President Obama Urged to Help Get Jennifer Sebena's Name on Memorial

The state's largest police organization is asking President Barack Obama to help get the name of slain Wauwatosa police officer Jennifer Sebena placed on a national law enforcement memorial.

In a letter sent Friday to Obama, James L. Palmer II, the executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, asked Obama to "support this growing effort" to get Sebena's name added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

The letter — which was obtained by Patch's media partners at WISN 12 News — was sent one day after the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund delayed a decision to overturn an earlier ruling until 2014.

The fund initially rejected putting Sebena's name on the memorial because it determined her death was not "in the line of duty" because it was an incident of domestic violence. Her husband, Benjamin Sebena, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in her slaying. 

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 Gov. Scott Walker, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

In the letter to Obama, Palmer called the decision to exclude Sebena "an inappropriate and outrageous insult to Officer Sebena, just as it is to the collective perspective of the many officers who have contacted our office in just the last 24 hours."

In addition, Palmer wrote, the decision to exclude Sebena "is made all the more bizarre when you consider the fact that the (organization) has approved the addition of other fallen officers who died under circumstances almost identical to those of Officer Sebena."

Palmer gave several examples of officer deaths around the country that occurred under similar circumstances, including three officers who are memorialized on the wall after being killed while on duty in domestic violence circumstances nearly identical to Sebena's.

Palmer also cited examples of officers whose names are on the wall after dying of natural causes after, in one case, a competitive running event, and in another, of heat stroke after a training exercise.

A copy of the full letter is attached in the gallery.