Lawmaker's Son Charged in Election Day Tire-Slashing
By GRETCHEN EHLKE
MILWAUKEE (AP) - The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.
Sowande Omokunde, son of Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee acting mayor Marvin Pratt, were among those charged with criminal damage to property, a felony that carries a maximum punishment of 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The activists are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the state Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers Nov. 2. Also charged were Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee, and Justin Howell of Racine.
The GOP rented more than 100 vehicles that were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office. The party planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. and deliver any voters who didn't have a ride. A criminal complaint said the defendants originally planned to put up Democratic yard signs, placards and bumper stickers at the Republican office in a scheme they called ``Operation Elephant Takeover.'' But the plan was dropped when they learned a security guard was posted at the GOP office, the complaint said.
One witness told investigators the five defendants, dressed in ``Mission Impossible'' type gear, black outfits and knit caps, left the Democratic Party headquarters at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, and returned about 20 minutes later, extremely excited and talking about how they had slashed the tires.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Seth Boffeli said the five were paid employees of John Kerry's presidential campaign, but were not acting on behalf of the campaign or party. ``This is not something we engage in, or encourage. We had to make it clear that this is something these individuals were doing on their own,'' Boffeli said.
Some Republican officials have criticized Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, a Democrat, for taking more than two months to bring charges. McCann said FBI agents were involved in interviewing witnesses in four states: Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and New York. ``We asked the FBI knowing that this probably wouldn't be their first priority,'' he said.
Rick Wiley, state GOP executive director, discovered the vandalism on the morning of Election Day. ``It was unbelievable that people could stoop this low in a political campaign,'' he said. ``I figured it had to be someone from the opposition. But I didn't think someone on the paid Kerry campaign would do this.''
Wiley didn't say whether the vandalism prevented anyone from voting, but said poll watchers were about two hours late.
Moore did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
01/24/05 14:40
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...30.htm&sc=1110
Re: Lawmaker's Son Charged in Election Day Tire-Slashing
THE MILWAUKEE 5 ON TRIAL
By Michelle Malkin · January 09, 2006 06:22 PM
http://michellemalkin.com/
If these dudes were Republicans, their faces would have been all over the news today as their trial on felony counts of vandalism in the Election Day 2004 tire-slashing of more than 20 vehicles rented by Republican campaigners finally got underway:
Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde, son of congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee). (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.)
Michael Pratt, son of former Milwaukee mayor Marvin Pratt. (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.)
Three other alleged tire-slashers: Lewis Caldwell (top-left), Justin Howell (top-right), and Lavelle Mohammed (bottom). (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that at least: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/383666.asp
Quote:
Cable network Court TV is covering the trial, which, with five defendants being tried together, is expected to last two weeks. The witness list includes national AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), as well as 77 others, including political operatives from both major parties, FBI agents, Milwaukee police officers and a representative of a Firestone tire center.
Not all of them are certain to be called into Circuit Judge Michael B. Brennan's courtroom. A spokesman for Jackson's office said Friday that the office had not received a subpoena or other official notification that Jackson, who was in Milwaukee for Election Day 2004 and may have spoken with some parties involved in the case, would be required to testify.
Given that the Democrat prosecutor has been accused of partisan foot-dragging, that inaction is not surprising. http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:mNuiP2...lient=firefox-a
Question: Where are all the hysterical bemoaners of voter fraud and voter suppression now?
***
January 20, 2006
Plea Agreement in Tire Slashing Case
Milwaukee District Attorney E. Michael McCann's office is known as a plea bargain machine. Conservatives were pleasantly surprised when his office took the Milwaukee 5 to trial. Prosecutors went through eight days of testimony and arguments and put it in the jury's hands. Until a few hours ago it seemed like we would have a verdict, but that wasn't the case. Prosecutors gave up at the first sign of a deadlocked jury and cut-and-run by handing out plea bargains:
Quote:
In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors. Prosecutors will recommend probation sentences as part of the deal.
The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction.
The surprise resolution was offered by prosecutors at 2 p.m., nearly 7 hours into deliberations and an hour after a jury note complained of an impasse.
Defendant Justin Howell was the only one of the five charged not included in the deal. The no contest pleas have not been formally made yet, but when they are, jurors will be left to deliberate the felony charge against Howell.
In the end those interested in justice and fair elections should have never put their faith in E. Michael McCann. This case once again demonstrates the soft-on-crime approach that's plagued his career.
