Showing posts with label Kathleen Zellner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathleen Zellner. Show all posts

Apr 10, 2023

Wisconsin's Worst DA Chased from Office Is Still Defended by Wisconsin Democrat Attorney General

Depravity of Wisconsin disgraced DA Ken Kratz,
driven from office in 2010, is still defended
by Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D)
who works to keep innocents in prison.
Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz resigned in disgrace in 2010 following allegations that Kratz sexually harassed several women, including an assault claim alleging Kratz "had forcible sex with an emotionally vulnerable woman after previously prosecuting the woman," (Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kratz (In re Disciplinary Proceedings Against Kratz)).

But Kratz wasn't responsible for his conduct, Kratz pleaded.

Kratz' Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Sexually Compulsive Disorder and addictions to several drugs are the real culprits, Kratz said.

Such is the character of the man who perpetrated conflicting frauds upon two juries in the infamous frame-ups of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer.

Ken Kratz. This is whom Democrat Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul defends today, at all costs against decency and innocence.

Mar 2, 2023

Wrongfully Convicted — Wisconsin Democrats Keep Innocents in Prison

Eugene Higgins, The Black Cloud, oil on canvas,
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Madison, Wisconsin —  Wisconsin Democrats continue their efforts to keep innocents in prison. 

The case is Manitowoc County Case Number 2005CF000381, Wisconsin vs. Steven A. Avery #122987, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences.

Most see this spectacle as revenge prosecutions in the most corrupt region of Wisconsin. Those for whom innocents in prison present moral problems want Dassey and Avery out.

In January 2023, (Ferak, Patch-Wisconsin), Steven Avery filed his Jan 24, 2023 motion as the Democrat-run state of Wisconsin and Dept of "Justice" continue its defense of this notorious police-organized frame-up, perhaps the second-most documented crime in modern Wisconsin history, Making a Murderer (Netflix), (Ricciardi, Demos). Avery wants a new trial.

Wisconsin and a respectable chunk of the world awaits the response of the corrupt Judge Angela Sutkiewicz. Corruption, it's Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Brendan Dassey supporters keep up the campaign to free who used to be an innocent 16-year-old, preyed up by crooked cops. 

No credible observer doubts the innocence of Avery and Dassey, yet they remain in prison.

Further driving the Avery and Dassey cases down the sewer is the full awareness of Gov. Tony Evers (D) and Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) that they are defending the work of perhaps Wisconsin's most reviled district attorney in modern times — Kenneth R. Kratz who prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases.

Ken Kratz was driven from office after Gov. Jim Doyle began removal proceedings in
2010 following assault and sexual harassment allegations leveled against Kratz by several women, (ABC News, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) about misconduct committed some two years after the Avery and Dassey disgrace. 

Kratz' defense? Kratz claimed he is a drug and sex addict and victim of a medically diagnosed Narcissistic Personality Disorder that made Kratz uncontrollably arrogant and malignant — transforming him into a "dick," as termed by Kratz in 2016, (p. 13, Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Huffington Post).

Two innocents in prison, an infamy supported by the Democrat Party of Wisconsin. This is America. This is Wisconsin.


Feb 7, 2023

Making a Murderer — New Filing Calls Wisconsin Legal System into Question

 Eugene Higgins, The Black Cloud. Wisconsin politicians, attorneys,
and judges betray rule of law, as innocents perish under cloud of darkness.
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Wisconsin-organized system of cruelty destroys value of single individual; drowns out truth, as State  opposes open hearings

Madison, Wisconsin — Innocents remain in prison today; human rights advocates here muse how favorably Democratic Party-run Wisconsin compares to other authoritarian societies — such as Russia, Belarus, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

In the criminal law cases of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, Wisconsin stands in shame as its crusade to keep those whom the State knows to be innocent in prison show anew an entire state government dedicated by convenience to remain vicious and dishonest.

In January 2023, amid worry innocents in prison present too embarrassing a political-legal scandal to be acknowledged by the Wisconsin criminal justice system, (Ferak, Patch-Wisconsin), Steven Avery filed his Jan 24, 2023 filing as the Democrat-run state of Wisconsin and Dept of "Justice" continue its defense of this notorious police-organized frame-up, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer (Netflix), (Ricciardi, Demos).

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, #122987 Manitowoc County Case Number 2005CF000381.

Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences.

Most see the spectacle as revenge prosecutions of innocents by Manitowoc and Calumet counties, an insular region of the state known for small-town justice — injustice.

Avery wants an evidentiary hearing and a new trial, a request that has drawn baseless political attacks against his attorney, Kathleen Zellner, and reveals a perverse aversion to public hearings by the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Reports John Ferak at Patch-Wisconsin:

Zellner is on a quest to win Avery an evidentiary hearing before a local judge. An evidentiary hearing will give her a chance to convince the judge that Avery's first-degree murder conviction in the Oct. 31, 2005 death of free-lance photographer Teresa Halbach warrants a new trial for her client. Avery along with his nephew Brendan Dassey were convicted of the murder.

