Walkergate: Russell Goes For Broke

On August 16, Tim Russell last appeared in front of the Honorable David Hansher.

At that hearing, we learned that Parker c. Mathers, Russell's fifth attorney, was appointed to him through the Public Defender's office. I opined at the time that this meant that Russell was broke. I further pointed out that not only was Russell facing some serious time if convicted on the current embezzlement charges, but that he was also under investigation for other aspects of Walkergate, including misconduct in public office, à la Kelly Rindfleisch.

It appears that I was wrong, after all, and that Russell is going for broke on fighting the charges.

If the gentle reader will recall, Russell's previous attorney, Dennis Krueger, was playing a lot of games and trying the patience of both Judge Hansher and of the prosecutor, Bruce Landgraf. Krueger pushed things so far that Landgraf had taken the possibility of a plea bargain off the table.

At the hearing three weeks ago, Judge Hansher made it perfectly clear that he was tired of all of Russell's game-playing and stall tactics:

This fact is even recognized by the Honorable David Hansher, the judge presiding over the case, who allowed for this window as well as gave Attorney Mathers some hard advise:

Hansher said Thursday Mathers would have until Aug. 31 to seek to file any new motions in the case. Hansher warned Mathers that there had already been “tons of motions filed, some by (Russell’s) previous counsel that I considered frivolous.”

Hansher told lawyers in Russell’s case they should present any potential plea deal by Nov. 2. Russell’s trial is scheduled to start Dec. 3.

With Judge Hansher getting tired of all the delays in this case, and rightfully so, and a public defender who is a good but pragmatic lawyer, there is a good shot that Russell will be settling for a plea bargain much like Darlene Wink did.

If Russell has any sense of self-preservation and self-respect left, that is exactly what he will do.

Russell and Mathers apparently chose to ignore the Court's directives on both the frivolous motions and the deadlines.

Per court records, Mathers finally filed his motions on Tuesday, September 4, well after the deadline imposed by the Court.

And boy, his motions sure are doozies.

Mathers filed a motion to file a motion to have the district attorney disqualified, to have the charges dismissed and for an "information instanter," which is just an order for the requested information to be produced in a timely fashion.

Unless Mathers has a very compelling reason for asking the DA to be disqualified and all charges to be dropped, I don't believe that Judge Hansher is going to look to kindly on this stunt.

Most likely, Mathers is taking a page from the right wing's attempts to discredit the DA's office and the investigation. The utterly misnamed Citizens for a Responsible Government, who has yet to say a peep about any of Scott Walker's misdeeds, had teamed up with the ambulance chaser, Paul Bucher, to teach people how to undermine justice. The Koch News Network has been conflating every little thing they can to make the investigation to look bad. They've even have gone so far as to stalk staff members of the DA's office. Yet they've never have been able to offer any solid proof, but still throw about their innuendo and false inferences.

Their most recent focus has been on the John Doe case of former Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny Thomas, who was found not guilty of taking bribes. Even the "serious reporter" John Mercure of WTMJ squawk radio interviewed Thomas and asked all sorts of leading questions, trying to get Thomas to lambaste the DA's office. By the way, Thomas had more class than that and wouldn't give them the soundbite they were hoping for.

Yet they have never once even tried to argue that Russell, Rindfleisch, or even Walker himself is innocent.

The three amigos: Tim Russell, Scott Walker
and Brian Pierick

In sum, the Walkerites are running scared and apparently have reason to believe that indictments are coming soon. In order to get a jump start on this, they have gone on the offensive, injecting smear, innuendo and outright lies to give themselves talking points when Walker is eventually charged. Fortunately, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm runs a tight ship and has given nothing, not one damn thing, for the squawkers and the propagandists to harp on.

And as noted above, despite their squawking, their propaganda and their shouts into the echo chamber, there has not been one claim of innocence. This is because like you, gentle reader, they know full well that when it comes to Walker and his crew of thugs, there's more. There's always more.

But given that Russell apparently doesn't know when to hold them and when to fold them, we know what we must do:

Walkergate: Tim Russell, The Wild Card

Back in the day, Perry Mason was a very popular drama. A great part of its popularity was due to the fact that the good guys always won, justice was always served, and there were some great plot twists.

