One wonders if the nay-sayers who claimed that "nothing would come of this" and that "no charges will ever be filed" are going to come onto this thread to apologize...
Posted on 01/24/2005 11:18:20 AM PST by JCRoberts
Sons of prominent Milwaukee politicians among those facing felonies By DERRICK NUNNALLY dnunnally@journalsentinel.com Posted: Jan. 24, 2005 Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles' tires - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.
Recent Coverage
1/22/05: Expect tire-slashing charges Monday 1/18/05: Spivak & Bice: Charges imminent in election day tire slashing 11/11/04: Police arrest ex-mayor's son in tire-slashing 11/10/04: FBI starts own probe of vandalism of GOP vehicles 11/4/04: Spivak & Bice: Tire-slashing questions await Democrats' sons 11/2/04: Republican rental vehicles vandalized
The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:
* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.
* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.
* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.
* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.
The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2.
If convicted, each of the five faces up to a $10,00 fine and up to 3 1/2 years in prison. The crime met the $2,500 damage threshold as a felony because the slashed tires and towing costs totaled more than $5,300, according to the criminal complaint filed today. It says the men were caught after a security guard in the Republican Party headquarters parking lot saw the vandalism and wrote down the license-plate numbers of a fleeing car.
McCann said the state's relatively clean political history makes such election-day sabotage without precedent in his memory.
"This isn't what goes on all the time in Wisconsin," he said, citing his recollection of contentious elections from the late 1960s. "... There might be signs town down in those campaigns, but never anything like this."
He said the investigation had taken nearly 12 weeks because witnesses had dispersed after the election to states including Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and New York, and FBI investigators were sent to conduct the interviews.
"Lying to an FBI agent is a federal offense," McCann explained.
He said the FBI reports only got back to his office Jan. 14 because the slashings, though locally controversial, probably weren't the highest priority for federal investigators more concerned with terrorism threats.
"You've got to understand how this looks elsewhere," McCann said. "It's a tire-slashing case. ... I never got a call from (Attorney General John) Ashcroft about the case."
Only on Belling and Sykes's talk radio shows!
Something tells me that 60 Minutes II, the NY Times, ABC, CNN and MSNBC will not be focusing on this story.
Gee, I may watch some network news tonight to see how extensively they cover this. I know it will be indepth (sarc)
COMMUNAZIS, Each and every one of them.
Calling Dan Rather for a "fair and balanced" news report -- NOT!!
These aren't kids, they're election thugs who knew what they were doing. I say hard time.
What! It's not on Countdown with Keith O"bloviator"man??
He's so concerned about voter fraud!!! This is right up his alley!
One wonders if the nay-sayers who claimed that "nothing would come of this" and that "no charges will ever be filed" are going to come onto this thread to apologize...
Could you imagination the Major Media's handling of this story if say Bush won Ohio by only 11,000 votes and Ken Blackwell's kids were slashing Democrat Voter vans.
Voter Suppression!
Gee, no mention that the thugs that perpetrated this had a name for their actions: "Operation Elephant Takeover"!
Brit will be the only one to reference it
Here's the site for Sowande A. Omokunde's mother, Rep. Gwen Moore. http://www.house.gov/gwenmoore/
He sounds like such a nice boy with such a good American name and a real nice mother.
Maybe he just doesn't like vans or SUV's. Maybe he's just concerned about the environment.
He renamed himself Supreme Solar Allah.
throw the book at these tire-slashing, dem-stealth-commie bums!
I predict there will be nothing more than some paltry fines issued. To quote former Acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt, father of one of those charged: "Mistakes were made but no misdeeds were done." That was his stock answer every time he was caught doing something shady.
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