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.

Wisconsin's Worst Sheriff Retiring — Mark Wiegert Tricked Brendan Dassey; Illegally Destroyed Evidence

Mark Wiegert — Sheriff of Calumet County,
Wisconsin. Wiegert infamously tricked a
child into a false confession in 2006. Now legislators
and police around the country use the video of Wiegert
lying to a child as an example of what not to do.
"What occurred here was the interrogation of an
intellectually impaired juvenile. Dassey was subjected
to myriad psychologically coercive techniques but the
state court did not review his interrogation with the
special care required by Supreme Court precedent. His
confession was not voluntary and his conviction should
not stand, and yet an impaired teenager has been
sentenced to life in prison. I view this as a profound
miscarriage of justice" - Judge ILana Rovner

It takes a lousy bastard to lie to and manipulate a child for the purpose of tricking him into a perilous situation.

I'm from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, city of the infamous Halloween Killer.

Our community took great effort to warn our children to stay away from predators, sick people who do not see children as human beings.

But in east-central Wisconsin, we feed our children to these people, and they wear a badge.

Meet Mark Wiegert, Sheriff of Calumet County, Wisconsin, the most malignant cop in the state. See also Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance, LaVigne and Miles; Freedom for Brendan Dassey; Northwestern Pritzker School of Law- Making a Murderer, Brendan Dassey Case Highlights.

Wiegert's crimes against the community include:

- Infamous interrogation of Brendan Dassey - 2006. See also Tree jumpers.

- Illegal destruction of evidence scheme - Flaunting Wisconsin's evidence preservation law, in 2011 Calumet County Sheriff Deputy Jeremy Hawkins, Mark Wiegert,and DoJ Attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norman Gahn secretly sneaked the remains of Ms. Teresa Halbach out of evidence and illegally transported the bones to the Halbach family. Now, Wiegert and his conspirators lie about what they did, claiming in effect they gave animal bones to a murder victim's family.

See also Wisconsin DoJ Attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norman Gahn Are Under Cloud in Steven Avery Case.

Incredibly, Wiegert received the Meritorious Service Award from the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators on May 2, 2008 for his grotesque 2006 interrogation of an innocent kid.

This is Wisconsin, this is Mark Wiegert.

Mark Wiegert will soon be feasting on his tax payer-financed pension, instead of burning in hell for his perverting of the judicial system against an innocent teenager.

Wisconsin DoJ Attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norman Gahn Are Under Cloud in Steven Avery Case

Madison, Wisconsin — Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz affirmed a key fact in her August 8, 2019 decision and order in Manitowoc County Circuit Court in Steven Avery's post-conviction litigation.

Steven Avery is featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer documentary series.

Judge Sutkiewicz writes, "The report of [Calumet County Sheriff Deputy Jeremy Hawkins] indicates that he, Sergeant Investigator Mark Wiegert, [DoJ] Attorney Thoman Fallon and [DoJ] Attorney Norman Gahn removed materials stored in evidence, and released them to the [murder victim Teresa] Halbach family," (p 2).

The state appellate case is State v. Steven A. Avery, 2017AP002288.

This is an important admission from Sutkiewicz because the Wisconsin Dept of Justice's Fallon and Gahn have been gas-lighting the Teresa Halbach family, Avery and his attorneys and indeed the entire state of Wisconsin.

Fallon, Gahn and Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) claim they do not know if the biological remains that Fallon, Gahn and the Calumet County Sheriff Dept secretly and illegally released to the Teresa Halbach family in 2011 are in fact the remains of Teresa Halbach.

You read that right. It is the official position of the State of Wisconsin that the State misled a murder victim's family into believing the State had returned to this family the bodily remains of someone whom they now claim may not be Teresa Halbach.
 
Avery's attorney — Kathleen Zellner, Steven Richards and Douglas Johnson — are expected to file a brief with the presiding appellate court within weeks.

