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."
This story should be forwarded to every major news outlet out there.
The party of hate needs to be exposed, and the shameful lessons in which they instill into their children, needs to be condemned.
Strange I didn't see any demos voting to throw out Wisconsin's electoral votes due to voter supression. Boxer, how could you have missed this one???
Here's the link to the criminal complaint:
http://www.620wtmj.com/620programs/jeffwagner/012405TireSlashingComplaint.pdf
ping
Sorry, that was supposed to be "suppression." That's what I get for trying to type while riding an exercise bike.
Good point, Southack. But you have to admit, this is a pretty remarkable development.
I like your homepage, btw.
(steely)
Thanks, did you get that info from this article by Michelle Malkin? http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001270.htm
I, for one, am surprised that they were caught and charged. I don't think I posted anything to say they wouldn't be, however.
First of all, I would have been one of the first naysayers. Secondly, now that charges have been filed, nothing will come of this.
No, there was previous information available from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sorry but I don't currently have the link. If you Google search the name some funny stuff might come up.
Then what do you call the 900+ FBI files Hillary STILL has on her computers.. that she didn't have to lie about. Because the questions were NEVER asked.. Seems the FBI is very selective on what pisses them off.. Even with Butch Reno gone and a republican as Attorney General..
I wonder if Peter and Dan would have mentioned this if the vans were leased by Democrats and the perps were white?
Maybe Hannity will bring it up.
Gee, I may watch some network news tonight to see how extensively they cover this. I know it will be indepth (sarc)
It's not on DUmmie site either.
This was not a mere "tire slashing".
These criminals were trying to stop people from voting.
They were trying to deprive the elderly of their civil right to vote.
Isn't a more serious federal offense warranted here?
Judging by the names Sowande Omokunde and Lavelle Mohammad, I think we might have a hate crime here.
Color me extremely surprised that E. Michael McCan't actually filed felony charges. However, as a resident of Milwaukee County, I'm not counting my convictions just yet. In all likelyhood, this will be plea-bargained down to misdemeanors, with the only sentence being fines (much like the only other vote fraud case where McCan't actually filed felony charges - ACE's forgeries on 1/4th of the 160 absentee ballots they turned in during County Board Supervisor Lee Holloway's successful survival of a recall in 2003)
BTTT
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