Jordan Miller spent Tuesday, his 22nd birthday, on his parents’ couch, nursing a broken back.

That’s where the University of Wisconsin-Parkside student has been for a month now, since a night of Halloween revelry in Madison turned into a living nightmare.

Miller, who is openly gay, says he was the victim of a savage beating, which he believes to be a hate crime. The perpetrators remain unknown, and Miller is critical of the way paramedics handled his call that night and the way police have followed up in the interim.

“Little by little, it almost seems like the more the physical pain goes away, the more it comes on,” Miller said Tuesday. “Right now, I feel like I’m at a, I don’t want to say, angry or angsty point, but I’m upset. I’m just really upset as to why the police officer was only there for 18 seconds, why there was an ambulance only there for two minutes.”

Night recounted

Like many college students from across the Midwest, Miller, of Salem, descended upon Madison for that city’s Halloween weekend celebration — a free-for-all of costumed, alcohol-fueled revelers who crowd the State Street area shoulder to shoulder each year.

Miller was Paul Bunyon for the night, donning a lumberjack ensemble.

A seldom drinker, Miller imbibed liberally that night with friends. On the way home from a bar in the wee hours, he found himself in an argument with a close female friend, with whom he was staying for the weekend.

Outside of her campus-area apartment, the friend made a drunken comment about Miller’s sexual orientation. Four unknown college-age men standing on the porch took notice, and the next thing Miller knew, he was being knocked over a railing and onto the ground, unconscious.

When he came to, Miller said all he remembers is being kicked in the chest by one of the men, kicked in the face by another and kicked in the legs by a third. The fourth attacker was reaching into Miller’s pocket, where he stripped $180 from his wallet.

That’s when Miller said an unknown woman came out of nowhere and laid across his body to help stop the attack.

Authorities criticized

Miller said the attackers ran off when they heard 911 had been called.

What 911 apparently failed to tell the responding paramedics was that Miller had been kicked and beaten. Thinking they were arriving to haul away yet another Halloween drunk, Miller said the paramedics asked him if he wanted medical treatment, which he declined, then yanked him off the ground and escorted him to the house.

“I apparently declined medical attention by saying I didn’t have health insurance, and I ended up with five fractured vertebrae, two bulging disks and a concussion,” Miller said. “So my judgment of whether or not I needed medical attention was a little impaired, I would say.”

A Madison police officer dispatched to the scene reportedly spent just 18 seconds there before setting off to his next call.

Miller filed a police report a few days later, after he returned to Parkside and received medical care.

Then, he said, it was 19 days before a detective contacted him.

“The biggest thing for me is it was 19 days before there was an interview,” he said. “That’s 19 days to completely lose track of who these guys were.”

Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain confirmed Monday that an investigation is ongoing.

“To my knowledge, there have been no arrests, and we do have an investigation open as to what he alleges happened,” DeSpain said.

The Madison Fire Department, meanwhile, is reviewing its 911 information procedures, the Wisconsin State Journal reported recently.

Justice sought

In a continuing attempt to bring the case to justice, Miller has enlisted the services of a well-known Madison attorney, Jeff Scott Olson.

Olson said he does not anticipate his client will initiate legal action against the police or fire departments. The perpetrators are the focus, he said.

“He was quite seriously injured and we intend to seek justice against anybody responsible that we can identify,” Olson said.

In addition to finding the perpetrators, finding the woman who helped save Miller is also a priority, Olson said.

“My client has a recollection of a heroic young woman saving him from probably getting killed, and I would love to know who she is, so I can express my admiration and thanks,” he said.

In the meantime, Miller will continue to heal on his parents’ couch. His injuries have made him unable to sleep in his bed, he said.

The events of a month ago have turned this semester into an academic waste for Miller, a dean’s list student double-majoring in English and music, who now hopes to salvage just two credits from an 18-credit load. Miller said he had a theater job lined up in New York, to begin Jan. 15, which also in doubt.

As he sits, he continues to ask, “why?”

“I didn’t do anything to anybody,” Miller said. “I was just trying to have a good time like everyone else was. Blame it on intoxication, I’m getting a lot of that. ... It’s not about how drunk I was, it’s not about where I was. It was about people having no tolerance.”