(Kenosha County Sheriff)
The criminal cases against two Illinois residents featured in a viral video inside the Kenosha Applebees were both dismissed today. Kenosha DA Mike Graveley filed motions to dismiss both cases today and they were signed by Judge Gerad Dougvillo just after noon.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KCE spoke with DA Graveley today and he said that his office would not be commenting on the decision. Graveley’s office charged 24-year-old Jermelle English with Resisting An Officer and Disorderly conduct. English’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Shanya Boyd was charged with Resisting An Officer, Disorderly Conduct, and Possession of Marijuana. The incident was first seen by most due to a video taken by an employee of Applebee’s employee going viral.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Kenosha criminal defense attorney and author, Michael Cicchini, was consulted by KCE and agreed with Graveley dismissing the case.
“The resisting charge has a knowledge element. It might have been difficult for the state to prove to a jury that these defendants knew the officers were acting with lawful authority, among other things. With regard to any physical evidence, the issue there would be whether the officers had probable cause to arrest and whether any subsequent search was justified. This is a different standard, but pursuing that doesn’t seem like a good use of state resources in this case.”
KCE has spoken to many law enforcement officers who are fearful of the precedent that this dismissal creates. “If people think the police are wrong about something, they might now believe that they have carte blanche to resist arrest. They do not. When [police] have reasonable suspicion that someone committed a crime, we can detain someone temporarily and you should comply. The time to argue is not on the scene. If our investigation show you aren’t the person we’re looking for, we’ll kick you loose,” said one Kenosha area law enforcement officer. Wisconsin used to allow the resisting of an unlawful arrest, but made a change in 2003.
English and Boyd hired Attorneys Pat Cafferty and Aileen Henry, respectively. New-York based attorney Alex Spiro was admitted pro hac vice to represent English and Chicago-based attorney Timothy Spiro was also admitted to represent Boyd.
KCE contacted the four attorneys for comment, Caffrey told KCE that “Dismissal of the charges was the reasonable result in this case.”
The Incident
On July 20th, 2023 at about 11:00 pm, officers from the Kenosha Police Department responded to the intersection of Hwy 31 (Green Bay Rd.) and Hwy 50 for a report of rollover collision involving two vehicles. Occupants of one of the vehicles fled the scene.
The suspect in the hit and run was eventually located hiding in a nearby Applebees restaurant. As many people have seen, two other individuals, Jermelle English and Shanya Boyd, were also taken into custody during the course of the investigation. Mr. English and Ms. Boyd were not involved in the hit and run crash. Force was used in affecting those arrests, which in turned automatically triggered an internal review of this incident.
After an exhaustive review, KPD identified violations of Kenosha Police Department policy committed by both Officer Courtier and Officer Vences. Officer Vences received a four-day suspension as it was determined that the initial force used by Officer Vences was reasonable but that he should have re-evaluated the effectiveness of those strikes and considered other options to overcome Mr. English’s resistance. He also failed to complete a report that met the standards of the Kenosha Police Department.
Officer Courtier received a ten-day suspension. The investigation found that Officer Courtier failed to decontaminate Ms. Boyd after utilizing pepper spray and did not meet the standards of the Kenosha Police Department in regard to professional communication, the safe operation of department vehicles and report writing.
The Kenosha Police Department says it is committed to providing the highest quality service to its citizens and guests. KPD says it strives to train our officers to the highest standard and will hold them accountable if they fall short of those standards. In addition to the suspension time, both officers are receiving supplemental training to correct the deficiencies that were identified in their response to this situation.
All reports and Body-Worn-Camera footage can be viewed at the below link:
30 Responses
I suppose there is a argument to be made about the resisting precedent BUT,,,
Gravely shouldn’t have taken this long to dismiss these charges. If by now after a very long career he still needed to see which way the wind is blowing on his decisions maybe it’s good that he’s leaving.
Is he retiring ?
This could be a situation where everyone is right and everyone is wrong, too.
Technically, a case can be made that this couple broke the law. They certainly could have avoided escalating the situation. But, given the police conduct at the scene, would any reasonable jury convict them? I absolutely understand that good police officers may not like the outcome here but there’s a saying that bad cases make bad law. The prospects of a jury pardon are better than even odds.
Play stupid games with stupid prizes! Everyone is an internet lawyer know. I would hate to be an officer and having to deal with this monkey see monkey do crap.
Did you just say monkey ?
Sounds like youre currently in the internet courtroom and assuming you know more than people who got their charges dropped in an actual real life courtroom. Ironic. More like moronic
Dumbass u mean you cant eat in peace..these pigs over escalated the situation and beat up two innocent people and took their child!!
