The State of Wisconsin Acted with Malice to Put Steven Avery Back in Prison

UPDATE OCTOBER 3, 2017: A circuit court judge has denied Steven Avery's request for a new trial in the murder of Teresa Halbach. Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz issued a decision and order saying, "the defendant has failed to establish any grounds that would trigger the right to a new trial in the interests of justice. As such, no further consideration will be given to this issue."



Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, released this statement to Action 2 News: "We are filing an amended petition because we have additional test results and witness affidavits. The scientific testing is not completed. We remain optimistic that Mr. Avery's conviction will be vacated."

Patch spoke with Zellner by phone from Seattle. She said the ruling by the Sheboygan judge should not be viewed as a major setback for her and her client.

Zellner said she and the Wisconsin Attorney General's Office recently worked out an agreement to allow for additional physical evidence testing upon the RAV4 of murder victim Halbach, and the judge apparently did not know this at the time she decided to move forward and issue her ruling against Avery."

"It's not really a big deal," Zellner said of the decision. "We'll be submitting a motion to vacate the order because we have an agreement reached between both parties and the judge assumed that all the scientific evidence had been submitted. We'll have more scientific evidence as well as new witness affidavits that we'll be submitting before Thanksgiving."

More case updates at this link:

http://georgezipperer.blogspot.com/2017/06/kathleen-zellner-files-post-conviction.html

END UPDATE

At about 10:30 a.m. on 11/5/2005, after 20 minutes of searching a 40-acre property with 4,000 vehicles, Pam Sturm found Teresa Halbach's RAV-4. At 11:30 a.m., about 30 minutes after law enforcement swarmed the Avery property, Manitowoc County deputy Jacobs asked: "Do we have Steven Avery in custody?"

The following are excerpts from the 1,200-page post-conviction petition filed on June 7, 2017.

Please take notice that the Petitioner, Steven A. Avery ("Mr. Avery"), by his undersigned attorneys, respectfully moves the Court pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 974.06 for an Order vacating the judgment of his convictions and sentence and ordering a new trial. In the alternative, he asks that this Court grant a new trial in the interests of justice pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 805.15 or its inherent authority because the real controversy was not fully tried. In support of this motion, Mr. Avery alleges the following: Mr. Avery requests an evidentiary hearing and that he be produced for that hearing. ...

Mr. Avery's current post-conviction counsel have completed scientific testing and conducted an extensive re-investigation of his case, which demonstrates that planted evidence and false testimony were used to convict Mr. Avery of the first degree intentional homicide of Teresa Halbach ("Ms. Halbach"). Mr. Avery's trial defense counsel, Jerome Buting and Dean Strang ("trial defense counsel"), and prior post-conviction counsel, Suzanne Hagopian ("Ms. Hagopian") and Martha Askins ("Ms. Askins"), were ineffective in failing to hire the experts needed to establish that all of the evidence used by the State to convict Mr. Avery was planted or fabricated. Trial defense counsel and post-conviction counsel failed to conduct a proper investigation to refute the State's timeline and theory of when, where, and how this homicide occurred and to meet the standard necessary to name third party suspects. ...

To understand how this happened, one must examine the other side of the coin: the performance of Mr. Avery's trial defense counsel. The State relied upon the following items of forensic evidence that allegedly linked Mr. Avery to the crime:

1) Mr. Avery's blood in the RAV-4;
2) Mr. Avery's DNA on the hood latch;
3) the electronic components (camera, palm pilot, and cell phone) in Mr. Avery's burn barrel;
4) the bones and remnants of Ms. Halbach's clothing in Mr. Avery's burn pit;
5) the Toyota key in Mr. Avery's bedroom with Mr. Avery's DNA; and
6) Ms. Halbach's DNA on the damaged bullet found in Mr. Avery's garage.

The State convicted Mr. Avery on this ludicrous theory because trial defense counsel only had two experts to combat the State's 14 experts. One of the trial defense counsel's experts performed at a substandard level, and the other was not as qualified as the State's expert. Trial defense counsel claimed evidence was planted but failed miserably in proving that assertion by lacking experts in bloodstain pattern analysis, DNA, ballistics, forensic fire, trace, forensic pathology, and police procedure and investigation. Additionally, trial defense counsel failed to conduct a thorough investigation of the victim's background, deleted cell phone calls, potential third party suspects, or to construct an accurate timeline of Ms. Halbach and Mr. Avery's activities on October 31, 2005. ...

