Ken Murray: In Memorium
By: Laurie A. Eggert
Kenneth J. Murray was the MPA’s first full time lawyer. Before he was retained, the MPA hired lawyers as needed. But by 1975, the MPA realized that it needed an ongoing relationship with a lawyer that it could depend on day and night, a lawyer who would dedicate his career to fighting to develop and protect the rights of Milwaukee Police Officers.
The MPA could not have made a better choice than Ken. He had all the attributes that were needed to do the job with intelligence, fire, passion, tenacity and flair. He vigorously represented the MPA and its members for more than 20 years.
Basic Rights for Cops During Disciplinary Investigations
Few people on the job remember the days when the MPD conducted Boards of Inquiry, where the Department conducted a formal trial of an officer accused of rule violations. If the officer was allowed to have a union representative at the trial, the rep was not allowed to say anything. No lawyers were allowed. In that trial, the officer represented himself, and was expected not only to testify, but to cross examine the department’s witnesses against him. The trial board was made up of three supervisory officers and two rank and file officers. See where this was going?
One of the first major cases Ken worked on was the complaint before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) that brought this to a screeching halt. Although Chief of Police Harold A. Breier contended that allowing union representation unlawfully interfered with his statutory right to discipline officers, Murray convinced the WERC that the law required officers to have the assistance of a union rep or attorney at the trial board as a spokesperson on his behalf. The WERC also commanded the MPD to allow union representation when the Department compelled officers to file a written report or to submit to interrogation about matters which could lead to discipline.
The MPD decided to dump the Board of Inquiry, and began to allow union representation to officers writing Matter Ofs and being questioned orally. The complaint, hearings and decision took four years of battle, and the fights continued through the years as the rights were refined and enforced.
Forcing Chiefs to Adhere to the US Constitution
Did you know that before Ken took one of those disciplinary cases all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the MPD could order an officer to give a statement without assuring the officer that his answers could not be used against him in a criminal prosecution? The cop had to choose between his job and his liberty. The MPD was forced to change its procedures, guaranteeing that police officers are entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.
And in that same case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the MPD’s internal investigators had violated an officer’s right to due process when they interrogated her for 14 hours and refused to allow her to see a doctor despite that fact that she was throwing up blood. The MPD needed to be told that it could not treat cops worse than criminals.
Ken also got the courts to guarantee the right of a police officer to run for non-partisan office without taking a leave of absence.
