Showing posts with label Donald R. Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald R. Miller. Show all posts

Sep 13, 2013

Did Wisconsin District Attorney Indict Himself under Own Letterhead

Title 18 USC § 201
District Attorney Martin Lipske appears to be in violation of a federal corruption statute

Updated - When Iron County (Wisconsin) DA Martin Lipske sent a letter earlier this year to the man he unjustly prosecuted in 1997, Donald Miller, after destroying DNA evidence it appears Lipske conditioned the performance of a specific act of his public office upon Don Miller's parents' not complaining about Lipske's shady law practice to the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).

A letter written by Lipske to Don Miller, dated July 11, 2013, reads in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended." (Copy of letter is below.)

The Millers, Norm and Patricia, say they received a Feb 21, 2013 response letter from the OLR, and word from up north is that Lipske was not happy about the OLR complaint.

Reached by phone, Norm Miller does not remember sending the OLR a complaint to begin with, but in any event retaliation by a sitting District Attorney, and the performance of an official action should not be conditioned upon what the Miller parents do, as they attempt to prove their son's innocence in their retirement as they live in Hurley, Wisconsin.

Put another way, Lipske's seeking to clear his name (he was suspended for almost four years for professional misconduct before Judge Patrick Madden recruited him to run for DA in 1994) by withholding a promised action of his office is a corrupt use of public office, and a violation of federal law.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project has taken up this case, and has not returned phone calls.

What appear to be clear, however, is that Lipske is using the power of his office to stop people from challenging his misconduct in public office, and this appears to be a violation of a federal corruption statute.

Title 18 USC § 201 reads in part:

Whoever being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for:
 
(A) being influenced in the performance of any official act;

So Lipske on his own Office of Iron County (Wisconsin) District Attorney letterhead delivered his message to the Millers: Stop reminding people of my professional misconduct (as is your right), or I won't help release an innocent man, your son, from prison by stipulating to his release.

Lipske's letter is below:

Sep 10, 2013

Innocent Man Behind Bars Mines for Heart of Gold

Don Miller with his son in happier times
(Photo from Miller family)
Nasty, brutal and long, the terror campaign of District Attorney Martin Lipske

Updated - Say, you run into an unscrupulous attorney with anti-social, criminal habits.

Citizens do have a recourse.

In Wisconsin lawyers are regulated (not as heavily as some would like), animated from both a concern for the general public and a related concern for the best practices of the legal profession.

This quality-control mechanism in Wisconsin is the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), an office with theoretical teeth to rid the legal profession of bad actors.

The OLR is an agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Since 2000, this regulatory "system assists the Court in supervising the practice of law and protecting the public from misconduct by lawyers."

Norm and Patricia Miller of Hurley, Wisconsin have a grandson who committed suicide, distraught over the unjust incarceration of his father who was given a 42-year sentence by an Iron County (Wisconsin) judge who was romantically involved with the alleged victim before, during and after their son's criminal trial.

And the unscrupulous attorney with anti-social, criminal habits is the sitting Iron County (Wisconsin) District Attorney, Martin Lipske.

A dead grandson, a wrongfully imprisoned son, Norm and Patricia Miller are looking for justice, freedom for their son, Don, and the clearing of their son's name.

Virtually everyone who looked into this case - outside of Iron County DA Martin Lipske and Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden - believes Don Miller should not be prison.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project has taken up the case.

Their hearts broken, Norm and Patricia Miller keep working for their son's freedom, noting in an early 2013 complaint to the OLR about Lipske that Lipske misplaced exculpatory evidence that would have certainly exonerated their son in the infamous case—State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60], (1997).

Miller has asked his live-in girlfriend to move out of his home after it became clear one Connie Vargovich after Ms. Vargovich sleeping around town made it clear their relationship had ended.

Vargocich disagreed. She proceeded to make a host of accusations and the rest is tragedy.

Early this year, the parents filed an Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) grievance against Iron County DA Lipske.

Lipske then sent Don Miller a letter (at bottom of this page) conditioning action of his office stipulating Don Miller's immediate release from prison on the Miller's stopping sending letters to the OLR.

Lipske's letter, dated July 11, 2013, reads in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended."

Federal corruption statute - 18 USC § 201
So Wisconsin citizens can file a grievance with the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), but they have to expect retaliation from the attorney, and coercion to not utilize this OLR check on the legal profession, or the sitting district attorney will use the power of this public office for the performance of a specific act (the release stipulation in Don Miller's case) for Lipske's corrupt purposes (perceived public clearing of his law practice history with no more future challenges made to the OLR)?

Screw that, I filed my own OLR grievance against Lipske August 29, 2014, and received an OLR response September 4, 2013. This matter is pending.

Lipske has worse than a checkered history of his practice of law in Wisconsin

Reached by phone today, the Millers say their Feb 21, 2013 response letter from the OLR found no issues in its "investigative jurisdiction."

The OLR letter also noted that more than ten years have passed since Lipske allegedly lost/destroyed DNA evidence.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project has not returned phone calls regarding this case.

Martin Lipske is quite a piece of work.

Lipske has jumped into bed with the Gogebic Taconite (GTac) mine company, tossing out the rule of law and impartiality with the fervor of a zealot.

We noted earlier at this site, this is the same District Attorney who has charged a 20-something mining protester, Katie Kloth, with multiple-felony robbery and other criminal violations for protesting the proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTac) mine, raising her voice and allegedly grabbing a cell phone from a mining company official.

And Lipske wants to criminally prosecute another man, a 76-year-old farmer, for attempting to bring in federal involvement that he believes is needed in Iron County.

This call for federal involvement in this den of corruption up north was recently echoed by six Native American tribes in northern Wisconsin to halt the environmental destruction that this proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTac) mine would wreak upon the whole region.

The farmer is concerned about the same proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTac) mine and other developers.

Citizens in Iron County are looking for evidence the armed militia, Bulletproof, operated in neighboring Ashland County, in the face of Lipske's refusal to prosecute Bulletproof for repeated violations of the law on behalf of the mining company.

I can't believe this county of 5,900 is part of the United States of America.

I can't believe Martin Lipske is allowed to practice law, and actually is a sitting district attorney.

