In today’s polarized political landscape, especially in municipalities where elected officials embrace the mantra of “Defund the Police,” the challenges facing law enforcement officers are more pronounced than ever. One such municipality that fits this description is Dane County, Wisconsin, where the state’s capital city of Madison is located. In 2022, Mark Wagner, a special agent and seasoned veteran of Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), was charged with recklessly endangering safety using a dangerous weapon during the capture of then-38-year-old violent convicted felon Quadren Wilson. Special Agent Wagner was acquitted by a jury, in less than two hours, on March 28, 2024. But were these charges the result of due diligence on the part of the prosecution or merely a politically motivated assault on law enforcement?
First, it is necessary to evaluate what happened leading up to the charges against Agent Wagner. On the morning of February 3, 2022, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections issued an arrest warrant for Quadren Wilson for violating his parole. Wilson had been released on extended supervision, two years earlier, in February 2020, after serving over a year in prison for second-degree reckless endangerment. Wilson was charged with dealing a mixture of fentanyl and acetylfentanyl to a man who was found passed out in the bathroom of a McDonald’s restaurant, in the Town on Blooming Grove, Wisconsin, on April 9, 2021. The man was pronounced dead an hour after police arrived at the scene. An autopsy subsequently revealed the cause of death to be result of the combined effects of fentanyl, acetylfentanyl, gabapentin, methadone, chlordiazepoxide and ethanol.
The same day the warrant was issued for Wilson, in connection with the man’s death, he was spotted driving in Madison. Law enforcement vehicles from multiple jurisdictions intercepted Wilson’s car and pinned it between two Wisconsin DOJ trucks to prevent the suspect from fleeing. Wilson was known for fleeing from police. Among one of the officers in the Wisconsin DOJ vehicles was Special Agent Wagner, who was part of the law enforcement taskforce searching to arrest Wilson for selling the fentanyl-acetylfentanyl mixture.
Despite being on parole, Wilson’s rap sheet included 26 prior conventions ranging from drug-related offenses to shooting another person. The arresting officers, including Agent Wagner, were well aware of Wilson’s violent pedigree. Agent Wagner got out of his vehicle and was armed with a DCI-issued Sig Saur P320 9mm firearm and a ballistic shield as he moved toward Wilson’s car.
According to an interview with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, Agent Wagner told detectives that he “began giving verbal commands” as he moved toward Wilson’s car. “Police, police, police, let’s see your hands, let’s see your hands,” Wagner recalled yelling. When Wagner testified in his own defense in March 2024, he said that he heard Wilson’s car tires squealing and engine revving suggesting he was trying to flee. Wagner also recounted seeing Wilson’s right hand fidgeting by the center consol while his left arm was between his legs as though he were reaching for something under the driver’s seat. Then, according to Wagner, Wilson put both of his forearms together and began to sit up in his seat as though he was getting ready to shoot him and the other officers. Wagner claimed to have felt something hit his shield, which pushed him to the ground. “I’ve never in all the operations I’ve been on with the shield, I’ve never been knocked back with that much force in my entire career that it actually forcefully pushed me back onto the ground,” Wagner testified. At the same time he heard a gunshot and thought he had been shot by Wilson. In response, Wagner shot back at the suspect.
Although investigators found no evidence that Wilson was armed, Wagner and other officers claimed they saw Wilson holding a square object that “looked like the muzzle of a gun.” Wagner and his colleagues were compelled to make split-second decisions to ensure both their safety and that of the public. In the haste of immediate danger, Agent Wagner attempted to neutralize the threat.
Wilson was ambulated to a hospital with gunshot wounds and transferred to the custody of the Dane County Jail a day after having a surgery. Surgeons removed two bullets and reported that Wilson had been shot five times. At the time, authorities had not yet made the identities of the agents and officers involved in the shooting public. Nevertheless, Wilson’s family and community activists quickly framed it as a case of an unarmed Black man who was shot by white police officers.
On February 9, 2022, members of Wilson’s family along with pro-Black Lives Matter and Black Panther activists, holding “Stop Police Brutality” signs, protested against the shooting at the location of the shooting and arrest. “As you can see, they haven’t identified any of the officers. Have they, have they?” said Darryl Farmer, who goes by the name “King Rick,” and is an advocate for Wilson. King Rick is also founder and leader of the Original Black Panthers of Milwaukee (OBPM), at a press conference. “Why is that? This happened a week ago. A week ago. That’s telling me that they’re hiding something. You got the Dane County Sheriffs Office saying ‘well we weren’t involved in the shooting.’ You got the fake Madison Police Department [saying] ‘oh we weren’t involved in the shooting,’” King Ring yelled.