Trial defense counsel, by not carefully reviewing the discovery and not having the appropriate experts, failed to realize the following:

1) Mr. Avery's groin swab had been substituted for the hood latch swab by law enforcement;

2) the key discovered in Mr. Avery's bedroom was a sub-key and was planted by Lt. Lenk and Sgt. Colborn immediately before its discovery;

3) Ms. Halbach's voicemail messages had been deleted by the killer to keep her voice mailbox open and delay her family and friend's realization that she was missing;

4) Ms. Halbach's last appointment was at the Zipperer's not the Avery's, and the CD of her voicemail left on the Zipperer's answering machine was concealed and/or destroyed by the State to mislead the jury into believing Ms. Halbach's last stop was Mr. Avery's;

5) the fuel level in Ms. Halbach's car was concealed by the State so that the mileage the vehicle had been driven on October 31 could not be determined, thereby preventing Mr. Avery from arguing that Ms. Halbach's vehicle had been driven many more miles after it left his property;

6) Ms. Halbach was at a higher risk for being a victim of violence because of her involvement in nude photography and her affair with a married man and with her ex-boyfriend's best friend;

7) Ms. Halbach's ex-boyfriend was verbally and physically abusive to her during their relationship;

8) Ms. Halbach's ex-boyfriend had sustained visible injuries to his hands, from fingernail scratches, around the time of her disappearance; and

9) Ms. Halbach's ex-boyfriend initially gave the police a false name, minimized his relationship with her, lied about crime scene evidence, controlled and led the searchers to Ms. Halbach's vehicle, had unrestricted access to the Avery property to plant evidence, assisted law enforcement in locating her car, and was living in her house after her murder in complete control of the evidence, disseminated to law enforcement, from her personal papers and effects. ....

Prior post-conviction counsel never had an investigator develop evidence about third party suspects that would meet the Denny standard, and they never hired experts in blood spatter, DNA, ballistics, forensic fire, trace, forensic pathology, police procedure and investigation, brain fingerprinting, or prosecutorial misconduct, or a competent forensic anthropologist, or investigator. Current post conviction counsel has retained 10 experts and 2 investigators who have developed strong evidence that undermines confidence in Mr. Avery's verdict. ...

THE SOURCE OF STEVEN AVERY'S BLOOD THAT WAS PLANTED IN THE RAV4

On the evening of November 3, 2005, Mr. Avery was having dinner at his mother's residence and when he walked outside her residence, a uniformed officer pulled up in a MCSD squad car and asked if he could speak with him. Later, Mr. Avery learned that this individual's name was Sgt. Colborn. Sgt. Colborn asked Mr. Avery if a female from AutoTrader Magazine had come to the property on Monday to take pictures of a vehicle they were selling. Mr. Avery told Sgt. Colborn that a female from AutoTrader had come to the property at approximately 2:30 p.m. and had photographed a van his sister was selling. Mr. Avery contended that she was on the property for less than five minutes. Mr. Avery told Sgt. Colborn that he noticed her photographing the van and he exited his trailer to pay her. Mr. Avery observed Ms. Halbach leave the property and turn left on Highway 147. Sgt. Colborn misrepresented, in a report written months later, that Mr. Avery said 3:00 p.m., not 2:30 p.m. Mr. Avery's affidavit is consistent with all of his prior statements to police that Ms. Halbach was on the Avery property sometime between 2:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. (Affidavit of Steven A. Avery, Sr., "Affidavit of Steven Avery," attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 4).

Mr. Avery then drove his Pontiac Grand Am from his parents' residence to its usual parking spot in front of his garage. Mr. Avery then walked next door to his sister's trailer, where he attempted to unhitch the trailer. In so doing, Mr. Avery broke open the cut on the middle finger of his right hand. His finger was dripping blood as he walked back to his car to retrieve his cell phone charger. While in his car, Mr. Avery dripped blood from his finger onto the seats and the gear shift. From his car, Mr. Avery walked to his trailer, entering through the door at the south end. Mr. Avery dripped blood on the floor as he entered the bathroom to find a piece of tape to put on the cut. Mr. Avery dripped blood onto the rim and basin of the sink and the bathroom floor. He did not wash away or wipe up the floor or sink because his brother Charles Avery ("Chuck") was waiting for him to go to Menards in Manitowoc with him. He hastily wrapped his finger in masking tape and exited the trailer through the front door. Mr. Avery forgot to lock the south door on the front of the trailer. He did not clean the blood out of his sink prior to leaving the trailer at approximately 7:30 p.m. to go to Menards with his brother Chuck. (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4). Menards in Manitowoc was an approximately 23-minute drive from the Avery property (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4). Mr. Avery and Chuck checked out at Menards at 8:06 p.m. (Menards Surveillance Video, attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 5).

Blood stains were noted on the molding (Item AA) and the inside living room door (Item CQ) of Mr. Avery's trailer (3/31/2006 WSCL DNA Report, attached and herein as P-C Exhibit 6, STATE 5245, 5249). Mr. Avery's Pontiac was unlocked and visible blood was on the gear shift. Anyone who examined the interior of his trailer or vehicle would have recognized that the locations of the various blood stains indicated Mr. Avery had a cut on his hand (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4).