The Wisconsin statute 968.205 - Preservation of certain evidence is clear. Among other duties assumed by law enforcement when destroying evidence in its custody, the State must send "a notice of its intent to destroy the evidence to all persons who remain in custody as a result of the criminal conviction, delinquency adjudication, or commitment, and to either the attorney of record for each person in custody or the state public defender."

This statute is not a suggestion of best practices.

The State of course sent no such notice. See Avery legal filings.

The law was specifically changed in 2005 with the legislative intent to allow law enforcement to destroy evidence after meeting all the prescribed conditions necessary for the State to commit this act.

Reads the Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau of ASSEMBLY BILL 648, [LRB−3492/1RLR:wlj&lmk:rs   2005 − 2006 LEGISLATURE]; 

However, if a law enforcement agency, DA, court,or crime laboratory informs every person in custody in connection with a piece of evidence of its intent to destroy the evidence and none of the people either requests preservation of the evidence or files a motion for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing of the biological material contained in or included on the evidence, the law enforcement agency, DA, court, or crime laboratory may destroy the evidence.

This bill provides that a law enforcement agency, DA, court, or crime laboratory must retain evidence that includes biological material and was collected in connection with a criminal investigation that resulted in a conviction, delinquency adjudication, or commitment order only if the biological material is either from the victim of the offense for which the conviction, adjudication, or commitment order was imposed or the biological material may reasonably be used to incriminate or exculpate any person for the offense. Also, a law enforcement agency, DA, court, or crime laboratory need retain the evidence only in an amount and manner sufficient to develop a DNA profile from the evidence. [Emphasis added]

The State now wants to substitute scientific certainty as the new definition that determines the incriminating or exculpatory value of DNA evidence and replace the "may reasonably be used" language that resides in the law and legislative intent.

Instead of "biological material [that] may reasonably be used to incriminate or exculpate," as is the legislative intent and plain language of the statute, Judge Sutkiewicz references the testimony of one scientist from trial to support the State's position.

Surly, it is reasonable to infer that giving a murder victim's family bodily remains purported to be a murder victim's may reasonably be determined to possess exculpatory value, in accordance with Wisconsin statute 968.205 - Preservation of certain evidence.

As attorney Zellner notes in her Feb. 1 legal filing:

The [State] ... conveys an attitude of impunity for its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence and its current action of continuing the concealment of its destruction of potentially exculpatory or useful evidence. ...

The State wants this Court to overlook the undisputed fact that 2 weeks ago, on December 28, 2018, when it filed its response to Mr. Avery's request for new DNA testing of the bones from the Manitowoc Gravel Pit, it never once admitted or disclosed that it had given the bones back to the Halbach family in 2011 without notice to Mr. Avery or his counsel. (Plaintiff-Respondent's Response in Opposition to the Petition to Stay the Appeal and Remand this Case to the circuit court, December 28, 2018, pp. 1-8). Instead, the State carried on its charade of concealment by claiming that Mr. Avery could voluntarily dismiss his pending appeal (pp. 1,2)

What we in Wisconsin need to determine as well is the intent of Calumet County Sheriff Deputy Jeremy Hawkins, Sheriff Mark Wiegert, and DoJ attorneys Thoman Fallon and Norman Gahn through a criminal investigation.

You better believe this gang is culpable in the crimes of 946.65 Obstructing justice and 946.12 Misconduct in public office, for starters.

And a federal probe would certainly help.

These people broke multiple laws in their plot to frame an innocent man, and then destroy evidence to conceal their crimes.

Disgraced District Atty Ken Kratz Applauds Illegal Destruction of Evidence in Making a Murderer Case

Disgraced Calumet County District Attorney
Ken Kratz keeps in touch with the Wisconsin
Dept of Justice through the email of his
now-defunct law firm.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — 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)).

Nice guy, right?

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 wrote.

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.