Zellner insists in her latest filing that Brendan Dassey's older brother, Bobby, is the real killer of Halbach.

'Mr. Avery respectfully requests that this Court grant him one of the following alternate remedies: (l) Grant an evidentiary hearing; (2) grant his Amended Motion for Postconviction Relief by ordering a new trial; and (3) grant the requested relief and grant any and all relief this Court deems appropriate,' Zellner stated. [p. 46,

Further driving the Avery and Dassey cases down the sewer is the full awareness of Gov. Tony Evers (D) and Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) that they are defending the work of perhaps Wisconsin's most reviled district attorney in modern times — Kenneth R. Kratz who prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases.

Ken Kratz was driven from office after Gov. Jim Doyle began removal proceedings in
2010 following assault and sexual harassment allegations leveled against Kratz by several women, (ABC News, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Kratz' defense? Kratz claimed he is a drug and sex addict and victim of a medically diagnosed Narcissistic Personality Disorder that made Kratz uncontrollably arrogant and malignant — transforming him into a "dick," as termed by Kratz in 2016, (p. 13, Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Huffington Post).

This is what criminal justice here has become.

 

Aug 4, 2021

Wisconsin Got What It Wanted — Systemic, State Violence, Administered by the Badger Judenrat

Wisconsin Democrats administer the carceral state that sees
innocents swept off the streets and warehoused in prison,
and administrative bail-probation-parole complexes.
Municipal and other Judenrat are rewarded handsomely.
Madison, Wisconsin — The attempted destruction of the European Jews stands as the beginning of modern world history.

But not because of the defeat of totalitarianism and anti-Semitism as political systems.

Not because by-standers, compliance, and acting out of convenience in the face of moral horror became imprecatory to human affairs. 

Totalitarianism won. Hate won. 

The Judenrat won.

The fight continues, but the proposition that human beings retain rights to life and liberty is a sick joke to anyone with a fleeting understanding of American post-war foreign policy and the modern domestic police state.

Prison-state America has destroyed countless lives, and the best one generation offers now is to cancel people on social media not anointed of their taboo morality and contrived, ahistorical understanding of America and its inception.

Tens of thousands of municipalities have become mini-police states, some of the modern-day Judenrat becoming so enamored of their offices of authority, local police load up with military weapons, and face down imaginary threats to the community, in self-defense of course.

Domestically, and Wisconsin is a paradigm, many statist Democrats erected a police-prison state that shamed the cause of liberty and made the 'progressive state' the worse place to be black and brown in America. 

Police roadblocks, William Rehnquist was right jurisprudence has dominated Wisconsin Democratic Party politics for decades, though ultimately as least roadblocks and show-me-your-papers operations were rejected by voters, putting Democrat Kathleen Falk out of political business.

Who could be stupid as to not realize black and brown people doing nothing except driving do not want and deserve encounters with police as a condition of driving? Wisconsin Democrats.

Democrats are back at it of course, and any acclamation of the Fourth Amendment is met with suspicion by police-state Democrats.

It used to be reasonable to believe that Democrats like Gov. Tony Evers (D), Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) were simply clueless about what police do to harm black and brown people.

This is folly. You meet a cop on the road, and your life is at risk. 

This is the way Democrats want it.

Community outrage continues today against such recent police killings in Wisconsin of Paul Heenan (Schenider, The Capital Times (2013)) (killed by Madison Police Officer Stephen Heimsness who resigned in June 2013 (Erickson, Wisconsin State Journal), Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. in Madison (Dean, The Capital Times), Michael Bell in Kenosha (2004), and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Mal Contends). Too many victims to list. See also Paul Gottinger in CounterPunch.

Democratic judges are aligning with the disreputable Democratic-led Dept of Justice to keep an innocent man, Steven Avery, in prison.

Until Steven Avery and his equally innocent nephew, Brendan Dassey, are free, I will never cast a vote for any Democrat again.

Meanwhile, police repression continues in Kenosha, in Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, the whole god-damn state of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice announced it is looking for a new head of the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).

Don't worry, I'm sure the Democratic-led police operation will find the perfect man for the job.

Someone who can reliably implement solutions well.

Jul 28, 2021

Making a Murderer — Appellate Court Gives Avery a Defeat

In Steven Avery's quest for a second exoneration of an apparent
frame-up scheme by Wisconsin law enforcement, the State worked
successfully to block a hearing on its misconduct and numerous
Brady violations.

Dem-led DoJ Champions Disgraced ex-DA and Sex Offender, Ken Kratz.

