Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Friday, April 11, 2025
Cops Gone Wild: Here's what to know about the former MPD sergeant involved in deportations
Jessica Van Egeren
Charles Cross Jr. was hired by the department in 1993.
In 2012, he drove a car with a blood alcohol limit twice the legal limit into a home. At the time of the crash, he was also under investigation for allegedly claiming overtime he did not earn, according to previous reporting by the Journal Sentinel.
Cross was fired from his position as a Milwaukee Police Sergeant after the crash. He appealed the decision and resigned in the process.
Previously, he was convicted in 2007 of criminal damage to property, according to court records. This misdemeanor conviction came after he kicked in the door of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and threatened to kill himself, the court records show. He was fined $500 on that count.
Prosecutors offered him a deferred prosecution agreement on a charge of domestic violence-related disorderly conduct, which was dropped after he got treatment for depression and alcohol abuse, according to a Journal Sentinel article.
Nannette Hegerty, police chief at the time, fired Cross, but the civilian Fire and Police Commission gave him his job back after the 2007 incident.
It was after that incident that he was placed on Milwaukee County's Brady list, a compilation of law enforcement officers deemed by prosecutors to have credibility issues.
Cross, 62, is back in the news for his current job with CoreCivic, which runs many of the immigration detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Cross signed a report that implicated Andry José Hernandez, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela, as affiliated with the notorious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, based on his tattoos, according to court filings reviewed by USA TODAY. Cross typed his name over the title “INVESTIGATOR” on the form.
Critics have questioned the legality and effectiveness of having contract workers make such determinations.
Hernandez, 31, has denied any connection to the gang. He sought shelter in the United States after he told authorities he was persecuted as a gay man, one of the protected groups allowed to claim asylum.
Last month, Hernandez was flown with 238 men, all accused of being gang members by the Trump Administration, to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison also known as CECOT. A 60 Minutes investigation found that 179 of the men, or 75% of the names on the list, had no known criminal record in the U.S. or abroad.
The operation has been challenged by civil rights attorneys, who argue it was carried out without due process.
Reached by phone by a USA TODAY reporter, Cross deferred all questions to CoreCivic headquarters. CoreCivic said in a statement that the decision to deport or release any person rests with ICE.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ashley Luthern contributed to this report.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Monday, April 7, 2025
Cops Gone Wild: Falsifying reports. Found 'not credible.' Why aren’t they on Milwaukee's list of cops with integrity issues?
Ashley Luthern
After two days of testimony about a traffic stop that ended in a drug arrest, a Milwaukee County judge had heard enough.
“You can stop,” Judge Paul R. Van Grunsven said last fall, interrupting the defense attorney who was still cross-examining a West Allis police officer.
The judge recounted inconsistencies in the officer’s testimony and body camera footage shown during an evidence suppression hearing.
“This witness has lost any credibility with this Court,” Van Grunsven said. “I find none of his testimony to therefore be truthful.”
The officer, Michael Lazaris, left the stand.
He had been found untruthful by a judge, yet he does not appear on a list of officers with credibility concerns, findings of dishonesty or bias, or past criminal charges.
He’s not the only one.
Read and see much more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2025/04/07/milwaukee-countys-brady-list-omits-police-found-not-credible-in-court-giglio-lazaris-boyack-milone/82678154007/
Friday, March 28, 2025
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Monday, March 17, 2025
Friday, March 14, 2025
Cops Gone Wild: Feds accuse Milwaukee police officer of helping 'Burleigh Zoo Family' street gang
Ashley Luthern
A former Milwaukee police officer is facing federal charges after authorities say he used his position to help members of a violent street gang.
Juwon J. Madlock is accused of transferring ammunition to a felon, obstruction, lying to federal agents and possessing a machine gun after FBI agents found a gun with a switch device at his residence, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Thursday. Switches are designed to convert handguns into automatic weapons.
The allegations came to light when a federal task force was investigating a suspected member of the “BZF,” also known as the “Burleigh Zoo Family,” and searched a house in Greenfield. During the search, investigators found a cellphone that had contacts between the suspect and Madlock, according to court records.
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He was among two dozen law enforcement officers who kept their jobs after being added to the list, which is maintained by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office.
DATABASE: Who's on Milwaukee County's list of police with integrity concerns?
In a statement early Friday, the Milwaukee Police Department said it had become aware of "significant allegations of criminal misconduct involving one of its members."
The officer was arrested Wednesday by investigators from the FBI and the department's Internal Affairs Division, and the officer resigned "during that contact," according to the department statement.
"Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman expects all members, sworn and civilian, to demonstrate the highest ethical standards in the performance of their duties and was extremely disappointed to learn about the misconduct in this case," the department said.
"Chief Norman wants to remind the public that everyone is afforded the right of due process under the law, and as such, are innocent until proven guilty," the statement concluded.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Cops Gone Wild: Milwaukee County tracks officers with credibility problems. But the system is inconsistent and incomplete.
A deputy falsifying jail logs. Officers stealing during a search warrant. An off-duty officer hitting a parked car after leaving a bar, then lying about it.
