milwaukee City Attorney's Office, which represented the officers and former officers, has seen an exodus of staffers under City Attorney Tearman Spencer. That includes four attorneys who had been assigned to the case at various times but have left the office or are on leave, according to court records.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jury hands down $386,000 verdict against City of Milwaukee