

Heirs of Milwaukee man killed during botched drug arrest file civil rights lawsuit

Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jermaine Claybrooks' aunt, Beverly Walker, holds a sign with Claybrooks' obituary and speaks to family and friends on June 25. "He was, and still is, a beautiful person," she said. "He was there for everyone."

The minor children of a suspected drug dealer killed by a task force team during a failed arrest in 2017 have sued six officers from three agencies and the City of Milwaukee.

Jermaine Claybrooks, 32, was shot March 16 in the 4900 block of North 19th Place during an encounter with West Allis and Milwaukee police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who were investigating him on suspicion of possible drug dealing.

District Attorney John Chisholm declared in September 2017 that the three officers who shot Claybrooks acted in self-defense after he was seen pointing a handgun at officers from inside a car.

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The suit accuses the officers of unlawfully stopping Claybrooks without cause.

On the day of Claybrooks' death, the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force had arrested Anthony Vivians as part of an ongoing investigation of a drug ring. Vivians then offered to call and set up his source, whom he claimed to know only as Big Bro.

Though the officers had no past record of working with Vivians and he only knew a nickname and general description of Big Bro's car, they relied on that identification when Claybrooks drove to the arranged area and tried to box in his car.

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But as they began to maneuver unmarked cars, Claybrooks suspected something and tried to drive away before he hit a tree. 

Officers then swarmed the car and smashed one of the tinted windows. A DEA agent said he could then see Claybrooks pointing a gun at another officer and opened fire.

Two West Allis detectives heard an officer yelling that Claybrooks had a gun, heard shots and then also fired into the car. Claybrooks was hit 10 times.

Police said they found Claybrooks holding a pistol in his lap with his finger on the trigger. They also recovered 148 grams of heroin, 70 grams of marijuana and 50 oxycodone pills and $30,000.

All the officers were in street clothes and driving unmarked cars as part of the undercover operation, so no dash cameras or body cameras recorded the incident. That led to suspicion among Claybrooks' family and others who complained about a lack of clear information.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Milwaukee federal court, states the officers had no prior knowledge of Clabybrooks being part of a drug ring and had not conducted any controlled buys from him or obtained a search warrant for his home or car, and therefore had no probable cause to stop his car.

It also claims the defendants "conspired, confederated and agreed to obfuscate the facts surrounding the confidential informant, the lack of probable cause or reasonable suspicion to arrest" Claybrooks.

The plaintiffs are the co-special administrators of Claybrooks' estate and the mothers of his two children. One faction is represented by Walter Stern, a Kenosha lawyer involved in several civil rights suits over police shootings.

The other is represented by Verona Swanigan, a former candidate for Milwaukee County district attorney who now lists her law office address in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Named as defendants are the City of Milwaukee, former Police Chief Edward Flynn, Milwaukee Police Officers John Schott, John Ivey and Martez Ball, West Allis officers Todd Kurtz and Daniel Dittorric and DEA Special Agent James Krueger.