If you live in Racine County, you're forgiven if you find yourself wondering whether there are two standards of justice - one for police, one for everybody else?

     Over the last year and a half, the Racine County District Attorney's Office spent a ton of taxpayer money trying unsuccessfully to convict a Case High School teacher for inadvertently slapping a student.   These efforts finally ended last week when a jury returned a not guilty verdict in her case.

     Wednesday afternoon, the same District Attorney's Office announced that it would not seek criminal charges against two Town of Waterford police officers who, while off duty, were involved in a drunken brawl.  Instead, the two will receive citations (tickets) for Disorderly Conduct (a non-criminal ordinance violation).  While this might actually be an appropriate disposition of the case, it's hard to find much consistency in the charging practices of the DA's Office.

     Before the cases of Waterford Police Officers Michael Geiger and MIchael May get swept under the rug, I think it's fair to review the information contained in the police reports.

     According to the report prepared by Racine County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Schmidt, he was dispatched to the home of Town of Waterford police officer Michael Geiger at around 5:30 a.m. last Saturday morning after a 9-1-1 hang-up call had been made from the residence.  When Deputy Schmidt arrived, his report says that he observed that the screen on the front door was partially ripped off the frame.  He also observed blood on the floor of the entry way, a large puddle of red wine on the floor of the kitchen surrounded by broken glass and a cell phone and broken watch lying near the front door.

     When Deputy Schmidt entered the laundry room, his report states that he observed Michael Geiger sitting on an ottoman and Town of Waterford police officer MIchael May lying on the floor.  Deputy Schmidt says he observed what appeared to be blood on the floor of the laundry room and that May was holding his jaw.  Blood was also observed on the washer and dryer.

     At that point, Deputy Schmidt writes that May began screaming at him and Town of Waterford Officer Brad Leech (who had also responded to the call).  May allegedly yelled that "this is a ____ing crime scene and you two idiots better cordon the area off".  As Deputy Schmidt continued his investigation, May continued to swear at him and "belittle" him.  May told Schmidt that Schmidt would ___ the whole thing up, that Geiger had tried to kill him and that he thought his jaw was broken.  In his report, Schmidt  states that May continued to be belligent and continued to swear at him! 

     What a class act!  I'm sure that citizens of Waterford look forward to being stopped some dark evening by Officer May for a traffic violation.

     In any event, Deputy Schmidt then interviewed Michael Geiger's 16 year old son.  The son told Schmidt that at around 2:45 a.m., his father had called him and asked him to come to Captain Missy's tavern to pick him and May up.  Michael Geiger told police that he made this call because he and May were "too intoxicated" to drive.  The two had apparently been drinking at one bar or another since around 7:30 p.m. the previous evening.

     As an aside, Wisconsin's Graduated Driver's License Program allows minors to drive after midnight if accompanied by one of their parents.  I suspect that the legislative intent behind this provision did not contemplate youthful drivers providing late night chauffeur service for parents who are too blitzed to drive.

     Regardless, the kid met the pair at the bar and then drove them both back to Geiger's residence in May's SUV.  Once they got back to the house, Geiger told his son to keep May's keys so that May couldn't drive.

     Sometime after this, Geiger and May apparently got into a fistfight (which led to the destruction that the officers found upon arrival at the house).  According to Geiger's son, the front door screen was damaged when May punched through the screen after being unable to manipulate the door handle.

     May was subsequently taken to the hospital and Geiger was taken to the Town of Waterford Police Department.  Interestingly, neither man was placed under arrest.  May, to the surprise of no one, despite his earlier concerns about protecting the crime scene, decided that he did not want to press charges.

     So what do we really have here?  Two off duty cops go out and apparently get blind drunk, somehow manage to get themselves home and rather than simply sleeping it off, get into a fight.  Under these facts, a municipal citation for disorderly conduct is not completely out of the realm of possibilty.

     That said though, there are several things that bother me about the way this case was handled. 

     First, forgive me if I have a difficult time believing that two average Town of Waterford citizens would have been treated the same way as these two officers were?  In making this point, I don't simply consider the evidence of damage to the residence, the blood and the obvious abuse of alcohol.  It is also the way that May, in particular, reacted to the investigating officers.

     Let's imagine that an officer comes across an average citizen under these circumstances and that the citizen repeatedly curses and belittles the investigating officer.  Why do I suspect that that citizen would most likely be going directly from the hospital to the jail in handcuffs?  This isn't what happened in this case though.  Of couse, May was not just an average citizen - he was a cop.

     Second, this is the same District Attorney's Office that charged Jessica Kachur with a crime for inadvertently making contact with a high school student.  If a small slap is a crime, why would a drunken fist fight that draws blood be an ordinance violation?  Could it be because these guys were officers instead of teachers?

     I don't know if these guys got special treatment because they were cops.  I do know though that the next time an ordinary citizen is arrested for disorderly conduct in Waterford, authorities better be certain that that citizen is treated no differently than Geiger and May were.  If this causes authorities a problem moving forward, so be it.  Unfortunately, it will be a problem of their own making.

     Speaking of problems, regardless of what happens with the ordinance violation, both of these cops need some strong internal discipline from the Town of Waterford Police Department.  Crime or not, their behavior was disgraceful.