Mr. Johnson, a family friend of the Avery's and owner of Mr. Avery's trailer, remembers observing the cut on Mr. Avery's finger at least one week prior to October 31, 2005 (Affidavit of Roland A. Johnson, "Affidavit of Rollie Johnson," attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 7).

At approximately 7:30 p.m. [on November 3, 2005], Mr. Avery was exiting the Avery property onto Highway 147 when he observed taillights of a vehicle close to the front of his trailer (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4; Menards Surveillance Video, P-C Exhibit 5). Mr. Avery contends that the only way the vehicle could enter his property from the direction it was pointed was if it was driven by way of Kuss Road and then across the field to the front of his trailer. Mr. Avery believes the vehicle's taillights were similar to those of the RAV-4 and not a squad car. Mr. Avery instructed his brother Chuck to turn around and drive back to the trailer, but by the time they drove back to Mr. Avery's trailer, the vehicle had departed into the darkness (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4). Mr. Avery and Chuck went to Menards and the county jail to drop off money for Mr. Avery's girlfriend (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4). Mr. Avery arrived home at approximately 10:00-10:30 p.m. Mr. Avery did not enter the bathroom and went straight to bed (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4).

On November 4, 2005, Mr. Avery awoke at his normal time of 6:00 a.m. When he entered the bathroom of his trailer to take a shower, he observed that most of the blood in and around his sink had been removed (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4).

Mr. Avery consistently expressed his belief to his attorneys and the media that the blood of his found in Ms. Halbach's vehicle was planted and that it came from his trailer. In one interview, he said he dripped blood from his finger into his bathroom sink (Video Clips from 11/9/05 NBC-26 WFRV interview and 11/18/05 WBAY interview, attached and incorporated herein as P-C Group Exhibit 8).

At 10:30 a.m. on November 4, 2005, Lt. Lenk and Det. Remiker arrived at the Avery property to interview Mr. Avery (Pages from MTSO Summary Report, P-C Group Exhibit 11, STATE 80). In the early evening, Mr. Avery smelled cigarette smoke when he entered his bedroom to retrieve a cable for his mother's television. Neither Mr. Avery nor his girlfriend smoked. Mr. Avery believes his trailer was entered unlawfully a second time (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4; 11/9/05 Interview of Steven Avery and Execution of Search Warrant, "11/9/05 Execution of Search Warrant," attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 9, STATE 553-54).

On November 5, 2005, when Mr. Avery was preparing to leave for a trip to the family properly in Crivitz, he noticed the south front door of his trailer had been pried open. Specifically, Mr. Avery observed pry marks on the south door of his trailer (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4; Affidavit of Rollie Johnson, P-C Exhibit 7). He remembered locking this door after Lt. Lenk and Det. Remiker left on the morning of November 4, 2005 (Affidavit of Steven Avery, P-C Exhibit 4).

As Mr. Avery's brother Chuck left for Crivitz [on November 4, 2005], he observed headlights in the area where Ms. Halbach's vehicle was discovered by the pond. Chuck called Mr. Avery at 7:20 p.m. to check on the headlights, but by the time Mr. Avery arrived by Chuck's trailer, the lights were gone (Affidavit of Steven Avery P-C Exhibit 4; Page from Steven Avery's Phone Records, attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 10; Pages from MCSD Summary Report verifying Chuck's phone number, attached and incorporated herein as P-C Exhibit 11, STATE 93). ...

BLOOD PATTERN ANALYSIS

Mr. James, a renowned blood spatter expert, has examined all of the relevant blood spatter evidence produced in discovery to trial defense counsel. Mr. James oversaw a number of blood spatter experiments and formed opinions based upon a reasonable degree of scientific certainty as a bloodstain pattern analyst.

Mr. James, based upon the experiments that he oversaw, opines that the blood spatter found in the RAV-4 was selectively planted because the experiments demonstrated that if the State's theory that Mr. Avery was actively bleeding from the cut on his right middle finger was true, then blood would have been deposited in many more places in the RAV-4 than where it was deposited.

The blood spatter experiments conducted with actual blood on the subject's middle finger conclusively demonstrate that the blood would have been deposited on the RAV-4's outside door handle, key, key ring, steering wheel, the gear shift lever, brake lever, battery cables, and hood prop. The blood found in the RAV-4 was only deposited in six places, not 15, and consisted of small drops of blood in the front of Ms. Halbach's RAV-4 on the driver and passenger seats, driver's floor, and the rear passenger door jamb.