Wisconsin Appellate Court Delivers Political Decision on Police Frame-up Scheme before Mid-Terms

Paths remain for Avery to pursue Post-conviction litigation

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Steven Avery's quest for a second exoneration moved backward today as the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (CoA), Dist Two ruled against his request for a lower court hearing.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

The ruling by a unanimous three-judge panel is a Court statement that the Wisconsin judiciary and Wisconsin Dept of Justice share a commitment to blocking paths to exoneration for clearly innocent people convicted, and behind bars.

With this ruling, Wisconsin joins the worst of states nationwide who work to keep innocent people imprisoned.

The ruling follows a spectacular development last April that saw witness Thomas Sowinski of Manitowoc swear in a statement that he saw the prosecution's key trial witness plant the murder victim's RAV4 vehicle on the property of the man convicted of homicide in 2007.

Wisconsin Democratic Party officials, Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, have made the political decision to work for law enforcement, including the disgraced ex-district attorney, Ken Kratz, against the wrongfully convicted.

So, it was expected in the innocence community that the Democratic-aligned appellate judges
— Lisa S. Neubauer and Jeffrey O. Davis — would brush aside state misconduct and new evidence to politically support Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, who work against the innocent.

Both Evers and Kaul are running for reelection in 2022, and a scandal implicating Democratic Party elected officials would likely prove disastrous to the Party.

In order for the Court to reach its conclusion today, Democratic partisan judges who joined with Judge Paul F. Reilly had to overlook official misconduct, including evidence tampering, false testimony, multiple Brady violations and other suppression of critical information by all manner of law enforcement, including the state Dept of Justice.

The decision was met with wounded howls and derision by those who fight for the wrongfully convicted around the world.

But Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, noted that there are paths still open for a clearly innocent man, even against a corrupt Democratic Party and Wisconsin judiciary.

Said Zellner in a social media post this morning, "Not deterred by the appellate court decision—-it pointed out the specific doors that are still open for Mr. Avery’s quest for freedom. We appreciate the careful review."

Still, the unmistakable message of the Wisconsin judiciary to the wrongfully convicted seems clear: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

In the face of the Dept of Justice working to block a hearing on new evidence, the Court decided that "Simply put, Avery’s appeal cannot continue indefinitely," in effect rewarding the DOJ for its stalling tactics, and denying Avery a hearing to argue against prosecutorial misconduct.

Today's ruling can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin; another motion can made at the County Circuit Court level, in accordance with today's opinion.

But readers should make no mistake, the State of Wisconsin and the Democratic Party have worked to arrest, convict and keep imprisoned a man whom they know to be innocent.

May 7, 2021

Corruption County — Manitowoc, Wisconsin Strikes Again; Targets Critic to Protect Old Wrongful Convictions

Manitowoc County Sheriff Uses Office to Silence Critic of Wrongful Convictions

Update III Sept 2, 2021: Supporters of Brad Dassey, step son of the infamous Barb Tadych, in Manitowoc County say the world's worse mother still wants her step-son incarcerated for criticizing her alleged abuse.
Corruption County, Manitowoc County, is reportedly offering a fine against Dassey for writing the truth about his step-mother.
The deranged mother who offers her children to Manitowoc County police to be incarcerated wants step-son, Brad, in prison because he defeated Tadych in a civil suit on First Amendment grounds.
Tadych says an unenforceable retraining order, now vacated, may have been violated. The Manitowoc County District Attorney's office is rightwing and out-of-control and is helping Tadych, who looks to the office to help incarcerate her step-son.
The next plea hearing is scheduled for October 15, 2021 at 11:30 am.

--

Update II: World's worst mother, Barb Tadych, who fed her innocent son, Brendan Dassey, alone in a room with two police tree jumpers resulting in a life sentence, now wants her step-son, Brad Dassey, in prison too. June 17, a judge will decide whether to imprison another innocent Dassey on unfounded criminal charges heard by the Manitowoc County judiciary, known for corruption and stupidity.

 Update: Analysis of the Manitowoc County District Attorney's ridiculous Summons, relying on the even more ridiculous reports of the Sheriff's Office and Barb Tadych reasons that since the TRO and petition for restraining order were denied May 3, the TRO is not enforceable on its face. Brad Dassey will prevail again, but the take-away is Barb Tadych, the DA and the Sheriff all worked together to get Brad arrested, convicted and imprisoned. Sound familiar?

Madison, Wisconsin — Manitowoc, Wisconsin is Corruption County USA.

For readers wondering whatever happened to the most corrupt county in America — Manitowoc County, Wisconsin — cops there are searching for new victims, and protecting wrongful convictions through the corrupt conduct of their office of public trust, under color of law.

One of the world's worst mothers, Barb Tadych, Brendan Dassey's mother, is featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer.

