Boots & Sabers

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Category: Law

Meth Rivals Heroin in Wisconsin

by | 2127, 12 Jan 17 | , | 1 Comment

Honestly, I had thought it was on the decline based on news coverage in recent years. Clearly, it is not.

From 2011 to 2015, methamphetamine use in Wisconsin likely expanded between 250 and 300 percent, based on analysis of meth-related arrests, cases, charges, and seizure statistics provided by local law enforcement, state government agencies, and open source reporting. While heroin use continues to remain a focus for Wisconsin’s law enforcement and treatment services, meth has quietly surged to a point where the number of cases, arrests, and charges are on par with heroin. The areas affected by increasing meth use are mostly concentrated in western Wisconsin and rural areas of the state. These areas, unlike more urban areas, are ill-equipped to handle rising methamphetamine use as they do not have the necessary resources to effectively mitigate the threat.

[…]

  • Wisconsin meth is produced in Mexico and trafficked to the state via California or Minnesota.

  • High availability of methamphetamine across Wisconsin has led to the price being relatively low cost.

  • Methamphetamine use is highest in Northwestern Wisconsin but in the past five years has expanded south and east.

  • Between 2011 and 2015, meth-related cases submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab increased 349 percent. In comparison, heroin-related cases rose 97 percent in that same period.

Former Slinger Band Director Charged with Sexual Assault of a Student

by | 1634, 11 Jan 17 | , | 0 Comments

Wow.

Jan. 11, 2017 – West Bend, WI – Charges were officially handed down today in Washington County Circuit Court as former Slinger High School band director David T. Hanke, 66, (photo left) was charged with a Class D Felony for alleged sexual assault of a student by school staff. If convicted Hanke faces up to $10,000 in fines, up to 10 years in prison, or both.

Hanke appeared in court Wednesday afternoon before Judge James Pouros.

Hanke had a court appearance for a bail/bond hearing before Washington County Judge Andrew Gonring on Dec. 14, 2016 at which time a $3,000 signature bond was signed and Hanke was told to have “no unsupervised contact with females under age of 16. No contact with HLB or RAS.”

The criminal complaint was filed by a former Slinger High School student who was under 18 years old when the alleged assault occurred around September 1999 or 2000. The complaint said the girl was a band student in Hanke’s class. She recalled going to his house, drinking a beer and then going to the basement of the home where a back massage turned to “grabbing and groping.”

In 2004 – 2005 the complaint said the woman wrote an anonymous letter to the school but did not want to disclose the incident. In 2016 she reportedly wrote another signed letter to the principal at Slinger High School and he turned it over to authorities.

Old charges like this are problematic. It’s been over 15 years, after all. Evidence is very hard to verify. But clearly the DA thought there was enough there to charge.

Political Gerrymandering

by | 1529, 7 Jan 17 | , | 1 Comment

Indeed.

A federal district court is attempting to nullify the results of the last four elections in Wisconsin by declaring that the state legislature does not have enough Democrats. “Political gerrymandering” by the Republican-controlled state legislature, the court has concluded, has caused such an unfair result in favor of Republicans in the state legislature as to constitute a violation of the Equal Protection Clause—a conclusion that the Supreme Court has never reached.

In Article I, Section 4’s language about the “time, place, and manner” of holding elections for the federal House and Senate, the Constitution provides that state legislatures shall draw up voting districts for elections to the U.S. House. The Constitution says nothing about the drawing up of legislative districts for state offices.

That was considered a state political prerogative under federalism—until the Supreme Court repealed its own precedents and drastically altered the “political question” doctrine in its reapportionment and redistricting decisions in Baker v. Carr (1962), Westberry v. Sanders (1964), and Reynolds v. Sims (1964). With the passage of the Voting Right Act in 1965, the Supreme Court’s supervision of both federal and state reapportionment became comprehensive.

[…]

The “efficiency gap” and “wasted votes” calculations may sound rather simple, but they are in fact based on sophisticated statistical interpretations by experts involving software models, regression analyses, and “S curves.” That is, unlike the act of voting, they are removed from the comprehension of the vast majority of citizens. So, the new model elections will be decided by these new means. Thus, voting, the first act of citizenship, will be regulated by courts and the experts they give credence to.

