The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office will not charge anyone in the beating of a street preacher attacked outside of Riverside University High School in September even though the attack was caught on video and the attacker is easily identifiable.
"The Dan O'Donnell Show" has obtained a letter from the District Attorney's Office to Nicholas Heald, who was assaulted while preaching against abortion as students lined up for school buses after the school day on September 13th.
Heald captured the attack on his body camera, and it was witnessed by multiple Riverside students and staff members as well as Heald's fellow anti-abortion protesters.
"The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office at the Juvenile Justice Center has reviewed the police reports and other evidence in this case in which you were listed as the victim," the District Attorney's Office wrote in an unsigned letter to Heald this week. "Based upon that review, Assistant District Attorney Claire Roehre has concluded that no charges will be issued in this matter."
The letter provides no explanation for why a crime witnessed by so many people and captured on video will not be charged, and the District Attorney's Office said only that "each element of an offense must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt," and that "in some cases that proof is simply not available in spite of the best efforts of witnesses, the police and the District Attorney's Office.
"In other cases, the Assistant District Attorney may decide that prosecution is not appropriate for other reasons," the letter continued.
The District Attorney's Office did not specify if there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction in the attack on Heald or if Assistant District Attorney Roehre simply decided not to prosecute.