A Waukegan city councilwoman said she has the votes necessary to censure a fellow alderman for posting a photo of a severed arm belonging to a murdered 19-year-old woman from Milwaukee on social media.
Waukegan 8th Ward Alderwoman Lynn Florian said a motion to censure has been filed with the city against 6th Ward Alderman Keith Turner, adding the measure should go up for a vote during the next board meeting June 3.
Florian added the censure vote is the only means available for fellow aldermen to take action against Turner for posting a picture of the severed arm on social media last week.
“I believe it’s incumbent on us to hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct,” Florian said during a Waukegan City Council meeting Monday night. “I want to distance myself from what happened because I had nothing to do with that and I want nothing to do with what was done.”
Turner did not mention the controversy during the city council meeting and has refused to answer questions about the incident.
Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor told WISN ABC News in Milwaukee, “I literally myself almost passed our when I saw that picture, so I can’t even imagine what this poor mother went through.”
“I was outraged, like most people should be,” Taylor said. “All I could think of was this poor family and what they were going through.”
The severed arm was discovered at about 8 p.m. May 11 at the Waukegan Municipal Beach in the 200 block of East Sea Horse Drive.
Authorities said a person was walking along the beach saw what they believed to be a human arm on the ground. Officers later arrived and found the arm next to a fallen tree trunk at the beach.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene and have been working with police on the investigation.
Taylor said previously Turner never contacted Waukegan Police or anyone within city government to ask about the discovery of the severed arm before posting the photo on Facebook, adding the decision to post the photo on social media was “morally disgusting, socially irresponsible, and extremely cruel to the victim’s family.”
Authorities believe the severed arm belongs to 19-year-old Sade Robinson of Milwaukee, who authorities said was murdered and dismembered around April 2 following a date with Maxwell S. Anderson, 33, of Milwaukee, Wisc., at the Twisted Fisherman in Milwaukee.
Anderson is currently being held in custody on charges of first degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson as authorities believe he intentionally killed Robinson, mutilated her remains then set fire to her car.
A criminal complaint filed in Wisconsin said a severed human leg was later discovered at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, Wisc., while a severed human foot was recovered in a wooded area near 31st Street and Galena in Milwaukee.
Robinson’s mother, Sade of Milwaukee, said she was disgusted to see the social media post from Turner and that she wanted “him held accountable.”