Rep. Ryan Clancy Settles With City Following 2020 Curfew Arrest

Sup. Ryan Clancy being taken into custody. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The City of Milwaukee will settle a federal civil rights lawsuit from county supervisor and state representative Ryan Clancy. Unlike many similar settlements, it doesn’t include any financial payment.

The lawsuit stemmed from Clancy’s 2020 arrest for a curfew violation during the civil rights protests that swept the nation following the killing of George Floyd.

A jury trial in the case, first filed in 2021, had started Monday.

The settlement will require changes to city policy, including requiring Common Council approval for any future curfews instead of unilateral mayoral control. Additionally, exemptions must be added or expanded in future curfews for elected officials and legal observers, like those from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“I am grateful that, three-and-a-half years after my unlawful arrest at the hands of the Milwaukee Police Department that we finally have what we were looking for from the beginning,” said Clancy in a statement. “I am heartened that this settlement will allow new policies to be in place before the Republican National Convention, and the overpolicing likely to come with it, descends on the city in 2024.”

On May 31, 2020, the then-newly-elected supervisor was observing a protest march that snaked across the East Side. Standing near the Milwaukee-Shorewood border at N. Oakland and E. Edgewood avenues when a curfew went into effect at 9 p.m., Clancy alleged that he removed his ACLU vest, placed a Milwaukee County pin on his lapel that identified him as a county employee and supervisor (an exemption to the curfew) and stepped into the Village of Shorewood, where no curfew was in effect.

But Clancy said he and others were forced back into Milwaukee by the dozens of officers at the scene. He was then tackled and arrested.

An Urban Milwaukee reporter, who first reported the arrest, witnessed officers debate what Clancy could be charged with after he was already in custody.

“We must do better. Bringing this case to trial and pushing for policy changes rather than accepting merely a fiscal settlement from the city, even knowing the odds were against us, was the right thing to do. I glad it paid off,” said Clancy.

Clancy, in a press release announcing the settlement, was critical of law enforcement officers’ conduct during the lawsuit as well. “We heard that the [MPD] and Sheriff’s Department intentionally turned off their body cameras before engaging in brutality,” said Clancy. He said an officer on the witness stand also said that Clancy was arrested because he had a gun, but such a claim had not been introduced during a deposition or any earlier point.

A handful of other individuals were arrested from the dozens of people at the scene that evening. Approximately 70 people were arrested for curfew violations while it was in effect. City Attorney Tearman Spencer announced shortly thereafter that he would not prosecute the citations.

Clancy has been an outspoken critic of law enforcement in recent years, including recent comments that the job has “no dignity or value.”

The county supervisor was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2022, after the lawsuit began. He is not running for reelection to his county board seat.

Editor’s note: The trial featured a unique aspect in that Urban Milwaukee reporter Jeramey Jannene served as a witness called by Clancy’s legal team.

Jannene, in the process of reporting on the protest movement, was the lone media member that observed much of Clancy’s interaction with MPD. He saw law enforcement officers escort Clancy to an area near a MPD vehicle and place handcuffs on him, Clancy protest the cuff placement and declare that he was exempt from the curfew as a county supervisor and officers send Clancy into a MPD van. He did not observe the moment of Clancy’s arrest. On Monday, Jannene testified about what he saw and previously publicly reported.

The lawsuit specifically named Milwaukee Police Department members Chris Moews and David Bettin, who were involved in Clancy’s arrest.

Clancy was represented by attorneys Drew DeVinney and Frankie J. Ovando of Martin Law Office.

DeVinney previously secured a $270,000 financial settlement for Cameron Murdoch, who was a “victim of violent police” during a subsequent protest.

Assistant city attorneys William Hotchkiss and Anthony Jackson represented the city. Spencer did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article said Clancy’s 2023 comments were inadmissible in the trial. A ruling Tuesday from Judge Brett Ludwig would have allowed the comments to be introduced.