Milwaukee 911 delay, victim's attorney considering lawsuit

ELM GROVE, Wis. - An attorney for a 99-year-old woman severely beaten by a drunk man who broke into her Milwaukee home says the previously fiercely independent woman was nearly beaten to death, and he isn’t ruling out lawsuits over the mishandling of 911 calls that left the woman waiting for hours for help.

NOTE: The following news story contains graphic pictures of the woman's injuries; reader discretion is advised.

Critical serious injuries

What we know:

Attorney Chris MacGillis said his client, Shirley, suffered "critical serious injuries," spent nine days in the hospital, is now in an acute care facility confined to a wheelchair, and may never return to her southside home of more than 60 years.

"As you all know, and as you get older, your ability to recover and respond to a traumatic event like this makes it very difficult to spring back and get back on your feet," said MacGillis at his law office in Elm Grove, in what is the first substantive update on Shirley’s condition since the attack. "And while she was extremely vibrant and fiercely independent at 99 years young, that's a difficult process when you go through something like this."

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MacGillis said Shirley – who loved to take care of her home, garden and bake – needed more than 100 stitches, suffered facial fractures, blunt-force trauma and severe lacerations in the late July attack, which has also left her family searching for answers.

"There's multiple breakdowns here systemically that should make sure this doesn't happen. And if the leaders do their job working with their team, this type of thing doesn't happen."

Home invasion and 911 delay

The backstory:

Two call takers, who took the first two 911 calls from a third-party dispatcher and classified them as "welfare checks," resigned in lieu of being terminated. The Department of Emergency Communications announced that at a brief press conference last week.

Prosecutors say 23-year-old Joseph Macias had been out drinking the night of July 26, and continued to drink after going home, and – at some point – left the home.

Filings say video from the neighborhood near 14th and Layton, showed Macias in Shirley’s driveway at around 4:45 am on July 27. The first LifeAlert call came into Milwaukee’s dispatch center around 5:15 am, and a second minutes later with audio from the open line patched in with a man yelling in the background. Police didn’t show up until around 8:00 am, after Shirley called 911 herself.

Documents reviewed by FOX6 News showed the DEC told one of two universal call takers they violated department policies and procedures, including neglect of duty. DEC Director Tony Bueno told FOX6 in July he thought there was enough in just listening to the calls.

When the call takers entered the call into their system, they both classified it first as a welfare check. That registers as a Level 3 on the department's call classification scale, which rates calls on the level of their severity from 0 to 9. Calls rated zero through two receive an immediate response; Level 3 calls require police to be dispatched within 15 minutes.

While the call itself was misclassified, help still should have arrived before it did. It is unclear why police dispatchers, who receive the call from the universal call taker, did not send a police response within 15 minutes.

"They can hear with their own ears, and are being plugged in to the victim, in real time. Call not coded, correctly. Call not set up for immediate response. Ask yourself, why is that happening?" said MacGillis. "Our client literally army crawled, having to try to save her own life. Battered on the ground, crawled to her phone, because no one had come yet. The dispatch center had not coded this as a high intensity response. No one should have to go through that."

Last month, Macias was bound over for trial on charges of battery, reckless injury and burglary, with penalty enhancers because of the victim’s age. His attorney has signaled an intent to pursue an insanity plea in the case and the court has ordered Macias to be evaluated by a doctor.

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Ongoing developments, possible lawsuit

What's next:

MacGillis said he’s been in conversations with Milwaukee City Attorney Evan Goyke, and has requested the findings of an internal investigation, the release of which the city’s Department of Emergency Communications said last week is being held up because of a procedural delay involving the state’s open record laws.

MacGillis would not say whether he intends to file a lawsuit against the government employees, which have strong protections under governmental immunity laws and caps on the amount of money that can be awarded, but says he believes there is a strong case to be made for a federal civil rights lawsuit.

"We believe that this case fits into and meets the criteria for a federal claim that the caps don't apply to," noting the likely serious medical bills Shirley is facing for her hospital stay, recovery, and any damages. "That's potentially an issue for another day."