Barb Tadych's Choice

Tadych is a major figure in the grotesque frame-up scheme against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

In 2005, Tadych fed her 16-year-old son, Brendan, who has a severe language impairment and 70 IQ, to corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement [Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), who interrogated Brendan alone in a room], the better to elicit words that the cops could falsely state constituted a confession to murder of Teresa Halbach.

Law enforcement then used Brendan's so-called confession to convict the innocent Steven Avery.

Tadych publicly protested Brendan's innocence, but Tadych also remains under suspicion for her defense of Bobby Dassey, Brendan's brother, who implicated the once-exonerated Steven Avery as the State's star witness, (Ferak, Appleton Post-Crescent). 

Bobby Dassey is now a key suspect for the 2005 murder of Ms. Halbach, (for which Brendan and Avery were convicted in 2007), and a witness came forward last month attesting he saw Bobby Dassey planting Halbach's Rav-4 on Avery's property.

In April 2021, faced with compelling evidence Bobby Dassey may have been responsible for killing Ms. Halbach, and was responsible, in part, for framing Steven Avery, [a legal argument that "directly connects Bobby to the crime charged [against Avery Brendan Dassey]," (Avery Motion for Remand and Stay of Appeal, April 12, 2021, p. 5), Barb Tadych's response was not to condemn the odious Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept and other law enforcement for its actions after this spectacular new development.

Instead, Barb Tadych reached out and colluded with the very Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept that has terrorized innocent people for decades. This time their target is Brad Dassey, half-brother of Brendan and Bobby. Tadych had already thrown one son to the wolves, so, she apparently reasoned, why not another?

Barb Tadych and the Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept remain close, even after Tadych's move to sacrifice Brendan caused Tadych to criticize the cops, in regret.

First, Tadych sought and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order, [Manitowoc County Case Number 2021CV000155, Barbara Tadych vs. Brad Anthony Dassey; April 19, 2021] against step-son Brad Dassey (for his criticism on social media of Tadych as an abusive parent and a possible destroyer of evidence implicating Bobby), days after the April 12, 2021 development of a new witness coming forward and attesting that the witness saw Bobby Dassey planting critical evidence on Steven Avery's property, (Patch. com).

After Tadych's ridiculous petition of a harassment injunction against Brad Dassey was dismissed on May 3, the Manitowoc County District Attorney mailed a criminal summons also dated May 3 to Brad Dassey, citing a polemical and sketchy Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept report alleging Brad Dassey violated the Temporary Restraining Order, though ultimately the TRO and Barb Tadych's harassment petition were denied on May 3.

Corruption County wants Brad Dassey for his criticism of the Sheriff and Barb Tadych, and it will not stop.

And there is nothing law enforcement can inflict that the Wisconsin Dept of Justice will not defend.

Brad Dassey has set up a legal defense fund. Readers are invited to contribute.

Phone calls to the Manitowoc County District Attorney's office this morning were not successful.

The cause of justice is not the cause of the Wisconsin Dept of Justice and other corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement.

May 4, 2021

Making a Murderer — Wisconsin DoJ Plays Games as Wrongfully Convicted Lose Years of Life

Attorney General Joshua Kaul's 'Defend Wrongful Convictions at All Costs' Commitment Is Betrayal of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats agree on a policy area: Defend wrongful convictions.

Consider the case of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer.

In post-conviction litigation, the once-exonerated Steven Avery presents game-changing evidence to the Wisconsin state judiciary exposing law enforcement in its second frame-up job against Avery for homicide in 2005.

The second frame-up was committed shortly after Avery prepared evidence for his $36-million civil rights suit for misconduct in the first frame-up (Ferak, Appleton Post-Crescent). Law enforcement officials reasoned if they could pen a homicide case onto Avery, the resultant prosecution would silence the multi-million-dollar civil action.

Brady Violations


In court filings, Avery has chronicled six major Brady violations in post-conviction litigation

Brady violations are instances when law enforcement disregards its duty to notify a defendant of exculpatory evidence — for the police purpose of securing a conviction, then defending the wrongful conviction.

By effectively blocking exculpatory evidence that law enforcement controls or accumulates, law enforcement becomes the architect of court proceedings to arrive at guilty verdicts and other rulings disfavorable to the defense.

This imposed system that a defendant must navigate is found to violate defendants' civil liberties and Due Process in Brady v. Maryland, (373 U.S. 83 (1963). See also Wisconsin v. Gary Lee Wayerski, from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, (2015). [Under Wayerski, the Court finds that the prosecution must fulfill its Brady obligation by alerting defense to exculpatory evidence in its possession, even if the evidence is also housed elsewhere.]

In Avery's post-conviction litigation, the Wisconsin Dept of Justice refuses to even respond in legal filings to chronicles of Brady violations and new evidence brought forth, much less accede to a hearing or vacating a corruptly secured conviction, least exposure brings the State to public ridicule.

