Notable Quotes from a Malicious Prosecution

Please sign Petition to demand new trial for wrongfully convicted Penny Brummer, convicted out of 1990s animus against lesbians by Dane County law enforcement, and tunnel vision.

"You are not judging a human being. [Sarah Gonstead] was killed by somebody who had an interest in seeing her dead. An interest that none of us can understand or fathom. An interest that none of us understand because we've never experienced anything like that. Tell the world what Penny Brummer did and find her guilty," said the (late) assistant D.A. Judy Schwaemle at trial in Brummer v.  Wisconsin (1994) (Dane County Case Number 1994CF000617), (Protess, Huffington Post).
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"One of the questions on the jury sheet was, 'Do you believe that lesbianism is morally wrong?' And I would say a good 75 % of the people we interviewed said yes. But then the district attorneys, [prosecuting attorneys], would ask if they thought they could set aside their opinion of lesbians and judge the case just on the evidence, and they would say yes," said Penny Brummer, (Ingrid Ricks, The Advocate (1995)].
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"Something's got to happen. God's not going to let me sit here for something I didn't do. I feel he's guiding somebody out there to help me," said Penny Brummer, (Lueders, (Isthmus, (2005)).
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"We must make the system more responsive to post-conviction claims of injustice and less bound by blind obedience to finality," (Wisconsin Innocence Project, Keith Findley, Washington Post (2016)).
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Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne

Dear Mr. Ozanne,

"I am writing this pro se (for the moment) and would like to respectfully request that you stipulate to a new trial in light of the paucity of the circumstantial case in Brummer v.  Wisconsin, (Dane County Case Number 1994CF000617)."

This request comes from the commonality we share that justice must guide the actions of the district attorney's office."
—Letter (Jan. 2016) from Penny Brummer asking for new trial

Wrongfully Convicted: Don Miller of Iron County, Wisconsin Is Ordered Freed on Parole

Don Miller of Hurley, Wisconsin appears at hearing in Iron County Courthouse on
Monday. Seated with Miller is John Pray, director of University
of Wisconsin Law School Innocence Project.
Seated behind in the crowd are Innocence Project staff and supporters
of Don Miller. (Photo: Ralph Ansami/Daily Globe)

Update: Don Miller freed from prison after 16 years (Ralph Ansami. Ironwood Daily Globe).
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This site has received word that Don Miller of Hurley, Wisconsin in Iron County has been ordered released on five-years parole today at a hearing this afternoon in the Iron County (Wisconsin) Courthouse.

Thank you Judge Patrick Madden is one meme floating around Iron County today, out of appreciation for his partially correcting an injustice, what this site and national network of advocates see as an abuse of prosecutorial power, and a malicious prosecution of an innocent man.

Wisconsin Court System - Circuit Court Access

Wisconsin Innocence Project attorneys are inaccessible for comment.

Family and supporters are nervous, afraid to talk, and won't be quoted. But Don Miller is going home to the Hurley, Wisconsin home of his parents to be home for Christmas for the first time in 17 years.

Miller has been in prison for some 16 years serving a 42-year sentence since 1997 that this innocent man's advocates have asserted credibly is a "miscarriage of justice," and "malicious prosecution," speaking on condition of background out of fear for retaliation by sitting Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske.

This development came after Miller's live-in girlfriend was asked to move out of Miller's house after sleeping around the sexual playground known as Hurley, Wisconsin. She lied amid widespread beliefs in the county she and Judge Madden were having an affair before, during the trial and with alleged victim.

Today's hearing was attended by a reporter from the Ironwood Daily Globe newspaper.

Federal corruption statute - 18 USC § 201

Some 25 supporters and family members along with several members of the Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project were in attendance.

This site will keep the reader advised, and act and report, as developments warrant.

I will go further, if I am advised of unethical and malicious action, I will dedicate this site to rigorously launch grievances against all parties acting corruptly against this innocent man.

Help for Exonerated Individuals in Wisconsin Needed

A District Attorney destroys exculpatory evidence; a presiding judge
has an affair with the alleged victim, and an innocent Don Miller
draws a 42-sentence in a clear abuse of office. The Wisconsin
Innocence Project is on the case as the Miller family endures.

