Police Records Kept from Public Show Killer Cop Is Violent, Dishonest Thug

Paul Heenan, at right, during a happy day before he was
gunned down by the cop Stephen Heimsness, formerly of the
Madison Police Department on Nov. 9, 2012. The killer,
Heimsness, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing of course.
Killing people is an acceptable practice of the Madison
Police Department. In 2013, Heimsness, a violent, anti-
social harasser resigned in the face of overwhelming
evidence of unrelated misconduct and dishonesty in
Oct. 2013, 11 months too late for Paul Heenan.
In a piece this week by Dylan Brogan in Madison's
Isthmus, Brogan reports Madison Police officials
knew all about Heimsness' history of dishonest and
violent misconduct and did nothing to get this
homicidal piece of shit off the streets and off the force.

Madison, Wisconsin—The murder of a young person is a trauma that lives on for generations.

I've seen it, and likely most of us are only one or two degrees away from experiencing the shattered lives forever altered by deadly violence inflicted by war, cops or criminals.

I first read about the murder of one young Madison man, Paul Heenan, on February 6, 2013, some three months after Heenan was gunned down in cold blood by a Madison cop.

Someone sent me a petition begun by Madison residents, Nathan and Amelia Royko-Maurer, objecting to the Madison Police killing their young friend, and the continued employment of the killer, Stephen Heimsness, formerly of the Madison Police Department.

This week Dylan Brogan in The Isthmus details the career of the Madison cop who killed Paul Heenan, using records the Madison Police fought to keep from being released.

The police records were obtained though an open records request that Isthmus had to go to court to have released, and Brogan in a meticulously researched piece uses the 729 pages that paint a portrait of a sociopath, the killer Paul Heimsness, as a lying, violent, malignant thug for whom Madison Police went to great lengths to protect, and cover-up Heimsness' violent history of misconduct.

Reading this superior piece of investigative writing by Brogan is a civic duty.

Two reader online comments to the Isthmus piece sum up community sentiment in Madison, and the comments are reproduced below:

This is absolutely disgusting. It makes me sick. Paulie was one of the most amazing people this planet had to offer. He wouldnt hurt a fly. Not to mention Heimsness weighed twice as much as Paulie did. It is ridiculous to think he couldnt handle a completely wasted person half your size. Its your job. But no, his actions went unaccounted and an amazing human was murder by the people we pay to protect and serve our community. I miss you Paulie, there are so many people that do.
- Greg Dellmann

Good work, Isthmus, in fighting the tough, protracted Freedom of Information battle that has revealed in progressively greater detail the many acts of malfeasance - some of it truly dangerous! - on the part of former cop Steven Heimsness, acts that preceded Heimsness's murder of the unarmed Paul Heenan. Not to mention the "Cover Your Ass" machinations that were carried out at the topmost echelons of the MPD. And so a hearty "Bad Boy, bad boy, whatcha gonna do!?!" goes out to former Police Chief Noble Wray. Of course I was just being rhetorically inclined; we already know the comfortably retired Mr. Wray will do absolutely NOTHING in the way of making amends.
- Dan A. Goldstein

Cops killing people is the world we live in.