Lawyers for three former Milwaukee police officers accused in the brutal beating of an unarmed man rested their case Tuesday, paving the way for closing arguments in the substantial battery trial.

Jurors will be sequestered during deliberations in the case of Jon Bartlett, Andrew Spengler and Daniel Masarik, who are accused of beating 26-year-old Frank Jude outside a party at Spengler's home on Oct. 24, 2004.

Lawyers for Bartlett and Spengler claim their clients took appropriate action against a man they considered a suspect in the theft of Spengler's badge. Masarik claims he was nowhere near the scene of the alleged attack.

To support their reasonable-force defense, Spengler's lawyers called Milwaukee Police Lt. Stephen Basting to discuss the defense and arrest tactics he teaches in the police academy.

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Basting testified that the use of force becomes acceptable when a suspect refuses to comply with an officer's request for him to surrender.

Lt. Stephen Basting

Even so, Basting said it was never acceptable to kick a suspect in the head or the groin, as several civilian and police witnesses testified Bartlett and Masarik did.

"That's considered deadly force," Basting testified.

On the stand, both Bartlett and Masarik denied that they kicked Jude in the head. While Bartlett admitted to delivering several "focused strikes," or punches to Jude's ribcage, he was unapologetic about his use of "justified" force.

Bartlett also suggested that the two uniformed officers who accused him of kicking Jude in the head had fabricated the allegations to cover their tracks.

Bartlett's lawyers called two high-ranking police officials to impeach the testimony of the two officers, who told jurors last week that they saw all three of the defendants kick and punch Jude even after he was in handcuffs.

Officer Nicole Belmore also said she saw Bartlett threaten Jude with a knife, for which Bartlett is also facing a dangerous weapons enhancement.

The officials testified that in conversations after the incident with Belmore and her partner, Joseph Schabel, neither reported seeing the defendants use excessive force.

Martinez and Schabel, the first uniformed officers to respond to a 911 call for an uncooperative suspect, both testified that they came upon a "chaotic" scene and saw Jude in the street with several off-duty officers on top of him, including the three defendants.

Schabel told jurors that even after he handcuffed Jude because he was suspected of stealing Spengler's badge, the defendants continued to kick and punch him in the head.

But the defense claims Schabel, who admitted punching Jude twice, fabricated the claims of excessive force to deflect any responsibility he may have had in the incident.

The defense also implied that Martinez lied to cover for both her partner of two years and her own missteps in failing to handle the scene properly.

Three other officers testified Tuesday that when they arrived at the scene, both Martinez and Schabel gave them orders and left Jude with the off-duty officers.

Both officers testified that they did not implicate anyone because they thought those aspects of the incident would be covered in an internal investigation.

Martinez testified that she informed her superiors of the situation and was specifically told not to include any details of the battery.

Her superior, Lt. Edith Childs, took the stand Tuesday and said that while Martinez summarized Jude's injuries and told her "he didn't look good," she did not implicate any of the off-duty officers.

Lt. Edith Childs said no one reported the use of excessive force.

"Did she at all indicate to you whether she observed any excessive force by anyone?" defense lawyer Bridget Boyle asked.

"No," Childs said.

"If you received information that someone named Officer Bartlett put a knife to Jude's throat, what would you have done with it?" Boyle said.

"I would have reported it," Childs testified.

Capt. Mary Hoerig of the Professional Performance Division also testified that when she spoke to Schabel after the incident, he did not say his colleagues used excessive force.

"He never told you he observed any wrongdoing to Jude?" Boyle asked.

"No," Hoerig said. "He said that all he knew was that Officer Spengler's badge had been stolen by this individual and that was pretty much all he knew."

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning. The trial is being streamed live on Court TV Extra.