Allow me to break out this classic GIF...
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."
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?
Methinks you stumbled onto the reason why E. Michael McCann (affectionately known to conservatives in Wisconsin as McCan't) filed felony charges (likely later to be plea-bargained down to tickets or "tried" to acquittals); to keep US Attorney Steve Biskupic (a pit bull when it comes to corruption) at bay by raising the specter of "double jeopardy". I hope Biskupic sees through this sham.
It was on CNN, but they called them "activists" so by there standards, it was OK.
Honestly, don't you think thats going a *tad* overboard? We don't want to become as looney on the right as they are on the left. Call them what they are. Partisan operatives who attempted to influence the course of an election for the Dems.
Everytime anyone uses the word terrorist / terrorism to describe something outside of their normal definitions (suicide bombers, "insurgents", AQ monsters etc...) the words lose a bit more strength.
Ah yes...the great play on words begins! Don't you just love how they massage definitions to strengthen or weaken things they believe in? Its one of my favorite things.
Supreme Solar Allah was "acting" to get his ma elected to Congress.
The criminal complaint has some interesting info. The private security service witness Peoples saw defendant Mohammad get into a car with Illinois plates driven by Leshaunda Williams. The car had been rented to Opel Simmons III who was in Wisconsin to work for the Democratic National Committee.
It looks like the DNC in Wisconsin was taking orders from the Illinois DNC. The defendants are clearly tied to the DNC. This is a political crime, not a simple felony.
The car with Illinois plates was a rental. It's common to get a rental car with out of state plates. I don't think Illinois had anything to do with it.
I do believe, however, that this criminal conspiracy, and that's exactly what it was, operated with the explicit, or at least tacit, approval of senior democratic political operatives here on the ground in Wisconsin.
Moreover, I believe that in the context of the widespread political fraud which took place here in Wisconsin, which was clearly not a grassroots effort but a coordinated criminal conspiracy, we are looking at precisely the kind of target that the RICO statute was designed to prosecute.
Allow me to break out this classic GIF...
Say, would that be you on Belling's show asking for conspiracy charges? If so, good job.
If it does show up on DU, please ping me with a link.
Tied to the DNC? Its not mentioned in the article, but some of them (and maybe all) were employed by the Kerry campaign!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.