Mr. James oversaw experiments that conclusively refute Mr. Kratz's argument that the "sheer volume, the sheer number of places rule out that the blood in the RAV-4 was planted." The experiments demonstrated that it was actually a small amount of blood that was planted in the RAV-4, and it was selectively dripped and one stain most probably was applied with an applicator (Affidavit and CV of Stuart James ("Affidavit of Stuart James"), attached and incorporated herein as P-C Group Exhibit 16).

Mr. James opines that the blood flakes detected on the carpet of the RAV-4 were planted because experiments demonstrated that blood dripped on RAV-4 carpeting would be absorbed in the carpet and would not form flakes on top of the carpet (Affidavit of Stuart James, P-C Group Exhibit 16).

Mr. James opines that the most likely source of Mr. Avery's planted blood was the blood deposited by Mr. Avery in his sink on November 3, 2005, and not blood from the 1996 blood vial. Mr. James, because of his familiarity with EDTA blood vials, opines that the hole in the top of the 1996 blood vial tube was made at the time Mr. Avery's blood was put in the tube, and the blood around the stopper is a common occurrence and does not indicate that the tube was tampered with (Affidavit of Stuart James, P-C Group Exhibit 16).

Mr. James opines that the blood spatter on the inside of the rear cargo door was the result of Ms. Halbach being struck with an object consistent with a hammer or mallet while she was lying on her back on the ground behind the vehicle after the rear cargo door was opened.

Mr. James opines that the State expert, Mr. Stahlke, mistakenly described the blood on the rear cargo door as having been projected from Ms. Halbach's bloodied hair after she had been shot and as she was thrown into the cargo area of the vehicle (Affidavit of Stuart James, P-C Group Exhibit 16).

Mr. James, by overseeing a series of experiments, opines that the State's description of the cause of the blood spatter on the rear cargo door, resulting from Ms. Halbach being thrown into the cargo area and blood being projected from her bloodied hair on the cargo door, is demonstrably false (Affidavit of Stuart James, P-C Group Exhibit 16).

The erroneous blood spatter testimony of the State's expert Mr. Stahlke resulted in the State presenting a false narrative to the jury about the sequence of events surrounding the attack on Ms. Halbach. The State presented a scenario where Ms. Halbach was already fatally injured in Mr. Avery's garage prior to being thrown in the back of the RAV-4. The experiments overseen by Mr. James demonstrate that Ms. Halbach was struck on the head after she opened the rear cargo door. She fell to the ground next to the rear bumper on the driver's side where she was struck repeatedly by an object similar to a mallet or hammer (Affidavit of Stuart James, P-C Group Exhibit 16).

Wisconsin, One of the Most Corrupt States in the Country

Has Wisconsin Become a Corrupt State?

Has a state government known as a clean government become dirty?

By Louis Fortis, Shepherd Express
August 18, 2015

It may seem like a dim memory, but Wisconsin was for our clean government. At the National Conference of State Legislatures, Wisconsin was viewed as a sophisticated, progressive and totally honest state government.

The credit goes to the Progressives in state government—who at the time were Republicans—and Socialists in Milwaukee government from the turn of the 20th century through the mid-1900s, who ushered in reforms that opened up government to the people and kept corruption at bay.

Both groups believed in clean, transparent government and rejected systems of patronage that would create a political machine that doled out jobs and favors in exchange for dues and votes.

“They contrasted greatly with New York and Chicago,” said state Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee).

Now, of course, that’s all been turned on its head and now Wisconsin seems to be one of the most corrupt states in the country. Even the usually corruption-plagued Illinois is beginning to look like an honest state next to Wisconsin. The steady pace of scandals during the past few years are signs that our elected officials are corrupting the public trust for the benefit of a select few insiders.

What’s Corruption?

Policies like breaking unions, attacking women’s reproductive rights, cutting back on educational opportunities and many more very conservative policies may be anathema to many of our readers, but conservative policies are fair game in the legislative process.

Corruption, on the other hand, manifests itself in how these policies become law, who is behind them, how the special-interest groups influence legislators and the lack of transparency, for example. It’s difficult to measure the level of corruption, but even if you only had a cursory knowledge of current affairs you wouldn’t be able to ignore a few examples of activities that seem to be ethically dubious, such as:

■ The secret $700,000 donation from Gogebic Taconite to Wisconsin Club for Growth, an allegedly “independent” special-interest group that just happened to be supporting Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators as they crafted a favorable mining bill

■ The lax ethical standards that allow Wisconsin judges and Supreme Court justices to decide cases involving major campaign contributors and allows each of our Supreme Court justices and judges to be the sole decision makers on whether to recuse themselves in cases where there are perceived conflicts of interest

■ The taxpayer-funded loans funneled from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to very dubious businesses

■ The near-constant attacks on independent, nonpartisan watchdog groups such as the Government Accountability Board (GAB) and the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) to prevent these agencies from doing their job of exposing potential corruption

