John Balcerzak | |
---|---|
Born | 1957 (age 66–67) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Police officer |
Years active | 1980–1991, 1994–2017 |
Known for | Konerak Sinthasomphone incident |
President of Milwaukee Police Association | |
In office c. 2006 –December 31, 2009 | |
Preceded by | Bradley DeBraska |
John A. Balcerzak (born 1957) is an American former police officer from Milwaukee,Wisconsin.
Balcerzak and Joseph T. Gabrish gained national attention in 1991,when they were suspended with pay and later fired for having handed over an injured 14-year-old boy to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer despite bystanders' protests, [1] as well as for the homophobic remarks made by the officers during the incident.
The officers appealed their termination and were subsequently reinstated with back pay of $55,000 each by Judge Robert J. Parins. [2] Balcerzak served as president of the Milwaukee Police Association (the police union for Milwaukee officers) from 2005 to 2009. Balcerzak retired from the Milwaukee Police Department in 2017. [3]
Three women,Sandra Smith,Tina Spivey and Nicole Childress,discovered the victim,14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone,after he had managed to escape from Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment,naked,bruised,bleeding from his anus and heavily under the influence of drugs. [4] [5] Childress called 9-1-1 and Balcerzak,Joseph T. Gabrish,and Richard Porubcan responded,along with a fire department ambulance. [6] [7] Ambulance personnel thought Sinthasomphone needed treatment but were sent away by the officers. [8] Though the Laotian immigrant had been in the country for ten years and spoke English fluently,in his drugged and brain-injured state,he was unable to communicate his situation to authorities or to the three women. [6] [9] [10] Dahmer convinced the police that the boy was his 19-year-old lover against the protests of the three women. [11]
Smith recognized the boy from the neighborhood and the three women reiterated their concerns but were told to "shut the hell up" by the officers,who were convinced the incident was a domestic dispute. [6] [12] The three officers returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer's apartment. [13] Balcerzak said he smelled nothing unusual but Gabrish said he did detect a foul odor,likely emanating from the body of Anthony "Tony" Hughes,who had been murdered by Dahmer three days earlier. [14] [15] The officers listed the incident as a "domestic squabble between homosexuals" and did not otherwise act. [16] Approximately ten minutes after the police left,Glenda Cleveland,Childress's aunt and Smith's mother,called police and was connected with Balcerzak,who dismissed her concern and declined to take the names of her niece and daughter as witnesses. [5] [6] Within an hour,Dahmer murdered Sinthasomphone by strangling him,performed oral sex upon his corpse,and dismembered him. [17] [18] For the murders of Sinthasomphone and 15 others from 1978 to 1991,Dahmer would be sentenced to 16 consecutive terms of life imprisonment without parole in 1992. [19] [20] [ how? ]
In the aftermath of Dahmer's arrest,an audiotape of Balcerzak and Gabrish making homophobic statements to their dispatcher and cracking jokes about having reunited the "lovers" caused heavy criticism. They were fired while Porubcan was put on job probation for one year. [1] [4] [5] [6] By failing to check Dahmer's identification,the officers did not learn that he was a sex offender with a 1988 child molestation conviction where the victim was Sinthasomphone's older brother,who was 13 at the time. [6] Milwaukee later paid the boy's family a sum of $850,000 to settle a lawsuit over police handling of the situation. [21]
Both officers appealed their termination. Judge Robert J. Parins controversially ruled in favor of the officers and they were reinstated in June 1994. [22] [23]
In May 2005,Balcerzak was elected president of the Milwaukee Police Association,defeating Sebastian Raclaw by a vote of 521 to 453. As president,he was criticized for failing to protect officers from mandatory overtime and not supporting African-American officer Alfonzo Glover, [24] who was charged with homicide on May 30,2006,and later died by suicide on the same day. [25] By June 2006,the union vice president had resigned because of disagreements with Balcerzak's "leadership style". [24] A petition to remove Balcerzak was filed and a recall election was held in August 2006. The results were 213 for a recall and 397 to retain him. At an October 9,2009,trustee election,Balcerzak was not re-elected as a trustee and vacated his position as president on December 31,2009. [26]
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer,also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster,was an American serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismembered seventeen males between 1978 and 1991. Many of his later murders involved necrophilia,cannibalism,and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.
Christopher J. Scarver Sr. is an American convicted murderer. He is best known for the 1994 murders of his fellow inmates Jeffrey Dahmer and Jesse Anderson,both convicted murderers,at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. The three inmates were on a work detail together in the prison gymnasium,and had a confrontation while unsupervised. Scarver found a metal bar that he used to beat and fatally injure Dahmer and Anderson. Scarver was convicted and sentenced to two further life sentences for these murders. He had already been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of the murder of Steve Lohman in 1990.