Instead, the DoJ under direction of Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) makes motion after motion to delay and block the courts from even considering a request to consider a hearing.

So, while the Brady v. Maryland case acclaiming Due Process is 58-years-old, there is no enforcement guarantee or Constitutional ethics in the Wisconsin judiciary that compels law enforcement to follow the law, so law enforcement flaunts its obligations and judges turn a blind eye.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice, which argues against Due Process rights in the 2015 Wisconsin v. Gary Lee Wayerski (implementing Brady), today takes the position of, We don't like your Due Process rights, we don't like our Brady obligations, we don't like your bringing up law enforcement law-breaking in your post-conviction litigation.

The anti-Brady ethos lives in Avery's post-conviction litigation as the State of Wisconsin filed a frivolous motion that is demonstrably false and that, further, defames and personally maligns Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner (Wisconsin legal filing, April 16, 2021).

In response, attorney Zellner penned a devastating chronicle of State conduct that shows the Wisconsin Dept of Justice to be engaged in serial law-breaking and hostility to its law-breaking being mentioned in Court at the costs of an innocent man's life.

Writes Zellner in Reply to State's Response, April 22, 2021:

It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence. When the State disclosed a CD of violent porn from the Dassey-Janda computer 12 years after the CD was created and concealed from prior counsel, the State argued, as it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (740.5). When the State facilitated the destruction in 2011 of evidence it had agreed to allow Mr. Avery to test, the State argued, as is it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (See 770.2). This Court did not accept those disingenuous responses then, and it should reject the same disingenuous response now. (pp 1-2. Reply to State's Response, April 22, 2021)

The community behind Steven Avery remains optimistic.

But the State's reply to Avery's April 22, 2021 chronicle of State misconduct is to strike the whole reply from the record. More game-playing.

There is a huge body of Constitutional law that makes explicit citizen's rights.

The State of Wisconsin will never heed to this law while a corrupt judiciary keeps rewarding bad faith and ill will of the government towards the citizenry for the purpose of securing injustice.

Attorney General Joshua Kaul, who assumed office in 2019, has conspicuously failed to launch any DoJ investigations into law enforcement, including his own department, despite the widespread criticism of police, Ken Kratz, Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), for example, in the Avery case.

Kaul's mother, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-2007) worked to clear law enforcement of misconduct in the first east-central Wisconsin crime pinned on Avery for which he was exonerated in 2003. [Wisconsin Dept of Justice report of the investigation and prosecution of the wrongful conviction of the exonerated Steven Avery; authored by Amy Lehmann, Deb Strauss, Dec 17 2003.]

Point is high Democratic Wisconsin state officials remain opposed to Constitutional rights, and advocate, instead, for law enforcement which has grown into a grave threat to the lives and liberty of Wisconsin citizens.

Watch this space for updates on the Steve Avery post-conviction case.

Like a psychopath with his knee to Avery's neck, the State of Wisconsin works to bleed the life out of an innocent man.

And there is nothing law enforcement can inflict that the Wisconsin Dept of Justice will not defend.

Apr 23, 2021

Making a Murderer — Avery Atty Blasts "Disingenuous" DoJ Response in Devastating Legal Filing

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Dept of Justice's commitment to defending the wrongful conviction of Steven Avery received a legal thrashing in the latest Avery court filing.

The once-exonerated Steven Avery was made internationally famous in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer, for his 2003 exoneration, and subsequent apparent retaliatory frame-up by crooked Wisconsin law enforcement, resulting in his 2007 conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Avery's fight continues in a state coming to be synonymous with corruption in law enforcement.

In a spectacular development, a witness came forward in an affidavit in April 2021, and named Bobby Dassey and "an unidentified older male" as individuals whom witness Thomas Sowinski saw planting Ms. Halbach's dark-blue RAV-4 auto in the Avery auto salvage yard.

Put another way, a witness swears he saw the prosecution's primary witness planting the murder victim's vehicle on the property of the man convicted of first-degree homicide.

After Sowinski witnessed the planting of Ms Halbach's RAV-4, he reportedly phoned the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and was told by a female employee that the Office "already knew who did it," the motion's affidavit reads.

The response of the Wisconsin DoJ to the affidavit was not to launch an investigation into criminal conduct of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and other Wisconsin law enforcement, though the record is rife with police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Rather, the DoJ, under the authority of Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), penned a personally insulting legal fling claiming, in part, "The [Avery, April 12] motion on its face shows that it [witness's affidavit] was filed in violation of Wis. Stat. § 802.05(2), applicable here via Wis. Stat. (Rule) 809.84, because it was filed for an improper purpose and without a reasonable inquiry into its factual basis." (State Response to motion for remand, Introduction, p.2)

Attorney Zellner replied that the vetting of witness Thomas Sowinski included an extensive three-month examination, using expert investigators in a reply detailing the examination as being so thorough, it makes liars and fools of the DoJ.