■ The attempt to gut the state’s open records law so that the public wouldn’t be able to know which special interests have a hand in writing legislation, for example

■ Giving legislators charged with ethical violations home court advantage by allowing them to be tried in their home counties, instead of where they allegedly committed their crimes, typically Dane County, and allowing them to choose their appellate court if they appeal their case. This allows legislators to be tried by prosecutors they likely know and are friends with and a jury made up of their constituents. Many court observers believe that’s how former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen was able to turn a conviction on three felonies and one misdemeanor in Dane County into a sweetheart plea on one misdemeanor and a fine in Waukesha County

These headline-grabbers referenced above aren’t the simple result of politics played roughly but are signs of potential corruption. There is a difference. Walker has played hardball when he decided to make historic cuts to the University of Wisconsin System and K-12 public education, his attempt to “reform” health care for low-income Wisconsinites by not expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and blowing a $561 million hole in state budgets, or his gutting of collective bargaining rights for public employees. The policies, as much as they upset many people, are not corrupt and are merely political decisions in line with his small-government ideology.

Nor is corruption quid simply pro quo bribery, either, the proverbial brown bag full of cash that’s handed to a legislator who votes a certain way. That narrow definition of corruption is actually bribery and is against the law, of course. But a broader, more subtle array of actions is just as corrupt and far more common.

Bribery has been illegal since 1897, explained Mike McCabe, former executive director of the government watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the author of Blue Jeans in High Places.

“But bribery has taken on a new form,” McCabe told the Shepherd. “For all practical purposes, the bribery prohibition is now useless. You still can’t put a wad of $50 bills in a brown paper bag and slip it under a table to somebody in exchange for a favor. But you can give even more money than that at a fundraiser or give it in the form of a campaign contribution and you can get the same favor and that whole transaction is perfectly legal. We now really have a new form of political bribery.”

Even worse, as the scandals multiply, the public gradually begins to accept corruption as the inevitable business as usual in the Capitol and lose faith in a representative democracy that actually looks out for the common good. When the governed lose confidence in the governing system, democracy begins to break down.

“The public has become very cynical about government,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “They think that those who give money have all of the influence and get all of the benefits. The result of that cynicism is a turning away from our own democracy so that we don’t even expect anything.”

Taxpayer Money for Cronies

Upon being elected governor, Walker destroyed the fully public Department of Commerce and replaced it with the quasi-public Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). Since then, many questions have been raised about how this agency operates and doles out taxpayer money.

WEDC has been plagued by scandals, but the public wouldn’t have known about them if the nonpartisan, independent Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) hadn’t shone a light on them in some deeply disturbing audits. 

The LAB found that WEDC wasn’t following state law or its own protocols when it handed out loans to businesses; allowed businesses that receive taxpayer funds to outsource jobs; failed to keep track of loans; didn’t verify how many jobs were created as a result of taxpayer funds; and is plagued by heavy turnover.

In a nutshell, if WEDC were a private corporation, its board of directors would be voted out by the shareholders and perhaps sued and the corporation would eventually shutter its doors due to poor business practices. 

But since WEDC has the backing of Walker, who was chairman of the board, and legislative Republicans, little to nothing is done to reform it. Rather, they want to undercut the LAB’s independence so that it can’t do its job properly and get the truth out to the public. Don’t change things; instead, kill the watchdog.

In addition to the LAB’s audits, ongoing reporting by One Wisconsin Now shows that 60% of WEDC’s taxpayer-funded loans went to businesses whose owners, directors or employees donated to Walker. In turn, Walker received $2.1 million from those recipients. And Citizen Action of Wisconsin found that “jobs impacted” by WEDC loans were far more likely to be found in Republican legislative districts, not in Democratic districts or areas where job-creation efforts are truly needed.

Citizen Action’s Kraig said that WEDC needs to be totally revamped and made completely accountable to the public.

“When you have a lack of financial controls, a lack of real standards for who’s getting a grant or a tax credit, it turns WEDC into a major corruption problem, especially when you deregulate campaign finance,” Kraig said. “The state Supreme Court just ruled that large, secret donations can be made that can be directed by the candidate. So you pair that with a semi-private, unaccountable economic development agency that can dole out benefits to campaign contributors and it’s a recipe for corruption.”

But the flow of taxpayer money to political insiders doesn’t end with WEDC. For example, Republicans in charge earmarked $500,000 in the state budget for a phony sportsmen’s group that was made up of tea party allies. Once it was exposed and the public learned about this attempted transfer of public moneys to a political group, it was quickly taken out of the budget.

Another example is using a constitutional amendment to protect the transportation fund from “raids,” thereby permanently ensuring that Republicans’ major campaign contributors, the road builders, get taxpayer dollars.

