Former Marquette officer sentenced, misconduct tied to OWI case

MILWAUKEE - Editor's note: This report was updated with new information from Marquette University that the university no longer employs Espino.

A former Marquette University police officer will serve probation after he pleaded guilty to trying to "botch" an OWI crash investigation that began in 2023.

In Court:

Court records show 30-year-old Isaiah Espino pleaded guilty on Thursday to attempted misconduct, a felony. He was then sentenced to one year of probation. 

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OWI crash investigation

The backstory:

Prosecutors said Espino committed misconduct in public office, using his position as a police officer to "obtain a dishonest advantage" for another person. 

A criminal complaint said Espino responded to a crash near 15th and State in April 2023. He arrested the driver for operating while under the influence. During the subsequent trial, the driver's defense brought up text messages Espino sent to her.

In those messages, court filings said Espino said he would try to "screw up the case" so the driver could get out of the charge. During the trial, Espino admitted to sending the texts. He also said he didn't write anything false in his reports; he just "didn't write the best report" he could have.

"Forgive me but I'm not sure how your situation is now but I wanted to give you a heads up. I tried botching up the paperwork so nothing would come of it, well some high ranks above me forced me to fix it," one of those messages read, per the complaint.

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A Marquette police sergeant told investigators he had to send back numerous OWI and PAC tickets from Espino, according to prosecutors. He said all the issues were with typographical errors, which were later fixed. He said Espino would resubmit tickets with only one or two of the problems fixed each time. 

What they're saying:

Investigators spoke to the driver. Court filings said she was "very emotional" and thought Espino "felt bad" for her. She said Espino never mentioned anything during her arrest about trying to help her out of any charges.

When investigators asked Espino what he did to "botch" the investigation, prosecutors said he told them none of the paperwork got messed up because it was eventually accepted. He claimed he did not deliberately make errors and that the number of send-backs was average for him. 

Prosecutors said Espino later admitted he "left things out of the report" to help the driver with her case "a little bit" – including specifics of sobriety tests. He explained he sent the driver text messages before her trial for "peace of mind."

When charges were filed, the Marquette University Police Department said Espino was "placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation."