Published in 1992
384 pages
Lawrencia Ann “Bambi” Bembenek (1958 – 2010), known as Laurie Bembenek, was an American security officer at Marquette University when she was arrested on charges of first-degree murder of Christine Schultz in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 28, 1981. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced in 1982 to life in prison.
What is this book about?
In Woman on Trial, Lawrencia Bembenek cuts through the media circus that has swirled relentlessly around her case for over ten years, and tells her side of the story.
Following her dream of becoming a police officer, Lawrencia recounts her days of training her growing awareness of police corruption and dirty dealings within the Milwaukee Police Department, and her dismissal when she began to probe beneath the surface of this notoriously corrupt organization. Depressed, broke and blacklisted by the police, Bembenk tried to claw her way out of the far-reaching clutches of the MPD. When she thought things couldn’t get much worse, she found herself fingered for a murder she didn’t commit, accused by friends she had once trusted, and by the husband she had loved —then convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
For ten years Lawrencia Bembenek waited behind bars, fighting a system that didn’t work, watching as evidence of perjury and deception during her trail surfaced at every turn. Unable to make her voice heard, she made a dramatic escape to Canada, only to be captured after just three months of freedom.
Surrounded by a team of dedicated lawyers and a surge of public support, Lawrencia Bembenek made a bid for political refugee status in Canada, fending off an extradition order by the state of Wisconsin. But now she is back where it all started. She has returned to Milwaukee to continue her struggle, for it is there that she must win back her freedom. And it is Lawrencia’s hope that through Woman on Trial, the truth will finally be heard.
