Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Scott Walker's Priorities



By Jeff Simpson

Wild Bill Kramer, republican leader from Waukesha, was in court yesterday and pleaded "not guilty".   His Lawyer also let it be known that he would be attacking the victim publicly.  

We also know, thanks to police reports, that the republican leadership and our own US Senator Ron Johnson knew that Bill Kramer was a menace to women and their response was to keep quiet and tell no one.   This, of course, led to more women becoming victims and Bill Kramer becoming a rising star in the republican party!  

While not in the best interests of the people of WI, it was in the best interest of the republican party so they did nothing, even though they had an alleged predator in their midst! 

Now let's compare the scenario from the other side.  

While Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker and his county staff, freely shared names and details of a developmentally disabled sexual assault victim with his campaign staff.  

While Scott Walker was Milwaukee County executive, his staff freely shared the name of a sexual assault victim and details about her case with political operatives, recently released emails show.

The revelation comes as the governor has authorized a probe to determine whether a state disability rights organization violated patient confidentiality rules in its report on four deaths at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.

Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's deputy chief of staff at the county, sent copies of an Aug. 19, 2010, email to Walker and his chief political consultants, RJ Johnson and Keith Gilke.

The email included the name of a developmentally disabled woman who became pregnant after having sex with another patient at the complex. She included a second email from a lawyer representing the county marked: "Confidential Attorney Client Information."

The gubernatorial election was less than three months away, and the problems at the complex were proving problematic to Walker's candidacy.

When JSonline asked for specifics of the case, they were shut down(emphasis mine):
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had written an email the day before to administrators at the Behavioral Health Division and to Mark Cameli, a private lawyer hired to defend the county. The email sought comment for a story about the case, noting that the woman would not be named.

The man who had sex with her had been charged with sexual assault, and the woman's guardians had told the Journal Sentinel that they had not been informed of the pregnancy for weeks after it was confirmed. The guardians complained of other errors with the woman's case, including that she continued taking heavily sedating psychotropic drugs found to be harmful to developing fetuses.

Cameli wrote a draft of a reply to the reporters' request and sent a copy to John Chianeli, then the director of the Behavioral Health Division, and Geri Lyday and Joan Hansen, county administrators, for their input. In the draft, Cameli explained to the reporters that the county could not reply to specifics of the case.

"They and I are bound by laws and regulations governing, among other things, the confidentiality of certain information," Cameli said. "What should we do? Should we disregard the rights of patients? The legal and ethical obligations imposed upon us?"

Then something interesting happened(emphasis mine):


Lyday then sent Cameli's reply to Rindfleisch, who forwarded it to her personal email account. From there, Rindfleisch sent the email — including the patient's name — to Walker and his political advisers to see if the lawyer's reply met with their approval.

"I wanted you to give it the OK to sign off on it," Rindfleisch wrote to Walker and his campaign advisers.

The next day, Cameli sent his response to the Journal Sentinel.

"Please — please consult with someone familiar with the laws and regulations governing the disclosure of the information you seek," Cameli wrote then.
 Does anyone read the employee handbook anymore?  I guess ethics and morals get thrown out the window when there is an election to win.  


 

We know the priorities of Scott Walker and his party.

 Win the election at all costs! 



4 comments:

  1. And if past behavior by Kramer is any indication, and I believe it is, he will drag the victim through the mud while holding her head underwater for emphasis sake. All while giving a 'compelling defense'. If you didn't feel so bad for the victim it would be interesting watching the WISGOP fall all over themselves to throw Kramer under the bus, yet again. Kramer has proven to be someone without a clue as to social graces and I fully expect some 'cringe worthy' cross-ex coming. But really, this could just be another way that Kramer is attempting to intimidate the victim into recanting her story; the threat of being revictimized all over again.

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  2. This is a great campaign issue for Mary Burke to hammer Walker on.

    What has the Burke campaign said about the horrible behavior by Walker and his team regarding the horrible treatment of patients at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex?

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  3. Anon at 12:12, I'm afraid this is just more evidence that Ms. Burke doesn't want to be Governor and Mike Tate doesn't want her to be Governor and Chris Abele doesn't want her to be Governor. Absent any attempt to get releases, this looks like pretty solid evidence of a wide pattern of HIPAA violations. My guess is the rest of the emails, which Abele refuses to ask for, are filled with exactly this kind of stuff.

    Hope I'm wrong.

    Jeff, thanks for the post.

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