Copyright 2006 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service
Lawsuit compares firefighters’ actions to Ku Klux Klan’s
By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
A federal lawsuit filed Thursday compares the alleged actions of two North Lake firefighters to “the Ku Klux Klan at the height of its activities” because fire and Town of Merton officials created an environment that allowed an African-American fisherman and his family to be accosted at a pond last spring.
Fire Chief Terrence J. Stapleton and firefighter Mark J. Weber are facing hate-crime charges in Waukesha County Circuit Court that accuse them of taking part in the April 19 incident that shook the Town of Merton.
Weber is accused of pointing a handgun at Mark Bratton of Milwaukee and cocking the trigger while shouting racial slurs at him for refusing to leave the Monches Mill Pond. Stapleton is accused of helping Weber chasing Bratton with a leashed German shepherd. Stapleton later told a reporter that he used the animal “because colored people don’t like dogs.”
The lawsuit accuses the town and Fire Department of maintaining ties with Weber and Stapleton, both of whom are suspended from the department.
“The North Lake Fire Department board of directors allowed Chief Stapleton to keep his keys to the firehouse and indeed attend and participate in meetings of the fire department while he was under a leave or suspension as a result of the criminal charges brought in Waukesha County,” the lawsuit says.
Town Attorney G. William Chapman said through a spokesman with his law firm that he had no comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial to determine damages for Bratton and three family members. It contends that they suffered unspecified personal injuries and mental anguish.
The suit names Stapleton, Weber, the town and the Fire Department as defendants. It says the department and the town “created the environment in which action just like those described in this complaint could occur.”
“The North Lake Fire Department firehouse was like a clubhouse for firefighters,” the lawsuit says. “It was a place to gather, drink alcoholic beverages, play games and otherwise seek advice and help from fellow firefighters.
“The department’s board of directors and the Town of Merton were aware of those activities but did nothing to stop it. Indeed, both supported just that conduct failing to take action and renewing firefighting contracts with a fire department run Fire Chief Stapleton and staffed firefighter Weber, whose actions in this case resemble those of the Ku Klux Klan at the height of its activities.”
Stapleton has said that he was only trying to help Bratton chasing him away from Weber, who might have hurt the fisherman.
Weber has said he became angry with Bratton after he slowly crossed Highway E adjacent to the Monches Mill Pond, causing Weber to stop his truck, a criminal complaint says.
Stapleton, 66, is free on a personal recognizance bond on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct under the hate-crime statute and obstructing an officer.
Weber, 42, is free on $5,000 bail on a felony charge of intentionally pointing a firearm at a person as a hate crime and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
Both men have pleaded not guilty.
The criminal case is scheduled to go before Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee S. Dreyfus Jr. on April 3 for a status conference.