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.
Fighting for Contract Improvements
Ken also developed the MPA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement through interest arbitration, the hearings process in which the parties present to an independent arbitrator support for their contract proposals.
Interest arbitrations were marathons, (and still are) requiring months of preparation, more months of hearings, and more months of briefing. Meanwhile, the rest of the workload continued undiminished.
Protecting Grievance Arbitration Awards
Ken made a lot of law in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The MPA and Ken took three cases to the Supreme Court to clarify the rights of the union in grievance arbitrations. Ken enjoyed the fact that the MPA was willing to pursue these cases as far as they could go because he believed it was important that the union not be pushed around by the City. Ken was on a fixed retainer…he did not make any more money by taking cases as far as they could go; he just worked more. His satisfaction was in doing the right thing no matter what it took.
Fire in the Belly
Ken was a fiery advocate. He could not stand bureaucratic crap, and was known to shout a variety of naughty words at fire and police commissioners, chiefs and supervisors, but only when they deserved it.
Ken was as smart as they come, and could master an incredible volume of information and summon it up for an argument as needed. He was not much of a note taker, and relied successfully on his memory and his quick analysis of the opponent’s claims.
Ken was tenacious and never backed away from a fight that needed to be fought. When a chief of police and the City refused to implement an arbitrator’s award without trying to overturn the award, Ken prepared a motion asking the court to direct the sheriff to arrest the chief and haul him in to court for a contempt hearing. Interestingly, the chief and the City complied before the motion was filed. But it sure was fun to draft it.
Cases that Needed to be Fought
Some were won, some were lost. Ken got great satisfaction when a court ordered the City to pay for a liver transplant for the wife of a Milwaukee officer. The City had claimed that the procedure was experimental, and that as a result, the City policy did not cover it.
Other cases brought satisfaction in the effort, even if the case was lost. When an alderman stated that police officers had given Chief Breier a “going away present” when a young inmate in the jail hanged himself, Ken pursued a defamation action against the alderman.
Ken was a vigorous advocate in use of force cases, including inquests. He recognized the importance of an officer’s having a voice and an advocate when the media was ramped up looking for headlines and sound bites. Zealous is a polite way of saying that Ken made damn sure that a cop’s rights after a shooting were protected, and expressed himself quite vocally in the CIB.
Ken represented hundreds of officers before the Fire & Police Commission, whether on MPD charges or citizen complaints. He could not tolerate commissioners who made decisions on what they thought the community needed rather than what the evidence showed. He pursued many of these cases for years on end, until he finally prevailed. Many an officer….and many who have gone on to be supervisors in this and other departments…owe their professional careers to Ken and his tenacity.
He took great satisfaction when he obtained a reversal of a FPC finding that an officer used excessive force when he shot a woman in the face as she attacked him with a butcher knife. He was incredulous that the commission would be so out of touch with the realities of the dangers police officers face.
More than a Job
Ken never got rich at this job. Although he maintained a small private practice in addition to representing the MPA, he never had time to devote to it, because he was truly devoted to the MPA and its members. When he did take a private case, it was frequently because the person had nowhere else to turn and he felt like he had to help. There is a woman out there somewhere who retained custody of her young child after her sister tried to terminate her parental rights, only because Ken was willing to help her…. And helped her all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Anybody else would have gotten money up front….or in the middle….or at the end. Ken just knew that this woman should not have her baby stolen from her, and he made sure it didn’t happen.
Ken was an honest lawyer. His word meant everything, and people, including opponents, relied on it. Because people trusted Ken, he was able to resolve disputes and achieve settlements that others could not. He could charm an alderman, a supervisor, or a City Labor Negotiator, and knew how to give people a way out so that they could do the right thing.
He was Irish and could tell a great story. He was warm, friendly and kind. And he loved helping cops.
Ken died on April 30, 2010.
Laurie Eggert was co-counsel with Ken Murray and represented the MPA until her retirement in 2004.