As for Millers. Norm said, reached by phone in early September: "Don spent 16 innocent years in jail; 16 years of your life wiped away. I just want my son back; I want what is right."

Aug 31, 2013

Mining Company May Dump Its Wisconsin District Attorney

Mining Company: We're for you, Wisconsin
Gogebic Taconite Mine (GTac) wrote its own Wisconsin legislation; keeps scientific data secret from the people; forbids environmental experts from approaching the proposed mine site, and is now wants to keep the Wisconsin people away from 1,000s of acres of forests, as demanded in new legislation proposed and supported solely by the Republican Party.

This follows GTac's worst blunder yet in hiring a bunch of heavily armed, wanna-be Rambos from Arizona, Bulletproof Security, parading around on GTac's proposed $1.5 billion open-pit iron-ore mine site in the Penokee Hills of northern Wisconsin.

But perhaps the most foolish of GTac's blunders is keeping its Iron County (Wisconsin) District Attorney, Martin Lipske, as its legal frontman.

Lipske went from a Gov. James Doyle-endorsing Democrat to an Independent (he won reelection in 2012 after a controversial recount) after word went out in Iron County in 2011 that GTac was coming in with Republican support.

Lipske presents to the Wisconsin public the legal equivalent of the face of the corporate terrorist—corrupt, a shady reputation with a history of professional misconduct, and perversely disdainful of innocent Wisconsin people.

Check out Martin 'Marty' Lipske on search sites, and you won't find out much beyond the fact his license to practice law was suspended for professional misconduct, and he put an innocent man in prison after losing DNA evidence in 1997; and protecting favored defendants in Iron County, including favored prostitutes. Hey, welcome to Hurley, Wisconsin in Iron County.

Lipske had his license to practice law suspended six times in Wisconsin, once for professional misconduct in a suspension that lasted almost four years shortly before Iron County Judge Patrick J. 'Madman' Madden recruited Lipske to move from Douglas County (Wisconsin) to run for District Attorney in Iron County where Madden has served as judge with an equally corrupt reputation since 1986.

Rob Ganson’s photo of Bulletproof Security using silencers
on their semi-automatics was taken July 6, 2013 in Iron County
Madden recused himself from Lipske's latest attempted miscarriage of justice after Lipske targeted anti-mining Iron County resident, 76-year-old Robert Gollubske, for Gollubske's bumbled attempt to contact the FBI after Gollubske's home and farm were rocked by explosions by a local blacktop company that Gollubske fears is a precursor of what the huge open-pit mine will wreak upon the Penokee Hills range.

Lipske has also launched a heavy-handed prosecution against 26-year-old Katie Kloth whom Lipske wants to prosecute with a violent felony and three misdemeanors for protesting the Gogebic Taconite mine in June 2013.

However, Lipske now refuses to prosecute Bulletproof Security for operating without a license in Wisconsin, among other continued violations of Wisconsin law.

The gig is up on Lipske; everyone knows the guy is bent. GTac has its own district attorney.

The only question is how long before Cline Resource and Development Company (of which Gogebic Taconite (GTac) is one subsidiary) comes to the conclusion that Lipske is too much a liability.

In the July 2013 - August 2013 issue of Mining Magazine, Lee Buchsbaum puts it thusly in a piece in which Buchsbaum paints a picture of a lot of money at stake for keeping a frontman like Lipske in place with all his dirt. 

GTac would do better with the image of a semi-automatic rifle with a silencer pointed out in the north woods of Wisconsin. Writes Buchsbaum:

Though not as sexy as gold or platinum, many have argued that iron ore, the primary ingredient in steel, remains the world's most important commodity. ...

The majority of US iron-ore production is concentrated in Minnesota and Michigan, though historically it has also been produced in volume in Wisconsin and, during World Wars One and Two, it was extracted in large quantities from the southwestern states of Utah and Nevada. However, the heart of the industry remains in Minnesota. ...

 In total, 13 iron-ore mines (11 open pits, one reclamation operation, and one dredging operation), nine concentration plants and nine pelletising plants were operational during 2012, as reported by the USGS. However, eight mines operated by three companies - Cliffs Natural Resources, Essar Steel, and US Steel - accounted for virtually all of the production.

New direct-reduction-injection (DRI) processes, cheap natural gas and the enlarged Panama Canal are now driving investors to open new mines and return to old diggings and tailings piles, while reaching out to new international customers.

One of the biggest recent moves in the US iron-ore segment is the entry of what might prove to be a major new producer. Gogebic Taconite (Gtac), a subsidiary of the expanding US coal producer Cline Resource and Development Co (also owner of Foresight Energy) has literally redefined the concept of high-productivity, low-cost longwall mining.

Legislation vital to the re-establishment of iron-ore mining in Wisconsin passed with support from Gtac
and, on June 18, Gtac filed for permits regarding its iron-ore mine and processing plant - the first new iron-ore mine in the state for decades. ...

GOGEBIC: NEW SHOOTER

Following an arduous and contentious two-year effort to change the mining laws in Wisconsin, on June 18, officials from Gtac, filed with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources a sample plan and pre-application notice outlining the firm's intent to file an application for an iron-ore mining permit, the first one requested in nearly a century.

Though the bulk sample plan is preliminary to the firm's first pilot efforts to actually recover and determine the quantity and quality of the ore in the deposit, the pre-application is also the first step in a process company officials hope will one day lead to the development of an operating taconite mine.

Gtac has estimated that the US$1.5 billion operation will eventually be capable of producing 8Mt/y of iron ore in phase one of the project, fully 15% of the current total US production.

Extracting from a two-billion-tonne body of crude taconite ore, the deposit Gtac will mine is approximately 35.4km long and dips at about 65 degrees to the north, while outcropping along the top of a hill. ...

Gtac's overall vision is similar to what the Cline Group has accomplished in a relatively short time in the Illinois coal fields. ...

"The company sat on this reserve for 60 years. During its restructuring in 2001 and 2002, US Steel purged its nonproductive and fallow resources," says Gtac mine president Bill Williams. "We now have a clear permitting process, and we're targeting the 2016 to 2017 timeframe to be in production."

