A close friend of the parents of fallen Milwaukee police officer Charles Irvine Jr. wrote an open letter to elected officials venting her frustration about the tragic events surrounding Officer Irvine’s death.
Laural Cobus tells TODAY’S TMJ 4 she couldn’t remain silent anymore. She turned in the letter with hopes of lawmakers enacting tougher laws. She wrote the letter the day before his funeral.
It’s addressed to Milwaukee Court Commissioners Barry Phillips and Grace Flynn, who she says are responsible for setting signature bonds for Ladell Harrison. He's the28-year-oldd suspect Irvine and his partner were pursuing when their squad car flipped.
"This should not have happened to them. This should not have happened to Chuckie," Cobus said. "There's a revolving door where cops bring people in and before they're done with their report, the criminal is out the back door and something like that has to stop. The door has to close."
A signature bond doesn't require a defendant to pony up any cash unless they don't appear in court. Harrison was charged for operating a vehicle with a suspended license in February 2017.
He didn't show up to his initial appearance, a warrant was ordered and he was arrested a month later. After attending a few court appearances he went missing again after not coming to his plea hearing in September 2017.
Another warrant was ordered and Harrison wasn't found until he appeared in court last month where court commissioner Phillips let him walk on a $500 signature bond.
"There's no reason for it, there's no reason for it, I can't imagine how that happened," Cobus said,
"I'm going to do whatever I can to help insure this never happens again."
Cobus says she'll continue to write letters if she needs to until a change is made. We also reached out to the County of Milwaukee Court Commissioner's office, we haven't heard from them yet but once we do we'll keep you posted.
Cobus' letter has support from Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan.