[via Brian Fraley]
UPDATE: The blogswarm has begun:
Peter DiGaudio:
Quote:
Simply amazing. I for one am not surprised at all. Some of the jurors no doubt believed the rant that the Republicans were so evil that whatever means used to steal the election justified the means. Some were just unable to connect the dots. The anti-Bush hatred on the Left coupled with the desire for Democrats to regain power has created this atmosphere, and some of these idiots actually got on the jury.
What happened? In all likelihood the ones that hung the jury are people who loved and admire Gwen Moore and Marvin Pratt and hate George W. Bush so much that they could never send Moore's and Pratt's criminal sons to jail — which is where they belong. People like this will never hold their people accountable for anything they do.
Rick Esenberg:
Quote:
Speaking as a guy who has practiced law for almost 25 years, I can't imagine any self-respecting lawyer doing this. If you wanted to let these guys cop to a misdemeanor and walk away, I am sure that deal could have been made without going to the time and expense of a trial. To do it because you get a note that the jury thinks its deadlocked after six hours is silly. Judge Brennan was absolutely correct in observing that six hours is not a long time to deliberate after a seven day trial and undeniably right in telling them to continue. It really is hard to avoid at least the suspicion that the DA's office saw this as an opportunity to bail on what it saw as a no-win situation. I don't see how it is a reasonable compromise by a prosecutor who wants a conviction. Why, after devoting just about all the resources that you are going to have to devote, would you, essentially, let the defendants go at the first small sign that you might not win?
Charlie Sykes wonders if "the lack of a guilty plea also mean[s] that the defendants and Milwaukee's own congresswoman will continue to insist that they are innocent?" Short answer: YES!
The Wisconsin GOP responds to this injustice:
Quote:
The Republican Party of Wisconsin is disappointed that the penalty for the tire slashing incident is a misdemeanor rather than a felony, with no jail time being recommended. We urge Judge Brennan to disregard the District Attorney's recommendation for probation and in turn call for him to invoke a sentence of jail time. This case shows that Democrats will stop at nothing to undermine efforts by Republicans to get-out-the-vote on Election Day and has shed light on the extent they are willing to go for their own political gain. We feel as though the penalty set forth by the District Attorney for the Democrats' attempt to undermine the election process certainly does not fit the crime. In that regard, we are ready now more than ever to move forward with Election Day reform measures at the federal and state level so that integrity may be restored to the system.
Owen @ Boots & Sabers:
Quote:
Like most people, I didn’t think that a conviction was possible with a Milwaukee jury. I figured that a hung jury would be most likely. So, perhaps, this is the best outcome to be expected.
UPDATE IV:
WisPolitics Courtwatch Blog reports Justin Howell, the only member of the Milwaukee 5 who didn't plead no contest, was found not guilty by the jury. [via Lakeshore Laments]
James Joyner was gracious enough to publicize the story and push it out to a national audience.
UPDATE V: Jessica McBride puts this McCann's latest example of a lack of prosecutorial gumption in context:
Quote:
But the frustrating thing is that McCann's office has been notoriously ineffective in prosecuting election violations overall, and the vast majority of the allegations in Wisconsin have been lodged in his jurisdiction. The Gary George forged nomination papers. The smokes-for-votes scandal. The 300+ felons who voted illegally in the 2000 presidential election. Humphrey Pushcart. On and on.
In an extremely open election system like ours (same-day registration and no photo ID requirement), it's important to have aggressive, tough prosecution of election-law violations so that there's SOME deterrent against people doing it. In that light, I almost would have preferred to see McCann's office finally up the ante and bet the house. After all, the deals were struck after only six hours of deliberations in a trial that lasted almost seven days.
UPDATE VI (Final one for this post and probably the night):
James Wigderson:
Quote:
Another good day for the Milwaukee District Attorney's office: nobody sent to jail. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's office, deciding they didn't want to risk a mistrial and starting all over again, instead decided to settle. Maybe they had an early tee time tomorrow.
Wade Lindberg @ Not quite off the deep end:
Quote:
When we respond ineffectively to terrorism, it encourages more through our apparent weakness. What do we think will happen in the next election?
...And I don't mean sugar in the fuel tank.
http://www.theamericanmind.com/mt-te...es/017857.html
Re: Lawmaker's Son Charged in Election Day Tire-Slashing
Sunday, January 22, 2006
The message from Milwaukee
Been a bit busy lately doing galley proofs, so there's a lot of catching up to do. But let's start with the "Milwaukee 5," the Democrat Party activists who last week walked away from their Election Day crimes. To borrow a phrase from Billy Ayers: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird."
