Milwaukee To Pay Over $500,000 To Couple Targeted By Swatting Campaign

Milwaukee City Hall. Building photo by Jeramey Jannene, background photo by Jericho.

The City of Milwaukee will pay out more than half a million dollars to an East Side couple who have been the victims of aggressive, repeated online harassment.

Patrick Tomlinson and Niki Robinson have been the victims of swatting, in which false 911 calls are made by third parties to law enforcement agencies to trigger unexpected, possibly dangerous responses to the victims’ home, workplace or other location by police officers or emergency responders.

For Tomlinson, a science fiction author, the calls — dozens in total — began in 2020 after he posted on Twitter that he did not find comedian Norm Macdonald funny.

Over a two-year period, Tomlinson and Robinson say police responded to their home more than 40 times.

A 2024 lawsuit, which the city is now settling, says that officers weren’t properly trained to deal with the situation and became “a tool of terror” for those harassing Tomlinson.

The complaint details several incidents in which officers allegedly conducted warrantless searches of the couple’s home and detained them at gunpoint during police responses.

Tomlinson alleges he was ordered out of his home naked and handcuffed during a July 2022 response, while Robinson was similarly detained during other incidents. The lawsuit contends that officers should have recognized the calls as false, given the repeated pattern of swatting attacks.

The suit names 20 officers, but specifically targets Sgt. Lyndon Evans. The couple alleges that Evans was aware they were victims of a swatting campaign but nonetheless entered their home without a warrant on one occasion and, on two other occasions, threatened to break down their door if they did not allow him inside. The plaintiffs allege those actions constituted unlawful searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment.

The couple alleges that the Milwaukee Police Department failed to implement policies, training or safeguards to prevent officers from repeatedly responding to the false reports in ways that infringed on the couple’s rights.

Tomlinson and Robinson are represented by Madison-based law firm Strang Bradley.

A 2024 article by The Independent details Tomlinson’s case and an international effort to find and arrest the perpetrators of the harassment.

The Common Council never discussed the settlement in open session. Common Council President José G. Pérez and Ald. Peter Burgelis voted against the settlement. Ald. Lamont Westmoreland abstained from voting on the settlement because he was not present at a May 26 Judiciary & Legislation Committee meeting, where it was discussed in closed session.

“Based on the status of these claims, the City Attorney believes that a settlement is in the City’s best interest so it can avoid litigation of these disputed claims and buy its peace,” says a May 7 letter from City Attorney Evan Goyke and Assistant City Attorney Joshua B. Cronin.

Without the settlement, a jury trial was set for June 6.

Goyke declined comment on the case, citing its pending status.

The city is to pay the settlement from its damages and claims fund.

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