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State Sen. Bernier says she’s not convinced of legal charges in Racine nursing home voting case

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The head of the State Senate elections committee says she doesn’t agree with a claim that the Wisconsin elections commission committed a crime in Racine County.

State Senator Kathleen Bernier tells Capital City Sunday that she does think the elections commission dropped the ball on serving elderly people in nursing homes. 

“They needed to make sure the people who are assisting them, they knew exactly who they are, they had to be trained, they had to take an oath of office and there should have been some protections.”

Bernier says that really doesn’t matter, though. 

“That’s not for me to say. As I keep explaining to everyone there’s the separation of powers and the legislature creates that the law or the policy, the executive branch carries it out, and the judicial branch enforces it.”

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling says the Commission itself should face charges for keeping special voting deputies out of nursing homes in 2020. He claims that allowed nursing home staffers to cast false ballots in the name of patients. No charges have been filed by the DA’s office.

Bipartisan bill aims to protect youth victims of sex trafficking

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At the Capitol, bipartisan legislation to end the practice of charging youth under the age of 18 with prostitution had a public hearing on Thursday.

State Senator Alberta Darling (R-Rivers Hills) said it’s a recognition of the fact that those young people are victims of human trafficking.

“I think we have to make this really personal. Because what if this was your daughter, or your granddaughter . . or your niece or your nephew,” Darling told the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. “All of us can look at people we care about and ask what if it were them.”

Advocates say human trafficking takes place in all 72 Wisconsin counties.

“It’s not just a real problem it’s a heartbreaking problem. And we need to do everything that we can to treat these young people as victims, and get them the help that they need,” said state Representative Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay).

State Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said the bill (SB 245) would bring Wisconsin into line with federal law, which treats children involved in commercial sex acts as sexually exploited children and victims of child abuse, not criminals. “This is bill does not legalize prostitution,” Johnson said.

Four people from Minnesota found fatally shot in western Wisconsin cornfield

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Four people found dead in a western Wisconsin cornfield over the weekend were all from Minnesota. The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office has identified them as 26-year-old Matthew Pettus, 30-year-old Jasmine Sturm and 35-year-old Loyace Foreman III, all of St. Paul, and 30-year-old Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley of Stillwater.

Their bodies were found Sunday, after a 911 caller alerted deputies to an SUV off a rural road in the Town of Sheridan, about an hour east of the Twin Cities.

Preliminary results of autopsies by the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office shows each died from gunshot wounds.

No arrests have been reported. The sheriff’s office has scheduled a press conference for 4:00 PM Tuesday.

 

Wisconsin DOJ launches new review of clergy and faith leader abuse

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A new statewide initiative, led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, will review reports of clergy and faith leader abuse.

Victim advocates including Peter Isely of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, were on hand for a press conference Tuesday. “I know how difficult it’s going to be for many of you to come forward again,” Isely said “I want you to know, this time is different.”

District Attorneys from counties where Catholic dioceses are headquartered will participate in what AG Josh Kaul calls a “victim-centered” process. “And that’s why it’s so important, that we had people here, who had worked on this issue for years and years, to talk about how this is different from what people may have experienced before, and why it safe for people to report.”

“This is a big moment,” said Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm. “This is a moment when we recognize that we have to wrap out arms around victims of clergy abuse, in the same way that we would wrap our arms around a victim of family violence in Milwaukee.”

While Kaul stressed that the effort is not exclusively focused on the Catholic Church, the review will include the archdioceses of Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, Green Bay and Superior.

A spokesman for the Milwaukee archdiocese said they were part of a meeting with Kaul on Monday, and that “the publicity has the potential to re-victimize individuals.

Information can be reported online, at SupportSurvivors.widoj.gov or by calling 1-877-222-2620.

 

Assembly Task Force on Racial Disparities delivers final report

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The State Assembly’s Task Force on Racial Disparities has released its final report after 7 months of work.

That panel was formed in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, and Madison Assemblywoman Sheila Stubbs says it’s a good start at solving issues in Wisconsin. 

“We are hoping in the month of May that bills are introduced, and in the month of June bills are passed in both houses, and I’m hoping that Governor Evers signs 17 recommendations into law! That would be huge!”