Adam John Walsh was an American child who was abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood,Florida,on July 27,1981. His severed head was found two weeks later in a drainage canal alongside Highway 60 / Yeehaw Junction in rural Indian River County,Florida. His death garnered national interest and was made into the 1983 television film Adam,seen by 38 million people in its original airing.
Westley Allan Dodd was an American convicted serial killer and sex offender. In 1989,he sexually assaulted and murdered three young boys in Vancouver,Washington. He was arrested later that year after a failed attempt to abduct a six-year-old boy at a movie theatre.
Lawrencia Ann "Bambi" Bembenek,known as Laurie Bembenek,was an American security officer at Marquette University when she was arrested on charges of first-degree murder of Christine Schultz in Milwaukee,Wisconsin on May 28,1981. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced in 1982 to life in prison.
The Secret Life:Jeffrey Dahmer is a 1993 American low budget biographical crime drama film directed by David R. Bowen. It stars Carl Crew as Jeffrey Dahmer,an American serial killer,necrophile,and cannibal.
Dahmer is a 2002 American drama film written and directed by David Jacobson,and co-written by David Birke. A limited theatrical release,it is based on the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer,a serial killer,who killed seventeen young men and boys in Bath,Ohio and Milwaukee,Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. It stars Jeremy Renner as Dahmer,and co-stars Artel Great,Matt Newton,Dion Basco and Bruce Davison.
Jesse Michael Anderson was an American convicted of the murder of his wife,Barbara Anderson. He had also wounded himself at the time,and told police that the couple had been attacked by two black men.
Edward Michael McCann is an American attorney and politician who served as district attorney of Milwaukee County,Wisconsin from 1969 to 2007. A Democrat,McCann gained recognition for the length of his tenure and his successful record as a trial attorney.
The Milwaukee Police Department is the police department organized under the city of Milwaukee,Wisconsin. The department has a contingent of about 1,800 sworn officers when at full strength and is divided into seven districts. Jeffrey B. Norman is the current chief of police,serving since December 2020.
Robert James Parins was an American judge and football executive. Parins was born and raised in Green Bay,Wisconsin,and went on to receive a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1942. He served as the Brown County,Wisconsin,district attorney from 1949 to 1950 and as a circuit court judge for the county from 1968 to 1982. In the early 1990s,Parins played a notable role in a case related to Jeffrey Dahmer,an American serial killer. Outside of his legal career,Parins served in various leadership positions for the Green Bay Packers,including serving on the board of directors. In 1982,he was elected president of the Green Bay Packers,serving as the first full-time president in team history. In recognition of his accomplishments,which included the formation of the Green Bay Packers Foundation,financial improvements and facility expansion,Parins was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1998. Parins died in 2017 at the age of 98.
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files is an independent documentary film about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during the summer of his arrest. The film was directed by Chris James Thompson and stars Andrew Swant as Dahmer in fictionalized re-enactment segments which are interwoven with interviews of the medical examiner assigned to the case,the lead detective,and Dahmer's next door neighbor.
The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting was a mass shooting that took place at the gurdwara in Oak Creek,Wisconsin on August 5,2012 when 40-year-old Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others. A seventh victim died of his wounds in 2020. Page committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Hart D. Fisher is an American horror crime author,comic book writer and publisher best known for creating a comic book about Jeffrey Dahmer and for founding Boneyard Press.
On August 13,2016,a riot began in the Sherman Park neighborhood in Milwaukee,Wisconsin,sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. During the three-day turmoil,several people,including police officers,were injured and dozens of protesters arrested. A nightly curfew was set up for teenagers in the area.
Dahmer –Monster:The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is the first season of the American biographical true crime television anthology series,Monster,created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix,which was released on September 21,2022. Murphy also serves as showrunner and is an executive producer along with Brennan. Dahmer is about the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Other main characters include Dahmer's father Lionel,his stepmother Shari,suspicious neighbor Glenda,and grandmother Catherine.
On November 20,2020,a shooting occurred at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa,Wisconsin,United States. Eight people were injured but survived. The shooter fled the scene afterwards and was later arrested during a traffic stop. Police said the shooting was not a random act and had been sparked by an earlier altercation between two groups. Two days later,several people were arrested in connection with the shooting,including a 15-year-old boy.
A Father's Story is a memoir written by Lionel Dahmer,father of American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The book was published in 1994 by William Morrow and Company.