Walkergate, if made into a show, would be a top-rated show as well. Especially with the twists that come from Tim Russell's case.

Tim Russell, as the gentle reader is well aware, was a lifelong, very close friend to Scott Walker. Not only did Russell work for Walker on his campaigns, but also for him Walker as a Milwaukee County employee. Sometimes he did both jobs at the same time.

Russell is currently facing trial for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from a veterans fund as well as a couple of minor campaign funds. On top of that, he is also being actively investigated for his role in the illegal campaigning which was going on with alarming alacrity in Walker's county executive office.

His case already has had a lot of twists and turns. Most notably is the revolving door on his lawyers. Russell also has used his attorneys to drop some bombs of his own on Walker, such as revealing that Walker had been stonewalling the investigation for years.

Russell has gone through four attorneys already and is currently working with his fifth one, Parker C. Mathers.

Russell was back in court with Attorney Mathers on Thursday. And if one was hoping for some more breathtaking twists and turns, this episode surely did not disappoint anyone.

For months, I've been questioning how Russell could afford all of these attorneys. Especially with ones like Michael Maistelman, who is one of the top attorneys in the state and draws a fee which represents that fact. Dan Bice also indicated that Russell was having money troubles.

And sure enough, proof positive came out of Thursday's hearing:

A new lawyer for Timothy Russell – the former aide to Gov. Scott Walker who’s accused of embezzling more than $20,000 from a veterans group – was appointed for him by the state public defender’s office.

The move indicates Russell was likely broke or close to it. He lost his West Allis home to foreclosure last year.

Think about this for a minute or three.

Russell is facing pretty hefty embezzlement charges and the evidence looks pretty damn overwhelming. He is also facing the very strong possibility of facing even more felony charges and the evidence for those charges are even more damning than the evidence for the embezzlement charges.

And now he is broke and is dependent on a taxpayer-funded public defender. This means that, unlike Kelly Rindfleisch and her well-paid private attorney, Mathers isn't going to be interested in stringing the case along. He will want the most expedient resolution to the case which defends his client's rights.

Or in other words, the possibility of a plea bargain, which was all but lost when Russell's previous attorney, Dennis Krueger started pulling shenanigans, is not only back, but more likely than ever.

This fact is even recognized by the Honorable David Hansher, the judge presiding over the case, who allowed for this window as well as gave Attorney Mathers some hard advise:

Hansher said Thursday Mathers would have until Aug. 31 to seek to file any new motions in the case. Hansher warned Mathers that there had already been “tons of motions filed, some by (Russell’s) previous counsel that I considered frivolous.”

Hansher told lawyers in Russell’s case they should present any potential plea deal by Nov. 2. Russell’s trial is scheduled to start Dec. 3.

With Judge Hansher getting tired of all the delays in this case, and rightfully so, and a public defender who is a good but pragmatic lawyer, there is a good shot that Russell will be settling for a plea bargain much like Darlene Wink did.

If Russell has any sense of self-preservation and self-respect left, that is exactly what he will do.

Ironically, Walker has told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he is not concerned about the John Doe. Considering his megalomania, he just might be telling the truth. He obviously feels that he is above the law and will flaunt this any chance he gets.

But if he had any sense of self-preservation or any common sense, he would be more than scared. He should be terrified. After all, we all know that when it comes to Walker, there will be more. There is always more.

In fact, unless I miss my guess, Walkergate could still have national implications.

So don't put the popcorn away yet. In fact, you might want to get a second bucket. This could prove to be most entertaining.

Walkergate: Looking Up Some Old Friends

Here's a couple of things to keep the appetite for all things Walkergate whetted:

Well, Hello Kelly, Part II

Remember how Kelly Rindfleisch and her attorney, Frank Gimbel, kept trying to argue that she had universal immunity which protected her through all time and space?  As I had predicted, they were denied.

Undaunted, they tried again, this time using the Kastiger maneuver. (Kastiger is Universal Immunity in legalese, or something like that.)

The Honorable David Hansher said that he'd have his decision last Friday. He was a few days late with it, but that's OK.

The ruling was still MOTION DENIED.

Is Russell A Marked Man?

On Monday, we learned the identity of Tim Russell's fifth attorney. He's a young lawyer named Parker Mathers.