The WorkwithKZ website — that translates legal filings for the general public because of the far-reaching implications of the Avery case — sums up Kathleen Zellner's filing as follows:

In a nutshell, Kathleen says the State is wrong about everything they said and she's insulted that they would accuse her of not researching the validity of a witness. She said their claims that she didn't conduct proper background research into this witness was based on an incorrect assumption they made and listed the ways she feels the state did just that in the initial trial (re: Bobby). She detailed the timeline of her contact with the witness, her research, and their conversations. She provided a copy of the email he [Sowinski] sent her in December, the email he sent to the Innocence Project in 2016 to support his claim that he tried to contact Avery's attorneys at that time, newspaper clippings showing the witness was an employee of the paper, and previously filed statements from Blaine Dassey and Kevin Rahmlow, which she says corroborate the claims this witness is making. She also included a text from this witness, which says he's not interested in the reward. In response to the state saying she didn't perform an open records request, she showed that when she requested this information previously, the response to her was that they didn't have it, so why would she ask again?
So much for the State's assertion that Zellner did not conduct a reasonable inquiry into the factual basis of witness Thomas Sowinski's oft-repeated claims, ignored and effectively buried by the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office.

An examination of Zellner's legal filings appears to show that she laid a trap for the reckless and dishonest DoJ, knowing it could not resist a personal insult and a contentious statement of fact.

This DoJ development supplies a point of disagreement that militates for Avery and Zellner's requested remand to County Circuit court and an evidentiary hearing.

The DoJ has throughout this post-conviction litigation ignored its own misconduct that would lead a different attorney general committed to lawful operation of the DoJ to demand several probes to find out how and why rampant misconduct happens with such frequency in Wisconsin law enforcement.

Writes Zellner:

It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence. When the State disclosed a CD of violent porn from the Dassey-Janda computer 12 years after the CD was created and concealed from prior counsel, the State argued, as it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (740.5). When the State facilitated the destruction in 2011 of evidence it had agreed to allow Mr. Avery to test, the State argued, as is it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (See 770.2). This Court did not accept those disingenuous responses then, and it should reject the same disingenuous response now. (pp 1-2. Reply to State's Response, April 22, 2021)
The community behind Steven Avery's second exoneration remains optimistic that complete vindication is near at hand.

Apr 12, 2021

Making a Murderer — Avery Attorney Names Apparent Murder Suspect; New Eyewitness Comes Forward, Ids Planting of Victim's RAV-4


Avery Motion Directly Implicates Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, Bobby Dassey and an Older Unidentified Man in Spectacular Development

Updated - The exonerated Steven Avery was made internationally famous in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer, for his exoneration, and subsequent apparent frame-up by crooked Wisconsin law enforcement, resulting in his 2007 conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Today, Steven Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, named Bobby Dassey and "an unidentified older male" as the individuals who planted Ms. Halbach's dark-blue RAV-4 auto in the Avery auto salvage yard, citing a witness who came forward April 11, 2021.

Writes Ms Zellner on Twitter:

Post-conviction litigation is being pursued by Avery's attorneys, Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards, in the Wisconsin court system (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288). The case was awaiting decision in state appellate court (Work with KZ).

This morning on April 12, preceding the announcement, Zellner filed a motion in state appellate court asking for a remand [to County Circuit Court] and a stay of the appeal.

The motion to remand the case is a spectacular development that chronicles two people moving a murder victim's car onto the Steven Avery property after an eye witness, Thomas Sowinski, a motor-route driver for Gannett Newspapers, Inc. came forward on April 11, 2021 (pp 1.2).

After Sowinski witnessed the planting of Ms Halbach's RAV-4, he called the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and was told by a female employee that the Office "already knew who did it," the motion's affidavit reads.

Sowinski said in his affidavit, that not only did he witness Bobby Dassey "suspiciously pushing" the victim's vehicle down Avery Road, but that Bobby attempted to block Sowinski from leaving the property. The second older man ducked down below an open passenger door upon encountering Sowinski.

Sowinski said, "I know that Bobby Dassey and the older individual were doing something creepy." (Affidavit).

As Mr Sowinski's call was not communicated to the Avery defense, the omission by disgraced ex-District Attorney Ken Kratz is a glaring Brady violation.

Zellner told Patch. com (Ferek): "This is an evidence bombshell in the Avery case. We consider it the most significant witness evidence ever in the case, and it's an objective, non-biased witness who notified police in 2005 and he was ignored."

I think Steven Avery never would have been convicted had this evidence been known during his trial, and it destroys Bobby Dassey's credibility and links him to the crime."