After a two-week felony trial culminating with notes from a conflicted jury, four Kerry-Edwards campaign workers - including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt - had their charges in the Election Day 2004 tire-slashing reduced to misdemeanors and accepted the deal.
The fifth Democratic staffer accused of crippling Republican vans won a jury acquittal by sticking with a fight against the felony charge. ....
All five defendants had been charged with damaging 40 tires on 25 rented vans parked outside Republican Party offices on W. Capitol Drive, hours before they were to be deployed for electioneering. The repair costs easily exceeded the felony threshold of $2,500, yet there was little evidence about what each man had allegedly done.
Prosecutors built most of their case on testimony from out-of-state Democratic operatives who had come to work on the Wisconsin campaign alongside the defendants - Marvin Pratt, 33, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, Lavelle Mohammad, 36, Justin Howell, 21, and Sowande Omokunde, 26.
The witnesses said the local men boasted about their crippling attack on the Republican vehicles.
The jury sent an unmistakable message: It's open season on Republicans in Wisconsin.
There is no doubt that tires were slashed on 25 GOP vans on the eve of Election Day.
There is no doubt that these tires were slashed by operatives of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Yet, though these crimes were committed by Democrats determined to affect the outcome of a presidential election, nobody is going to prison: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird."
Please notice the intrusion in the Milwaukee trial of the "Stop Snitchin'" mentality:
Quote:
Defense attorneys tried to characterize the party professionals as liars who set up the defendants - loosely tied to the scene by cell-phone records and the hazy memory of a security guard - as fall guys for the crime.
This is a clear message to any Democrat whose good conscience might prompt him to blow the whistle on fellow Democrats involved in felonious attempts to influence the outcome of an election: Democrats will destroy your reputation and smear you as a liar if you dare to tell the truth.
And, by the way, has anybody seen Kathleen Willey's cat?
http://donkeycons.blogspot.com/2006/01/mes...-milwaukee.html
--------
With all the supportors of "Truth, Justice & the American Way" that post here I wonder how this story goes unremarked.
Re: Lawmaker's Son Charged in Election Day Tire-Slashing
DETROIT'S DIRTY ELECTIONS
By Michelle Malkin · November 14, 2005 08:13 AM
http://michellemalkin.com/
What a mess:
Quote:
Detroit elections officials lost track of ballots in nine precincts -- or almost 3,000 votes -- in Tuesday's election, and did not count them until two days after polls closed.
State Elections Director Chris Thomas ordered city officials late Friday to keep their hands off voting records until he meets with them today.
Thomas' order came after he learned of the problem Friday afternoon from the Free Press, and as city elections officials were preparing to hold an emergency meeting with software engineers to try to resolve ongoing discrepancies in the vote totals.
The addition of the missing votes did not appear to alter the result of the most hotly contested mayoral race in recent memory. However, it's not entirely clear what impact the missing votes had on other races on the city ballot, including the City Council and the school board.
Thomas said he was "absolutely dismayed" to learn of the missing votes.
"We cannot believe that in this climate that Detroit election officials wouldn't publicly disclose that all of the precincts were not counted," Thomas said.
The missing votes raise fresh concerns about how votes have been secured and counted under outgoing City Clerk Jackie Currie, whose absentee ballot program is under federal investigation.
City elections officials acknowledged that a wayward poll worker took home the results from two precincts late Tuesday; and nonchalantly delivered them to election headquarters about noon Wednesday. Elections staffers discovered the results from seven other precincts inside locked ballot boxes after a fevered search...
If Republicans were in charge of Detroit's elections, this mass disenfranchisement would be front-page NYTimes news, the Congressional Black Caucus would be on red alert, and Louis Farrakhan and Howard Dean would be blaming Bush's racism for the debacle.
More background from the Detroit News.
Ballot count draws scrutiny
Tally takes place amid reports of vote mishandling; mayoral win likely to stand, Detroit officials say.
By David Josar and Lisa M. Collins / The Detroit News
Top-level representatives of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and challenger Freman Hendrix stood watch Saturday as the official canvass of more than 220,000 votes cast in last week's mayoral election began amid new reports of mishandling of ballots by city poll workers.
State officials said there was no indication that any of the election results would change. In unofficial tallies released early Wednesday, Kilpatrick had 117,354 votes, or 52.78 percent of the total, compared with 103,446, or 46.52 percent, for Hendrix.
The Nov. 8 election has emerged as one of the most controversial in recent Detroit history, following allegations of fraud and other irregularities in the Detroit City Clerk's office. As of Saturday, no protests or challenges had been filed.