Liberals Upset at Dems’ Failure to Field a Supreme Court Candidate

by | 1445, 5 Jan 17 | , | 17 Comments

The funny thing is that the Supreme Court seats are allegedly non-partisan. The whole article and the liberals interviewed don’t even pretend that to be the case.

After Wisconsin Democrats suffered sweeping defeats up and down the ballot in November, they will offer no challenge to Republican-backed Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler in April.

Some on the left say that’s the fault of a weakened state party infrastructure, while others argue progressives have been intimidated by massive spending from groups on the right.

[…]

It’s not the job of the party chair to beg a candidate to run, one Democratic strategist said, but it is the party’s job to make potential candidates feel they would have a chance at winning.

 “The Democratic Party has failed to create the kind of relationship and the kind of party infrastructure that would give confidence to a progressive jurist to run for the state Supreme Court,” said Bryan Kennedy, a likely candidate for DPW chairman. “They can’t look at the Democratic Party and say, ‘I have a partner there.'”

I would point out that in this last election, Clinton and Feingold both way outspent their opponents. But again, that doesn’t fit the narrative that the right is the home of big money and the left is the home of the little people.

Justice Annette Ziegler to Run Unnapposed

by | 1913, 3 Jan 17 | , | 22 Comments

Given how contentious supreme court races have been in Wisconsin for the last decade, it is shocking that the liberals didn’t even field a candidate.

Also up for re-election this spring is Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler, who did not draw an opponent by Tuesday’s deadline to file nomination papers for candidacy in the state’s April election. She will be the first Supreme Court candidate since 2006 to run unopposed.

Don’t get me wrong… Justice Ziegler has been a great justice. I supported her the last time she ran and I would support her again 100%… but it’s almost a shame that she is running unopposed. These are important races and the public needs to discuss the court, how it functions, it’s direction, etc. from time to time.

Ah well… congrats to Justice Ziegler on her (almost) reelection.

Judge Protects Religious Freedom

by | 1943, 2 Jan 17 | | 0 Comments

It’s a good victory for the 1st Amendment. Let’s hope it isn’t a temporary one.

Washington (CNN)A federal judge halted protections for transgender individuals that were found in the Affordable Care Act, issuing the injunction just a day before the safeguards would go into effect.

US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas halted the protections for their treatments and for abortion-related services, siding with the state of Texas against the Obama administration on Saturday.
“Plaintiffs claim the Rule’s interpretation of sex discrimination pressures doctors to deliver healthcare in a manner that violates their religious freedom and thwarts their independent medical judgment and will require burdensome changes to their health insurance plans on January 1, 2017,” O’Connor wrote. “Plaintiffs argue the new regulation will require them to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender transitions and abortions, regardless of their contrary religious beliefs or medical judgment.”

Chicago’s Killing Fields

by | 2028, 1 Jan 17 | , | 1 Comment

Ouch. The tragic consequences of bad public policy combined with a toxic culture.

Chicago, effectively the capital of America’s Midwest, is hurtling toward the end of its deadliest year in nearly two decades, with more than 750 murders and 3,500 shootings.

By comparison, America’s two biggest cities, Los Angeles and New York, had about 600 murders combined.

The shootings in Chicago, which spiked nearly 50 percent in 2016, were concentrated mostly in historically segregated, economically struggling and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods.

[…]

The department is facing a federal civil rights probe, the outcome of which could change how officers operate, adding a measure of uncertainty in the new year.

The force already has difficulties dealing with a wary African-American population. Some do not cooperate in murder investigations out of fear of retribution or distrust of police.

The department solved only about a third of the murders committed in 2016.

California Legalizes Child Prostitution

by | 0946, 30 Dec 16 | , | 4 Comments

I heard Jay Weber mention this on his show and I thought there had to be some mistake. Nope. Here’s the bill:

Existing law makes it a crime to solicit or engage in any act of prostitution. Existing law makes it a crime to loiter in any public place with the intent to commit prostitution.
This bill would make the above provisions inapplicable to a child under 18 years of age who is alleged to have engaged in conduct that would, if committed by an adult, violate the above provisions. The bill would authorize the minor to be taken into temporary custody under limited circumstances.
Stunning. Expect for pimps to now recruit and exploit kids in California.

Amazon Refuses to Release Echo Information

by | 1914, 28 Dec 16 | , | 1 Comment

This will be interesting to see.