Aug 23, 2013

Iron County Judge Steps Aside in Anti-mining Barrel Bob Gollubske Case

Penokee Range
A request for a new judge has been granted for Robert Gollubske, known locally as "Barrel Bob" Gollubske, a 76-year-old farmer from Kimball.

Iron County Judge Patrick Madden, known as a pro-mining judge, and notorious as the corrupt jurist who presided over the 1997 trial and 2012 hearing of Donald Miller, has agreed to step aside in this matter in a rare recusal for Madden.

Gollubske, a farmer in the Town of Kimball, Wisconsin, in Iron County, has drawn the enmity of Iron County officials for complaining about explosions near his farm.

He warns about the dangers of the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine, blasting and dynamiting and ruining an environment.

For his complaints, Iron County officials have accused Gollubske of  (threatening) words, and causing "a public furor," as Madden has said publicly.

Few believe in this sparsely populated county that Judge Madden possesses the ethics to preside over the Gollubske trial, which ought to be dismissed with prejudice very quickly if anything like justice exists in Iron County.

Gollubske has also retained the services of renown civil rights attorney, Jeff Scott Olson, in addition to Peter Bear of Madison.

Gollubske did not endear himself to Madden (aka Madman) and DA Lipske at the DNR Public Hearing on G-Tac Bulk Sampling and pre-Application Notice held on August 15th in Hurley, Wisconsin (see below).

Gollubske also spoke against Mathy Construction company and the Northwoods Paving company that he blames for damaging his farm and home by their use of dynamite in the area. Mathy Construction is doing blacktopping work.

Gollubske says the same type of damage he attributes to Mathy will be wrought by Gogebic.

In 2009, Gollubske sued Mathy Construction Company of Onalaska, Wisconsin, and Northwoods Paving Co. (a division of Mathy Construction) of Ashland for damage to his home and farm, fearing his family is getting poisoned, an assertion he repeated at the Aug. 15 DNR hearing.

Gollubske called the FBI in May and made a rhetorical comment about blowing up the courthouse as an analogy (if not well-formulated) to the damages the Mathy Construction Northwoods Paving blacktop plant has caused at his farm.

At least Madden has stepped aside from this case, though even a perusal of the Don Miller case should cast doubt over, and taint any case over which Madden has presided.

Barrel Bob Gollubske is just a townie, a nice 76-year-old man about to find out how what a corrupt DA Lipske is.

Gollubske's friends in the community a few weeks before he was arrested said he is a just a harmless, gentle farmer who is upset about developers and now the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine destroying the Penokee Range.

Gogebic has secured the mineral rights for a "22-mile, 22,000-acre stretch of the Penokee Range from southwest of Hurley to about six miles west of Mellen," notes The Nature Conservancy.

Said one neighbor, "He (Gollubske) was really angry with the blacktop company, and he claims they and the Iron County cops blew up his barns. When I looked in the news archive there was two articles about Kimball residents complaining of big explosions shuddering their houses. And ya know what the cops tried to tell the paper? We had reports some kids were shooting a cannon off. Cops said they told the kids to knock it off. I'm not kidding. Imagine cops going to a house full of kids that had a cannon big enough to fire something off to shudder houses for a few miles around and just telling them to knock it off?!"

No wonder Gollubske called the FBI.

Does even DA Martin Lipske, replete with incompetence and corruption, believe Gollubske is a terrorist?

Here's video of Robert (Barrel Bob) Gollubske at the DNR Public Hearing on August 15th held in Hurley.

- A version of this piece appeared August 18, 2013 -

Aug 20, 2013

Iron County Judge Patrick 'Madman' Madden—A Cornered Animal

Madden faces accusations he had an affair
with an alleged crime victim, Connie Vargovich,
before, during and after presiding over the 1997
trial of a defendant, the former live-in boyfriend
of the same alleged crime victim, Connie Vargovich.
Madden's legal career is on the line.
A supporter of a victim of Madden's
said of Madden, "the little prick's time is up soon,"
referring to Madden's 27-year reign as Judge.
Update II: "A free society can exist only to the extent that those charged with enforcing the law respect it themselves. 'There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of the law, and with the colors of justice.'" 

- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Appellant in No. 81-1020 v. JANNOTTI, HARRY P. (D.C. Crim. No. 80-00166-02); UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellant in No. 81-1021 v. SCHWARTZ, GEORGE X. (D.C. Crim. No. 80-00166-04)
Nos. 81-1020, 81-1021
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
673 F.2d 578; 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 21883
June 10, 1981, Argued
Decided February 11, 1982


Put succinctly, the reign of Iron County DA Martin Lipske, and Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden is coming to an end. The rule of law will return to Iron County Wisconsin. 

Update: Note to Judge Madden and District Attorney Lipske, Ira Robins sends his regards and will be working on the reporting of this case, Wisconsin v. Miller. One Wisconsin attorney, speaking on background, said of Judge Madden and District Attorney Lipske: "They're human garbage."

If Wisconsin citizens were told a circuit court judge were to preside over the trial of an innocent man, and that the trial judge had an multi-year affair with the alleged victim before, during and after the trial, most Wisconsin citizens would respond this doesn't seem fair and proper.

It's not.

Jurists would cite the Wisconsin code of judicial ethics which is specific about the demands placed upon a judge to avoid the appearance of impropriety:
A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge's activities.  ... A judge may not allow family, social, political or other relationships to influence the judge's judicial conduct or judgment.

So, that's on paper in the books, how about real life?

One real-life relationship that would be a clear violation of judicial ethics is a presiding judge, Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden, having an affair with an alleged victim, Connie Vargovich, before, during and after the trial of a defendant who was the live-in boyfriend of the alleged victim.

And this is precisely what happened, and has been so stated in several legal documents.

Connie Vargovich
Madden should have recused himself from the trial of Donald Miller, State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60], and the September 2012 hearing (over which he presided) at which both the District Attorney and defense stipulated an agreement to finally get this innocent man out of prison. Madden rejected the stipulation.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Innocence Project is representing Donald Miller, and was in Iron County again last week gathering affidavits not unlike this one below—by a brave woman standing up for truth against corruption, Michele L. Aspinwall.

Many other decent and courageous people in Iron County are standing up to the corruption in this small, isolated county of some 5,900 people.