Counting was suspended late Saturday and was to resume Monday morning. Meanwhile, the state Bureau of Elections called in the Michigan State Police to provide round-the-clock armed security at Detroit's Department of Elections. "We want to preserve the integrity of this process," said state elections spokeswoman Kelly Chesney. "We want Detroit voters to have faith in this process. We want them to know their vote was counted and counted correctly."
Despite intense scrutiny of the final vote count by county, state and federal officials, some mistakes have surfaced.
On Friday, city officials found that one election worker had taken home two electronic devices that store vote tallies and those votes weren't tallied on election night. In addition, some results weren't tabulated correctly because of a computer programming error.
Some city workers also failed to subtract dummy votes that are cast -- 20 in each precinct -- to ensure voting equipment works properly.
Less than 3,000 votes were affected by the errors, Chesney said. She said election workers have many ways, including an examination of the original ballots, to check the final tallies.
No irregularities had been discovered with absentee ballots, Chesney said.
The city has 14 days from Election Day to certify the results. In the past, election workers have completed that task in about six days. Candidates then have nine days to contest the results.
For the problems to put the outcome of the mayoral race in question, the number of affected votes would have to total around 7,000.
On Election Day, the FBI obtained a court order to preserve absentee ballots and other records for investigation. Earlier, a Wayne County circuit judge handed supervision of the election to state Bureau of Elections director Chris Thomas and Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett. The court also appointed two prominent Detroiters, Charlie Williams and Elliott Hall, as monitors. The orders came in a lawsuit challenging City Clerk Jackie Currie's handling of Detroit's August primary. Currie was cited for contempt of court after she disobeyed a court order not to distribute absentee ballot applications.
On Oct. 30, a Detroit News report outlined how legally incapacitated people were voting, that people had voted who listed addresses at vacant lots and in abandoned buildings and that a significant percentage of Detroit's voter rolls were inaccurate. The story raised questions about how Currie manages absentee voter ballots.
Supporters of Hendrix and Kilpatrick said they are doing what they can to ensure the final tallies are correct, although the Hendrix camp is slowly raising questions of impropriety. "There's a lot of weird stuff," Greg Bowens, a spokesman for Hendrix, said Saturday while he stood outside the city Department of Elections office on West Grand Boulevard. "We're very concerned about the integrity of the vote."
Although the Hendrix team has consulted with a team of lawyers about the election process, Cathy Nedd, another Hendrix spokeswoman, said there has been no dialogue about challenging the results or asking for a recount. "People are calling us, e-mailing us, lots of people, that we should ask for a recount, but there has been no discussion," she said Saturday.
Inside the Department of Elections, city workers, under watch by four members each from Kilpatrick's and Hendrix's camps, began auditing the votes.
Around noon, Christine Beatty, Kilpatrick's chief of staff, arrived and went inside.
Mayoral spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett, who was also outside the election department, said the mayor too wants to ensure the integrity of the election and make sure "every vote is counted."
In addition to the mayoral election, voters ousted Currie, selected a new school board and elected four new City Council members.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/05...B01-380342.htm
Nothing about any of this on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Yahoo, Netscape, MSN or anything else. :rolleyes: :mad:
Re: Lawmaker's Son Charged in Election Day Tire-Slashing
4 Sentenced for Election Day Tire Slashing
By GRETCHEN EHLKE
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A congresswoman's son and three Democratic campaign workers were sentenced Wednesday to four to six months in jail for slashing tires outside a Bush-Cheney campaign office on Election Day 2004.
The men pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty. ``This case had to be a public example of what can happen when you interfere with voters' rights,'' said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan, who rejected prosecutors' recommendation of probation for the four men.
The state Republican Party had rented more than 100 vehicles to give rides to voters and poll monitors on Nov. 2, 2004. The cars were parked outside a GOP campaign office when the tires were punctured. The vandalism left the drivers scrambling for new vehicles.
Among those sentenced Wednesday were Sowande A. Omokunde, the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin, and Michael Pratt, the son of former acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt. ``I love my son very much. I'm very proud of him,'' Moore said. ``He's accepted responsibility.''
Omokunde was sentenced to four months in jail; Pratt and Lewis Caldwell of Milwaukee were sentenced to six months; and Lavelle Mohammad of Milwaukee was sentenced to five months. All were granted work-release privileges.
Brennan also ordered them to pay a $1,000 fine each, in addition to the $5,317 in total restitution ordered earlier.
The four could have faced up to nine months in jail term and fines of $10,000.
Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes in the 2004 election ended up going to Democrat John Kerry.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...07.htm&sc=1110
04/26/06
