BEACH DRIVE POLICE "BEAT"

BEACH DRIVE POLICE “BEAT”

A pretrial conference was held Tuesday, June 6^th 2006 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in the criminal case of Michael A. Capati, 34, the Milwaukee Police officer who was suspended after he was charged for a May 21^st incident in the 7900 block of N. Beach Drive in Fox Point after he broke a window of a house there and assaulted an individual there, in an area not known for violence, or as the natural stomping grounds of jealous police spouses.

Capati was charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, criminal damage to property and resisting arrest after he allegedly encountered his wife having sex with another person at the property. This is considered a domestic abuse case, also, and Capati has been instructed to have no contact with his wife at her home or her place of employment.

According to the Fox Point Police Department, which will sell you a copy of the police report of the incident for $6.65, the events occurred at 7912 N. Beach Drive, which a police department official identified as the residence of Colin Michael Lancaster. Lancaster is listed as the general counsel of Stark Investments, 3600 S. Lake Drive, St. Francis, and is a 1993 graduate of Marquette University Law School.

Tia Lancaster and Colin Lancaster are listed as donors of between $2,000 to $4,999 to Marquette University Law School in fall, 2003.

North Beach Drive is legendary in North Shore circles, since it is one of the few lakefront streets in the metropolitan area that is only slightly above the level of Lake Michigan, and not poised high on a bluff. This has made the area extremely valuable, which is shown in the tax assessment for the property that values the land at $1,200,000 and the home at a measly $816,000, for a total of $2,016,000. The taxes on the property amounted to $51,084.41 (more than a cop’s salary) and are paid in full. Here is an aerial photograph of the vicinity, taken in 2000. The famed “Witch’s House,” the home and studio of the late outsider artist Mary Nohl, now administered by the John Michael Kohler Foundation, is at the very southern end of the road.

This is not the first time Capati has been charged with battery, as this listing shows. He joined the force in 2001.

He is the son of Carmelito Capati, the genial owner of the Asian Mart, 1125 N. Old World Third St., and wrote a feedback piece about his childhood at the store which was published this spring in the onmilwaukee.com website.

[UPDATE]

September 12th 2006 -- Michael Capati pled No Contest to one count of misdemeanor criminal tresspass to a building today and was sentenced by the judge to six months in the House of Correction, which he then stayed.

Capati was also sentenced to 15 months of probation and an additional 30 days in the House of Correction, also stayed pending a probation hearing on January 12th 2007.

He must also maintain absolute sobriety, employment, and have no contact with "Nina C." and "Andrew M." He was also fined $400. You may review the information here.

-- Michael Horne

--Michael Horne