Now, Kratz — who today still falsely claims to be an attorney in good standing in Wisconsin — is offering justification for the State's illegal destruction of biological evidence in 2011, a focus of Steven Avery's post-conviction litigation seeking reversal of his conviction and a new trial, (McDonell-Parry, Rolling Stone Magazine), (p. one. March 11, 2019 Supplemental § 974.06 Motion for Post-Conviction Relief Pursuant to State's Violation of Wis. Stat § 968.205 and Youngblood v. Arizona).

Update: [Kratz has now changed some of his social media profiles used to publicize his book to reflect the fact that Kratz is no longer practicing law in Wisconsin, a status that dates back for years. Kratz' license to practice law in Wisconsin is suspended and it appears Kratz will never practice law again in Wisconsin.]

Replying to a Steven Avery advocate criticizing the unethical Mantitowoc County Sheriff's Office involvement in the 2005-06 criminal investigation into Avery because Mantitowoc County was conflicted out stemming from a $36-million civil rights suit for the past wrongful conviction of Avery, Kratz wrote on Twitter last weekend:

I can’t believe I’m engaging with you...but somebody has to be the voice of reason. So here’s the question AC: AFTER Avery lost ALL of his direct appeals (and he had none left), how long should the state have waited before it returned the bones to the family??? 1 year? 2? 8????? 

The voice of reason in Wisconsin is Ken Kratz?

I can’t believe I’m engaging with you...but somebody has to be the voice of reason. So here’s the question AC: AFTER Avery lost ALL of his direct appeals (and he had none left), how long should the state have waited before it returned the bones to the family??? 1 year? 2? 8?????

— Ken Kratz (@Ken723Ken) August 17, 2019

Kratz' question is hyperbolic and rhetorical. His question concerns the illegal destruction of biological evidence in 2011 by Sergeant [now Calumet County Sheirff] Investigator Mark Wiegert, and DoJ Attorneys Thoman Fallon and Norman Gahn.

Both Fallon and Gahn were on the trial prosecution team against Avery; both illegally and secretly destroyed evidence, and both Fallon and Gahn are defending their conduct in appellate post-conviction litigation.

Fallon and Gahn argue that key evidence they helped destroy was "inexplicably released" from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit in their March 29, 2019 legal filing, (p 13).

"Inexplicably released." This is an interesting formulation describing an illegal act that Fallon and Gahn committed.

As for Ken Kratz, the darling of Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), here is some legal analysis for this voice of "reason":

The plain language of Wisconsin's Evidence Preservation statute reads: "... the law enforcement agency shall preserve the physical evidence until every person in custody as a result of the conviction, adjudication, or commitment has reached his or her discharge date." 

So, not one year, two years or eight years.

Making a Murderer — Judge Angela Sutkiewicz Covered for Corrupt DoJ Attys, Thoman Fallon and Norman Gahn

Wisconsin's Evidence Preservation statute is a focus of
Steven Avery wrongful conviction litigation.

Updated - A judicial ruling last week is widely misreported as 'Avery loses right to appeal.' Wrong.

The circuit court stop was a necessary procedural step in which the case was heard in front of the corrupt Judge Angela Sutkiewicz. Now, the case will be appealed to state appellate court, as Steven Avery's legal team indicated last Spring, the same appellate court that granted Avery's request to remand the case to circuit court. The question facing Avery was how long Sutkiewicz was going to take to issue her corrupt decision and order.

Sutkiewicz works backwards. Judicial result first, then draft an order and opinion to support the position of corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement.

Wisconsin police did not frame Steveny Avery in a vacuum. Law enforcement did so in a terrain in which police misconduct and criminality are protected in the state judiciary.

See April 21, 2019, for example:

Waiting for the predictable adverse ruling from the lower court so that we can return to the higher court where hopefully justice is not on a permanent holiday. @lifeafterten @michellemalkin #MakingAMurderer2

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) April 21, 2019

The prosecution led by Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) is employing the legal services of corrupt state attorneys including Mark Williams, Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn.