However, we knew precious little about him other than he graduated from Marquette University in 2010.

Then a savvy reader picked up on his name being affiliated with some events on Barack Obama's event page.

Tuesday afternoon, Dan Bice confirmed that Mathers had been a former field operative for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. From what I have learned on my own, he was involved in GOTV kind of work.

The remarkable thing is that out of Russell's five attorneys, all but one has been Democrats or have Democratic leanings. The only one who was Republican was Dennis Krueger, his last one before Mathers, who got kicked off the case when it was revealed that he secretly had taken a job as a state prosecutor in Fond du Lac County.

It gives one pause to wonder if Russell is deliberately picking Democratic attorneys. It could be that he is angling to get a plea bargain and figures that a Democratic attorney might be able to get him a better deal. Or it could be that he is concerned that Walker would find out what his intentions are and try to interfere in some way.

Then again, it could be that Walker put out the word to Republican lawyers to stay clear of Russell although that seems rather counter intuitive. I'd think Walker would be trying to get an inside scoop to what's happening so that his handlers could get a step on their spin and possibly set Russell up to the be the patsy.

A third possibility would be that the Republican attorneys are purposely avoiding the case so they don't get taken down with this lot of unethical weasels.

Speaking of Dennis Krueger

When it came to light that Krueger had taken a job as a state prosecutor in Fond du Lac County, Judge Hansher was fit to be tied and told Kreuger that he was considering filing a complaint against him.

Now Krueger has a second high profile case in a mess and another judge mad as hell at him:

Wasserman called Krueger "a mole" working for the state among the defense. The defense strategy was not only acquired by the state via Krueger, the motion read, "it was formulated by the state through and by Krueger."

At a hearing July 23, Krueger withdrew from the Cullen case, but not before he took heat from Circuit Judge David Borowski. who said he was considering a complaint to the Office of Lawyer Regulation. When he asked Krueger how he thought he could apply for a prosecutor's job and accept it while actively representing Cullen in plea negotiations, Krueger had no answer.

"To say 'I don't have an explanation' is not acceptable," Borowski said. He told Krueger, "You and your office in Fond du Lac have some explaining to do."

He gave the state two weeks to respond to Wasserman's motion.

And While We're Talking About Laywers

I've questioned before just how Rindfleisch is able to afford a high caliber, high cost attorney like Franklyn Gimbel. I've heard Walker has his people, including campaign manager Keith Gilke doing some fundraising on the side for Kelly.

But could there be other things at play?

Gimbel is the chairman of the Wisconsin Center District board. His appointment expired three months ago. One would think that Scott Walker would want to put his own people in there immediately, as he is wont to do everywhere else. Or are there other considerations at play here?

One thing we know is that Rindfleisch probably isn't paying for Gimbel's legal services on her own. She's not very good at doing an honest day's work.

Collateral Damage

There's been a couple of stories that resulted in the fallout of Walkergate that should be addressed. This is as just as good a place and time as any.

When Tim Russell was arrested and charged, it was mentioned in the criminal complaint against him that another higher ranking county official, Jim Tietjen, was part of Russell's phony group which was allegedly handling the funds for Operation Freedom.

Tietjen denied any knowledge of being on the board of this group and the issue was dropped. Or so we thought.

The DA's office apparently found stuff. Although the powers that be deemed it not to be enough for prosecution, it was an offense worth getting fired over, and maybe costing him his pension:

It's a violation of county ethics rules for officials to take money or gifts from someone seeking county business. Email and video evidence showed Tietjen's landscape employees were doing work for two county vendors, according to the memo, written by Hector Colon, who heads the county's Department of Health and Human Services.

Tietjen said that work wasn't a payback for a county contract. He said he has nothing to do with county procurement.

"I put nothing in my pocket," he said.

Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern declined to comment Monday on whether prosecutors were investigating Tietjen. County Auditor Jerome Heer said he couldn't comment on a review of a personnel matter.

Numerous emails sent over the past year and uncovered by county officials found that Tietjen was doing work on his landscaping business during his county workday. Tietjen admitted doing so when he was confronted, according to the memo by Colon, who is Tietjen's boss.

Tietjen also had his work email forwarded to his county email account, "thus allowing him to do his personal business during county time," Colon's memo says.

