Man Savagely Beaten After Police Officer Party

March 31, 2005 -- -- You would think that a party at a police officer's house, full of off-duty police officers, would be among the safest places to have fun.

Frank Jude, 26, doesn't think so. The Milwaukee-area man had been invited by another guest to such a party on Oct. 24, 2004. He left cuffed and savagely beaten.

"It looked like a bomb had went off in Frank's face," said Kirsten Antonissen, who accompanied him to the party.

Jude's pants were also cut off his body. He says he was kicked repeatedly in the groin, his fingers were yanked back and a pen was jammed in both of his ears.

"I thought he was going to die, I really did. The beating that he took, I cannot believe that anybody would have lived through that," Antonissen said.

Jude says a mob of off-duty police officers from the party was responsible for his injuries. Antonissen says when she called 911 for help, the officers who arrived joined in.

They both say that when their group arrived at the party, everyone else they saw was white. Antonissen is also white, but Jude is a very light-skinned African-American.

Jude and Antonissen only met one another a few hours before they attended the party.

Antonissen and her friend, Katie Brown, both college seniors, were attending a bachelorette party for a close friend when Jude showed up as the stripper. Jude arrived with an assistant, Lovell Harris, who is also black.

Afterward, the party moved on to a local tavern. Jude and Harris were invited along.

Then Antonissen got a call from a girlfriend who invited them to join her at a party on Milwaukee's South Side, in a mostly white, working-class neighborhood.

By the time Antonissen, Brown, Jude and Harris arrived, it was nearly two in the morning. The party had been going on for hours and there was a lot of alcohol.

Brown says she remembers they received a strange reception when they arrived. "There were probably like 30 people in the house, and everybody just stopped what they were doing and looked at us. It was a very, very uncomfortable situation."