Madison, Wisconsin — A ruling handed down in early August in Manitowoc County Circuit Court is an adverse ruling for Steven Avery, the protagonist in Wisconsin's Making a Murderer post-conviction litigation.

The ruling was widely expected. The Aug 8 decision and order in online here.

This case will be decided in appellate court.

Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz again failed to schedule any proceedings though Sutkiewicz was ordered in a Feb 25, 2019 state appellate court ruling to "conduct any proceedings necessary to address the claims raised in the supplemental postconviction motion ... ."

Attorney Kathleen Zellner file an explosive motion Jan 24, 2019 seeking a hearing because 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, subject to criminal investigations, (Avery Legal Filings).

"[T]he State, in its response to Mr. Avery's motion, makes no effort to deny the due process violations Mr. Avery alleges, i.e., that the State concealed a police report, failed to give statutorily-mandated notice to Mr. Avery and his attorneys of its intent to destroy biological evidence, then facilitated the destruction of the same evidence. The State should not now reap the benefit of its past statutory and due process violations. Such an outcome would contravene the sense of basic fairness inherent in our justice system.," writes Zellner in a Feb 1 legal filing.

Judge Sutkiewicz divined that the State destruction of evidence accomplished by a conspiracy that includes two of the DoJ attorneys now defending the conviction in post-conviction litigation was done in good faith.

Sutkiewicz also determined what the state purported to be a murder victim's remains was not scientifically established as a murder victim's remains, hence the State may secretly destroy the evidence, and the defendant has no recourse.

The State previously suggested to the Court in its Dec. 28, 2018 filing that Avery and Zellner drop their appeal without the State ever having "admitted or disclosed that it had given the bones back to the Halbach family in 2011 without notice to Mr. Avery or his counsel," notes Zellner in her Feb. 1 legal filing.

In other words, law enforcement may hide evidence it claims is a murder victim, destroy this evidence, hide the destruction, then claim the evidence cannot be determined to be exculpatory.

Good enough for Judge Sutkiewicz who acknowledges what Zellner uncovered.


Writes Sutkiewicz: "The report of Deputy [Jeremy] Hawkins indicates that he, Sergeant Investigator Mark Wiegert, Attorney Thoman Fallon and Attorney Norman Gahn removed materials stored in evidence, and released them to the Halbach family," (p 2).
---
Can you imagine if Fallon and Gahn had to explain themselves as witnesses in open court, had Sutkiewicz held proceedings to determine the status of claims of potential exculpatory value of the remains that law enforcement illegally destroyed? How about an examination of Fallon and Gahn's motives to determine good faith?

Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul continues to allow these two DoJ attorneys who disregarded Wisconsin's Evidence Preservation statute to argue this post-conviction case, though their conduct is suspect and worthy of a criminal investigation in itself.

Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz covered for Thoman Fallon and Norman Gahn, who along with a host of Wisconsin law enforcement are a criminal element.


In the coming weeks, the Wisconsin population may learn what a Brady motion violation is, and why the state's Brady violations should also result in vacating this wrongful conviction.

Further, as the Wisconsin DoJ and local law enforcement are incapable of policing themselves, surely a FBI probe is needed here in Wisconsin.

Steven Avery's Motion Denied at Wisconsin Circuit Court; Adverse Ruling Was Expected

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — A ruling handed down yesterday in Manitowoc County Circuit Court is an adverse ruling for Steven Avery, the protagonist and defendant in Wisconsin's Making a Murderer post-conviction litigation.

The Aug 8 decision and order in online here.

But the adverse ruling from Sheboygan County Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz (substituting) was long predicted by advocates for Mr. Avery, an innocent man framed by corrupt law enforcement and prosecuted by a sex offender, former Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz.

Judge Sutkiewicz was ordered in a Feb 25, 2019 state appellate court ruling to "conduct any proceedings necessary to address the claims raised in the supplemental postconviction motion ... ."