This is not good news for Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden and Iron County DA Martin Lipske, Madden's political protege who moved from Douglas County Wisconsin to run for District Attorney in Iron County in 1994 at Madden's urging after Lipske's three-year suspension for professional misconduct was lifted in 1993.

Three Affidavits

Ms. Aspinwall's affidavit is among the more tame descriptions of Judge Patrick J. 'Madman' Madden's socializing and liaisons before the trial of Donald Miller. Much more to come about the during and after phases of the trial.
Below are two affidavits of Iron County citizens who witnessed Patrick Madden intimately comforting the alleged victim, Connie Vargovich, during a break in the trial of Vargovich's former live-in boyfriend on trial because of Vargovich's allegations. Madden's presiding over the trial while having an affair with Vargovich is cause for permanent disbarment of his license to practice law in Wisconsin.



Aug 18, 2013

Are Iron County Lipske-Madden Team Railroading Another Man —Robert Gollubske

Gogebic Iron Range in Green
Update: A request for a new judge has been granted for Robert Gollubske. Patrick Madden is known locally as a pro-mining judge, and is notorious as the corrupt jurist who presided over the 1997 trial and 2012 hearing of Donald Miller, having an affair with the alleged victim, Miller's live-in girlfriend whom Miller had asked to leave his home, before, during and after the 1997 trial. Gollubske has also retained the services of renown civil rights attorney, Jeff Scott Olson, in addition to Peter Bear of Madison.

Robert Gollubske, a farmer in the Town of Kimball, Wisconsin in Iron County, is right about at least one thing, the government of Iron County doesn't like him.

Specifically, Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden and Iron County DA Martin Lipske don't like him because Gollubske is warning about the dangers of the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine, blasting and dynamiting and ruining an environment.

Gollubske did not endear himself to Madden (aka Madman) and Lipske at the DNR Public Hearing on G-Tac Bulk Sampling and pre-Application Notice held August 15th at Hurley, Wisconsin.

Gollubske spoke against Mathy Construction company and the Northwoods Paving company that he blames for damaging his farm and home by their use of dynamite in the area.

He says the same type of damage he attributes to Mathy will be wrought by Gogebic.

In 2009, Gollubske sued Mathy Construction Company of Onalaska, Wisconsin and Northwoods Paving Co. (a division of Mathy Construction) of Ashland for damage to his home and farm, fearing his family is getting poisoned. He said this shows the dangers of explosions used in mining.

Penokee Range
Lipske wants to prosecute the 75-year-old man arrested in May for saying he wanted to blow up the courthouse to get FBI agents to his farm property to show them what he says are damages caused by Mathy Construction dynamiting for blacktop road-building.

Judge Patrick Madden said, "The (threatening) words are out there and in people’s minds." He said the public doesn’t feel safe and the case has caused "a public furor."

Typical Madden, typical BS.

The only people who don't feel safe are those who fear the mining company blowing open a huge open pit mine in the Penokee Range, and the heavily armed corporate militia operating illegally at test drilling sites for whom both Lipske and Madden front.

Robert (Barrel Bob) Gollubske is just a townie, a nice 75-year-old man about to find out how what pricks Madden and Lipske are.

Gollubske has expressed his fear about the Gogebic Taconite Mine around town, and Lipske and Madden think they have found a way to shut him up.

Gollubske's friends in the community a few weeks before he was arrested said he is a just a harmless, gentle farmer who is upset about developers and now the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine destroying the Penokee Range.

Gogegic has secured the mineral rights for a "22-mile, 22,000-acre stretch of the Penokee Range from southwest of Hurley to about six miles west of Mellen," notes The Nature Conservancy.

Said one neighbor, "He (Gollubske) was really angry with the blacktop company and he claims they and the Iron County cops blew up his barns. When I looked in the news archive there was two articles about Kimball residents complaining of big explosions shuddering their houses. And ya know what the cops tried to tell the paper? We had reports some kids were shooting a cannon off. Cops said they told the kids to knock it off. I'm not kidding. Imagine cops going to a house full of kids that had a cannon big enough to fire something off to shudder houses for a few miles around and just telling them to knock it off?!"

No wonder Gollubske wants to call in the FBI.

Gollubske is just a farmer who has seen too many explosions near his home and he thinks Gogegic blowing open the proposed open pit mine is nothing but trouble; he wanted to call in the FBI for help because he doesn't trust the local police.

Gollubske' instincts are right.

Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden and Iron County DA Martin Lipske are not known for being impartial, and certainly not prosecutorial discretion. What they are known for is being corrupt. And the local police just follow along, no questions.

Here's video of Robert (Barrel Bob) Gollubske at the DNR Public Hearing on August 15th held in Hurley.

Aug 16, 2013

Three Wisconsin Movements Converge to Fight Fascism

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske protects corporate
militia from prosecution though it illegally acted without a
license in two Wisconsin counties
"This flavor of Dairyland fascism comes with heaping helpings of stupidity, arrogance, and insult."
- Blue Cheddar 

Pollution, bullets and jail have become the defining features of Wisconsin.

A confluence of movements is flowering in Wisconsin, spreading fast as police overkill and Scott Walker stand ready to call out the national guard to quell lawful, anti-GOP political activity.

How I wish this were an exaggeration.

One citizen movement calls for the rule of law to be observed for the preservation of the habitat and environment that would be contaminated by the proposed open-pit Gogebic Taconite mine.

The Gogebic Taconite mine's private and illegal militia is protected by Scott Walker and Iron County DA Martin Lipske, amid anti-Native American racism among Republicans in northern Wisconsin, some of whom are part of a greater anti-Native American movement nationally such as the hate groups, the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) and Citizen's Equal Rights Foundation (CERF).

Such groups as CERA and CERF make common cause with Wisconsin Republicans.

Said Barbara With at this week's public hearing on the Gogebic Taconite’s bulk sampling permit application in Hurley, Wisconsin, as reported by Rebecca Kemble and Blue Cheddar

"When corporations collude with legislators by paying them and legislators vote for the corporations and abandon the people of this state it’s called 'fascism' and that’s what happened to this state. And even as we speak right now, 12:15 in the capitol of Wisconsin there are jack boot capitol policemen arresting innocent protesters who are singing because this administration wants to quash dissent. They want to quash the voice of the people."
- Video from Rebecca Kemble

Scott Walker, mining companies and their corrupt public officials such as DA Martin Lipske may be itching for a military-police solution, but the rule of law demand these forces contend with settled federal law such as United States v State of Washington (Case No. 03-35145 (1974)) and its progeny cases; United States v State of Washington. (Case NO. CV 70-9213. Suproceeding 01-01. Memorandum and Decision. March 29, 2013) protecting the habitats upon which Native Americans have, by federal law, the guaranteed right to hunt and fish.