The OBPM was founded in 2015 after the original Milwaukee chapter of the Black Panthers disbanded in the 1980s. Black Panthers were known for their militant support of “revolution” and other subversive far-left causes, such as the overthrow of capitalism. Like the actual original Black Panthers, members of the OBPM engage in similar intimidation tactics. For instance, in December 2016, OBPM members were openly carrying firearms in the streets of Milwaukee, including one who “was unsafely handling a firearm,” according to the Milwaukee Police Department.
King Rick said at the press conference, “This young brother was shot in his back five times,” and shouted, “with his hands up.” The OBPM leader then gave the following warning: “I’m going to tell you Dane County this is your wakeup call. This is your wakeup call. You seen what happened across America when a young Black male is assassinated or almost assassinated. This was an assassination attempt on a young brother.” Adding, “I traveled across the country fighting against racism, oppression, injustice, inequality, and against police brutality. And I’m here, today, to put Dane County on notice.”
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne heeded that notice. On September 22, 2022, six months after the shooting and arrest of Wilson, District Attorney Ozanne charged Agent Wagner with second-degree recklessly endangering safety — a class G felony in Wisconsin that carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence if convicted.
In 2014, Ozanne was an unsuccessful Democrat candidate for attorney general of Wisconsin. He also faced criticism over alleged “racial disparities” in Dane County. In July 2020, when protestors descended on the front lawn of his house demanding radical reforms, Ozanne heard them, according to the Madison-based Capital Times newspaper. “When you talk about the need for change so that people of color are treated equitably, I hear you… when you call me a racist until 1:00 a.m. and blast music outside my house, I hear you,” Ozanne said in a statement the next day, the Times reported.
According to the Times, “After a decade with that power, Ozanne’s record shows little evidence he has worked to improve racial disparities in any meaningful way, former employees, defense attorneys and other officials say.” Given Ozanne’s previous political aspirations, this begs the question of whether the charges against Agent Wagner were a politically motivated ploy to win over the support of activists clamoring for “racial justice”?
While BLM, Black Panthers, leftist agitators, and much of the media focus their narratives on police accountability, apparently that is where the accountability ends, as DAs are not held to the same level of scrutiny as law enforcement officers. Had the same exact incident occurred in one of 70 other counties in Wisconsin, or most other counties throughout the country, it is unlikely that Agent Wagner would have been charged.
The political undertones of Wagner’s prosecution were unmistakable, as evidenced by the broader social context of where the case unfolded — in the deeply progressive city of Madison, less than 270 miles away and two years from where and when George Floyd died in Minneapolis. Over the past decade, there’s been a notable increase in anti-law enforcement movements, particularly evident in major cities where protestors demand “Defund the Police.” And many politicians in those jurisdictions have intensified their scrutiny of law enforcement methods and practices, wedging community distrust of local police and other law enforcement agencies. When this happens, it becomes increasingly difficult for law enforcement personnel to carry out their job effectively and it puts their safety in even greater risk.
Ultimately at the center of Wagner’s case is the issue of accountability within the criminal justice system. While law enforcement officers are held to exacting standards of conduct and can face severe repercussions for the slightest misstep, district attorneys such as Ozanne enjoy a level of immunity that shields them from most scrutiny and censure. This glaring asymmetry of accountability severely undermines law enforcement and puts into question the credibility of our legal system. District attorneys are entrusted to uphold the law, not to be agents of “change” or succumb to the feral demands of politically charged community agitators.
As professionals entrusted to uphold the rule of law, it behooves the law enforcement community to stand up for officers such as Wagner, who put their lives on the line daily to keep our local communities safe. We ought not to allow political opportunists to weaponize the justice system for their own potential gain.
The prosecution of Mark Wagner elicits many important questions about the weaponization of government and the undermining of law enforcement. The actions of district attorneys ought not to be above the law or without accountability. Just as citizens in any given municipality ought to be able to live in a safe community, law enforcement officers ought to be able to work in a safe and supportive environment.