#ManitowocCounty Nov '05 loan for highways but they received grants earlier in year to rebuild highways. #MAM pic.twitter.com/10JKYc6Vdg

— Lisa Limon (@LisaLimonTx) January 31, 2016

Attacking a National Elections Model

A simple way to get away with corrupt practices is to silence the independent watchdogs like the LAB. 

If nobody’s looking, then no one can notice the shady deals and devious plans of those in power.

In addition to attacking the LAB, we’ve seen Walker and his allies target the independent, nonpartisan Government Accountability Board (GAB) time and time again, and Republicans apparently are considering making the board more partisan.

The Legislature created the GAB in 2007 on a near-unanimous, bipartisan vote. The board oversees our elections, as well as campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws. The board is made up of retired judges who are recommended by sitting judges, then nominated by the governor and confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the state Senate. In this way, all board members must have the support of at least some members of both major political parties.

The GAB replaced the State Elections Board—whose members were appointed by partisan legislative leaders, the heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, the governor and the chief justice of the state Supreme Court—and the State Ethics Board, whose members were nominated by the governor with the consent of the state Senate.

Back in 2007, the GAB was seen as a more efficient, independent, cleaner and nonpartisan way to oversee our campaigns and elections. That intent to create this efficient, independent, clean and nonpartisan body has became a reality. The GAB is doing a good job, and it fights hard to preserve its independence. Now, of course, the GAB is under near-constant attack by Republicans who are upset by the board’s independence. Although Democrats have had some criticisms of the board, Republicans are furious with the way that the GAB handled the vetting of the signatures on the recall petitions—Republicans wanted the GAB to go beyond the statutory requirements and verify each signature—as well as the GAB’s involvement in the John Doe investigation into Walker and “independent” special-interest groups’ coordination during the recalls.

But are the Republicans’ complaints warranted? Not at all, according to a 2013 article by Daniel P. Tokaji of Ohio State University in the UC Irvine Law Review, “America’s Top Model: The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.”

Tokaji found that the GAB is totally unique in the country and should be a model replicated in other states looking for an independent elections monitor. Unlike every other election authority around the country, Wisconsin’s GAB is the only nonpartisan multimember board in the nation. Every other state has either a partisan elected official in charge of elections, a political appointee, or a board made up of partisan representatives.

Although Wisconsin’s nonpartisan GAB is unique in the U.S., this model “is widely viewed as essential to the integrity of the democratic process” in other countries, Tokaji wrote. It seems that Americans don’t mind having partisans in charge of elections but it’s seen as a corrupting influence in other nations.

But has the GAB worked as intended? Tokaji found that despite being under great stress during the recalls as well as coping with the thousands of “found” votes in Waukesha County that changed conservative Supreme Court Justice David Prosser’s losing campaign into a winning vote count, “there is no good reason to question the GAB’s impartiality.” Yet Wisconsin Republicans do question the GAB, repeatedly, apparently in a bid to put political appointees back in charge of our elections and campaigns, a corrupting practice that other nations shun.

Supreme Court Gone Wild

An entire book could be written on the sorry state of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

The reputation of the court has plummeted, most likely because of the corrupting influence of big money in campaigns for the state’s highest court. Instead of remaining above the political fray or being a neutral check on the power of the other two branches of government, the majority of the justices are now merely hired hands whose legal decisions can be predicted far in advance if you know how much money the parties before the court have spent on their campaigns.

It wasn’t always this way. As recently as 2008, a UC Davis Law Review analysis named the Wisconsin Supreme Court as the eighth most influential high court in the nation and it was generally seen as a well-functioning, ethical and reputable court. Now, following a string of ethical scandals, purchased elections and dubious decisions, our justices are seen by many as sellouts who no one should emulate. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has developed a reputation for mediocrity and some special-interest lobbyists smile and call it “the best court money can buy.”

The blame can be placed on the “conservative” majority who now rules the court. It’s difficult to call them conservative because they truly are radicals who ignore precedent and instead “creatively interpret” the constitution to serve various special interests. As a result, they are destroying the court and eroding the public’s faith and confidence in a truly fair judicial system.



The current majority—Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, Justice Michael Gableman, Justice David Prosser and Justice Annette Ziegler—shows exactly how big money can have a corrupting influence in judicial races. Three of them have been dogged by ethics scandals. Despite these serious scandals, these candidates were able to win in low-profile and low-turnout elections due to the millions of dollars spent by special-interest groups savaging their opponents.

Among the scandals were Ziegler deciding a number of cases as a circuit court judge in which her husband’s business had an interest. Then there was Gableman running a notorious—and false—race-baiting campaign ad against then-Justice Louis Butler and getting away with it. Although the Wisconsin Judicial Commission brought an ethics charge against him, the court deadlocked 3-3 on whether to discipline Gableman.

