Citizens' Academy: The Law and Order of the Criminal Justice System

Editor's Note: This is the second of 10 weekly updates about your Patch editor's journey though the Shorewood Citizens' Police Academy.

In most cases, a run-in with the district attorney’s office means you’re either a reporter trying to dig up some dirt, a victim or facing criminal charges.

In Thursday’s Shorewood Citizens’ Academy class, my classmates and I were lucky enough to view the criminal justice system from a distance through Washington County Assistant District Attorney Mandy Schepper’s eyes.

Schepper tries a variety of cases in the county northwest of Milwaukee, clashing with defense attorneys the likes of the infamous Alan Eisenberg.

Our justice system is a fascinating, and complex, organism fashioned to shell out punishment to those who have forsaken the law and provide closure to those who have been wronged.

It’s also way too broad for me to dive into in this week’s column, so I’ll pick a few topics and run with those.

It encompasses the laws that govern the land, the legislators that create the laws, courts that serve as a venue to deliberate over the guilt of the accused, prosecutors and those who investigate the alleged crime.

Schepper gave a two-and-a-half hour mini lesson on the inner workings of the system that stretched from local police to the land's ultimate court: the U.S. Supreme Court.

The law of the arrest

Fundamentally, it all starts with an arrest. All arrests are based on the law, and the complexity begins the moment the law is applied.

When are officers required to read a suspect his or her Miranda rights? Where is the threshold crossed allowing police to search my home or car? What’s a "terry stop?"

A common misconception is that law enforcement is required to read a suspect his or her rights once the cuffs go on. That might be true on Law & Order (I prefer Criminal Intent), but in the real world, police must recite those famous words once they are ready to question a suspect — not when the cuffs go on.

Officers actually video record all interviews with suspects, including the reading of Miranda rights. That’s so once charges are filed, there’s no question of whether civil rights were violated.

Schepper talked about a recent case that was nearly dismissed because an officer found evidence in an open garage, without the owner’s consent or knowledge.

Police also have the authority to investigate a suspicious driver by stopping them for something like a broken taillight, or stop a person for carrying an bulky bag thrown behind his or her back.

It’s called a terry stop.

A team: Law enforcement and prosecutors

Among all the various dynamics in the justice system, the most interesting and notable — at least in my mind — is the one between prosecutors and law enforcement.

Prosecutors rely heavily on the work of police to make their case. Police gather the evidence; police interview witnesses and suspects; police are prosecutors’ eyes and ears.

Once a police investigation is completed, departments recommend charges be filed, but it doesn’t always result in a criminal complaint — the document which details the alleged crime and information from an investigation.

Schepper said somewhere between 33 to 67 percent of cases are charged criminally and fewer result in a conviction.

Innocent until proven innocent?

You know the old saying: innocent until proven guilty. It wasn’t always the case.

Before America became America, England’s system for keeping civility in the  civilization saw people as guilty until proven innocent.

To a certain extent, that still rings true. Schepper said the justice system doesn’t require proof of innocence. The burden is only that the defendant is not guilty.

Schepper used the case of Milwaukee Brewers outfield Ryan Braun as an analogy. Braun's successful appeal of his 50-game suspension for the use of performance-enhancing drugs didn't establish innocence; he merely won his case on a "technicality."

To the highest court

The court system in Wisconsin is a four-tier system: municipal, circuit, appeals and Supreme Court.

Shorewood has its own municipal court that typically deals with traffic cases, disorderly conduct and first-time operating while intoxicated offenses.

But Shorewood has had a connection to the nation's highest court in the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who was raised in the village and passed away in 2005.

The justice system is pretty darn perplexing; I prefer the condensed Law and Order version. Until next week...