Among the bill’s recommendations is making it a crime for fellow officers to stand by when another officer is using excessive force. One topic that was not addressed was that amount of force would be, and Stubbs says they’re going back to discuss and codify that for the Legislature as well. 

“And when that’s done I really think that our colleagues on both side of the aisle will listen,” says Stubbs.

It’s unclear if Republicans controlling the legislature would pick up the recommendations and pass them into laws, but Stubbs is hopeful to see bills passed by the Governor later this year. 

 

Wisconsin DOJ to perform full investigation of clergy abuse

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The Wisconsin Department of Justice is launching an investigation into clergy abuse at Wisconsin’s Catholic Dioceses.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained a letter from Attorney General Josh Kaul that was sent to the state’s five dioceses laying out his intent to do a full investigation and determine the scope of the abuse.

The letter goes on to request a meeting with the leaders of the dioceses next Monday to discuss the investigation, and requests that Catholic leadership preserve all documents and information.

The Church has previously released lists of priests and other clergy known to have abused people, but never listed out who the victims might be or how many of them there are.

Senator Johnson claims leftists, anarchists are to blame for attack on US Capitol

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At Tuesday’s Senate Homeland Security hearing on the January 6th riots at the US Capitol, Senator Ron Johnson claimed that the attack was carried out not by Trump supporters but by leftists and anarchists.

Johnson said that the people who attended President Trump’s rally that day were peaceful.

“Many of the marchers were families with small children, many were elderly, overweight or just plain tired or frail. Traits not typically attributed to the riot prone. Many wore pro-police shirts or carried pro police black and blue flags. Plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs, fake Trump protesters, and then disciplined uniformed column of attackers. I think these are the people that probably planned this.”

Criminal charges against those who have been arrested paint different pictures, with many of those arrested being longtime Trump supporters, and members of radical groups like the Proud Boys or other white nationalist organizations. 

Johnson also read an excerpt from an article that claimed that lack of action by the Capitol Police was to blame for the severity of the attacks. 

“‘When we crossed 1st Street Northwest and entered the Capitol grounds where the Capitol Police have jurisdiction I noticed no police at all. Several marchers expressed surprise. The openness seemed like a courtesy gesture from Congress, which controls security.'”

Testimony from the hearing painted a different picture, where miscommunication between federal agencies led to a lack of preparedness by the police force.

UW-Madison expert says simply increasing public defender pay is not enough to fix criminal justice issues

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Last week in Milwaukee, President Biden said he’d like to increase the funding available to public defenders across the country.

John Patrick Gross with the UW-Madison Public Defender Project says it will take more than just more money to help balance criminal justice in the country.

“People like to sort of tongue-in-cheek say that ‘Freedom isn’t free.’ Well, neither is justice but we treat it as if we can always skimp on Justice.”

Gross says throwing more money at the issue won’t stop the root cause of not having enough attorneys to represent people. “We should be taking a hard look at the policies, the practices, the funding discrepancies that have gotten us to the point where we leave the world in per capita incarceration.”

Gross says that most people who enter the justice system don’t have the money to hire attorneys as it is, so having public defenders needs to be treated like an integral part of the system.

DNR sturgeon chief accused of taking part in illegal caviar scheme

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The man in charge of the state’s sturgeon fishery is being accused of obstructing an investigation into DNR staffers illegally selling eggs to caviar processors.

The DNR and staff from the US Fish and Wildlife Service say that staff in the fisheries department have been providing sturgeon eggs that had been collected from spearers as ‘research samples’ to processors in exchange for gifts and cash.

Wardens say that sturgeon fisheries chief Ryan Koenigs confessed to taking part in the scheme, after allegedly lying to investigators during the process. A former fisheries supervisor says the scheme has been going on for years.

Judge decides not to impose punishments on Rittenhouse over bond violation

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A judge will not be punishing accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse for an apparent bond violation.

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder on Thursday denied requests from prosecutors to either issue an arrest warrant or raise the bond of 18-year-old Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse’s attorneys gave the court a false address when he originally filed the 2 million dollar cash bond by which he’s been released. That address has been updated, but won’t be entered into the public record because Rittenhouse’s family says doing so would put him in danger.