UPDATE: Sterling Brown's lawyer responds to new arrest footage, documents released by Milwaukee Police

UPDATE: Sterling Brown’s lawyer responds to new arrest footage, documents released by Milwaukee Police
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Updated: 4:41 p.m. October 15, 2018

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Sterling Brown’s attorney, Mark Thomsen, is responding to the hours of new video footage and hundreds of documents Milwaukee Police released Friday relating to Brown’s arrest.

In the new footage, the woman Brown was with that night told police she and Brown were on a date.

“The way the police humiliated and demeaned Mr. Brown in front of his date is just outrageous,” said Thomsen, an attorney at Gingras, Cates & Wachs. 

He said they are ready to take the case to trial, if necessary.

“The first thing the City has to do to start any discussion that will resolve this is to admit legally in an answer that this was an unconstitutional race-based stop and assault of Mr. Brown,” Thomsen said.

It’s an issue, Thomsen said Brown is ready to address.

“Brown wants to work with the police and African American and minority communities to better relations, so we are waiting for the city to make that happen,” Thomsen said.

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Posted: 9:33 p.m. October 12, 2018

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Friday, Milwaukee Police released hours of video and pages of documents relating to the arrest of Sterling Brown, including video that shows a new angle of the moments Sterling Brown was tased.

Brown was stopped by an officer back in January for parking across two handicap spaces in a Walgreens parking lot.

Police also released the audio recordings from the interviews of all of the officers involved in Brown’s arrest.

“Every bone in my body says this gentleman is armed and he's fighting with us,” Sergeant Sean Mahnke said during his interview. “They're on the ground, they're still struggling. That's when I ask does anyone have a taser?”

Sgt. Mahnke isn't the only officer who thought Brown was armed that night.

“I could see something in his hand,” an MPD Officer said in his interview. “I could see black and shiny.”

When police searched Brown, the officer said they found a cell phone and a key fob.

During his interview, Sgt. Mahnke said the use of force was justified.

“It was reasonable because the officers are struggling with a possibly armed suspect where a taser is a less than lethal option to immediately stop that resistive struggle,” Sgt. Mahnke said.

Mahnke was one of the three officers disciplined following Brown’s arrest. Another officer was fired after posts he made on social media about the arrest.

The new videos MPD release also show the woman Brown was with that night. On the scene, she told police they were on a date. She said the situation with the officer who stopped Brown, “escalated.”

“I feel like he was asking questions just because it wasn’t that serious,” she said. “He was already on edge about something.”

Brown has since filed a civil rights lawsuit in response to his arrest.


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