Jennifer Sebena Memorial Decision Delayed Until 2014

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has delayed any decision to allow Wauwatosa Officer Jennifer Sebena's name to be inscribed on its Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Reporter Christina Palladino, with our partner WISN 12 News, learned Thursday that the organization's board of directors had not overturned its earlier decision in a rehearing of Sebena's application but would revisit the application next year.

No reason has so far been given for the postponement.

The exclusion of Sebena from receiving the honor reserved for law officers who are killed in the line of duty fomented an outcry — from other officers in Wisconsin and around the country, from citizens who have put more than 5,000 signatures on a petition, from public officials including  and the head of the state police union.

"The national police memorial’s action to further delay a final decision on the Jennifer Sebena controversy will do nothing to quell the anger that our state’s officers feel about the disrespect the memorial has shown her," Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, told WISN.

"While we are somewhat pleased that the memorial board didn’t confirm its rejection of Jennifer, Wisconsin’s law enforcement community will not rest until Jennifer Sebena is given the honor that her service and sacrifice demands," Palmer said.

The head of Milwaukee's police union called their decision "wrong," WISN reported.

"Jennifer is, was our sister,"

Michael Crivello said. "I personally attended her funeral, which was very difficult to do anytime we lose a family member in the line of duty.

"Something to note: While she was performing her duty admirably on that shift, if we had not figured out who her assailant was we wouldn't be having this conversation. She would be on the wall where she belongs,"

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sent a letter to the chairman of the national memorial board, saying, "Officer Sebena was protecting the citizens of Wauwatosa on Dec. 24, 2012, when she was ambushed. It should not matter who committed the murder as the act was taken against a police officer on duty."

Sebena was shot to death on duty Christmas Eve morning outside Wauwatosa Fire Station No. 1 after she stopped in at the auxiliary police office there. Her husband, Benjamin Sebena, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in her death and is scheduled for trial beginning July 8.

• Related: Full coverage of the Jennifer Sebena shooting

Palladino reported Tuesday that the decision by the Memorial Fund board to exclude Jen Sebena was based on the manner of her death; i.e., due to an incident of domestic violence. It judged that was not "in the line of duty."

However, Patch and others who have examined the organization's criteria for acceptance of an officer's application could find no language to support that exclusion.

Among those who scrutinized the group's guidelines was no less than Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, the state's top justice official outside the courts.

Van Hollen wrote Wednesday to Memorial Fund CEO Craig Floyd that his interpretation of its criteria led him to conclude that Sebena's on-duty death clearly met the terms and conditions set forth.

"Officer Sebena died in uniform," Van Hollen wrote, "during her scheduled duty shift and while on patrol. Using the definitions adopted and promulgated by your organization, she died while performing her statutorily authorized duties, consistent with the terms and conditions of her employment. She died in the line of duty, 'as a direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty.'"

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber, Steve Riffel as president of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, and Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sorenson, president of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, among many others, also urged the Memorial Fund to reconsider and accept Sebena.

Thousands of citizen supporters of Sebena's case have signed petitions demanding her acceptance, and thousands more have poured out their dismay on social media, including the Remembering Wauwatosa Police Officer Jennifer Sebena Facebook page created almost immediately after her death.

Advocates for victims of domestic violence also felt diminished by the decision.

WISN interviewed Carmen Pitre of Sojourner Peace and Family Center, who said, "It's discouraging and disappointing."

Pitre told WISN the decision sends the wrong message to domestic violence survivors as well as to law officers who work to stop domestic violence.

"I think there are lots of ways that survivors get the message that they don't matter," Pitre told WISN, "that somehow it's their fault.

"I think this is just one more message like that."