Just trying to stay afloat

On November 3, 2023... my husband Sean was misidentified, attacked, tased, and then arrested by Brookfield, WI Police Department. They took him to Waukesha County Jail, where he sat for 3 hours, until I could bail him out for $300. He is now being charged with resisting an officer, which he did not do. We have video evidence, taken by me, as well as body camera footage from multiple officers involved.

I am starting this fundraiser out of desperation & to prepare for the legal battle we have now been pulled into, as the City of Brookfield is charging Sean with resisting an officer. His first court appearance is set for Thursday, December 28, 2023.

Early evening (around 5:30pm) on Friday, November 3, 2023... Sean and I drove to my parents' house to borrow my Dad's truck & trailer to go pick up two futons we were buying off Marketplace, for our new townhouse we just moved into with our 3 children on October 14. The kids were all at their other parents' for the week, as we both have joint custody.

We picked up the futons in Oak Creek, unloaded them at our new place around 6:45pm, and I needed Sean to turn the truck around for me... because I'm not experienced with backing up a truck & trailer (he worked as a mechanic in heavy duty truck repair for over a decade & is pro at this).

We were leaving our community, stopped at the stop sign, when we heard a loud rapping on Sean's window. From there it escalated quickly, with what we quickly found out was a Brookfield Police Officer, impatiently asking Sean who he was while simultaneously ordering Sean out of the vehicle. Sean quickly realized he did not have his ID, as he keeps it above the visor in our Tahoe... and we were in my Dad's truck. The officer asked Sean who he was, Sean returned the question, as the officer did not identify himself verbally (he may have briefly shone his flashlight on his badge to Sean)... I was in the passenger seat, startled & confused, yelling and telling Sean not to move, asking what was happening. Within seconds, Sean was being pulled from the truck by three police officers, he voluntarily put the truck in "park" and stepped out. They took him down in full force & tased him. At this point, we still had no idea what was happening & now more officers were showing up. It was raining and they had Sean pinned face down on the ground for over 15-20minutes.

As soon as I realized they were opening the door to grab him, I started to record on my phone. As soon as they took Sean down, I stopped recording to make a series of phone calls to my lawyer, other police officers I know, and eventually the Brookfield PD dispatch to find out what was happening. They couldn't help me, didn't know themselves, took my information and said someone would call me back. (No one ever did)

Eventually an officer came up to the truck window, and told me that a child was found severely beaten, and he (Sean) was wanted for it. I protested, even if he was capable of that, it would not be possible... because our children aren't even home. Sean immediately asked for the Supervisor, and K. Turek was right there kneeling beside Sean already... convinced he was "the guy".

After what seemed like an eternity, we found out Sean was NOT the man they had been searching for, and heard over multiple officer's radios that the mother of the child was still in contact with him.

Once it was realized that Sean wasn't the right suspect, they waited & eventually decided to arrest him anyway for resisting. Supervisor Turek came and talked to me, explaining how he looked just like the man they were searching for, and I would now have to go bail Sean out for $150 from Waukesha County Jail.. and it could take anywhere from 2-6 hours to process him. $300 and 3 hours later, I had bailed Sean out of jail. He said he also saw the actual suspect in the jail, as they had arrested him shortly after attacking Sean.

We went home, and soon Sean realized his back muscles and entire body were very sore. We decided to go to Froedtert Emergency Room to get him checked out. They took his vitals, we waited for almost 4 hours and were exhausted, so decided to just get some food and go home. Our night ended around 5am the following morning.

Later that day, Saturday November 4 @ about 6pm, we went to the Brookfield Police Department, with the intention of filing official complaints against the officers involved. We ended up meeting with Supervisor Turek for almost 2 hours in the department lobby, just talking about the events of the previous night, expressing our disappointment and broken trust with the PD in Brookfield, after only moving into the neighborhood not even 3wks prior.

We found out at that time, Turek was the one who gave the orders for the younger officers to apprehend Sean, leading to this attack and wrongful arrest. He kept saying it was an "unfortunate situation" but continued to defend his & his officers' actions. He asked to take pictures of Sean's wounds and bruises, there were a few. Then he said his chief or boss would be following up with us the following week on what happened. We never got a call, an email, nothing.

Over the next month, we spoke with a lawyer, recorded and documented Sean's injuries with a doctor, searched for mental healthcare to no avail, and realized the trauma we've endured. Also, we found out the suspect of the child abuse lives a few doors down from us, and is still walking around, free. Sean recognized him instantly from being in the jail.

We heard nothing from Brookfield PD in this time, and on Monday December 4, we finally decided to email multiple news media outlets to get the story out. The community should know what these officers have done.

JSOnline was the first to respond within a day & the journalist had already made a records request through Brookfield PD. The story was published Friday, December 8, 2023... charges of "resisting" were issued on Sean Monday, December 11, 2023... over a month after the event.

Resilience is tested sometimes, and this has been very difficult for Sean to process, myself being a witness to it all.... as well as the very lasting mental & emotional effects.

We are parents, we have three children (14, 12, and 10yrs old), multiple pets, a big family, and very full lives... I work full time, Sean is a musician, artist, and also recently got back into CAD (computer aided design) as well as Twitch affiliate status. Sean's music production & art is his therapy, and through the last month plus, we have also realized how virtually impossible it is to get mental healthcare. We are currently on a waitlist at two Native American run health centers.

We are very lucky & grateful to have such a supportive family and community, but we are not financially prepared for this whatsoever.

Funds raised will be put toward the following:

Above everything else, Sean wants the officers to be held accountable, and for police to be better trained in general, so these awful things stop happening to innocent people. Some other police departments have better training processes in place for officers to better approach situations like this, and can likely serve as models.

Our hopes are also to help anyone else put in our position, because the effects (emotional, mental, financial) are endless.

Thank you, every little bit counts. We love you guys.