The community behind Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey expects a complete exoneration and a criminal probe of Calumet County and Manitowoc County law enforcement, and top officials in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Tips are now coming in to attorney Zellner on the identity of the second person.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice, let by Attorney General Joshua Kaul, appears to be shielding the rampant corruption and criminality of law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

Kaul, who assumed office in 2019, has conspicuously failed to launch any DoJ investigations into law enforcement, including his own department, despite the widespread criticism of police, Ken Kratz, Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office).

Kratz prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases before resigning in disgrace in 2010 after sexual assault and harassment allegations against him came to light and Gov Jim Doyle began removal proceedings.

Gov Doyle (2003-11) and Kaul's mother, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-2007) were bitter political enemies.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice for now is keeping with its strategy on post-conviction litigation by pleading procedural arguments as evidence of law enforcement misconduct mounts.






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Mar 13, 2021

Steven Avery Attorney: '100 Percent Sure Who Killer Is, What Happened'

Madison, Wisconsin — The exonerated Steven Avery made internationally famous in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer, is facing his most grave challenge yet.

Mr. Avery is fighting for his freedom again after being framed by Wisconsin law enforcement a second time in 2007 after he sued Manitowoc County for $36-million for his first wrongful conviction in 1985.

Post-conviction litigation is being pursued by Avery's attorneys, Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards, in the Wisconsin court system (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288). The case is awaiting decision in state appellate court (Work with KZ).

This week, Avery's attorney, Kathleen T. Zellner, spoke with Edward Michael Johnston, a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of the West of England Bristol.

In the interview conducted via Zoom March 12 with Dr. Johnston for his YouTube channel, Criminal Justice Natters, Ms. Zellner offered that she knows who the actual killer of Teresa Halbach is, and what the circumstances are.

"I'm absolutely, 100 percent sure that he's [Steven Avery] innocent. I'm 100 percent sure I know who the killer is and exactly how this happened," said Zellner at the 32-minute mark.

Viewers of the docu-series would love to hear Zellner's theories on the murder but will have to wait until the time is right procedurally for this to be revealed.

Experts believe naming the killer outright publicly in an ongoing post-litigation case could infringe the presumption of innocence, and potentially could lead to destruction of evidence, or perhaps goad the killer into fleeing, among other developments.

Zellner, a veteran of many wrongful conviction cases, said killers almost always confide in other people, and suggested it is just a matter of time before the killer is brought to justice.

Meanwhile, Brandan Dassey, also convicted of helping to kill Ms. Halbach, and his supporters are pressuring Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers for a full pardon, in light of the lack of a case against Dassey.

The cases remain a stain on the Wisconsin legal system and the state Dept of Justice. 

The District Attorney, Ken Kratz, who prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases resigned in disgrace in 2010 after sexual assault and harassment allegations against him came to light and Gov Jim Doyle began removal proceedings.

Kratz has retired from the practice of law following a complaint with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation by Wisconsin resident Michael Leon for misrepresentation of his ability to practice law and his license status. 

Kratz has reportedly moved from Wisconsin.

Still, the Wisconsin Dept of Justice stubbornly defends the case against Dassey brought by a disgraced district attorney in a severely biased jurisdiction.

The Zellner-Johnston interview is below:

Jul 25, 2020

Innocent Wisconsin Man Wins Release with Habeas Petition

Wisconsin Is Worst Place to Be Innocent


Madison, Wisconsin — Innocent people should never fear the police. But they do, and with justification.

Innocence means nothing in police culture and operations, and the state judiciary system will snuff out a life with no qualms.

Cops are out to inflict, defame, arrest, fine, harass and kill the innocent, especially if the innocent are black and brown. Hence, jurists' advice to citizens: Never talk to police, they're ignorant and malicious.

Police action against the innocent is often illegal, and police get it away it every day because in Wisconsin, there is a cult of the police in media, in the Democratic and Republican parties, in the judiciary, everywhere.

To little fanfare, Ladarius Marshall will be a free man after 12 years behind bars, after being feisted upon by Wisconsin cops as a 16-year-old in 2008.

Mr. Marshall filed a successful habeas petition in federal court, (Schuldt, Wisconsin Justice Initiative).

The habaus petition was successful and prosecutors declined to bring new charges, so blatant is the violation of fundamental rights in Mr. Marshall's case.

This is Wisconsin, and Marshall is not alone in being forced to deal with dirty cops who have not apologized to Marshall.

There reamins of course the still-imprisoned innocents, Brendan Dassey, Steven Avery and Penny Brummer. Untold more remain behind bars.

Consider that. These are innocent people behind bars, and Wisconsin law enforcement has and will do anything, illegal and legal, to keep them there.

Stay tuned.

Jun 25, 2020

Steven Avery June 25 Brief Filed for Wrongfully Convicted Wisconsin Man

Madison, Wisconsin — Legally, Steven Avery's post-litigation case is over.

Brady violations, law enforcement smashing preservation of evidence statute, and new evidence all present an overwhelming case that Avery should at least be granted a new trial.