Tietjen said his son had his Duke's Landscaping email forwarded to his county account. The elder Tietjen said he didn't know how to change it back. Besides, he's put in many extra hours for the county that would far offset any time spent reading email for his landscaping business, he said.

Tietjen also was fired for ordering a subordinate to solicit money from county vendors for "Operation Freedom," an annual picnic for veterans at the Milwaukee County Zoo hosted by Gov. Scott Walker while he was county executive, according to the Colon memo.

Tietjen acknowledged he had done that but said it was six or more years ago when Walker was county executive. Tietjen said no pressure was put on any county vendor to donate to the veterans' event.

Tietjen's "numerous violations" of county rules "warrant immediate termination," Colon wrote in the memo Friday - the day Tietjen was terminated.

What's not been reported anywhere else is that as soon as this story hit the newsstands, one of his top subordinates retired immediately. Another subordinate quit for unknown reasons, but speculation is that it was somehow tied to Tietjen's firing.

More recently, another Walker appointee, Freida Webb, just got suspended from her job and is accused of embezzling money meant to go to minority-owned vendors.

However there is another story regarding how Milwaukee County has to pay back the feds for improperly used HUD funding which should shoot of alarms for even the most obtuse person:

Two of the improper allocations went to the county's Community Development Business Partners, whose director Freida Webb was arrested and briefly jailed July 19. The county's repayment included nearly $28,000 directed to Webb's program and $18,400 the county gave to the Milwaukee Urban League for work on the same program.

Webb helped create a phony contract for classes to help aspiring minority and female contractors get certified for the county's disadvantaged business contracting program, according to court records. She also participated in a double-billing scheme involving a local contractor and took kickbacks totaling $3,430 from the contractor, according to an affidavit by an investigator for the district attorney's office. Webb was suspended without pay from her $82,000 a year job pending the outcome of an ongoing criminal investigation.

[...]

County Executive Chris Abele said his administration pursued reforms after it was made aware of HUD concerns late last year.

"Due to a lack of administrative oversight of the CDBG program by prior administrations, several ineligible projects were approved and funded in previous years," Abele said in a statement. A more objective process for reviewing and approving applicants for block grant aid was put in place, he said.

The county's list of 2011 projects for HUD funding was developed in 2010 by Timothy Russell, who was then the county housing director. Russell faces unrelated felony embezzlement charges in Circuit Court.

I had heard rumors a long long time ago that Russell might have been inappropriately diverting HUD funding for illegal purposes, but couldn't find anything to verify that. It just might be time to make another look into that.

Heh. I guess there was more than what I had originally thought. I should've known. A wise man once said that with all things Walker, there's more. There's always more.

Walkergate: Another Lawyer, Another Delay

Tim "Secret Router Man" Russell went a-courting today.

Russell, who's been going through lawyers like there's no tomorrow, found himself needing his fifth attorney in the Walkergate investigation after the most recent one, Dennis Krueger, was found to also have taken a job as a state prosecutor, an apparent conflict of interest.

Monday's hearing was the result of that need. Russell showed up with his new attorney, one Parker C. Mathers.

I'm afraid precious little is know about Attorney Mathers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel came up with nothing other than the fact that he graduated from Marquette University in 2010.

Indeed, the obligatory ten second search of Google only came up with the same thing, except that the poor man had to have David "Chokehold" Prosser speak at his swearing in ceremony.

The only thing I could learn from making some calls was second-hand descriptions that Mathers is a "nice young man" and "a good lawyer."

I am a bit bummed that it wasn't Eric McLeod, since that would have kept me in blogger fodder for weeks and months.

Even worse, because Attorney Mathers has to go through a dumpster full of papers and other evidence, his trial has been pushed back even further and isn't supposed to happen until December 3, 2012. There is a status hearing scheduled for August 6, 2012. But unless Mathers is able to get Russell and Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf to reconsider a plea bargain, I don't expect much to come out of that hearing.

If, as I suspect, the DA's office is waiting to wrap up Russell's and Kelly Rindfleisch's trials before going to the next level up the food chain, the next arrests/charging sessions might not occur until 2013. And there is at least one more tier of thugs and cronies they have to go through before Walker.