(CNN)Amazon is pushing back against an Arkansas prosecutor’s demand for information from a murder suspect’s Echo smart speaker, setting up another legal battle over investigators’ quest for technology-based evidence and American privacy rights.

Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith hopes the voice-activated Echo — which answers users’ questions, plays music, reads news and connects to other smart devices — will provide information on how a man came to be found dead in 31-year-old James Bates’ hot tub.
Bates’ defense attorney, Kimberly Weber, says there is nothing useful on the device and applauds Amazon for protecting her client’s privacy. Bates, who was arrested in February on suspicion of first-degree murder, is presently free on a $350,000 bond. A discovery hearing in his case is scheduled for March.
[…]
According to Amazon, Echo works by constantly listening for the “wake word” — “Alexa” or “Amazon,” by default — and then records your voice and transfers it to a processor for analysis so that it can fulfill requests or answer questions. The recordings are streamed and stored remotely, and can be reviewed or deleted over time, Amazon says.
I’m a bit of a technophile and have considered getting an Echo (or similar device). It would be kind of cool to have a digital assistant around – especially if it’s integrated to various home controls. But the thought of having a device always listening, and possibly recording, everything going on in my home is a bit off-putting.
If the prosecutor was looking for data off of a home security camera or something, it would not be an issue. But since the data on this device is stored by Amazon, they are involved in deciding whether or not to release the data.
Think back to the John Doe investigation where the government illegally seized thousands of emails and such from the victims’ ISPs without even notifying them. Could they do the same with data from your Echo? Of course they could.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t get an Echo or similar device. I probably will at some point. But be careful what you say around it. I suspect that Amazon is going to lose its case here.

Killer May Have Suffered a Wee Bit

by | 0930, 10 Dec 16 | | 1 Comment

Pardon me if I am struggling to muster any sympathy for his plight.

(CNN)An Alabama death row inmate who challenged the constitutionality of the state’s execution procedures coughed and heaved for about 13 minutes during his execution by lethal injection Thursday night, AL.com reported.

The inmate, Ronald B. Smith, was among death row inmates nationwide who have challenged states’ recent changes to drug rosters used in executions — changes that came after manufacturers restricted access to traditionally used drugs.
Smith, convicted in Alabama of a 1994 robbery and murder, was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. CT, 34 minutes after the execution began at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to AL.com, whose reporter Kent Faulk was present.
During a 13-minute span toward the start of the process, Smith “appeared to be struggling for breath and heaved and coughed and clenched his left fist,” and his left eye appeared to be slightly open at times, AL.com reported.
Oh, the irony that the cause of his discomfort may be a direct result of death penalty opponents who withhold more effective drugs in protest. But although this story gives hundreds of words to his death pains and legal challenges, it gives a single sentence about his crime. Here is another story that gives more detail:
Wilson was pistol-whipped and then shot through the head during the robbery, court documents show. Surveillance video showed Smith entering the store and recovering spent shell casings from the bathroom where Wilson was shot, according to the record.
[…]
Judge Lynwood Smith, now a federal judge, sentenced Smith to death. He likened the killing to an execution, saying the store clerk was beaten into submission and shot in the head in a crime that left an infant fatherless. In overriding the jury’s recommendation, the judge also noted in court records that, unlike many other criminal court defendants, Ronald Smith came from a middle-class background that afforded him opportunities.
This guy was an animal. I’m not glad that he may have suffered a bit when dying, but I’m certainly not losing any sleep over it.

Guilty Justice

by | 0810, 9 Dec 16 | , | 0 Comments

Guilty.

WAUKESHA — “Guilty,” T.J. Justice said to Waukesha County Judge Lloyd Carter on Thursday.

The former West Bend city administrator pled guilty to a count of soliciting a child for prostitution, a Class D felony.

The charge of child enticement- prostitution was dismissed, but will be read in during sentencing. It would have been a second Class D felony against Justice.

The District Attorney’s Office will recommend a prison sentence, but a specific length of time was not stated. As part of the plea deal, Defense Attorney Steven Kohn will be free to argue the sentence length.

“We would ask for a sentencing date at least 60 days out,” Kohn said.

Justice is a convicted felon and faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $100,000.

Justice is scheduled to discover how long he is to remain in prison March 2, nearly 11 months after his arrest in Muskego.