As no hearings were ever even scheduled, a reasonable reading of the denial is that Sutkiewicz simply ignored the appellate court ruling in this case.

Avery's attorneys, Kathleen Zellner and Steven G. Richards, filed a supplemental (additional) motion for relief, asking for a court order "reversing the judgment of his [Avery's] convictions and sentence and ordering a new trial," (McDonell-Parry, Rolling Stone Magazine), (p. one. March 11, 2019 Supplemental § 974.06 Motion for Post-Conviction Relief Pursuant to State's Violation of Wis. Stat § 968.205 and Youngblood v. Arizona).

The Circuit Court ruling and analysis are expected to be posted online at Work with KZ this weekend.

The Wisconsin prosecution is led by Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) who has employed  the legal services of corrupt state attorneys including Mark Williams, Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn.

Fallon and Gahn argue that key evidence they helped destroy was "inexplicably released" from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit in their March 29, 2019 legal filing, (p 13).

A brief is expected to be filed with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District Two soon.

A quiet confidence among advocates remains now that the corrupt Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz has issued her expected adverse ruling.

Sutkiewicz' decision appears rushed and less-than-scholarly; her logic less so.

Sutkiewicz writes it is not enough for the defense to allege exculpatory value of destroyed evidence, (p 8).

One problem with this reasoning is the state and prosecution also inferred the exculpatory value of destroyed evidence through the state's own conclusion the remains are the victim's, hence of potential exculpatory value.

In fact, DoJ attorneys Fallon and Gahn themselves believed that bones they conspired to give to the Halbach family are human. Fallon and Gahn write the bones were "inexplicably released" from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit in their March 29, 2019 legal filing.

Sutkiewicz argues the remains of the murder victim's bones that the state illegally gave to the victim's family are not conclusively the victim just because the state believed so.

Judge AS💐decision on State's destruction of bones: Eisenberg didn't conclude with certainty Quarry bones were human, so they aren't victim's remains, even though State gave them to Halbach family as TH's remains. 🙄 Lots of assumptions made w/o hearinghttps://t.co/ycIiOwzEIm

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) August 9, 2019

Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn illegally conspired to destroy evidence, the victim's remains, and now the judge is ruling the state should profit from their illegal act.

Looks to me like the decision is confirming that there's nothing identifying Teresa Halbach. They have ID enough to tell a jury it was TH to fight to put him in prison, but no ID in giving the same remains back to the family as he fights to get out? Halbach's bury chicken bones? pic.twitter.com/joUvqIsXJE

— TickTockManitowoc (@TManitowoc) August 9, 2019

Writes attorney Kathleen Zellner:

Avery update: We are thrilled to be returning to the appellate court after all of this time!!!!! #SilverLinings @lifeafterten @michellemalkin #MakingAMurderer2

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) August 8, 2019

Wrongfully Convicted Wisconsin Man Awaits Word from Circuit Court

Multiple violations of the law committed by Wisconsin
law enforcement are part of post-conviction litigation
in Steven Avery's bid for a new trial.
[p. 10, Defendant's Motion for Leave to File Defendant's
Reply to the State's Response in Opposition to
Defendant's Motion for New Trial. April 11, 2019]

Madison, Wisconsin — Two Wisconsin Dept of Justice (DoJ) attorneys conspired to destroy exculpatory evidence in 2011 in the Steven Avery case, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer.

This evidence destruction is being litigated in Avery's post-conviction case by the same two DoJ perpetrators — Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon, and DoJ Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn. Gahn and Fallon were also part of the Special Prosecutor's trial team led by the disgraced sex offender, ex-Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz. (McDonell-Parry reports in Rolling Stone Magazine)

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

Fallon and Gahn argue that the evidence they helped destroy was "inexplicably released" from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit in their March 29, 2019 legal filing, (p 13).

