By Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr.
(Editor’s Note: This article contains a paragraph of a sensitive, explicit nature in describing what happened to article’s main subject and is only mentioned to give the article context.)
David Ali Shabazz, a former inmate at Waupun Correctional Institution with several disabilities, who claims he was a victim of excessive force and sexual assault by seven White Waupun prison officials, doesn’t want a monetary settlement that could net him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
All Shabazz wants is justice for himself and current and former Black prison inmates in Waupun and other Wisconsin correctional institutions who have suffered—and are suffering—physical abuse during their incarceration.
Though the alleged assault happened in 2018, Shabazz said he decided to speak out now because he felt the time was right to put a spotlight on what happened to him.
Having kept his case and efforts to get justice under wraps—for, what he said was for ‘negotiation’ purposes with the legal system—Shabazz said he became emboldened to speak out now because of George Floyd’s death almost two months ago while in police custody.
Floyd’s death sparked national and international protests that called for systemic change in America regarding racial inequality, social and economic disparities, and the unequal way law enforcement ‘police’ communities of color, as well as the need for reforms in policing.
During a recent interview, Shabazz said he has declined settlement offers. He feels it’s necessary to now reveal what happened in order to finally get justice, and for the Waupun officers who assaulted him to lose their jobs.
Shabazz, a well-known and respected activist who worked with Father James Groppi during the Open Housing Marches in the 1960s and was a co-founder of the Commandos, was serving a 12-year sentence for battery at the time of the incident at Waupun. He was originally facing 105 years for allegedly raping, strangling and suffocating a woman who worked for him. Shabazz was the owner/proprietor of Qualified Transitional Living Center for Black families in the community.
However, the woman—and her husband, who committed the battery on her according to Shabazz—were, he said, trying to rob him at his home. Shabazz was found not guilty of the rape allegation. Nevertheless, he was sentenced (wrongly, according to Shabazz) to 12 years for the alleged battery. During his 4-1/2 year of those six he served at Waupun, Shabazz spent 3-1/2 in solitary confinement.
Shabazz said he plans to bring a lawsuit for false imprisonment against the judge in that case, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Branch 12 Judge David Borowski.
Shabazz is totally deaf and blind on his right side, with 60% loss of hearing on his left side. He wears a corrective contact in his right eye, and hearing aids.
Shabazz also suffers from arthritis in both legs and knee joints that contributes to an unsteady gait without the aid of patella braces and back brace he must wear at all times.
Shabazz had these conditions at the time of the assault by the White officers at Waupun on June 27, 2018. According to a complaint he filed with the United States District of Wisconsin, Shabazz was walking from his cell unit to recreation when one of the officers in question, Lt. Sanchez (no first names are given in the complaint, a copy of which was given to the MCJ by Shabazz) called him over, pointing to Shabazz’s pants—which were rolled up like shorts showing his braces—and told him to roll them down.
When Shabazz told Sanchez he would roll them down when he returned to his cell, the correction official accused him of being “resistant” to his order.
Sanchez and correction officers Miller and Levy grabbed Shabazz, handcuffing him behind his back and placing leg chains on his ankles.
He was allegedly dragged over one hundred yards to another part of the unit where they were joined by a fourth correction officer named Olsen. As Miller and Olsen held Shabazz by both arms, Sanchez placed an X-26 Taser on Shabazz’s shoulder blades.
Sanchez then reportedly ordered one of the three officers to place Shabazz in a headlock while jamming his face against a portion of a fenced area. Sanchez then summoned correction officers Rosenthal, Umentium, Sgt. Gould, and correction officer Kobza.
All seven officers dragged Shabazz into the Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU). Once inside the RHU, they stood Shabazz up and forced his head against the door of a ‘strip cell’ and placed him in another headlock, Tasing his shoulder blades and cutting off his clothes and underwear with a pair of Dura Shears.
While being held by the other officers, Gould allegedly fondled Shabazz’s testicles and (according to the complaint) placed both hands on his buttocks, spreading open the cheeks to expose his anus in view of everyone, male and female (the complaint doesn’t distinguish which of the seven correction officers listed are male or female).
“You can’t do a strip search in the open,” Shabazz said during the interview. “It violates the procedure for a strip search.”
The officers then reportedly dragged Shabazz—still naked, cuffed and chained—to an upstairs cell with no mattress, linens, or toilet paper. Shabazz laid naked on a concrete slab for 24 hours.
Shabazz, who was on medication for his health issues, was forced to go through withdrawal while in the cell. Shabazz currently has a second lawsuit pending, which deals with the denial of his medication while in the cell after the assualt, which led to his withdrawal.
Shabazz believes the correction officers did what they did to make an example of him because he was using his experience as an advocate and knowledge of the legal system to help other inmates with their cases.
Not only is Shabazz seeking justice for what happened to him at Waupun, he also wants to expose the mistreatment—even deaths—of other inmates in the state’s penal institutions.
During the interview, Shabazz recounted an incident that happened prior to his assault. While in solitary confinement once, he engaged in a conversation with a younger prisoner in another cell that ended around 2 a.m. in the morning.
At 8 a.m. later that morning, Shabazz saw individuals taking a gurney down the corridor for the body of the individual he was talking to the night before. Shabazz was told, by a correction officer the prisoner hung himself. Shabazz said he doesn’t believe the prisoner hung himself.
“You have (Black inmate) deaths that are not reported and an inmate grievance system that is stacked against them,” said Shabazz, who noted that many Black inmates—who are serving long sentences that are out of proportion with their crimes in many cases—are assaulted or killed in prison.
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