As Professor Charles Wilkinson wrote:

"This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. More than a century and a half ago, the LCO negotiated treaties that guaranteed tribal members the right to hunt and fish on their former lands. The transfer of those lands by the tribes has been of great benefit to the non-Indians of northern Wisconsin but the courts have squarely recognized that, in return, those promises must be honored. Earlier this year a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive. And, so, the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned."

That Native Americans are human beings, protected by the rule of law—including of course federal Indian Treaty law—presents a problem for the energy extraction industry.

No matter that Wisconsin Republicans such as Wisconsin State Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, said, "The (mining) bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body. If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature's intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can't find fault if the environment is impact." (Pierce. Esquire; March 8. 2013)

Actually, a federal judge will find much fault. Because one Tom Tiffany, and one political party, declares Wisconsin free from the obligations of federal law to despoil the environment does not make it so.

State law in Wisconsin, even under Republican Party rule, can also force the Gogebic (G-Tec) mine to stop the toxic effect from sulfuric acid and asbestos of its operations, as the mining company and GOP brand conservationist as "terrorists."

Said Bob Gollubske, a farmer in the Town of Kimball in Iron County at a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources public hearing on G-Tac's bulk sampling on August 15, 2013: "I'm that terrorist that's going to save your life, your life from a mining company. ... Government here doesn't like me. They don't like men that protect their home and family; they put you in jail."

Mr. Gollubske's right, the corrupt people in government like Scott Walker and Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske want to protect blasting asbestos particles into the atmosphere, the water, the forests and farms like Gollubske's.

---

---

A second movement also springs from Iron County and is the sought-after affirmation of the rule of law so far denied: The movement to free an innocent man, Don Miller, a cause with support across the nation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project staff, also in Hurley, Wisconsin this week gathering depositions, affidavits and other exculpatory evidence.

 DA Martin Lipske taunts an innocent man in prison in letter
Miller was railroaded 16 years ago and remains in prison through the efforts of the corrupt Iron County Judge, Patrick J. Madden, and Madden's political ally, the same corrupt and inept Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske who fronts for the mining company and Walker.

The innocent Miller was accused of all manner of crimes after he decided to leave his live-in girlfriend and serial liar, Connie Vargovich.

Material now being gathered by the Innocence Project will prove Vargoich lied in an vulgar act of vengeance against Miller while Vargovich was engaged in a secret affair with Judge Patrick J. Madden before, during and after Miller's trial over which Madden presided.

This multi-year liaison is an egregious career-ending, conflict-of-interest move by Madden.

As recently as 2012 Madden ordered Miller to remain in prison despite the District Attorney and the Innocence Project's joint agreement to immediately free Miller.

Lipske in a spasm of conscience, or perhaps self preservation of his legal career had told Miller's attorneys Miller was to be freed with Lipske's stipulation.

Lipske had reported to the Court that exculpatory DNA evidence was inexplicably destroyed while in Lipske's custody, after assuring the Court he would preserve this very evidence. The evidence was destroyed with no explanation from Lipske.

Thr agreement to free Miller was shot down by Madden in a bizarre hearing before Madden (who still had not recused himself) in which Madden rejected the deal that would have freed Miller.

Last month, incredibly, Lipske upset over publication of the fact his license to practice law was suspended for misconduct for almost four years wrote Miller a letter last month taunting Miller who still is serving a 42-year sentence.

Lipske's letter reads in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended."

Lipske, in this bizarre letter sent by a sitting district attorney, says in his letter to Miller that because the State Bar of Wisconsin keeps publicly available information on attorneys licensed to practice law in Wisconsin and that such information was noted by Miller's parents, Lipske had to renege on his agreement to recommend immediate parole for Miller last month.

Yes, the text of the letter is incoherent. I have a copy of Lipske's letter dated July 11, 2013 at this link.

The case is State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60].

But no matter how isolated and corrupt notorious Iron County Wisconsin (population 5,900) is, it can not hide forever from the rule of law, or the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Nor can Scott Walker's Capitol police, and nor can Gogebic Taconite’s mining operation which will face federal law.

From the Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction:

This is Part II which provides additional information, details and facts demonstrating the inconsistencies, false swearing, perjury, and many lies told by Don Miller's false-accuser, Connie Vargovich, and proves felony misconduct and an obstruction of justice by the officials involved in this case: Circuit court judge for Iron County, Patrick J. Madden; District Attorney for Iron County, Martin J. Lipske; Former Iron County Sheriff Robert Bruneau; Former Iron County sheriff’s deputy, Joe Robinson; and Current Iron County sheriff, Tony Furyk.

The facts provided here are also published on the Internet and have been provided to the above named persons and none of the following has ever been refuted, proven false, or in any way undermined as being anything but true. There are more than enough facts and evidence hereto cause the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of all named persons.

There is much documentation supporting all the following facts as true, which includes certified court transcripts, certified phone records, witness statements, police reports, sworn affidavits, professional investigator reports and tape recordings, court records, information provided by persons having firsthand knowledge, and admissions made by several of the above named persons. This comprises powerful and conclusive evidence of crimes having been committed by Connie Vargovich and the above named officials.
---

Officer Syphard and two new hires. What are they afraid of?
Officer Michael J. Syphard grabbed a photographer and threw
him to the ground this week
. Syphard was not on duty shortly after.Sloey, reached by phone said he cannot
comment on Syphard or related matters.
Photo by Craig Spaulding
Finally, another citizen movement is subject to  mass arrests, as they continue singing and  walking at the Wisconsin State Capitol, where Scott Walker's cops are arresting veterans, seniors, journalists, Madison alders and virtually anyone.