"Inexplicably released" is an interesting, indeed disingenuous characterization for the illegal destruction of evidence that not only implicates Fallon, Gahn and Calumet County Sheriff Mark Wiegert, but also is a part of Avery's post-conviction litigation pleading this concealment and destruction violates the Due Process Clause and is a clear Brady violation under Wisconsin judicial doctrine.

The sheer multiplicity of illegality and violations of Avery's constitutional rights by Wisconsin law enforcement is a window into Wisconsin law enforcement corruption.

A reader ought consider noting this is not ole-boy Louisiana corruption. This is demented Wisconsin police corruption, more insidious than any conduct our fellows to the South can conjure.

A co-conspirator in the evidence destruction is current Calumet County Sheriff Mark Wiegert — the same Mark Wiegert who abused a cognitively challenged 16-year-old Brendan Dassey and falsely claimed Dassey had confessed to killing a young woman with Avery in 2005. (Michele LaVigne, Sally U. Miles. Under the Hood. Brendan Dassey. Language Impairment and Judicial Ignorance.)

DoJ attorneys Fallon and Gahn are working under the authority of Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kahl (D).

A decision is expected before June 10, 2019. An adverse ruling for Steven Avery is expected from a Wisconsin circuit court judge, Sheboygan County Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz, (Workwith KZ legal filings).

Avery is expected by observers to prevail in state appellate court.

Wisconsin Evidence Preservation Law Fails When DoJ and Other Cops Dismiss Duties Mandated by Statute

Wisconsin's biological evidence preservation law is clear:
" ... Except as provided in sub. (3), if physical evidence
that is in the possession of a law enforcement agency
includes any biological material that was collected
in connection with a criminal investigation
that resulted in a criminal conviction, delinquency
adjudication, or commitment under s. 971.17 or 980.06
and the biological material is from a victim of the
offense that was the subject of the criminal investigation
or may reasonably be used to incriminate or exculpate
any person for the offense, the law enforcement agency
shall preserve the physical evidence until every person
in custody as a result of the conviction, adjudication,
or commitment has reached his or her discharge date."

Madison, Wisconsin—As a Wisconsin circuit court judge—Sheboygan County Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz (substituting)—works on crafting her opinion to sabotage the post-conviction litigation of an innocent man, a state law meant to preserve evidence is one focus of legal filings this year by wrongful conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner (McDonell-Parry, Rolling Stone Magazine).

The case is State v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288, brought by Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer.

The prosecution led by Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) and his legal team—including Mark Williams, Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn—have not challenged the fact that law enforcement destroyed evidence in violation of state statute.

In fact, Department of Justice Special Prosecutors Thomas J. Fallon and Norman Gahn plotted to destroy evidence in 2011, and now Attorney General Joshua Kaul has both Fallon and Gahn defending the wrongful prosecution of Avery—discredited work of the disgraced sex offender and ex-Calumet County District Attorney, Ken Kratz—who foisted a fraud upon two separate juries arguing two conflicting sets of facts to convict both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

This is a bizarre development in which two DoJ attorneys break the law, represent the state in post-conviction litigation, and then refuse to engage the arguments pleading the facts and implications of their unlawful conduct.

The legal strategy of the State protecting the conviction of a man whom they know to be innocent is to present a serpentine, internally inconsistent procedural argument that does not address the merits of the willful and unlawful destruction of evidence and the Due Process implications of this lawless state action committed in 2011 (Avery legal filings).

Worse, the State DoJ is continuing its effort to obstruct attorney Zellner, while Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz continues her strategy of running legal interference on the circuit court level to whom the case was sent back by a state appellate panel on Feb 25, 2019.

This is a spectacle of lawless Wisconsin law enforcement that is largely blacked out in the Wisconsin media.