And Prosser, of course, called then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a “total bitch” and later put his hands around throat of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley as the “conservative” majority was trying to stage a coup. The conservative group of justices was trying to force the court to quickly issue its decision on Act 10, the first major anti-union bill, by a deadline set by then-Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald so that the GOP wouldn’t have to take a second vote on busting public employee unions. The coup never should have been attempted, since the court and the Legislature are supposed to be separate, independent and equal branches of government. The justices shouldn’t have to jump when a legislator tells them to do so. Despite his outrageous behavior and threatened violence, Prosser, like Gableman, hasn’t been disciplined by his fellow colleagues on the bench.

The same “conservative” majority that can’t bring itself to discipline its members also supported new judicial ethics rules that allow them to decide cases that involve big campaign contributors. The new rules the court adopted just happen to be written by big campaign contributors, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. In essence, Wisconsin judges and justices decide for themselves if their campaign donations and support have a corrupting influence on their decisions, and whether they should recuse themselves from a case, hardly a high ethical or objective standard.

Wisconsin’s rules fly in the face of judicial recusal guidelines set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Caperton v. Massey in 2009, just a year prior to the Wisconsin court’s vote. In Caperton, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that judges could be required to remove themselves from a case that involves a significant campaign contributor. If the judge remains on the case, he or she could be depriving the other party of getting a fair trial, which is unconstitutional. Yet in 2010, the “conservative” Wisconsin Supreme Court majority ignored this U.S. Supreme Court decision and voted for utterly meaningless recusal rules.

So it’s no wonder that the outcomes of cases involving big campaign contributors can be predicted far in advance. It was no shock that the “conservative” majority has supported the agenda shared by Walker and the four justices’ major campaign donors, including upholding the public union-busting Act 10, the ban on same-sex marriage, and Wisconsin’s extreme version of a voter ID law. In the process, the court has also shredded the state’s open meetings law and campaign finance regulations.

And then there’s the court’s recent decision in the John Doe investigation into Walker and allied special interest groups. As the Center on Media and Democracy reported extensively, the groups apparently under investigation along with other groups they control spent $10 million on the elections of the four “conservative” justices yet those justices decided the case anyway. Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz, a Republican, asked Gableman and Prosser specifically to recuse themselves from the case, but both men stayed on. Not only did the conservative majority on the court shut down the investigation, as expected, but they also canceled oral arguments in the case, rewrote the state’s campaign finance laws and, as a kicker, ordered that the evidence gathered in the investigation should be returned and the copies destroyed.

As a result of their decision, Wisconsin now allows candidates and allegedly independent groups to coordinate on fundraising and campaign spending on political issue ads while withholding that information from the public. No other state’s court shares that view. That means that a candidate can take in up to $10,000 for his campaign per individual contributor but can direct that same donor—or a corporation, which is prohibited from donating directly to a candidate’s campaign committee—to give unlimited sums in secret to a front group, which can spend the money on negative attack ads against the candidate’s opponents or very sympathetic ads that fall just short of overtly advocating for the candidate’s election. Although the court’s majority went way beyond the current understanding of Wisconsin campaign finance regulations and rewrote state law, you won’t hear any cries from conservatives about “activist judges” who need to respect legal precedent. Instead, they’re applauding the court’s “anything goes” attitude.

We think that the John Doe prosecutors should appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Frankly, we believe it’s the only way to bring the Wisconsin court into line and begin halting some of its unethical actions. Although many Wisconsinites are upset by the sharp right turn the state has taken, those policy decisions aren’t as troubling as the evidence of outright corruption of the democratic process that we’ve witnessed in recent years.



Wisconsin gets D grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation
By Patricia Simms, The Center for Public Integrity
November 12, 2015

Fights over open records and ethics watchdog sully state’s image

The State Integrity Investigation is a comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency done in partnership with Global Integrity.

While Wisconsin voters tracked the doomed presidential ambitions of Republican Gov. Scott Walker this summer, legislators in Madison brawled over changes that Walker and his allies had proposed to the state’s open records law.

As a parched summer gave way to September in the state’s leafy capital on five lakes, the town was buzzing over news that weeks earlier, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had begun work to draft a bill that would exempt the Legislature’s two houses from the state’s records law. 

The draft would allow lawmakers to write their own rules governing whether their emails, memos and other documents, all currently considered public, would instead be shielded from view.

The move came to light only after a liberal advocacy group released emails about the plan that it obtained through a public records request. And the Vos effort came just weeks after a failed attempt by Republican leaders to add to a budget bill even broader exemptions from the open records law.