This week includes another surreal scene in which a Walker cop arrested The Progressive Magazine's Matt Rothschild for "obstructing," as Rothschild took notes and photographed some one of some 200 protesters who were participating in the Sing Along on the grounds of the capitol.

See Rothschild's Wis. Policeman Rebukes Walker’s Cops.

Said Tom Alisankus, a Wisconsin police officer, lawyer and a teacher of criminal justice at Rock Valley College in Rockford:

"I’m really angered at my brethren police officers who are arresting people who pose no threat to public safety. They swore to uphold the Constitution, and by arresting people here they are being more beholden to Scott Walker than to the Constitution, which is very distasteful for me as an officer of 31 years"

Scott Walker's cops arrest elderly women - Photo: Craig Spaulding
I’m trying to get my head around why this is a priority for law enforcement. There are so many accidents on I-90 (Highway). So why are the state troopers arresting 80-year-olds? That’s crazy for me as a cop."

All three movements advocate for the rule of law.

I have personally spoken with many of the 1,000s of citizen activists; all are dedicated to the good will and determination for freedom enshrined in the anthems, We Shall Overcome and Down By the Riverside.

Before the end of  World War II, the great jurist, Robert H. Jackson said, "Our Constitution and our philosophy of law have been characterized by a regard for the broadest possible liberty of the individual."

John Nichols writes in The Nation:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is no John Adams (of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" infamy). But prospective Republican presidential candidate’s delusions of imperial grandeur have led him to cobble together a set of rules that he is using to have dozens of dissenters (including veterans, grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers with children and top teachers) arrested for assembling in the rotunda of the state capitol and singing labor songs.

Never mind that the “Solidarity Sing Alongs” were held peacefully, and without significant incident, before the governor’s crackdown began this summer.

The arrests escalated on Thursday. And, though Walker plays on a small stage, those familiar with the basic outlines of American constitutional history will note a certain historical irony in the drama the governor has scripted.

First, an elected official, Madison Alder Mark Clear, the former president of the city council, was arrested for joining in the singing of “This Land Is Your Land.”

Then, just a few minutes later, Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild was detained when he attempted to record what was happening. Rothschild informed the arresting officers that he was a journalist and that he had every right to cover the story.

Clear and his fellow singers can point to a US Constitution that guarantees that Americans may assemble and petition for the redress of grievances—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring, "The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged."

Rothschild can point to a US Constitution that guards against any abridging of the freedom of the press—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring that “no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”

Yet, both men were arrested. The governor and his allies argue that a federal court ruling that allows officials to establish permit requirements has cleared the way for a wholesale rejection of constitutional values.
As Wisconsin remains under siege by unlawful corporations, unthinking police, and corrupt prosecutors and politicians, the very conspiratorial underground movements Justice Robert Jackson feared in the United States after coming home from Nuremberg.

In form and effect, the corrupt and criminal have imprisoned the innocent Don Miller for 42 years, imperiling our constitutional liberties and only just beginning to transform Wisconsin into a state towards a future heretofore unknown, with most Wisconsin Democratic Party officeholders silent and content to be bystanders.

As Ros Nelson of Mellen, Wisconsin said:

We're living in a crazy time, and Wisconsin is a crazy governance. ... G-Tec's goons emerged out the forest with camouflage, automatic weapons, black bandannas over their faces. It surprised the hell out of some my friends, and I asked the question, and no one has answered it, 'who are those bullets for,' you what they're for, they're for us. If they don't kill us with bullets, they'll kill us with pollution. Any child would know that blowing up the Penokees (Hills) is insane. The details seem absurd to me because on the face of it, destroying our watershed, the cleanest water in the world. letting it flow into Lake Superior, ... letting it destroy our trout streams, it's insane. I hope you (the DNR) can do your work in the climate that is this fascist government that is Wisconsin.

An exaggeration?

Ask Don Miller. Ask Katie Kloth. Ask Bob Gollubske. Ask Barbara With.

Aug 15, 2013

Why the Wisconsin Innocence Project Is Prowling Around Iron County Today

Two members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Innocence Project are working tenaciously in Iron County today and this week.

Their mission: To free and exonerate Donald R. Miller, serving a 42-year sentence for a crime made-up out of whole cloth and malice by a serial liar.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project (WIP) "seeks to exonerate the innocent, educate (law) students, and reform the criminal justice system by identifying and remedying the causes of wrongful convictions."

Miller's parents moved to Iron County from near Milwaukee to retire and work to free their innocent son, imprisoned since 1997.

Miller's son, Kirk, failed in this mission of freeing his father; and distraught working against the pathological lies of Iron County DA Martin Lipske and Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden, committed suicide.

No one there in Iron County is giving up on Don Miller.

This commitment applies across the world as a handful Iron County residents have built 1,000s of supporters through their various websites—Anatomy of Wrongful Conviction and Free Don Miller (Facebook).

Get curious; join me in reporting this obscenity happening not in Texas or Alabama but in Iron County Wisconsin.
Iron County DA Martin Lipske taunts Don Miller in prison in this letter, saying he cannot
write in support of parole because Miller's parents are working to clear Miller's name.
This is the second time Lipske has reneged on an agreement to call for Miller's release.

Aug 13, 2013

Iron County Judge and DA Are Focus of New Citizen Scrutiny

Madden faces accusations he had an affair
with an alleged crime victim while presiding
over the 1997 trial of the defendant,
the former live-up boyfriend of the alleged
crime victim. Madden's legal career is on the line
A supporter of a victim of Madden's said of
Madden, "the little prick's time is up soon,"
referring to Madden's 27-year reign as Judge.
Updated - A reader writes: "(Judge) Madden should have recused from the (Miller) case without a doubt. Note, in the interview transcript (between Judge Madden and Stephen Williams) (Madden) said he would recuse from any further proceedings to do with Don (Miller) but, some 6 months after the interview he then presided over the September 2012 post-conviction hearing. Very naughty. Any further action on Don's case he will not preside, he will be in the witness box answering to several affidavits attesting to the fact he had a relationship with the alleged victim before, during and after trial. After the judicial complaint is lodged after the next course of action he will likely become the 4th judge ever permanently removed from the bench in the entire state (of Wisconsin). That will make 2 out of 4 of them from Iron County."

