medium sizeMichael Bell Sr. believed for years that Kenosha police harmed his family — first by killing his son in 2004 and then by what he claimed was a cover-up of what really happened.
Bell initially accepted the police version of the shooting, then became skeptical and finally angry. He channeled his anger into action. He sued the city of Kenosha, the police department and four officers, reaching a $1.75 million settlement and played a leading role in passing a state law that barred police departments from investigating on their own.
But Bell said no one in the Kenosha department admitted wrongdoing or fully explained how his son was shot.
At the suggestion of the governor's office, he filed a claim with the Wisconsin Crime Victims' Rights Commission in 2022, claiming he was a victim of a long-running official cover-up of his son's killing. The commission is a five-member body that can publicly or privately censure public officials who violate the rights of crime victims.
victims' rights committee rule Last November, if there was a cover-up, the victim was not Bell but the state of Wisconsin.
“The alleged conduct was directed against the government and its executive branch and not against individuals,” the decision said, without elaborating on how the state became the victim.
Board President Jennifer Dunn declined to discuss the board's decision. The ruling upset some victims' rights advocates, who said it betrayed the original intent of the victims' rights movement.
“This is contrary to the purpose and meaning of victims' rights,” said former prosecutor and author In Their Name: The Untold Story of Victims’ Rights, Mass Incarceration, and the Future of Public Safety. She said she has never seen a ruling naming the government as a victim of a crime.
She said the victims' rights movement began in the 1970s because crime victims felt ignored or neglected during criminal proceedings. Crime victims have won the right to know about their cases, the right to speak at sentencing or parole hearings, and other rights.
“It is impossible to interpret any of these rights as applying to states,” Anderson said.
Bell is appealing the board's decision.
Bell's appeal was unusual. Mariam El-menshawi, a professor at the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law who specializes in victims' rights, said few crime victims appeal alleged violations because most victims lack the resources.
Generally, the law allows crime victims to participate in criminal proceedings but not to control prosecution decisions.
“Victims have no veto,” Elmenshaoui said. “They can't force an investigation.”
Kenosha police declined to comment. The same goes for Kenosha’s current district attorney and state attorney general.
SJust after 2 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2004, 21-year-old Michael Bell Jr. parked his car in front of his home and was confronted by Kenosha police. Police said he was intoxicated and uncooperative. A fight broke out in the yard and moved to the driveway. His mother and sister came out in bathrobes. Police used a Taser to shock Bell three times. As they pinned him against the hood of the car, one officer screamed that Bell had taken his gun; another officer then shot Bell in the head.
It took police two days to declare the shooting justified. Then-District Attorney Robert Jamboys followed suit one after another Twelve days later, the blame was placed squarely on Bale.
He said the young man was driving drunk and then failed to comply with police orders and chose to fight. His report described a life-or-death struggle over an officer's firearm, with Bell trying to draw the weapon and the officer struggling to keep the gun in its holster.
Prosecutors concluded the officers feared for their lives.
Bell Sr., a retired lieutenant colonel who flew aircraft in three wars, initially trusted the judgment of law enforcement agencies.
He said he had worn an Air Force uniform for 24 years and was unabashedly supportive of police until he encountered what he called a blue wall of lies and cover-ups. “I'm a huge supporter of uniforms and I can't believe someone in uniform would behave like that.”
Bell doesn't even believe his daughter or Michael's mother, who witnessed their son being killed. But over months of family counseling, Bell became suspicious of police.
“As I described in detail what they saw, I realized they weren't making it up,” he said.
In 2005, Bell sued Kenosha and its police department.
Police described an exhausting battle over the gun, but tests found no trace of Bell's DNA on the weapon.
The police account contradicted a core fact: The bullet struck Bell Jr. in the head both at the entrance and exit. The fight happened on the left side of a car in the driveway, police said. An officer put his arms around Bell and pinned him against the hood. The second officer screamed that Bell had taken his gun. A third officer in the front of the car shot Bell. directly to the left of his head.
But an autopsy showed the bullet entered Bell's skull above his right ear, leaving soot and muzzle burn, then exited his left side, leaving a trail of blood along the hood to where officers said he was standing.
Bell said evidence shows the officer who fired the shot was standing between two other officers when he fired.
“When an officer came between the detained suspect and the officer who claimed he had my gun, the question of life or death immediately disappeared,” Bell said. “You moved your hands, you did not kill anyone.”
After the discrepancy was revealed in a pretrial affidavit, police came up with a different scenario to accommodate the gunshot wound, and then a third scenario. In both cases, the gunman was located at the front of the car. The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy said they “Forensic impossible”.
In 2010, the city of Kenosha settled the case for $1.75 million. Bell invested the money in activism. He set up billboards and bought full-page ads in the New York Times. He supports a 2014 law banning police from conducting self-investigations. In February, he offered to donate $200,000 to Kenosha charities if the city would allow independent ballistics experts to examine the bullets; on September 16, he withdrew his offer after the city refused. He helped host a meeting arguing that police shootings should be reviewed as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates plane crashes to determine the facts to prevent future shootings.
After the settlement, Bell found an unlikely ally: retired detective Russell Beckman, a 28-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. He called Bell, told him the police were acting suspiciously, and offered to give Bell anything he needed.
In 2012, Beckman assembled compelling evidence that Bell never grabbed the officer's gun. First, there was no Bell's DNA on the gun. But the key was the driver's side mirror, which was broken and dangling from the car after the fight. Beckman said officers grabbed his holstered gun at the mirror, which pulled his gun belt to the front of his body.
Former prosecutor Jen Boyce said in a recent interview that the mirror might explain why police screamed that young Bell had a gun.
Regardless, Giambois said the shooting was still justified regardless of whether Bell Jr. had his hand on the gun. The officers feared for their lives.
Jamboys said the elder Michael Bell likely felt like a victim.
“Who can't sympathize with a man who has lost a son?” he said. “I can understand that he would be so, very, very unhappy and angry.”
November will mark the 20th anniversary of his son's shooting. Bell never thought he would spend two decades seeking justice for his son, he said, while law enforcement investigated itself.
“It's all about self-preservation,” Bell said. “It's like the NFL owners and referees are on the same side.”
In July, a trial judge heard arguments in Bell's appeal against the Crime Victims' Rights Commission's decision. He noted that no matter how he rules, the case and the question of who is the real victim will likely go to the state Court of Appeals and then to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“I'm not the final decider,” he said.