JOHN DIEDRICH, Staff, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Copyright 2006 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A 16-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department who sits on the state’s law enforcement standards board and the police union’s executive board is expected to be charged Monday with three sex crimes.
Steven J. Lelinski, 41, will be charged in court Monday afternoon, Milwaukee Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin said last week.
Reddin declined to specify the charges. But a copy of the complaint obtained Saturday by the Journal Sentinel indicates Lelinski will be charged with second-degree sexual assault (use or threat of violence), attempted second-degree sexual assault - both felonies - and lewd and lascivious behavior, a misdemeanor. If convicted of all counts, Lelinski would face up to 60 years in prison.
The complaint alleges Lelinski met a woman while on duty and then pursued her for several weeks before assaulting her on Oct. 18 in her home while he was off duty.
After the alleged assault, the complaint says, Lelinski “threw a twenty-dollar bill on the floor as he was leaving. He then told (the woman) that she should expect police to come to her house and arrest her on a warrant.”
The allegations are similar to others against Lelinski investigated by the Police Department, none of which resulted in charges, that are now being re-examined, police sources said.
Lelinski would be the third member of the department to be charged with a felony in a week. On Tuesday, a detective was charged in federal court with drug trafficking. Another officer was charged Thursday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with taking bribes.
The complaint against Lelinski identifies the complainant by first name only. The Journal Sentinel is not identifying the 22-year-old woman because of a policy of not publishing the names of sexual assault complainants.
Contacted by phone, Lelinski said Friday: “There is a whole lot I would like to tell you, but I have been advised not to comment.”
His attorney, Steve Kohn, said they plan to “fight this case vigorously.”
“We are adamantly denying the allegations being made,” Kohn said.
Attorney Michael Chernin, who represents the woman who filed the complaint against Lelinski, said: “The charges, if true and if provable, are abhorrent.”
Desk duty since January
Lelinski remains on the force but was reassigned from the street to station house duty Jan. 23, said Anne E. Schwartz, department spokeswoman. Schwartz said she could not confirm whether Lelinski was under investigation because of department rules.
Lelinski was hired in 1990 and is assigned to street patrol, second shift, in District 6 on the city’s southwest side. In 1996, he received the chief of police superior achievement award, according to his personnel record. He previously was an officer in the Town of Brookfield and the Village of Marshall in Dane County, according to his Milwaukee police records. Employment records from those agencies were not available Friday.
The Journal Sentinel requested details of all Milwaukee police criminal investigations of Lelinski as well as all citizen complaints against Lelinski on Jan. 4 under the state’s open records law. None of those records had been provided by the department to the newspaper as of Friday.
Numerous contacts claimed
According to the complaint:
Lelinski met the woman during a call about trouble with juveniles in her neighborhood and saw her again in August on a call about a family disturbance.
The woman moved after that, but a short time later, she saw Lelinski in a marked squad car driving by her new apartment. He stopped and asked her if he knew her.
He then said “he did not recognize her because he was not looking at her face.”
On Oct. 15, the woman spotted Lelinski looking into her car. Lelinski left and called her a short time later and made sexually suggestive comments, the complaint says.
Lelinski also said he had a friend in Winnebago County who “could help her with legal matters.” In coming days, Lelinski called and stopped by the woman’s home repeatedly while on duty “without any law enforcement reason,” telling her he “just wanted to check on her.”
She asked him to stop, but the contacts continued. Lelinski told her she was “pretty” and he was “intrigued” by her, the complaint says.
At 2 a.m. on Oct. 18, Lelinski, who was off duty, arrived unannounced at the woman’s apartment and “just walked in,” the complaint states. Lelinski said he felt sorry for her and offered her money for her child.
He sat down next to her on a couch and began rubbing her body without her consent, the complaint says. He leaned over her so she couldn’t get up, then grabbed the woman’s arm and hair, “causing pain and making it impossible for her to get away,” it says.
While Lelinski performed a lewd act, he repeatedly tried to force the woman to perform a sex act before pushing her away and leaving with the warning that she should expect to be arrested, the complaint says.
The complaint does not indicate whether the woman was later arrested.
Active outside department
Lelinski sits on several government bodies and plays a prominent role in the Milwaukee Police Association, a union representing the department’s roughly 1,700 officers.
In 2002, then-Gov. Scott McCallum appointed him to the Law Enforcement Standards Board, tasked with setting minimum employment, education and training standards for police, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement workers. He remains a member of the board.
Lelinski also is a member of the city’s Pension Board, which manages a $4.4 billion fund. He was the chairman in 2004 and the vice chairman last year. On Jan. 23, a new vice chairman was elected. Lelinski was not nominated.
Remains on executive board
Lelinski has chaired and served on several committees of the Milwaukee Police Association. He ran unsuccessfully for president and then vice president of the union. He remains a member of the executive board.
Union President John Balcerzak said Friday he didn’t know anything about Lelinski being investigated or charged and couldn’t comment on a “hypothetical.”
Lelinski was the campaign treasurer for Milwaukee Ald. Terry Witkowski, a position he resigned in November after Witkowski pushed to investigate whether the city should start using civilian community service workers to do tasks like directing traffic, to free up police officers. The MPA opposes the idea. Witkowski could not be reached for comment Saturday.
In addition, Lelinski is president of the Milwaukee Police Relief Association, which oversees millions of dollars in death benefits for members.
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Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)