Attorney asks federal judge to reconsider tossing Jay Anderson Jr. claim in Mensah case

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By Bridget Fogarty, [email protected]

An attorney for the families of three people of color killed in five years by former Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah has asked a federal judge to reconsider his dismissal of one family’s claim and bring the case before a jury.

Attorney Kimberly Motley filed a motion for reconsideration in the case of Jay Anderson Jr., a 25-year-old from Milwaukee who Mensah shot while in his car in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman dismissed a claim from Anderson’s family March 14 on summary judgement, saying Mensah did not violate Jay Anderson Jr.’s rights and Anderson reached his right hand for a gun that was on the seat of his car.

But Motley said footage shows nothing in Anderson’s hand, and the question of what Anderson was reaching for remains “a question of fact” that should go to a jury.

Mensah himself said in deposition that Anderson could have been reaching for his phone, Motley said in the motion for reconsideration.

According to the judge’s summary judgement decision, Mensah testified that he witnessed a weapon in Anderson’s car and ordered Anderson not to reach for the gun and to keep his hands up.

Squad car footage showed that in the seconds leading up to the shooting, Anderson reached his right hand toward the seat where the weapon was located, the judge said.

Anderson could have been reaching for his phone, his car registration or anything else in the direction of the weapon’s location, Motley said.

“In the video of the shooting, you don’t see anything in Anderson’s hands,” Motley told the Journal Sentinel. “On the passenger seat of his car also was his cellphone.”

The status of the other Mensah cases

The Anderson family is one of three families who filed federal lawsuits in 2021 and 2022 against Mensah and the City of Wauwatosa in fatal shootings. Their case was consolidated with the cases of Alvin Cole and Antonio Gonzales in 2022, alleging Mensah used excessive force and that each shooting was caused by the Wauwatosa Police Department’s failure to train and supervise its officers properly and its practice of condoning and ratifying the use of excessive force.

The judge ordered an oral argument between plaintiffs and defendants regarding the 2020 shooting of 17-year-old Cole. The argument has been rescheduled to March 26 at 11 a.m., according to Motley.

Adelman also granted summary judgement in the case of Gonzales, a 29-year-old from Wauwatosa who Mensah shot in 2015. The Gonzales family conceded their case in September, according to court documents.

Mensah, who resigned from the department in November 2020, was not criminally charged by Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office in any of the deaths.

This is the latest attempt by Anderson Jr.’s family to charge Mensah in the fatal shooting.

Special prosecutors decided not charge Mensah with the shooting in 2022. That came after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Glenn Yamahiro announced in July 2021 that he had found probable cause that Mensah committed homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon in the shooting.

After District Attorney John Chisholm decided not to file charges against Mensah in 2016, Anderson’s family sought a federal review for a civil rights violation. In February 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Wisconsin declined to prosecute Mensah.

This article first appeared on jsonline.com and was reproduced with permission.