Judge Rules Against Stein

by | 2148, 29 Nov 16 | , | 1 Comment

Color me surprised.

Madison — Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid $3.5 million Tuesday to clear the way for Wisconsin’s presidential vote recount but had a judge reject her lawsuit to require all Wisconsin counties to do the recount by hand.

Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said the effort to force the hand recount — which was backed by Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign — did not meet the state’s legal standard for prohibiting the use of machines in the recount, saying that the two campaigns did not show a hand recount, though more thorough, was necessary or show there was a clear and convincing evidence of fraud or other problems.

Wisconsin Recount Progresses

by | 2116, 28 Nov 16 | , | 8 Comments

What a colossal waste of time and money. And it’s all for purely political reasons. Nobody requesting a recount really cares about the integrity of our elections.

The $3.5 million figure is far more than previous estimates, and the state Elections Commission said in order for the recount to begin the amount must be paid in full in by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday by the campaigns of Stein, de la Fuente or a combination of both.

 Also Monday, Stein’s campaign asked a Dane County judge to order that the recount of all ballots tallied by optical scan machines — which is how the vast majority of ballots in Wisconsin are counted — be conducted by hand after the commission rebuffed that request earlier in the day.
I am almost certain that a Dane County Judge will rule that we have to do a recount by hand. Does the Elections Commission get to redo the cost estimate for that? The good news is that the Dane County Judge’s ruling will quickly be overturned.

No Challengers for Wisconsin Supreme Court

by | 1952, 24 Nov 16 | , | 1 Comment

I have a hard time believing that the lefties will let Justice Ziegler go unchallenged.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – No one has announced plans to challenge Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler’s re-election – potentially setting up an uncontested race for a seat on the state’s highest court for the first time since 2006.

The deadline for candidates to file is Jan. 3. But typically challengers to an incumbent justice spread the word privately for months that they’re thinking of running, announce their campaigns and start fundraising well before circulating nomination papers in December.

For example, two candidates announced in June 2015 that they were going to run for a seat that was on the ballot the following April.

That hasn’t happened this year.

Federal Judge Enjoins Obama Overtime Rule

by | 2108, 22 Nov 16 | , | 13 Comments

Excellent.

MADISON, Wis. – This evening, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in the Department of Labor Overtime Rule case, enjoining the enforcement of the rule. In September, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel joined a bipartisan coalition of 21 states in asking the Court to prevent implementation of the Rule on December 1, 2016.

“I’m incredibly happy the Court agreed the rule should be put on hold,” said Attorney General Schimel. “There’s no greater honor than representing millions of Wisconsinites in the continuous fight for the return of power to our citizens, away from an out-of-control federal bureaucracy in Washington D.C. Wisconsin must have the ability to set its own priorities and policies.”

The new Rule doubles the salary-level threshold for employees to be exempt from overtime, regardless of whether they perform executive, administrative, or professional duties. Beginning December 1, 2016, all employees would be entitled to overtime if they earn less than $47,476 a year, including state and local government employees. Additionally, the new rule contains a ratcheting mechanism to automatically increase the salary-level threshold every three years without going through the standard rule-making process required by federal law.

Trump Won’t Push for Prosecution of Clinton

by | 0735, 22 Nov 16 | , | 1 Comment

This is a mistake.

(CNN)President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will break a campaign promise and not pursue further investigations of Hillary Clinton related to her private email server or the Clinton Foundation, Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday.

“I think when the President-elect, who’s also the head of your party, tells you before he’s even inaugurated that he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content” to fellow Republicans, Conway said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Trump’s decision represents a significant break from a major campaign promise — at the second presidential debate in early October, Trump threatened Clinton, saying that “if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.”
This is a political decision. One can see Trump’s advisers telling him, “she won the popular vote and angering her supporters will make it difficult for you to get things done.” But one of the reasons Trump won was the palpable disgust that many Americans have for the Two Americas where the rules don’t apply to the rich and powerful. Clinton needs to be prosecuted for the simple reason that she is a crook and we live in a nation of laws. Or, at least, we used to.

Nebraska Requires Conviction for Forfeitures

by | 0705, 22 Nov 16 | , | 0 Comments

Good for Nebraska. Can we bring this reform to Wisconsin?

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed a bill on Tuesday that eliminates civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and keep property without filing charges or securing criminal convictions. The bill, LB 1106, passed the unicameral legislature last week by a vote of 38 to 8.