But this is Wisconsin. As compelling is Avery's June 25, 2020 reply brief before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist Two, the Dept of Justice will lie, abide law enforcement lawlessness and cheat to prevail in post-conviction litigation.


"Steven Avery (“Mr. Avery”) has spent 5,343 days (128,232 hours) behind bars for his second wrongful conviction. He has endured the mental anguish of knowing that he is innocent and his constitutional rights to a fair trial were violated,” writes atty Kathleen Zellner in the introduction.

There is nothing Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) will not do to protect the wrongful conviction obtained by disgraced sex offender and Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz, (1992-2010).

Truth, justice, protection of the innocent —  these are not what the Wisconsin Dept of Justice does.
Rampant law-breaking by law enforcement is the norm.
Stay tuned. Brief link is here.

May 30, 2020

Wisconsin Wants Innocent to Remain in Prison — Misconduct Looms

The work of wrongful conviction attorney,
Kathleen Zellner will likely lead to the exoneration
of two innocent men. A second-order consequence
of Zellner's work is the exposure of the most
spectacular law enforcement scandal in
Wisconsin history that could ultimately lead
to the downfall of Wisconsin Attorney
General Joshua Kaul (D).
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Like a cop's knee crushing life out of a man, the state of Wisconsin is determined to keep an innocent man in prison, continuing a perverse crusade.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice filed a new brief this week in the post-conviction litigation of Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer documentary (Newsweek).

The State brief demonstrates Wisconsin 'law enforcement' will do anything to prevent a new trial, or even an evidentiary hearing, that shines public light on the police and prosecutorial misconduct that remains key to keeping Mr. Avery behind bars — and by extension, another wrongfully convicted man, Brendan Dassey.

Avery and Mr. Dassey were convicted for the same 2005 homicide of Teresa Halbach in separate 2007 trials that featured two mutually exclusive versions of the killing presented to juries by a prosecutor with no credibility, a disgraced sex offender — Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz, (1992-2010).

No hearing on the evidence, no new trial, nothing to see here, is the position of the State taken in the brief.

Kratz claimed misconduct that forced him to resign from office in 2010 was committed because of uncontrollable impulses he suffered relating to medical conditions that include narcissistic personality disorder, multiple addictions and his assessment that he is a "dick." [This is not hyperbole.] Kratz resigned his suspended law license after a complaint by the editor of this website, Mal Contends, that accused him of fraud, (State Bar of Wisconsin).

Kratz has not publicly commented on when his medical condition began, and whether he was suffering from his mental illnesses during the Avery and Dassey prosecutions.

The State stands by Ken Kratz' prosecutions.

The case is State v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288.

Avery's deadline for a reply is June 11.

After the much criticized investigations of Avery and Dassey, the fraud perpetrated upon two small-town juries, the post-conviction misconduct of the State and an obstinate county court abusing its discretion stand out as well (see Work with KZ).

Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, commented on the development of the State brief to Kelly Wynne in Newsweek:

'Mr. Avery is not concerned about the State's brief. It demonstrates a poor grasp of the facts, uses boilerplate language and tries to erect every procedural hurdle to obscure the real issue that Mr. Avery suffered numerous constitutional violations that should result in an evidentiary hearing and/or a new trial,' Zellner explained via email.

The State will not address its own misconduct in post-conviction litigation and virtually ignores the many claims of law enforcement misconduct that the state has demonstrably committed.


In a March 2019 legal filing, the DoJ argues procedural objections, as well, including Avery's charges of bad-faith evidence destruction, deceit, concealment and deception, all of which present Due Process questions, (Steven Avery legal filings; #Work with KZ, WBAY, WLUK).

This May 2020 brief continues the State strategy of avoiding mention of charged state lawlessness in appellate court, eschewing Avery's charges that the Calumet County Sheriff's Office secretly transferred evidence, the remains of a murder victim, Teresa Halbach, to private custody in 2011, in violation of state statutes that govern preservation of physical evidence collected; among other allegations.

Commenting on the State's March 29, 2019 legal filing in Newsweek Magazine, Avery's post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said:

'Of course the State cannot address the merits of Avery's claim, because it is blatantly guilty of evidence destruction. Its charade continues without the slightest inclination to discover the truth. Significantly, one of the culprits in the whole sad scenario authored the State's Response. Unfortunately, the citizens of Wisconsin are the recipients of this mockery of justice.'

Zellner’s refers to the DoJ litigation team and Thomas Fallon, who helped oversee the decision to return the alleged human bones to the Halbach family, a scheme in direct contravention of Wisconsin statute.

So, in sum Wisconsin law enforcement has engaged in frame-up schemes, lies, misconduct and a stubborn determination to avoid even discussion of these matters in open court, as two innocent men suffer behind bars.