Konerak Sinthasomphone Family: Lawsuit, Settlement, and Reforms

The family of Konerak Sinthasomphone sued the City of Milwaukee and three of its police officers in federal court after 14-year-old Konerak was murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer on May 27, 1991, less than an hour after officers returned the naked, bleeding boy to Dahmer’s apartment. The Konerak Sinthasomphone family lawsuit ended in a settlement: the city agreed in March 1995 to pay $850,000, and the Milwaukee Common Council formally approved the payment that April.¹²

What the Officers Did That Night

Around 2:00 a.m. on May 27, 1991, 18-year-old Sandra Smith and her 17-year-old cousin Nicole Childress found Konerak stumbling through an alley near Dahmer’s building. He was naked, bleeding, and unable to stand. Childress called 911 and described him as “beaten up” and “bruised.”³

Officers John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish responded, joined by Richard Porubcan and another officer.⁴⁵⁶

The officers never ran Dahmer’s name through their system. Had they done so, they would have seen he was on probation for sexually assaulting a child — a child, as it happened, from the same family.⁵ Dahmer killed four more people before his arrest on July 22, 1991.⁶

The Earlier Assault on Konerak’s Brother

The Sinthasomphone family’s history with Dahmer began three years before Konerak’s death. In 1988, Dahmer drugged and sexually assaulted one of Konerak’s older brothers, a 13-year-old boy identified in court filings as Somsack Sinthasomphone.⁷ Dahmer was convicted of second-degree sexual assault and sentenced to ten months of work release and five years of probation.⁵ The family later said police had told them Dahmer would be “put away for good,” and no one told them he was out.

Dahmer was still on probation the night Konerak was killed. His probation officer, Donna Chester, had received written permission from her supervisor to skip home visits based on Dahmer’s “lower risk profile” and apparent compliance.⁸ No state official set foot in the apartment.

The Constitutional Claims

The estate of Konerak Sinthasomphone and his family filed suit against the City of Milwaukee and officers Balcerzak, Gabrish, and Porubcan. The case, Estate of Sinthasomphone v. City of Milwaukee, was docketed as 91-C-1121 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin before Chief Judge Terence T. Evans.⁴

The complaint advanced two Fourteenth Amendment theories: that the officers violated Konerak’s rights to substantive due process and equal protection, and that they violated his family’s right to “familial association with him.”⁹

The equal protection claim rested on an allegation about the department itself. The family argued the officers were acting within a “longstanding practice of intentional discrimination against and reckless disregard of the rights of racial minorities and homosexuals.” Konerak was Laotian; the young women trying to intervene were Black; Dahmer was white. The filings cited civil rights litigation against the Milwaukee Police Department going back to 1958, including allegations of excessive force against minorities, failure to promote minority officers without court order, and inadequate discipline for accused officers. The complaint said Balcerzak, Gabrish, and Porubcan treated the encounter with “deliberate indifference, and jocularity, as if it were somehow comical.”⁹

Why the Case Survived a Motion to Dismiss

The city moved to dismiss on a familiar doctrine: police generally have no constitutional duty to protect private citizens from private violence. Judge Evans rejected that framing. The family, he ruled, had not merely alleged that officers failed to protect Konerak from Dahmer. They alleged the officers “actively prevented private citizens from helping Sinthasomphone and, in fact, delivered Sinthasomphone, who was a minor, not to his parents, but into Dahmer’s custody.”⁹

That distinction between passive failure and affirmative harm was the door that let the case through. Once the constitutional claims survived, the officers sought summary judgment on qualified immunity, and the case moved through further proceedings before the parties negotiated a resolution.⁴

The $850,000 Settlement

In March 1995, the City of Milwaukee tentatively agreed to pay the Sinthasomphone family $850,000 to end the litigation.² The Milwaukee Common Council approved the settlement the following month.¹ Konerak’s father, Sounthone Sinthasomphone, said through his children that he did not blame America for his son’s death; his anger was directed at the criminal justice system that had released Dahmer and failed to notify the family.⁷

What Happened to the Officers

The three officers were suspended with pay shortly after Dahmer’s arrest.⁵ Balcerzak and Gabrish pleaded guilty to an administrative charge of failing to investigate and were fired by Police Chief Philip Arreola. In November 1992, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission upheld the firings; chairman M. Nicol Padway called the officers’ “disregard for basic police procedure” a “gross negligence” that “cannot and will not be excused as an error in judgment.”¹⁰

Both officers challenged the firings and won. In April 1994, Reserve Judge Robert Parins ruled the dismissals “too harsh” and ordered Balcerzak and Gabrish reinstated with roughly $55,000 each in back pay.¹¹¹²¹³

Gabrish, in a statement published in the Milwaukee Journal after the initial suspensions, said: “God as my witness, I just didn’t dump a little boy in the hands of a murderer. That’s not what happened.”⁶

Reforms the Case Prompted

Beyond the money, the case pushed the city to examine its police department. Milwaukee convened a nine-member civilian commission chaired by Marquette University President Rev. Albert DiUlio. In October 1991, the commission issued roughly 50 recommendations: Chief Arreola was to produce a community-oriented policing plan within 90 days; the department was to adopt an explicit “valuing diversity” policy and discipline officers who violated it; training was to be revised; and the citizen complaint process was to be streamlined.¹⁴

The commission acknowledged the difficulty. Most officers, and all senior commanders, had served under former Chief Harold Breier, who retired in 1984. The Milwaukee Police Association opposed the reforms and publicly objected to the firings of Balcerzak and Gabrish.¹⁴ The reinstatement of the two fired officers less than three years later showed the limits of what the reforms could reach.

1
The Washington Post. Milwaukee to Pay $850,000 to Family of Dahmer Victim
2
The Spokesman-Review. City Agrees to Settle in Dahmer Suit
3
People. Glenda Cleveland, Jeffrey Dahmer Neighbor, Called Police Multiple Times
4
vLex. Estate of Sinthasomphone v. City of Milwaukee, 838 F.Supp. 1320
5
Chicago Tribune. 3 Cops Suspended; Left Victim With Dahmer
6
The New York Times. Officer Defends Giving Boy Back to Dahmer
7
Chicago Tribune. Boy’s Death Leaves Kin Sad, Angry
8
Chicago Tribune. Probation Officer Duly Noted Dahmer’s Battle With Demons
9
UMKC School of Law. Estate of Sinthasomphone v. City of Milwaukee
10
Los Angeles Times. Officers Fired in Dahmer Case
11
The New York Times. Victory for Two in Dahmer Case
12
Newsweek. Milwaukee PD Congratulates Retired Cop Who Laughed Off Teen Victim of Dahmer
13
The Washington Post. Racism, Homophobia Enabled Jeffrey Dahmer’s Crimes
14
The Washington Post. Sweeping Changes Urged in Milwaukee Police Dept.