Imagine one of them arrested you.
Would you want to know about their past?
Under the law, you have a right to that information. How and when you get access to it depends on prosecutors, who file criminal charges and bring a case in court.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has a system for tracking officers with credibility concerns, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges. But it is inconsistent, incomplete and relies, in part, on police agencies to report integrity violations, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found.
Read and see much more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2025/03/04/milwaukee-countys-police-officers-brady-list-is-inconsistent-incomplete-prosecutors/78390712007/
Friday, March 7, 2025
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Cops Gone Wild: Milwaukee County tracks officers with credibility problems. But the system is inconsistent and incomplete.
Ashley Luthern
A deputy falsifying jail logs. Officers stealing during a search warrant. An off-duty officer hitting a parked car after leaving a bar, then lying about it.
Imagine one of them arrested you.
Would you want to know about their past?
Under the law, you have a right to that information. How and when you get access to it depends on prosecutors, who file criminal charges and bring a case in court.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has a system for tracking officers with credibility concerns, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges. But it is inconsistent, incomplete and relies, in part, on police agencies to report integrity violations, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found.
Read and see much more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2025/03/04/milwaukee-countys-police-officers-brady-list-is-inconsistent-incomplete-prosecutors/78390712007/
Cops Gone Wild: Former Greenfield police officer recorded teen girls changing in school locker room, complaint says
Adrienne Davis
A former Greenfield police officer is charged with recording underage girls in a high school locker room while working at a private Milwaukee school.
Fernando Bustos, 41, of Greendale, faces a felony count of invasion of privacy with a surveillance device regarding an incident where a victim is under 18 years old.
Bustos worked as a security coordinator for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, 1818 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee, before being fired, according to a criminal complaint. School officials did not immediately respond for comment.
Bustos served as a Greenfield police officer until 2020, when he voluntarily resigned, according to the Greenfield Police Department.
Documents show Bustos resigned after an incident where he mishandled evidence, which put him on the Brady list, a national documentation of law enforcement officers with a history of dishonesty, bias or past crimes. The archive can affect officers' credibility as a witness in court hearings.
Bustos was recorded setting up a camera at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
According to the complaint:
On Feb. 19, school officials told Milwaukee police officers Bustos was ordered to turn over his school laptop and iPhone after being fired, but he refused to give the items back. Bustos demanded to be allowed to remove personal items from the electronics before returning them.
Bustos also told staff he needed to retrieve personal property from a staff locker room before leaving. He was escorted by a staff member into the locker room before saying, "You wouldn’t want people to think the wrong thing of us in here together.”
Because of this comment, the staff member waited by the doorway, but noticed Bustos was taking an unusual amount of time to retrieve his personal belongings.
Bustos eventually exited the locker room with two full backpacks. Bustos showed the staff member a pair of shoes in one backpack but refused to open the other backpack.
A subsequent inventory of property items left inside Busto's office included a camera with an SD card inside. Staff checked the SD card and found it contained hundreds of 10-second videos taken inside the high school girls locker room.
The videos were recorded between May 21, 2024, to Feb. 1, 2025, according to the complaint.
A detective said a review of 379 videos with timestamps between Oct. 7 and 8 included one showing Bustos installing a camera inside the high school girl's locker room positioned toward the bathroom sinks. The footage showed Bustos closing a locker and locking it with a padlock.
No other cameras were found after police conducted a sweep of the school. Staff told officers the locker room is only used by female students in grades nine through 12.
Documents show former Greenfield officer was investigated before his 2020 resignation
Bustos was investigated for mishandling evidence ahead of him resigning from the Greenfield Police Department, documents show.
On Dec. 4, 2020, Bustos was the lead officer in an investigation of two suspects committing identity theft at Paul's Wine & Liquor 2, 4955 S. 27th St.
The suspects were arrested and items such as bottles of illegally purchased alcohol, cartons of cigarettes and fraudulent credit cards were seized from the suspects' vehicle by Bustos.
The stolen merchandise was loaded into Bustos' squad car at the scene. He later unloaded and photographed the recovered items before sending out an email to the department ― but two bottles of alcohol recovered from the scene weren't included in his photograph.
A few days after this incident, concern rose among detectives after they could not locate the two bottles of alcohol recovered from the scene. They were valued at $120 each.
A detective conducted a follow-up with the officers who were at the scene and police body camera footage was reviewed.
Bustos and the other officers insisted all of the alcohol was inventoried.
Bustos was seen on body cameras and surveillance footage with evidence taken from the scene, but the liquor seen on body cameras was never inventoried into property.
After reviewing the footage, detectives concluded Bustos removed two bottles of alcohol, but he never inventoried them into evidence.
Bustos resigned from his position on Dec. 29, 2020, before the investigation was completed.
The finished investigation determined Bustos lied about mishandling evidence and could not explain why the bottles were missing. Documents show criminal charges of theft and misconduct were supported, however online court records show Bustos was never charged.
Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
This story was updated to correct a typo.
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