Civil forfeiture has ensnared a wide swath of victims in Nebraska. A Peruvian pastor once had $14,000 seized during a traffic stop. Only after the local chapter of the ACLU intervened was he able to recover his cash. Last year, a federal appellate court upheld forfeiting more than $63,000 in savings from a decorated Air Force veteran, even though he was never charged with a crime.

The newly signed law provides sweeping reforms. First and foremost, Nebraska now requires a criminal conviction to forfeit property. The accused must be convicted of an offense involving illegal drugs, child pornography or illegal gambling to lose their cash, vehicles, firearms or real estate. Nebraska joins just nine other states that require a criminal conviction as a prerequisite for most or all forfeiture cases. Following North Carolina and New Mexico, Nebraska is now the third state largely without civil forfeiture. In addition to the criminal conviction requirement, LB 1106 also enacts new reporting requirements for seizures and forfeitures.

Federal Court Rules Redistricting Unconstitutional

by | 2024, 21 Nov 16 | | 2 Comments

This is a bad ruling.

Madison — Two weeks after a stunning election defeat, Wisconsin Democrats won an equally surprising legal victory Monday as a federal court struck down legislative maps drawn by Republicans in 2011.

The judges ruled 2-1 that the maps were unconstitutional because they were “intended to burden the representational rights of Democratic voters … by impeding their ability to translate their votes into legislative seats.”

Depending on the outcome of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case could have national implications because it includes a new method of determining whether legislative maps are drawn in a way that discriminates against voters of a particular party.

“We find that the discriminatory effect is not explained by the political geography of Wisconsin nor is it justified by a legitimate state interest. Consequently, Act 43 constitutes an unconstitutional political gerrymander,” the judges wrote in their 159-page decision.

The ruling focused on the state’s 99 Assembly seats, but redrawing those districts also would alter the state Senate map. That’s because each Senate district consists of three Assembly districts. The ruling does not affect congressional maps, which also were redrawn to benefit Republicans in 2011.

The judges did not determine how to fix the maps, writing that would be decided in the coming months after the state and the Democrats who brought the lawsuit offer proposals. It’s possible the judges would establish a new set of maps or require lawmakers to redraw them.

So two judges invent an entirely new standard that takes into account people’s political party – not a protected class – in order to find the redistricting unconstitutional. Riiiiight… Not to mention the fact that we have had three elections with these districts and the new ones will be drawn in five years. It took them a full five years to come up with this ruling and it will likely be years until they come up with a “solution.” Justice delayed is justice denied.

This is the judicial branch encroaching on the Legislature’s prerogative to advance a political agenda.

UW Sued For Discrimination Against Religion

by | 2050, 12 Nov 16 | , | 6 Comments

According to UW-Eau Claire, Christ’s own community service would not have counted for graduation.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — A faith-based advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students whose community service doesn’t count toward graduation because it involved teaching religious doctrine at a church.

The university requires 30 hours of “service learning activity” before graduation.

“If the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire wants to require its students to perform community service, then it must treat all forms of community service as equally valuable and equally worthwhile.

“This kind of animosity toward religion, this kind of discrimination towards religion, in unconstitutional,” said the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the students.

Assistant Chancellor Mike Rindo told WQOW-TV that the university’s guidebook says time spent promoting religious doctrine or worship won’t be counted.

If the goal of the policy is to encourage students to be active in their communities and serve their fellow man, then why would that exclude service through a church? Churches have been serving communities far longer than UW.

Appeals Court Overturns Cash for Protestors

by | 0934, 10 Nov 16 | , | 0 Comments

Good.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appeals court has voided a nearly $300,000 judgment for demonstrators who were cited for holding signs during massive protests at the state Capitol over Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining restrictions in 2011.

Six protesters filed a lawsuit alleging state regulations prohibiting displaying a sign without a permit in areas of the Capitol violated clearly established free speech rights. A Dane County judge awarded the protesters $289,812.
The 4th District Court of Appeals tossed out the judgment Thursday. The court found that it wasn’t clearly established at the time of the protests that the state’s regulations weren’t valid restrictions on time, place and manner of speech.
I never understood why, even if these folks were wrongly prohibited from holding signs, forcing the taxpayers to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars was a rational remedy.

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