"There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of the law, and with the colors of justice." [UNITED STATES v. JANNOTTI (No. 81-1020), UNITED STATES v. SCHWARTZ  (No. 81-1021)]

A long over-due discussion is needed on innocence and what we as a society can do about the criminal justice system herding innocent people into prisons in a manner right out of the dark ages.

This phenomenon is not caused solely by corrupt prosecutors, though they play a prominent role.

Very few institutions exist to address this atrocity of an innocent person, unjustly arrested, falsely accused and unjustly convicted.

Ask Penny Brummer; hey, she's a lesbian so in a more bigoted time she was an instant suspect, and ultimately convicted because of her sexuality in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sheila and Doug Berry document Ms. Brummer's case in their Who Killed Sarah?

In the book, readers are treated to "a twilight zone where evidence is ignored or manipulated, innocence is disbelieved and justice is denied to both Penny Brummer and Sarah Gonstead (who was murdered with a gun)."

Writes David Protess in The Huffington Post, "In light of the progress that's been made by the LGBT movement, it's hard to imagine that not too long ago an innocent woman could be convicted of murder because she was a lesbian. And, it's harder still to believe that it could happen in a progressive city like Madison, Wis."

This twilight zone is the reality when innocents are systemically fed into the Police-Prison meat grinder; liberty and dignity prevented, human spirit assaulted and any type of human kindness systemically prevented, and life destroyed.

There are journalists, Dee Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal and Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism are examples; institutions such the Milwaukee-based Innocence Consultants and the University of Wisconsin Law School's Innocence Project, all of whom do tremendous work.

Facing the power of the prosecutor's office, the mindlessness of politicians, the unthinking actions of law enforcement and the apathy of the public, an innocent man or woman convicted of a crime is up against what author Glenn C. Loury terms an "American ... leviathan unmatched in human history."

A leviathan today is defined as a totalitarian state with a vast bureaucracy. 

And a leviathan is an uneven match in our nation of by-standers, as politicians posture as tough-on-crime, and the prison-for-profit industry soars and one company is actually publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, as it too lobbies for harsher sentencing laws.

Keith Findley, faculty director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, discusses in this linked video an effort to help exonerated innocents in Wisconsin.

It would of course be better that innocents never be convicted. 

The putative nature of American culture and the careerism of American jurists and law enforcement in the system make the incarceration of innocents almost a fait accompli.

The English jurist William Blackstone in his 18th century Commentaries on the Laws of England famously declares, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

One can only reference Blackstone today with dark irony

Too many American jurists delude themselves into thinking Blackstone's tenet guides the criminal justice system. 

Denying liberty is the go-to move today, it's convenient for police, prosecutors and judges.

Most of us—untouched by the cruel tyranny of the criminal justice system—view a common effort with the unjustly incarcerated (done in our names) as relevant to our lives as the passing appearance of the moon.

One person who can be helped now is Penny Brummer. She gets a DNA test, she'll get cleared.

Writes Protess:

Penny Brummer - Arrested and convicted of murder
because of absurd, atavistic bigotry towards lesbians.
No evidence, no eyewitness, just ignorance and hate

The best hope at this point, Sheila (Berry) says, is DNA from the bullet that pierced Sarah's brain. Funds are needed to conduct Y-STR testing, which produced results in another infamous Wisconsin murder case involving Laurencia "Bambi" Bembenek. The testing costs $10-15,000, and the Berrys are offering copies of Who Killed Sarah? to anyone who makes a donation.

Will the justice system ever admit its mistake? Penny herself thinks so. "Something's got to happen," she told investigative reporter Bill Lueders, who first exposed the injustice. "God's not going to let me sit here for something I didn't do. I feel he's guiding somebody out there to help me."

But without the DNA testing or other new evidence, Penny's chances are slim. Now 43, she will not be eligible for parole until she turns 70. Unless something does happen, Penny will die in a Wisconsin prison, damned for a relationship once forbidden in an era of intolerance.

An online contribution, or a check can be sent to:

Penny Brummer Defense Fund
The People's Community Bank
P. O. Box 369
Spring Green, WI  53588

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."

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.

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.