The three Milwaukee Police officers criminally charged with beating Frank Jude Jr. while off-duty last October will appear in court before Judge Dennis Cimpl Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

Jude, the victim, is subpoenaed to appear in court next week at the hearing.

Jon M. Bartlett, Daniel Masarik and Andrew Spengler are all charged with felonies.

Bartlett, 33, is charged with two felonies for second-degree recklessly endangering safety and substantial battery and faces up to 22-1/2 years in prison. Masarik, 25, is charged with three felonies for second degree recklessly endangering safety, substantial battery and perjury before a judge. He faces 19-1/2 years in prison. Spengler, 25, is charged with one felony count of substantial battery. He faces three-and-a-half years in prison.

The night of Oct. 23, Jude was working at a bachelorette party as a stripper. One woman from the party that night invited him to Spengler's residence, in the 2800 block of South Ellen Street in the Bay View area. Early the morning of Oct. 24, someone at the party accused Jude of stealing an officer's badge and wallet from a room inside the off-duty officer's house. Party attendants began calling him racial slurs so Jude left the house.

After he was outside the house, a crowd of off-duty officers allegedly approached him and beat him up. He was severely injured.

Jude was initially diagnosed as suffering multiple fractures to his nose, a fractured sinus, concussion, injury to his left eye, lacerations above his eye and in both ear canals, injuries to some of his left fingers and significant abrasions and contusions about the head, face, back shoulders and legs, Jude's attorney Jonathan Safran said.

Jude underwent implant surgery March 4 to repair his nasal canals which were damaged when bones and cartilage in his nose were broken during the beating, Safran said. He also said Jude is taking medication for depression and attending counseling sessions with his wife.

Jude is the father of four-year-old and four-and-a-half month old children.

There has been speculation that the defense attorneys will target Jude's side job as a stripper or his previous legal infractions. Jude has felony convictions for selling marijuana and bribing an officer in 1996.

Safran said despite his legal past and employment, the case is clear-cut.

"Credibility should not be an issue," Safran said. "This is different than a normal 'he said versus he said' case because there are two independent witnesses — two women — and a 911 tape that supports us. (Jude's) employment and criminal record has no bearing because the officers did not know about his criminal record when they beat him up."

It was not until Feb. 28 that the three officers were charged, although an internal investigation by MPD began in August.

"These are serious charges, and I will not tolerate criminal wrongdoing by any member of the Milwaukee Police Department," Chief of Police Nan Hegerty said in a press release issued Feb. 28. "We are moving at a very deliberate pace to ensure that the outcome of our administrative investigation serves the best interests of this department and of this community."

Anne Schwartz, public relations manager for MPD, declined to offer further comment on the charges but said "in any department of this size, these things have happened."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 10 2005.