No branch of government should be above public scrutiny. The case of Don Miller in Iron County Wisconsin is an object lesson on why this principle remains a bulwark in a constitutional democracy.

There's criminal corruption in Iron County, and to paraphrase an Iron County worker: Wake up and smell the roses.

Iron County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick J. Madden and District Attorney Martin Lipske remain the focus of an escalating investigation by a group of supporters of an innocent man convicted in 1997 on allegations (now recanted, and then last year repeated) by his then live-in girlfriend, who became in embroiled in a multi-year affair with the presiding trial Judge, one Patrick Madden.

Disappearing evidence, no DNA evidence, a sexual liaison between judge and (alleged) victim, a sitting District Attorney taunting a man in prison serving a 42-year sentence: Welcome to Iron County Wisconsin, population 5,900.

The case has been taken on by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project as law students and lawyers involved with the case have made numerous 270-mile treks by car from Madison, Wisconsin up to the north woods of Wisconsin to find out what the heck is happening up in Iron County.

Supporters of freeing Don Miller say they expect this isolated county to see Innocence Project staff this week. The case is State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60]. And this case stinks to high heaven.

Specifically, law students and lawyers are looking into why allegations (and I hesitant to specify what they are, but you can follow this link) that have been recanted by the alleged victim have landed Miller in prison to serve a 42-year sentence. Miller has been incarcerated since 1997.

The alleged victim is Connie Vargovich.

Iron County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick J. Madden presided over the December 4-5, 1997 trial of Miller. The verdict was reached one day later by the jury who didn't take very long to deliberate.

Now, Madden faces new allegations he had an ongoing affair with Vargovich after the trial of Miller (other allegations place the affair before and during the trial).

Sources in Iron County, supporters of Miller, tell me several depositions placing Madden and Vargovich together at local bars and sex clubs include one witness stating under penalty of perjury in a new deposition that Madden and Vargovich once disappeared into a tavern bathroom together for approximately one-half hour.

Madden, say sources in this small community, was not happy, when these and other allegations were revealed on the website, Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction.

Madden has been a judge in Iron County since 1986, and was appointed by Gov. Tony Earl. Prior to the judicial appointment he served as District Attorney for two northern Wisconsin counties, including Iron County.

DA Lipske who succeeded Madden as District Attorney after Madden was appointed to Iron County judge, was reportedly urged by Madden to run for DA, some three years after Lipske's license was suspended for misconduct in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lipske is an incredibly capricious and vindictive figure for a sitting jurist, and one who has the highest rate of criminal cases overturned or dismissed on appeal of all of Wisconsin's 72 counties, according to the 2008 study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Journalism.

In the future, sooner than Lipske knows, a wider audience will know why.

Secrets often don't remain secrets for long in small towns.

During the trial of Miller's, Madden was observed in the courthouse hallway, hugging and whispering, and visibly reassuring the alleged victim, Vargovich, whom several say was involved in an affair with the Judge.

"When (Madden) noticed that he was being watched he quickly slipped back into his office," reads several affidavits filed at the Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction site.

Stay tuned.

Aug 12, 2013

Corrupt Iron County DA Has Conservationists Looking to Neighbor

Update: Heavily Armed Bulletproof did operate illegally in Ashland County. The StellaReport has the story.

As light shines on the isolated Iron County in northern Wisconsin, its corruption and the lurid nature of its public officials are getting a wider audience.

The light comes after the proposed Gogebic Taconite iron mine in Iron and Ashland counties was approved with special mining-company-written legislation, rushed through the Wisconsin legislature with sole Republican Party support in early 2013.

The Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske used to support Wisconsin Democratic Party Governor, James Doyle, but after Scott Walker and the GOP drummed up support for the mining bill, Lipske changed his party affiliation from the Democratic Party and ran as an independent in 2012, narrowly winning reelection.

Lipske is known in Iron County for fronting for the GOP-mining interests, and protecting it, refusing, for example, to prosecute the heavily armed rightwing militia, Bulletproof Securities, for operating without a license in criminal violation of Wisconsin law.

Now, citizens in Iron County are looking for evidence Bulletproof operated in neighboring Ashland County, in the face of Lipske's refusal to prosecute Bulletproof for repeated violations of the law.

Lipske is infamous locally as well for launching a prosecution against an innocent man whom Lipske incredibly taunts in a recent letter sent to the man, Donald R. Miller, in prison, chastising Miller for the work of his parents and supporters for maintaining a website—Anatomy of a Wrongful Prosecution.

Miller refused to plead no-contest after Lipske in a DA-proposed plea agreement in 1997.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project was working on freeing Miller from 2011-12, obtaining an agreement from Lipske stipulating Miller's immediate release in late 2012.

Lipske reneged on the agreement after Lipske's political mentor and predecessor as DA, Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden, rejected the agreement in late 2012 with no objection from Lipske.

Now, the Innocence Project continues its work.

A parole hearing is scheduled for later this year.

The Innocence Project is scheduled to meet with Lipske's office this week.

The latest:

Read this letter below and tell me the Wisconsin Iron County District Attorney's office is not corrupt.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske taunts innocent man,
sending him a letter while in prison

Aug 10, 2013

DA Lipske Backs off Rubber-stamping Militia; Wrongful Prosecutions Remain

Iron County DA Martin Lipske on display
Well, kudos to Iron County (Wisconsin) DA Martin Lipske for making a statement that "hopefully we don't have to have high-intensity security people like Bulletproof here, acting in a high-intensive manner like being armed," as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Yeah, who could have saw Bulletproof coming? See Scott Walker's aide had advance knowledge of Bulletproof's plans for the Iron County mine.

Hopefully?

How would have Lipske treated conservationists marching around the north woods with semi-automatic weapons? Walker likely would have called in the National Guard.

How about, hopefully, dropping Lipske's ludicrous multiple-felony prosecutions against Katie Kloth for protesting against the mining company and Bulletproof's bad actions that have no place in Wisconsin?

Hopefully?

How about, hopefully, getting Donald Miller out of prison before everyone and his U.S. Attorney find out about the rat's nest of corruption, wrongful prosecutions and malice Lipske has going up there in Iron County?

Lipske knows what I mean. Lipske's words are not exactly a piece of forged steel.