Immediately after the draft surfaced, Vos held a news conference to say his office had abandoned the effort for this session. "We're not changing the open records law,” Vos said.

But transparency advocates saw something more sinister. “I think what is happening is an aberration, and a major departure from past Wisconsin tradition,” said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. “What we are seeing, for the first time in my experience, is the emergence of a culture of contempt for the public's right to know.”

The differences of opinion in the Badger State go beyond public records. Almost from the day Walker took office in 2011, the Republican-controlled Legislature has waged war on Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board — the latest iteration of a state ethics watchdog. The governor also led a successful push to strip most public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

All of this has contributed to Wisconsin earning a score of 64, or a D, placing it 20th among 50 in the State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of state government accountability and transparency by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity.

Over the past few weeks, both houses of the Legislature have also approved sweeping changes to the state's campaign finance laws and a bill that would dismantle the Government Accountability Board by splitting it into two agencies, though the Assembly must now approve versions of the bills passed by the Senate. Last month, Walker signed a law that prohibits prosecutors from using a form of secret investigation — known as a John Doe — to probe allegations of public corruption. None of the recent moves factor into Wisconsin's D grade because they came after the project's study period had ended.

Wisconsin earned a grade of C- in 2012, when the State Integrity Investigation was first carried out. The two scores are not directly comparable, however, due to changes made to improve and update the project and methodology, such as eliminating the category for redistricting, a process that generally occurs only once every 10 years.

What Happens When the Wrong People Get Power?

"I'm just going to come right out and say it, who put the car on the Avery property?"

Analysis of the documentary 'Making of a Murderer'

By PavlishConsulting.com
December 29, 2015

PCG (Pavlish Consulting Group) unedited rough draft. 60% complete.

I. What happens when the wrong people get power.

II. It is hard for the public to help in most cases.

III. Will a coward come forward? The very ugly, the ugly and the unknown.

IV. Analyzing some of the statements, interviews and testimony.

V. A small sample of the bungled case.

VI. PCG Inc and the PCG process.

VII. Closing.

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I. What Happens when the wrong people get power.

For many years I have analyzed different murder cases, and the majority of the cases I’ve agreed with the verdict, and the accused were punished. People may feel the punishment was too harsh or too lenient, but they were punished and it was another example of our great legal system.

Then there were cases where a guilty person is either freed or found innocent by a jury of their peers, such as former FBI agent Art Gonzales, whom I listed as a case study on our website, PavlishConsulting.com. This is sad and hurtful not only for the family of the victim, but it hurts me personally. Unfortunately, in these cases I understand we still have a great legal system, and when twelve people see things differently, then there is nothing I, the government or the public can do.

However, nothing is more nauseating and upsetting then knowing an innocent person is in jail, especially when it’s at the will of individuals of authority.

When a person is accused of a crime they are at the mercy of people that wield tremendous power and control. Their fate is in the hands of Police Officers, Judges, District Attorney’s, Assistant Prosecutors, Special State and Federal Police, Court Staff, Corrections Officers, and many more. Some people in these positions thrive on power and control. Most of these elected, appointed or hired employees realize they have have been bestowed tremendous power, and if used improperly can cause tremendous harm. They have the power to change the course of peoples lives as entrusted enforcers of State and/or Federal laws.

It is not plausible or believable to think that every single person of power working for any village, town, city, state or federal organization is able to handle this enormous power they are given responsibly.

It is not plausible or realistic for any American to believe that some individuals wouldn't be smart enough to reference or use their position of trust as a tool to hide their wrong doing or the wrongs of others.

It is not plausible or realistic to believe that once they are given their title and power that the citizens of the United States should be embarrassed or shamed if "We the People" question their actions. In fact, it is We the People that should be insulted when we are scoffed at and belittled when we see obvious mistakes and cover-ups.

When some citizens are given a title, a badge, a uniform, a state ID card, state issued weapon and power, their descent into the dark side begins the minute they take an oath to protect the citizens of this great Country.

Power and control can be a very destructive drug. More powerful then any street drug such as cocaine and heroin in every sense. When someone is having a power trip, it is the same experience someone would have on an acid trip. Once they are on the drug of power, it distorts their reasoning, judgment and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Reality, reasoning, common sense, caring, compassion, good judgement, morals, and values are replaced with delusions, feeling of euphoria, feelings of being invisible, recklessness, carelessness, uncaring, the ability to reason, and the ability to distinguish or care about what is right and what is wrong.

This power trip gives them the callous and cold ability to take human beings and essentially use them as a lab rats at their discretion. These power-hungry selfish, cowards seek out and find other week, selfish, cowards that have authority to befriend.

This is without a doubt the case with Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, who are sitting in jail right now because of numerous people who had the power and control to use them for their own agenda. They could care less how many people they hurt, or how badly.