Not sure on this one.Tough call.But what’s up with Steinbrink?
I’m not sure if you are trolling me or not but this is getting incredibly frustrating. The next thing that will happen with steinbrink is either he will take a plea deal or go to trial. There are no updates. There won’t be any updates until one of those two things happened and you can rest assured that you will read about it here first
Are you saying there’s no news on Steinbrink?
Yes! NO NEWS!
How about now?
My guess is that he’s trying to raise the money to pay off restitution which would arguably put him in a better position for a plea deal.
Raise money?
He may have to go to daddy on bended knee but he will inherit it someday anyway.
Wood chippers are expensive as hell.
You are a complete moron! How’s your buddy Biden doing? Asshole!
The Steinbrink comments are getting pretty annoying.
Anybody that follows your work, knows damn well that
if there were anything to report, you’d be on it in no time flat.
Send your money to Israel
If you’re black and break the law .. Gravely will dismiss all charges ..
Just like his buddy , Milwaukee DA John Chisholm.
What law was broken? Resisting arrest? Arrest for not helping their investigation, lol white poeple grow dumber and dumber.
Kevin, why do you let these hillbillies take your story and change it?
In regards to this story, I believe the arrest was lawful, although it was not pretty. A more seasoned officer may have taken a bit more time, asked questions, allowed time for a response and worked the case. There was no rush…the people weren’t going anywhere.
I think Gravely assumes if there are no charges it ends…he is wrong…here comes the lawsuits!
Exactly, all gravely is done by dropping the charges is cost the taxpayers more in the lawsuits that will inevitably come next. He should have left the charges up and let it go to trial plea bargain or whatever. Thanks for reminding everyone that if you’re black you don’t have to do whatever the cops tell you to do because you’re f****** special.
I usually back the blue but in this case, nope. They made an assumption and were wrong and no excuse to for the way they treated the couple.
Why do you hate black people
The arrest was lawful how? “A more seasoned officer may have… asked questions” you do realize no US citizen has to answer ANY police questions especially in investigation. There’s this thing called RIGHTS that’s allows innocent or guilty people to mind their business (stay silent)and not do the police’s job for them. People with your philosophy believe nobody should have a problem helping the police investigate and people with my philosophy understand the police are PAID to investigate but instead will settle on the word or confession of a non paid citizen/suspect to complete their investigation. Idiots like you are why the police are so lazy today hoping the community does its job.
Kick you loose huh. How noble of you.
Another champion of the black community using a baby to shield themselves from responsibility. Be proud, another guilty white liberal (Gravely) caved.
What responsibility? He was innocent and they were trying to arrest him. He was angry and afraid because let’s face it the black community has been given more than enough reason to be intimidated by the police. Unless you have actual seen racial profiling in action and been involved in it, you don’t get it.
I’m a white girl who has seen it first hand and end up crawling the ass of the officer who was detaining us. I used to work for a company that was frequently subcontracted by a big box retailer. We spent a lot of time traveling and my travel partner was a black man from the virgin islands with dreadlocks and his girlfriend. We used to eat our lunch at a rest stop up the street from our job site because we were third shift and nothing else was open. One night an officer pulled us over as we were leaving. They took one look in the car and saw a white girl with two black people. The first thing they did was pull ME out of the car and start grilling my co workers. With me, they kept asking if I was okay, if I had been forced in the car with them, did I feel safe. This annoyed the crap out of me. We were all in the same work uniform, so obviously we all knew each other. They searched the car for god knows what only to find nothing. My friends were told to sit on the curb on their hands. At no point were they confrontational or disrespectful to the officers who continued to treat them like they were criminals. Like they were somehow kidnapping me or doing god knows what. They wanted to call my supervisor to make sure everything checked out. The look on the the guys face when I told him they didn’t need to call my supervisor as he was the one sitting on the curb was priceless. He managed to stammer out an apology for wasting my time. I told him I wasnt the one who was owed an apology, I wasnt the one he interrogated and it wasnt my car he performed an unlawful search on. That he had seen a black man and woman with a white girl and automatically assumed they were up to no good. He gave them a half hearted apology and we were allowed to leave. I got his name and reported him to his superiors. Reminded him that racial profiling was illegal and that perhaps he should use his time more wisely looking for actual criminals. Didnt have a problem from the police department again.
My point is this. Racial profiling does happen and unless you are right there in the middle of it, it is hard to understand why some people react the way they do.
I usually back the blue but in this case, nope. They made an assumption and were wrong and no excuse to for the way they treated the couple.