A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to figure out why we have had so many truly bizarre criminal cases coming from Sheboygan over the last year or so? My personal theory was that officials in Arkansas must have closed down some trailer park for being a public nuisance - and all the denizens subsequently moved to Sheboygan to keep the party going.
For anyone who thought I was being too harsh, check out the latest two criminal cases from Sheboygan.
45 year old Jamie Arens is looking at four years in prison for allegedly biting her 14 year old daughter. That's right. Biting her 14 year old daughter.
According to police, on Mothers Day Sunday, Arens was drunk (!) and screaming at her boyfriend when her 14 year old daughter tried tro restrain her. Mom reacted by biting the girl on the shoulder. When the police showed up, Arens began kicking at them and told one officer that he "should die".
What a great moment for the Sheboygan Chamber of Commerce. Happy Mothers Day to a great role model and a real class act.
The other case from Sheboygan involves a guy named Marc Franco.
According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Franco hit his 11 year old daughter three times will a belt after receiving a phone call from her school stating that she had been disruptive and was not doing her homework. Franco allegedly pulled the girl out of bed, took her into the living room and beat her with his belt while her uncle watched. The beating left three large bruises.
In general, I try to give parents the benefit of the doubt when it comes to imposing discipline on their children. At the same time, this guy allegedly beat her hard enough to leave marks.
Beyond this though, this is not Franco's first contact with the criminal justice system.
In July of 1998, Franco was charged with battery. These charges were dismissed after Franco entered into a deferred prosecution agreement.
In March of 2000, Franco was convicted of battery and placed on probation. In June of 2001, Franco was convicted of disorderly conduct and intimidating a victim. He was sentenced to serve 90 days in the local jail on the intimidation charge and (again) placed on probation for the disorderly conduct.
At the time Franco was found guilty of disorderly conduct and victim intimidation, felony charges of 3rd Degree Sexual Assault and Making VIsual Representations of Nudity were dismissed on the motion of the prosecution. The felony charges (which were dismissed) accused Franco of sexually assaulting a woman and videotaping the act.
It does not appear that Franco has had any contact with the criminal justice system since 2001. Nevertheless, his prior record makes it difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to him administering this type of physical discipline to his child.
Regardless, Sheboygan's criminal rodeo just continues to roll on.
Bloomer is a community of about 3300 located near Chippewa Falls. It now finds itself on the national map because of the blooming idiots on the Bloomer School Board and in the school bureaucracy - particularly the District Administrator and the Bloomer High School Principal.
Daniel Lingen finished his class work at Bloomer High School early in order to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. He will have completed basic training by the time of his high school graduation on May 31st.
Private Lingen wanted to wear his Marine dress blues at his high school graduation. However, the school board has rejected his request and adopted a policy requiring that a cap and a gown must be worn for graduation. One board member says that the denial is not an attempt to be unpatriotic but rather an effort to celebrate education (through the wearing of a cap and gown).
In denying the young man the right to wear his uniform, the Board supported the position taken by Brent Ashland, the high school principal and Doug Martin, the District Administrator. Both men said that they would like all the graduates to be "the same" during the ceremony. How kumbaya of them.
Here's the bottom line. This young man has already moved beyond Bloomer High School - he's a Marine. In other words, he's put childish things behind him and has moved to the next phase of his life. That phase involves wearing a uniform.
I can't seriously imagine that allowing Private Lingen to accept his diploma while wearing his dress blues would create a disruption or detract from the nature of the event. To the contrary, I think it would be inspirational.
Unfortunately, the members of the Bloomer School Board don't agree. What a bunch of blooming idiots.
Here's a link to the e-mail addresses of Principal Ashland and District Administrator Martin.
Unfortunately, it's a question that we're asking far too often lately. Namely, why was the drunk out on the streets in the first place?
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 47 year old Kendall Ludin was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of his fifth drunk driving offense.
Ludin's arrest came after a man allegedly hit a vehicle headed eastbound on Highway 60 in Washington County around 10:15 p.m. According to police, the driver then fled the scene and entered a local tavern where he was refused service (because he was too drunk). He then allegedly got back into his vehicle, struck a parked pickup truck, left the roadway, drove another 50 feet, struck an apartment building and continued driving until his vehicle entered an apartment. He then fled the scene on foot.
The driver of the first vehicle that was hit called my radio program today and described the terror she felt as she was rammed. It's an absolute miracle that neither she or anybody else on either the road or in the apartment was seriously injured. However, If it turns out that it was Kendall Ludin behind the wheel and had someone been seriously injured, at least one judge in Washington County would have quite a bit of explaining to do.
