Ament files lawsuit against recall drive

JSOnline (the online edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | 2/6/2002 | TOM KERTSCHER

[steveegg]

Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking that all signatures on petitions seeking to recall him from office be declared invalid because recall organizers allegedly failed to file a required election form.

The lawsuit is Ament's first formal attempt to stop the recall drive, which organizers say has collected well more than the 72,844 signatures needed to force a recall election.

Ament's Circuit Court suit, filed by Milwaukee attorney Robert Friebert:

• Alleges that four recall committees, including the major one - Citizens for Responsible Government - filed a registration statement but failed to file a statement of intent to circulate a recall petition, before circulating petitions.
• Asks a judge to rule that all signatures collected so far are invalid and that the committees be ordered to stop collecting signatures until the committees are properly registered.

Recall spokesman Bryan Olen said, "We think it's a desperate attempt by someone who's willing to do anything to keep his job, and it's just unfortunate."

Olen said he had not heard of the form that the lawsuit says was not filed. He said that recall organizers did not consult an attorney before beginning the recall effort, but that staff at the county Election Commission told organizers they had filed all the proper papers to launch the petition drive.

"We filed what the Election Commission told us to," Olen said.

The suit is expected to be assigned to a judge outside of Milwaukee County to avoid any conflict of interest.

Complete coverage of this story will appear online later tonight and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the morning.

[steveegg]

Goo'ole FU Thomas Ament has just started his grand mal strategy; use a loophole that his hand-picked election commission staff left wide open for him to throw out every last signature and pick up a bunch of cash. 'Tis time to fight fire with fire, especially if one of FU's cronies gets this case.

[One More Time]

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[Robert_Paulson2]

The signatures will be found to be valid. If it goes to court, and it will, and the sigs are thrown out, the courts will reverse on appeal. The people have spoken, the guy is toast.

[cpprfld]

I am not happy about Ament's lawsuit. I wish that Ament would just except responsiblity for what he did and resign.

[steveegg]

Lessee; Boss FU Thomas Ament engages in a scheme to make himself and his cronies multi-millionares at the expense of both the county taxpayers and newer county employees, sends his cronies packing BEFORE any part of this can possibly be rolled back, and you accuse US of seeing so much red ink that we didn't find an election attorney (all of whom, by the way, seem to be in FU's back pocket), instead relying on asking the supposedly-independent county election commission to ensure that every legal requirement has been met.

[steveegg]

Thanks for the index; I tend to overlook those little details.

[One More Time]

I have been spending my afternoon indexing threads, it gives me something usefull to do while I read the news.

[republicandiva]

I have a horrible feeling they had contacted the woman that started the George Petak recall...someone told me they saw her with this group on t.v. Unfortunately, she screwed up very badly, the demonrats took over...there were so many things done blatantly illegally, Petak could have had the whole thing thrown out...he is a very decent person and decided if the public wanted him out, he would go.

This is an absolute outrage...Ament apparently is so greedy for every bit of pension money (he obviously doesn't care about a legacy), he'll stoop to this level! This group needs to get funding and hire an attorney a.s.a.p. Even if this ploy doesn't work, FU will try something else...count on it!

[steveegg]

Funny you should ask about funding; while Citizens for Responsible Government doesn't take online donations through their website (recallament.com), they do actively seek funding...

Make checks payable to Citizens for Responsible Government and mail to:

Citizens for Responsible Government
PO Box 371086
Milwaukee, WI 53237

[afraidfortherepublic]

Disgraceful!

[afraidfortherepublic]

Milwaukee attorney Robert Friebert

Is he from Freibert, Finerty, and I've forgotten the other name? Scummy law firm, if that is the one. They were handling a case for us about 10 years ago and firm members were representing the other side too, we found out later. Needless to say we were not happy with the outcome.

[republicandiva]

I have previously offered computer assistance, but I'll also be sending a check. Have you considered making an appeal to all the Freepers, nationwide - of course after you've checked if it's legal? ;^)

[steveegg]

I dug this out of the copy of the lawsuit hosted by JSOnline (in PDF format): "Defendant Milwaukee County Electon Commission...." FU's completely shameless, leaving his last line of defense out to dry. I guess that little letter of support from its chairman means nothing (and I can only hope that this backstab is responded to in an appropriate manner).

To answer republicandiva's question of whether they need funds, the short answer is, "Heck yeah!" Bryan Olen just said on Belling's radio show that they have about $7K in the bank.

[steveegg]

Is he from Freibert, Finerty, and I've forgotten the other name?

One and the same (the third partner's St. John).

[steveegg]

Have you considered making an appeal to all the Freepers, nationwide - of course after you've checked if it's legal? ;^)

It's time. FWIW, non-Milwaukee-County residents can provide all sorts of financial and logistic help; they just can't circulate or sign petitions. Just look at what the RATs did to Petak.

[afraidfortherepublic]

That's it. We were not pleased. Someone referred us to them because they had been noted as one of the top 25 lawyers in Milwaukee -- I found out later it was for divorces -- not the kind of case we had. There was a definite conflict of interest.

[mafree]

Is he from Freibert, Finerty..

I think so- Finerty has given to Ament's campaigns and was going to be the lawyer for challenging signatures.

[brewcrew]

Posted this on JeanS's thread before I remembered that this thread was out there:

Been listening to Sykes audio stream this morning, and he's pi$$ed.

The arrogance of FU Ament cannot be allowed to hold the good people of Milwaukee county hostage. If he's not careful, there's going to be a lynch mob of thousands waiting for him outside his office before sundown.

I must openly admit that I predicted he would resign by end of business on Thur. Jan. 24. I was wrong. I assumed he had at least a shred of self-respect and dignity. Now he has less than zero chance of coming out of this with any political hay. Even if he were to resign today, he's going to have to leave town.

[BraveMan]

This will not stand.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described the lawsuit as "bold counterattack to save his job". It is anything but. It is an underhanded, blatantly transparent legal maneuver to attempt to weaken the resolve of the petitioners.

I sincerely believe this lawsuit will have the opposite effect. I know it has engendered the opposite effect on me. I will go way out of my way to make sure my signature is on the next petition, and will redouble efforts to convince others to do so as well . . .

There are a significant number of voters who were "sitting on the fence" on this issue, as it were. My own dear wife was one of them; she thought the recall drive was too harsh a penalty for 'one mistake'. As more and more truth comes out, she no longer feels this way.

Many individuals who initially had their doubts about the appropriateness of the recall drive - indeed, whether their own signature should be on the petition - will no longer have any doubts.

Some smart Pro Bono attorney is about to make a name for him/herself in Milwaukee . . .