Officer's lawyer cross-examines the unarmed bus rider she shot in the back

Counsel for the Brown Deer police officer on trial for shooting an unarmed bus rider in the back got his chance to attack the victim's credibility Monday.

Manuel Burnley Jr., 28, testified for prosecutors most of Friday and the start of Monday, saying he was not resisting when officer Devon Kraemer shot him while he was on the ground and she and fellow officer Michael Leeman were trying to handcuff him in March 2016.

Kraemer's attorney, Michael Steinle, focused Burnley's attention on a statement he gave police two days after the incident, in which he said he "deserved to be Tased."

"How were you deserving to be Tased if you weren't resisting?" Steinle asked.

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Burnley said because he was on the ground officers were having trouble handcuffing him. He had testified that he was trying to get the arrest over with, but that the officers were struggling because he is so big and his arms are short.

Steinle suggested that Burnley was upset that day because a girlfriend had broken up with him, and cited texts obtained from his phone. Burnley said the woman thought it was more of a relationship than he did, and that he wasn't upset by the texts at all.

He did, again, admit he was out of line when he engaged in a loud, profane argument with a bus driver about not getting a transfer ticket. He said he had no idea that a few weeks earlier, the bus system had done away with paper transfers and gone to using "M Cards." 

Steinle asked him why, then, police inventoried an M Card among the items in his wallet. Burnley said he didn't know why it was among his other things but repeated that it wasn't his.

Steinle then tried to suggest that Burnley knew he was going to not only be arrested and cited for disorderly conduct on the bus, but that he would be going to jail on outstanding warrants.

Burnley said he had no knowledge he had outstanding warrants, and that if he did, they must be for unpaid tickets because he's never been arrested or faced a criminal charge. Right before the lunch break, Steinle told Circuit Judge Christopher Lee the municipal warrants remain outstanding and that Burnley would likely be arrested by one of the many sheriff's deputies in the Safety Building.

Burnley instead left the courtroom and met with relatives and his civil attorney in the hallway after the trial recessed for lunch. He was not immediately arrested but instead went to municipal court and paid off tickets from 2008 and 2011.

The bus driver whom jurors have heard repeatedly on the security video also testified Monday. Kimberly Richards said she got fired from the Milwaukee County Transit System because of the incident.

She told jurors Burnley was on his phone while she tried to explain the M Card situation, and repeatedly called her "the B word" before finally settling into a seat in the rear of the bus. She said when she noticed the police a few blocks later, along N. 60th St. at Brown Deer Road, she stopped and honked to get their attention.

In her view, she said, Burnley was resisting the officers, and tossing Kraemer around "like a Raggedy Ann doll."  She said he seemed to have control of the situation and was "fighting her like a man," though she said she did not see Burnley throw any punches or kick anyone.

Richards got choked up when asked why she drove off. "I heard the shot, and there was blood everywhere. I just rode off. I don't know why."

Brendan Conway, a spokesman for MCTS, said Richards was terminated in November after not being available for work since March 2016 without medical documentation. A letter to her from MCTS said she would be eligible for rehire if a doctor said she can work without restriction.  Conway said publicity was no factor in the decision.

Kraemer is charged with aggravated battery intending great bodily harm.

Leeman testified last week that Burnley never threatened or attacked the officers but that he decided to take him to the ground when he began to pull away from him and Kraemer after they escorted him from the bus. 

Kraemer told investigators she feared for the officers' lives when she shot Burnley, who is 5-foot-7 and weighs 370 pounds. 

An expert on police use of force testified that Kraemer's belief was not reasonable under the circumstances.