As it is, the entire judicial system still has some explaining to do.
There are undoubtedly people in the Wisconsin State court system who have more contacts with the criminal courts than Ludin. Hopefully though, there aren't too many. Let's review the highlights of his record as reported by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access:
In April of 1993, Ludin was convicted of possession of marijuana and placed on probation.
In January of 1995, Ludin was convicted of felony criminal damage to property. His sentence was stayed.
In September of 1996, Ludin was convicted of drunken driving.
In March of 2000, Ludin was convicted of battery with a habitual criminal enhancer. His prison sentence was again stayed in favor of a few months in the county jail. At the same time, he was also convicted of third offense drunk driving.
Most recently, in April 0f 2007, Ludin was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. For reasons that pass understanding, Washington County Circuit Judge David Resheske sentenced Ludin to serve 8 months in the county jail with work release privileges. For the record, the maximum penalty for this offense is up to 10 years in prison.
I've known Dave Resheske (pictured below administering the oath of office to Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler) since his days as Washington County District Attorney. He's a good guy and not a bad judge. Still, how can anyone justify giving Ludin chance after chance after chance? At some point in time, don't we have a right to expect judges to say "enough is enough"?
My guess is that if Ludin is ultimately found guilty of anything connected with Sunday night's mayhem, he'll probably find himself out of circulation for quite a while. The problem though is that it shouldn't have come to this.
Probation. Probation. Sentence imposed and stayed. County jail time with work release. No wonder criminals don't change their ways?
When will the judges around Southeastern Wisconsin stop hugging thugs?
And why in the world did Judge Resheske let the Washington County drunk out on the streets in the first place?
When it comes to government waste, there are two types types of people. Those that greedily feed at the public trough - and those bureaucrats who enable the pigs to feed. Meet Rick Raemisch - bureaucrat.
Department of Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch (pictured above) has managed to build a career on navigating tricky political waters. A liberal Republican, Raemisch served as Dane County Sheriff for about 8 years during the 1990's. In 2004, Raemisch was able to parlay his background and connections with Goverrnor Doyle into a job with the State Department of Corrections. When the previous Secretary stepped down last June, Doyle elevated Raemisch to the top job.
My guess is that Raemisch is hoping that the same skills that enabled him to get the job in the first place will allow him to fade the heat from the latest scandal involving the Department of Corrections. We'll see.
About a week ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that at least a handful of employees at the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections had been using accumulated sick leave to grossly inflate their salaries. The most common "abuse" was for employees to call in sick for their regular shift and then pick up an overtime shift later the same day. This resulted in employees being paid for eight hours of sick time (when they obviously weren't sick) and also eight hours of overtime during the same day or shortly thereafter. By doing this repeatedly, one employee earned over $117,000 in 2006.
Can you say "rip off"?
The newspaper also reported that correctional officers, on average, call in sick two and a half weeks every year! This is more than 50% above the already grossly inflated average use of annual sick leave for all state employees - over eight days.
As a starting point, I doubt that too many people in the private sector could get away with consistently calling in sick 8 days every year - much less 12. This tells me that state workers in general are either a less hardy bunch than the rest of us or, more likely, recognize a way to scam a bunch of extra days off when they see it.
This is why, moving forward, the public sector needs to rethink its entire approach to sick leave. In a perfect world, this would mean eliminating sick days altogether in exchange for a set number of personal days every year. This way, people wouldn't have to pretend to be ill when they really just want a vacation day.
Additionally, the practice of letting employees accumulate sick leave and carry over large amounts from year to year should be discontinued. Sick leave is for when people are sick. If you're not sick, you shouldn't get the benefit.
As to the prison guards however, something needs to change in a hurry. Unfortunately, Secretary Raemisch doesn't seem to have too much of a sense of urgency about the matter. In fact, quite to the contrary, he says that he has no plans to change his agency's sick leave policy.
Talk about enabling government waste!
I don't know how widespread the abuse of sick leave is with the Department of Corrections. I do know though that you should have to actually work 40 hours before you get time and a half for "working" hours over 40. If the contract with the guards really counts sick time as time worked for overtime purposes, the person that negotiated the contract on behalf of the State (that is, the taxpayers) is a complete idiot. Regardless, there's no way that this should be the case.
Second, there is no way that employees should be allowed to call in sick and then pick up an overtime shift the same day (or even the next day). This really raises the question of whether the supervisors are just incompetent or in on the scam? It doesn't seem like it would take a rocket scientist to figure out that somebody who claims to be too sick to work at 7:00 a.m. but mysteriously gets better by 3:00 p.m. (in time to work for time and a half) is gaming the system.