Word from a source in Iron County this morning is Miller applied for a Pardon from the governor's Executive Clemency office, whose webpage currently reads, "The pardon process has been suspended indefinitely.  Applications currently on file will be saved for future use.  However, no new applications will be accepted."

After encouraging words about Executive Clemency, came nothing as Lipske went from a Jim Doyle-endorsing Democrat to an Independent running for reelection for DA in 2012, fully in support of mining interests and Walker's mining bill.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske on display. Letter shows capricious behavior

Aug 8, 2013

Iron County DA Commits Capricious Action Against an Innocent Man

Don Miller, an innocent man with his son, Kirk.
Iron County DA Martin Lipske committed
a malicious prosecution
Update III: Don Miller was ordered freed, with five years probation, after the University of Wisconsin-Madison Innocence Project secured this stipulation.

Meanwhile, the corrupt district attorney, Martin Lipske, violated a Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule [SCR 20:3.6  Trial publicity] in his pursuit against a 20-something woman protesting the GTac mine. How Lipske is still allowed to practice law, much less serve as a district attorney is mystifying. See Kochs Target Iron Co Races, as Corrupt Judge and DA Target Mining Protestor.

Update II: Had heard things are a little crazy way up in northern Wisconsin, but not like this. A source tells me that staff working with the University of Wisconsin Law School's Innocence Project was in negotiations with Iron County DA Martin Lipske, and that Lipske is in a phrase: Criminally dishonest. At a September 2012 hearing on paroling the innocent man, Lipske reneged on an agreement stipulating the release of Donald Miller, an innocent man serving a 42-year sentence, in an apparent underhanded attempt to have Miller burn up legal avenues. The judge, Patrick J Madden, a corrupt bozo, rejected the agreement and Lipske said nothing in response at the hearing. This is far-northern Wisconsin, a rat's nest of corruption the likes of which I have never encountered in Wisconsin, and have never even heard of.

Update: A reader says this capricious action by a sitting Wisconsin District Attorney in the letter at end is a sick prosecutor "taunting" the innocent man he threw in prison. I agree.

Corrupt, pro-mining District Attorney Martin Lipske Committed a Malicious Prosecution of Innocent Man in 1997.

Now, Lipske capriciously denies a parole recommendation for the man he prosecuted, a position reversing Lipske's prior position because Lipske said the imprisoned man's parents publicly noted Lipske's license to practice law was suspended for misconduct.

Yeah. This reveals how Martin Lipske makes value decisions.

See the Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction website.

Lipske's letter on the official Iron County (Wisconsin) District Attorney letterhead, indicating Lipske's capricious reversal is below.

The Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction site could perhaps be entitled a malicious prosecution site instead.

Some background.

The Wrongful Conviction site was recently updated to include a link to Anthony Stellas's The StellaReport.com,  featuring updates on the "developing GTAC (Gogebic Taconite Mine) fiasco in Iron County."

Stella ran against Lipske for DA in 2012 in an election that Lipske narrowly won after a suspicious recount that reversed the election result. Lipske won by four votes out of some 3,200 votes cast.

A background source, speaking without attribution because he said Lipske is vindictive, said including the two updates on Lipske's 2012 election and referencing the updates as "news" that Lipske had his license suspended has led to Lipske's bizarre behavior and his letter to an imprisoned man who, if my reading of these documents is correct, is innocent.

Lipske's letter has been posted since August 7, 2013 by a group in northern Wisconsin working to free an innocent man, and who have alerted me to this development, this posting of the letter.

Mal contends, began researching the career of the Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske, after news of Lipske's inappropriate and unethical public musing over launching prosecutions against Gogebic Taconite mining protesters prior to any criminal complaint or the inception of any law enforcement investigation.

Local jurists in Dane County (Wisconsin) where I live have confirmed that Lipske is indeed a reckless jurist, a pattern of behavior confirmed by the State Bar of Wisconsin in July 2013.

The bar confirmed a two-year suspension of Lipske's license to practice law characterized as engaging in professional misconduct composed of "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in July 1990, some 23 years ago. The Bar also confirmed other, less serious administrative suspensions.

Just how corrupt are things up north in Iron County (Wisconsin), population: Some 5,900?

Turns out District Attorney Martin Lipske is more corrupt and reckless than even what his fellow jurists believe.

A piece published here, entitled Iron County DA Has History of Professional Misconduct, Suspension of License for Discipline (Jul 17, 2013), drew a long comment from a reader blasting Martin Lipske for Lipske's wrongful prosecution of as many documents suggest (advise taking a few weeks to read them over), an innocent man, Donald R. Miller, subsequently sentenced to a 42-year sentence for a crime that has been publicly recanted by the alleged victim, who at the very least can be said to not be a credible accuser.

Malicious prosecution

Lipske's involvement includes almost no law enforcement investigation; Lipske just took a story that the former live-in girlfriend of Miller's apparently fabricated, and absent an investigation, ran with it and made a criminal case.

Turns out Miller is up for parole this year. Lipske has previously said Miller did not deserve the 42-year sentence, and had agreed to Miller to stipulate his release this year.

Last month, Lipske sent a letter dated July 11, 2013 to Miller reading in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended."

An innocent man is imprisoned by Lipske; and now Lipske is willy-nilly making value decisions on a man's life, and others.

This is the same District Attorney who has charged a 20-something mining protester, Katie Kloth, with multiple-felony robbery and other criminal violation for protesting, raising her voice and allegedly grabbing a cell phone from a mining company official.

This Miller matter will be brought to the attention of the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation—the governing Wisconsin authority for lawyer misconduct, and the office that prosecutes violations of lawyer ethics rules—if I have to do it myself.

Miller's son Kirk, after his efforts to free his father failed in the face of corrupt and unyielding Iron County officials, committed suicide.

How many lives will be ruined before we begin asking questions about Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske?

Iron County DA Martin Lipske on display. Letter shows capricious behavior


This site has received no information whatsoever about Lipske's two-year suspension of his license to practice law in Wisconsin from Miller's parents. The State Bar of Wisconsin contacted by phone (and from whom I received an e-mail) on July 17, 2013 is my source for the piece, Iron County DA Has History of Professional Misconduct, Suspension of License for Discipline, run on July 17, 2013.

Just saying.