As Amelia McDonell-Parry reports in Rolling Stone Magazine in Feb 2019:

Attorney Kathleen Zellner has filed a new letter with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on behalf of her client, Steven Avery, accusing the Attorney General’s Office of 'trying to deceive' her and the Court about the status of key forensic evidence in the Making a Murderer case. Zellner’s letter, submitted on February 13th, is actually her second letter to the court in as many days; both letters supplement a January 24th motion that accused prosecutors of violating state law and Avery’s constitutional rights by destroying evidence. Zellner tells Rolling Stone that she has since learned that a key piece of evidence—suspected human pelvic bone fragments, which could exonerate her client—may have been destroyed as well. And, she says, prosecutors are 'obstructing' her efforts to find out.

According to a newly discovered police report and updated evidence control ledgers, on September 20th, 2011, 'human bone' fragments recovered during the investigation were removed from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit. They were transferred to a local funeral home, which then 'returned' the bones to the family of murder victim Teresa Halbach.

According to an affidavit from Avery’s former appellate attorney Suzanne Hagopian, the State never informed defense counsel of its intention to effectively 'destroy' key case evidence by giving it to the victim’s family. Wisconsin law requires law enforcement to preserve 'any biological material' and 'physical evidence' until the convicted defendant has been discharged from prison. Avery is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, and the Wisconsin statute protects his right to retain evidence that 'may reasonably be used to incriminate or exculpate any person' in Halbach’s murder.

Calumet County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Jeremy Hawkins states in the 2011 police report that Sgt. Investigator Mark Wiegert, and attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norm Gahn, were involved in removing the bones from evidence control. Wiegert was a lead investigator in the case, while Fallon and Gahn were on the trial prosecution team. Fallon is now an Assistant Attorney General, and he and Gahn continue to represent the case on behalf of the state of Wisconsin as Avery appeals his conviction. Rolling Stone sent Fallon and Gahn a detailed request for comment on the claims outlined in Zellner’s court filings; a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office replied to say that they 'cannot comment on ongoing litigation.'

The September 20th, 2011 police report, which Zellner says she received in December from an anonymous third-party, has exposed a lot more than just a violation of state law. A thorough assessment of updated evidence control ledgers and crime lab unit reports (attached as exhibits to her four most recent court filings and reviewed by Rolling Stone) indicates that the 'human bones' recovered during the investigation were more plentiful than had ever been conveyed to the defense. And many of the bones that were returned to the Halbach family in 2011 were collected from locations that prosecutors claimed had nothing to do with her murder.

According to police and prosecutors, Avery fatally shot Halbach in his garage, dismembered and then burned her body in a pit next to his trailer. Investigators recovered charred human remains, namely bone, from Avery’s burn pit and a burn barrel. However, there was also evidence of a second burn location just over half a mile from Avery’s trailer. The Manitowoc County quarry is about a quarter mile from what used to be a back entrance to the salvage yard; that’s where investigators recovered another burn pile containing possible human pelvic bone fragments.

Avery’s trial attorneys theorized that the quarry bones were evidence that Halbach’s body was burned somewhere other than the Avery property. Prosecutor Ken Kratz, on the other hand, downplayed the possibility that they were human, telling the jury, 'These bones in the quarry, I’m going to take 20 seconds to talk about, because the best anybody can say is that they are possible [sic] human.'

Zellner has wanted to get her hands on the suspected human pelvic bones since November 2016, when the Wisconsin Circuit Court ordered new scientific testing on certain items of evidence. In September 2017, Assistant Attorney General Fallon agreed to allow a 'microscopic examination' of the pelvic bone fragments to determine whether they’re human. For Zellner, this examination is just the first step toward proving a longtime defense theory that Halbach was killed, dismembered and burned at another location.

'[Avery’s trial attorney] Jerry Buting even said, if her body parts are over in the quarry, then Steven Avery’s innocent because the prosecution said she never left the property,' Zellner says. 'Plus, he’s not going to bring the bones from the quarry and plant them in his burn pit!'