After the story broke, the union for correctional officers went on the offensive. Essentially, they argue that correctional officers are underpaid and work under really crummy conditions. I actually agree on both points. At the same time, so what?
Frankly, the fact that some guys have been abusing the sick leave system this badly makes it very difficult for the union to garner much public support for its legitimate issues. Rather than endorsing this irresponsible rip off of the taxpayers by some of their members, I think the union would be well advised to work with the administration to stop this type of stuff from happening in the first place. At least then the union would have the moral high ground when raising legitimate issues at contract time!
As to Rick Raemisch, perhaps it's time to shut the lid on the trough - even if a couple of people get their snouts out of joint.
A week ago Saturday morning, Nick was working as a clerk at a Phillips 66 gas station in the greater Kansas City area. It was an extremely busy weekend at the store.
In any event, a woman came in and filled up two vehicles at a cost of $50 each. The woman paid with two $50 bills.
Shortly after the lady paid for her gas, a robber entered the store, stuck a gun in Nick's face and demanded the cash in the drawer. Nick surrendered a total of $200.
The store's policy is to never have more than $50 in the open register. Bills larger than $20 are supposed to be immediately placed in another vault. According to the clerk, he was in the process of transferring both fifty dollar bills and the extra cash money in the till to the other vault when the robbery occurred.
Nick has now been fired by Phillips 66 for keeping too much cash in his drawer. On Monday, we'll discuss whether this is the right result?
After costing the underachieving Milwaukee Brewers yet another game on Saturday, Eric Gagne proved to be a master of the obvious saying "I don't deserve that ninth inning right now". Presumably soon to be former Brewers manager Ned Yost seized on Gagne's concession and removed him from the closer's spot.
Gagne has turned out to be the greatest Canadian hit producer since Anne Murray. Of course, hits are good when you're a recording artist - not when you're a baseball pitcher.
Some in the local media are willing to give Gagne credit for being a "stand-up guy" because he's willing to admit publically that he sucks. That's all well and good.
My question though is whether Gagne would be willing to walk away from the balance of the $10 million that's owed him this season? After all, he is being paid a king's ransom to save games and he's not able to do that for the time being. With their many other problems, the Brewers can't afford to be paying a fortune to a closer who can't.
I've always believed that actions speak louder than words. When Eric Gagne starts giving back some of the money that he's not currently earning, then I'll really think of him as a stand-up guy!
Michael McGee Jr. won a huge victory in court this week - without even having to show up!
Wednesday, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Moroney imposed sentence on Gerald Huff. Huff was the McGee ally convicted earlier this year of election fraud. According to trial testimony, Huff paid people (including undercover police officers) $5 in exchange for voting for McGee.
In Milwaukee, election fraud is both easy and cheap. We now know that it's also without too many consequences!
Gerald Huff was looking at several years in prison for his conduct. However, demonstrating that he must not consider vote buying and election fraud to be too big of a deal, Judge Moroney decided against sending Huff to prison. Ignoring the request of the Milwaukee District Attorney, Judge Maroney imposed and stayed a prison sentence in favor of probation with the first six months to be served in the House of Correction with work release privileges.
The House of Correction! Work release privileges! What an embarrassing sentence.
So why is McGee the big winner in this week's debacle? Well, Moroney is the judge who will be hearing the McGee trials later this month. One can't help but think that by slapping Huff on the wrist, Moroney has set the bar for this type of conduct pretty low. As such, even should McGee be convicted in State court, don't expect too much of a sentence.
As I've said repeatedly however, McGee's State trials are really simply an opening act. The real question of whether public corruption is something to be taken seriously around here won't be resolved until after the completion of McGee's Federal trial scheduled to begin in June.
I believe that for years, former District Attorney E. Michael McCann was less than aggressive when it came to prosecuting matters of public corruption. In McCann's defense, sentences like the one imposed this week demonstrate that at least some judges in Milwaukee County consider conduct like Huff's to be no big deal. Maybe McCann simply figured all along that trying to enforce laws against election fraud in Milwaukee County would have been a waste of time and resources!
If true, that in and of itself should be a big deal!
By the way, don't write me and ask what can be done about sentences like this? Judge Moroney ran unopposed for re-election to a new six year term in 2006 and won't appear on the ballot again until 2012 (when he'll probably run unopposed again). For the record though, he is rotating from criminal to civil court at the end of the summer - after the McGee trial.
At the start of the year, both Hillary and the Brewers were expected to contend for the championships in the respective arenas. However, it's now early May and both are sucking wind big time. So who is in worse shape?
