Black Lives Matter Protesters Claim Innocence of Touching Racist State Sen; D.A. Bows to Lack of Evidence, Makes No-Jail Offer

No Deal, Say Black Lives Matter Workers, as D.A.'s Office Wants Beyond Reasonable Doubt Charging Standard Changed to Reasonable Inference for This Case
 
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — There is no evidence that two Dane County women ever laid a finger on State Sen Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) at a late-night June 23, 2020 confrontation at a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Still, a criminal case against Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer remains at the behest of the anti-Black Lives Matter (BLM) state legislator who has championed prisons and police and the drug war, before confronting a BLM demonstration, then launching a media-political blitz that included accosting a black state Senate candidate in a tirade for which Carpenter apologized and admitted he was "rash and reactionary." [See, for example, news coverage SpectrumNews1, WTMJ, Fox News.]

There is no video showing the women —  Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer, well-regarded  community activists and Black Lives Matter supporters — ever laid a finger on Carpenter.

Both civil rights workers are being prosecuted for the felony crime of Substantial Battery with Intent to Cause Bodily Harm and Party to a Crime, a galling and even more disingenuous charge. 

Hypothetically, the D.A. could charge anyone near the confrontation that Carpenter began with being Party to a Crime.

Bowing to the ridiculous lack of evidence, "The two people charged with the beating of a state senator have been offered a deal by prosecutors that would include no jail time and deferred prosecution," WKOW-TV (Galli, Madison) reports this weekend.

No Deal, Say Black Lives Matter Workers

Reports Tony Galli:

'My client rejected the proposed plea offer because it would have required an admission of guilt, and my client, quite simply, is not guilty,' O'Reilly's attorney Jessa Nicholson Goetz says. 'We will not be resolving this matter for anything short of a dismissal because that is what we believe justice requires.'

The deferred prosecution program would technically lead to a dismissal of O'Reilly's charge if program requirements were met.

'Due to ethical rules, I can’t comment on the specifics of any negotiation at this point,' says Hamer's attorney, Adam Welch. 'However, it has always been our position that Ms. Hamer is innocent of the charge that has been brought against her, so she has no intention of pleading guilty to something she didn’t do.'

No eyewitness has identified the accused as laying a finger on Carpenter.

Madison police detective Linda Trevarthen, who headed the investigation, also swore under oath no witness interviewed saw the two women touch Carpenter, in a hearing last Summer (Rickert,  Wisconsin State Journal).

Tim Carpenter says he cannot identify Mses. O’Reilly and Hamer as ever having touched him.

It's not surprising noone can identify anyone else, because according to Carpenter and another witness, the confrontation that Carpenter incited included some eight to 10 people during a chaotic melee around Midnight.

No matter. Carpenter and the Dane County District Attorney's office continue their criminal pursuit of the Black Lives Matter protesters, two socially conscious women in their 20s with no criminal records, who nevertheless stand accused of the felony crime at the Black Lives Matter protest held last Summer in reaction to the police torture and killing of George Floyd.

Dane County District Attorney Office Changes Its Charging Standard for This Case

Mses. O’Reilly and Hamer have maintained their innocence since the June 2020 protests.

The Dane County District Attorney’s Office say it only charges defendants when its office can prove charges to a trial jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

This oft-made proclamation that the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt is used to determine charging decision is demonstrably untrue in the O’Reilly and Hamer cases.

See, for example, for the announcement, "Ismael R. Ozanne said that the Dane County District Attorney’s Office is declining to prosecute [xx] because there is not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty" (WISC-TV. 2018).

Beyond a reasonable doubt.

Even Asst District Attorney William Brown, known for over-the-top prosecutions and Manichean posturing in court, admitted in August 2020 that, "We don’t know exactly what happens after that other than we have a witness that says various people began kicking and punching. There is a reasonable inference that those two people who are aggressively running at him are the ones involved in the exact same incident" (Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal).

Notice what Brown did at the August hearing?

Brown replaced the finding of criminal guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as the standard used by the District Attorney's office to determine charging with a reasonable inference.

The District Attorney need not use such a high burden of proof — guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — as the basis to determine whether to bring criminal charges, but the Dane County District Attorney office claims it does.

However, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as the standard of proof that a jury must reach to find a criminal defendant guilty is a bedrock principle ensuring the presumption of innocence, as guaranteed by Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Consider two points.

One. The Dane County District Attorney’s Office is proceeding on a case that nowhere approaches guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Two. The two Black Lives Matter protesters could agree to a deferred prosecution agreement, never set a foot in jail and have the charge stricken from their records.

Both women refused the offer because no reasonable jury can ever find these women guilty of any crime, and because they are innocent.

Why the change of charging standards for this case?

Because Ozanne's conduct in his elected office of public trust is an example of a civil servant working under the color of law, substituting his perceived political expediency to displace the community, the Constitution and his duties.

The Dane County District Attorney’s Office should be ashamed.

But shame in law enforcement is difficult to locate.

I wrote the District Attorney an email last Summer. 

The email is reproduced below:
--
Ismael,

As a member of our community, I have followed with grave concern the cases of Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer.

I am aware that you do not know how, and by whom and with what force violence was inflicted in the confrontation among Tim Carpenter and depending on whom you believe — the police quote a journalist saying some ten people, you say two people — and those who may be criminally responsible.

Did these two women use their elbows, fists, feet, head, or blunt instruments? You have no idea, yet you are charging them with being party to substantial battery by undetermined persons, a "group," as Carpenter told police.

Are you satisfied with Carpenter's credibility?

Did you know Mr Carpenter did not request medical assistance after speaking with protest medic and peacekeepers, as indicated in audio published by WORT News.

Did you know that after a WKOW-TV crew member phoned 911, Carpenter declined to go to the hospital?

Have you checked out Carpenter's story and timeline of the evening of June 23 and early morning of June 24?

Have you viewed video of Carpenter's 'collapse' performed right in front of WKOW-TV?

Do you ascribe responsibility to Mses. O’Reilly and Hamer because they are convenient faces on a video?

Carpenter said he was attacked by a "group." Yet, you divine O’Reilly and Hamer?

I ask you to drop these bogus cases, and issue a public apology to Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer, and Black Lives Matter.

Mike

Michael Leon
Marketing and Public Relations Consultant
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/