Girl Left In Freezing Car, Lawyers Move Toward Suit Against City

MILWAUKEE, WI — Two civil rights lawyers filed a notice of claim against the the City of Milwaukee Tuesday saying a 4-year-0ld girl's 4th Amendment and 14th Amendment rights were violated during a 2018 incident in which Milwaukee police officers left her overnight in a freezing vehicle after her mother was arrested, TMJ4.com reported. The claim was filed in Circuit Court and is an initial move toward a lawsuit.

Lawyers Mark Thomsen and William Sulton, who are representing the mother and the girl, claim the girl was unlawfully seized as the vehicle was towed to a city lot, and she was deprived of due process by being left for eight hours in freezing conditions. The lawyers also claim negligence by police officers, who failed to properly search the van.

The lawyers call for compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys' fees and have demanded a trial by jury, according to the report.

"(The officers) knew that my client was in the back of that car because her aunt had said so. And when they took her mother down to the police station she had said so," Sulton told TMJ4.com.

Sulton said the victim is doing better than she was three years ago, but has significant trauma from the incident.

According to reports, on the night of Nov. 18, 2018, police officers responded to a report of a disabled vehicle on West Forest Home Ave. There, they arrested the girl's mother, Blair Springfield, on suspicion of drunken driving. The child was sleeping in the backseat of the minivan.

The plaintiffs argue the child's aunt, also a passenger, told the officers the child was in the vehicle. But the van was towed to a city lot and left overnight with temperatures around 25 degrees and a wind chill of 14 degrees. The girl was found after a worker heard her screaming at 8 a.m. the next morning, and she was taken to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center and treated for minor injuries.

Five police officers: James Collins, Fabian Garcia, Antonio Dorsey, Emily Markert and David Paszkiewicz, were named as defendants in the claim. After the incident, Collins and Garcia were suspended, Collins for 25 days and Garcia for 10, after being found to have violated the department's core values.

Collins is the same officer involved in a controversial arrest of former Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown in 2018.

According to TMJ4.com, the City of Milwaukee Office of the City Attorney did not immediately respond when asked for a comment about the claim on Tuesday.

Read more at TMJ4.com.