No one can seriously argue that, once again, the Brewers appear to be on their way to some major league underachieving. They are currently in fourth place in their division - closer to last place than to first. They are already more games behind the division leader than they were all last year.
On May 9, 2007, the Brewers were 24 and 10. They went 59 and 69 the rest of the season to finish at 83 and 79. After Thursday night's loss, the 2008 Brewers were 16 and 18. This means that over the last year, the Brewers have gone 75 and 87!
Hardly, the stuff that champions are made of.
Maybe the Brewers will turn it around. Maybe all the players who are supposed to be great hitters will start hitting (or at least stop swinging at balls in the dirt). Maybe the starting pitchers will find a way to pitch more than 5 innings. Maybe Ned Yost will really turn out to be a "Zen master" instead of looking like a guy who doesn't have a clue.
Unfortunately, as the season hits the quarter mark, it's looking more like this was an over-hyped team that isn't really as good as a lot of us thought it would be or were led to believe it would be. Nevertheless, we longstanding Brewers fans at least have hope - irrational as it may be. After all, there's always tomorrow.
If you're a Hillary Clinton fan though, I'm afraid that even hope is gone. Talk about a campaign surrounded by the smell of flop sweat.
As a conservative, I've enjoyed watching Clinton and Obama engage in their little blood feud. Still, after getting blown out in North Carolina and underperforming in Indiana, even I wish that Hillary would just move on to whatever her next life project is going to be. I mean, this Presidential thing just doesn't seem to be working out.
By mid-February, Hillary Clinton had already blown through well over $100 million dollars in her effort to become President. Since then, she's dumped over $11 million of her personal fortune into her campaign - money that she's unlikely to recoup.
I suppose that by Hillary Clinton standards, the Brewers $80-plus million payroll doesn't look like such a waste. Then again, I'm not sure the owner would agree.
Regardless, Clinton's season in the sun is over. Unless the Brewers turn it around quickly, they may also find themselves quickly exiting stage right.
I'm not losing any sleep over the fact that Hillary Clinton is toast. However, unless something changes quickly, I'm afraid that the 2008 Brewers will be also. Now that would be a shame.
Jennifer Bukosky, her unborn child Sophie and her ten year old daughter, Courtney, died after Mark Benson slammed into their car at a high rate of speed while allegedly under the influence of prescription drugs. Two days earlier, Benson had appeared before Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus, Jr. to be sentenced for third offense drunk driving. Judge Dreyfus imposed a sentence of 75 days in jail (with work release privileges) but gave Benson a couple of weeks to report to jail. At the time of the collision, Benson had been ordered not to drive.
Mike Farney is Jennifer's dad. In an effort to try to find a silver lining in a very dark cloud, he is calling upon the community to take efforts to make certain that his daughter and grandchildren have not died in vain. In a letter to the local newspaper and an interview with our radio station, Farney is asking for the public to pressure decision makers to make situations like this less likely to occur in the future. He's even suggested that the changes can be made in the name of his surviving grandson, Zachary
Clearly, Judge Dreyfus blew it in this case. He could have sent Benson to jail right away but chose not to. To the extent that Judge Dreyfus - and his colleagues throughout the State - handle people like Benson with kid gloves, they need to be held accountable by the people who elect them.
Shortly after this incident, I wrote a piece calling for a change in State law to allow for the seizure of the vehicles of people who continue to drive after multiple revocations of their drivers licenses. While it won't stop every creep from getting behind the wheel of a car, it will stop some. It will also make it more difficult for the rest to continue to drive.
The good folks at the Badger Blogger web site have started an online petition to encourage the Legislature to adopt automobile forfeiture as an additional penalty for repeat drunk drivers. Obviously, I think this is a good idea and would extend it to many other classes of people who drive after revocation as well.
We can't bring Jennifer, Courtney and Sophie back. Moving forward however, we can join with Mike Farney to press for changes in the law and increased judicial accountability to make it less likely that senseless deaths like this occur in the future.
Krystle Weber (pictured above) is the now 21 year old stoner mom from Menomonee Falls who thought it was a good idea to give her two year old son marijuana to smoke last August - and then record the aftermath!. Concerned parent that she is, one cell phone video shows Weber's friends teaching the child the proper way of smoking the pot. How thoughtful. Heaven forbid that he would Bogart the joint.
In any event, last February Weber was found guilty of various offenses including possession of marijuana, neglecting a child and contributing to the delinquency of a child. To the surprise of no one (I guess), Waukesha County Circuit Judge Patrick Snyder imposed but then stayed various jail sentences in favor of probation.
Meanwhile, Weber continues to have custody of the child.
Later today, we'll talk about how the system handled the case of the stoner mom.
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