However, soon after the parties agreed to examine the bones, the circuit court [Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz] issued a seemingly hasty decision denying Avery’s petition for post-conviction relief, despite the fact that several court-ordered tests were still pending. Examining the bones has been put on hold, pending a ruling by the Court of Appeals.

State Appellate Court will make Steven Avery free, observers believe.

What is unclear at this point in litigation is how far Wisconsin law enforcement, led by Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), will go to protect an unlawful and wrongful conviction. 

Evidence "Inexplicably Released" — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul Defends Concealment in Filing; Famed Wrongful Conviction Attorney Zellner Signals New Disclosure of State Deception This Week

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 — Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) is trying to stop the exoneration of Steven Avery, the wrongfully convicted man featured in Making a Murderer.

The state Dept of Justice's (DoJ) legal effort defending a police frame-up in post-conviction litigation is drawing howls across the world.

Calls abound for the DoJ to change its continuing concealment efforts in this litigation, agree to new DNA testing and change its conduct that appears unethical, and arguably criminal.

The post-conviction ligation is, State v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288, now before Manitowoc County Circuit Court.

In its late-March legal filing, the DoJ argues procedural objections to 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).

Continuing its strategy of avoiding mention of charged state lawlessness in appellate court, the State's conduct now before County Circuit Court again appears striking in avoidance of the merits of 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:

Wisconsin Dept of Justice is painting itself into a corner
in its effort to keep innocent men in prison. "The State
is thumbing its nose at the appellate court once again,"
wrongful conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner told Newsweek
on April 2. "That court specifically ordered that the merits of the
alleged bone destruction be addressed. Rather than follow the
court's directive, the State has constructed a convoluted
procedural argument that defies logic or precedent."

'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 last point refers to the DoJ litigation team and Thomas Fallon, who helped oversee the decision to return the alleged human bones to the Halbach family. Fallon wrote the state’s response, according to Zellner.

The post-conviction ligation is State v. Steven A. Avery, (Appeal Number 2017AP002288), now before Manitowoc County Circuit Court.

Before Zellner won her motion for a remand (sending back) the case to Circuit Court, Zellner argued in her Feb. 1 legal filing.

The [State] ... conveys an attitude of impunity for its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence and its current action of continuing the concealment of its destruction of potentially exculpatory or useful evidence. ...

The State wants this Court to overlook the undisputed fact that 2 weeks ago, on December 28, 2018, when it filed its response to Mr. Avery's request for new DNA testing of the bones from the Manitowoc Gravel Pit, it never once admitted or disclosed that it had given the bones back to the Halbach family in 2011 without notice to Mr. Avery or his counsel. (Plaintiff-Respondent's Response in Opposition to the Petition to Stay the Appeal and Remand this Case to the circuit court, December 28, 2018, pp. 1-8). Instead, the State carried on its charade of concealment by claiming that Mr. Avery could voluntarily dismiss his pending appeal (pp. 1,2) (emphasis added).

The Court of Appeals agreed with Zellner, (Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Feb. 25, 2091).

The sheer multiplicity of law enforcement misconduct makes this litigation a spectacle.

Now, the deception of the DoJ attorneys in defending this miscarriage of justice threatens to become another spectacle, a la attorney state attorney Mark Williams leaving a Feb errant voicemail message to Thomas Fallon plotting how to mislead Zellner.

And Fallon along with state attorney Norman Gahn not only worked together to illegally destroy evidence, the two DoJ attorneys are now writing legal filings opposing Zellner's March 11 call for a reversal or new trial.

Zellner claims convincingly to have uncovered at least six Brady violations committed by the prosecution, any one of which could result in a new trial or reversal.

Stay tuned this week:

Avery Update: The court will be hearing from us this week. The deeper we dig the more deception we uncover. I guess they do not realize the whole world is watching. ⁦@lifeafterten⁩ ⁦@michellemalkin⁩ ⁦@Newsweek⁩ ⁦#MakingaMurderer https://t.co/EGXlKYwY8o

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) April 7, 2019