Wisconsin Ex-DA Drops Pretense as Practicing Atty: Follows Complaint with Lawyer Regulation Office

Update: Disgraced former district attorney Ken Kratz resigned his suspended law license after a complaint by the editor of this website, Mal Contends, (State Bar of Wisconsin).
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Madison, Wisconsin — Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz (R) was chased into resignation and disgrace in 2010 following assault and sexual harassment allegations leveled against him by several women, (ABC News, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

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

The dick is back.

Following years of Kratz falsely purporting to be a practicing private attorney in Wisconsin, Kratz has now dropped this pretense after the intercession of the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) last Summer.

Referee Jonathan Ziesner notified the author, Michael Leon, of a June 19, 2019 grievance against Kratz that Kratz "has made several changes in response to your grievance."

The grievance reads in part:

Kratz was fraudulently portraying himself as an active-status attorney with a license to practice in good standing. ...

Further, an examination of Mr. Kratz’ historical information maintained by the State Bar of Wisconsin and Office of Lawyer Regulation reveals that from 2014 to 2019, Mr. Kratz’ license to practice law in Wisconsin was suspended for discipline, and for administrative deficiencies, a status continuing today. [See attached exhibit.]

In falsely advertising his ability to practice law with a suspended license between 2014-2019, Mr. Kratz has committed a continuing act that reflects adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness and fitness as a Wisconsin  lawyer.

The grievance includes several exhibits that show Kratz purporting to be an attorney in his social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Linked-In as late as June 2019.

Kratz used the false description to fraudulently promote himself to 1,000s of rightwing social media followers.

Kratz is infamous as the corrupt prosecutor of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey convicted for the murder of Teresa Halbach, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docu-series, (Netflix, Inc.).

Kratz engaged in a character assassination tour against Avery after Kratz' resignation that included Kratz writing a letter to Avery under the auspices of his disbanded law firm. In the 2015 letter, Kratz taunted Avery for legally seeking exoneration in post-conviction litigation.
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In other recent developments. Steven Avery's attorneys signaled they will file a massive brief in state appellate court on October 14, 2019 in closely watched post-conviction litigation.

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

Meanwhile, Kratz announced in social media that the publisher of his 2017 monograph on the Avery-Dassey case will release an updated paperback version this year. ---

Wisconsin's Manitowoc and Calumet counties continue as a haven for corrupt law enforcement that brings continuing condemnation from attorneys and other human rights advocates as among the worst in the country.

This cop was so confident framing people you can tell he’d been doing it to hundreds of innocent people. Right in front of his partner, who probably knew. Likewise, I believe Manitowoc’s brazen evidence planting against SA probably came after years of successful corruption. https://t.co/M6Rkq7f2Ra

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) September 20, 2019

Wisconsin Admits State Gave Murder Victim's Family 'Many Bones' — Confirming Assertions Made by Wrongfully Convicted Man's Attorney

Kathleen Zellner, depicted above in image, has shown
beyond serious dispute Wisconsin has framed, destroyed
exculpatory evidence, and secretly broken state laws, all
to convict and protect the convictions of two innocent
men. Though disgraced jurists like Ken Kratz, Josh Kaul,
and many others characters employed by the Wisconsin
Department of Justice do not know it, the truth has a way
of coming out even in Wisconsin. Image from
innocence supporter, JamesBond 007, UK.

Cover-up Continues, as Attorney General Still Opposes Hearing on Destruction of Evidence

Madison, Wisconsin — The state of Wisconsin admitted that law enforcement and prosecutors secretly gave the family of murder victim Teresa Halbach her bodily remains, a 2011 illegal scheme that the state variously claimed is either delivery of animal bones or human bones.

The 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach and the frame-up of wrongfully convicted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are featured in Making a Murderer.

"The State has confirmed with us that they did in fact give 'many bones' back to [Teresa Halbach's] TH’s family. They have no proof they gave notice to SA [Steven Avery] or his attorneys = violation state law [and] due process," writes Avery's post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner.

FYI: The State has confirmed with us that they did in fact give “many bones” back to TH’s family. They have no proof they gave notice to SA or his attorneys =violation state law & due process. @RollingStone @BBCWorld @Newsweek #MakingAMurderer2

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) February 19, 2019

The admission is significant because, as Zellner told Newsweek, "This admission proves these bone fragments were returned to the family and it is undisputed there was no notice given to Steven Avery or his attorneys and that violates Wisconsin law, ... When any of these bones were returned to the Halbach’s Wisconsin State law and due process were violated. The State has confirmed returning many of the bones to the Halbach’s so the court should grant our motion to stay and remand."

Yes, the appellate court should grant the motion.

But lawyers at the Wisconsin Department of Justice do not want to appear in Sheboygan County Court, the jurisdiction to which the case would be remanded or sent back, and explain in a public hearing why the state violated state law in giving likely exculpatory evidence to the family of a murder victim.

It's unclear why the DoJ attorneys are worried.

Sheboygan County Court Angela W. Sutkiewicz is a prosecutor's judge.

Sutkiewicz will flack and cover for the state of Wisconsin. Even if a video surfaced with law enforcement discussing ways of framing Steven Avery, Sutkiewicz would rule, 'nothing to see here,' and this is no new evidence.

Sutkiewicz substitutes her affinity for prosecutors in place of neutral adjudication. To be accused means you have no rights, to be convicted means law enforcement can do no wrong, in what passes for Sutkiewicz' legal mind in Wisconsin.

In 2017, Sutkiewicz rejected Steven Avery's request for a trial made through his post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner.

Sutkiewicz issued her ruling and opinion without ordering and conducting an evidentiary hearing on Kathleen Zellner's 1,200-page post-conviction motion, replete with expert forensic testimony and analyses.

"The judge criticized the defense conclusions as 'speculative' and based on 'interim opinions' by experts," notes Heavy. com.

On June 14, 2018, Avery through Zellner filed a motion for judicial substitution of Sutkiewicz, (Fox-11, Digital). The state of course objected to the motion for a new judge, (Fox-11 News).
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Sutkiewicz' court is a first procedural step for what in most states would already be a conviction that would have been vacated or reversed.

It's likely Kathleen Zellner has gamed out the procedural map dozens of steps into the future.

It's just as likely, should Avery's conviction not be reversed or vacated, Avery's case will eventually appear before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where the population will learn what a Brady motion violation is, and why the state's Brady violations should also result in vacating the wrongful conviction.

Zellner's 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 is being adjudicated. So, we wait.
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In other developments, Avery advocates report that numerous Twitter accounts —  advocating DNA testing and law enforcement abiding by state law —  have been mysteriously shut down in actions apparently traced to persons close to the disgraced ex-district attorney and sex offender, Ken Kratz.

Kratz prosecuted Avery and Brendan Dassey, pleading two contradictory accounts of the same murder, in violation of Wisconsin ethical rules for prosecutors.

Wisconsin Law Enforcement Is a Clown Show That Has Veered into the Malice, Pathology of a Crime Family

Wisconsin law enforcement is a menace to humanity.

Update: For more Making a Murderer-related pieces dating back to 2015, see MaM results.
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Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin law enforcement was displayed to the world in the Making a Murderer docu-series that shines a light on the malicious prosecutions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

There's the prosecuting attorney in both cases, ex-Calumet County district attorney Ken Kratz, who can no longer practice law in Wisconsin, and was chased out of office in 2010 after 10 different sexual harassment complaints came to light.

Now, Kratz lives on a public pension and defends himself against allegations of misconduct in his contradictory accounts of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Ken Kratz' wife is a Trump-loving political rightwinger, just like Kratz. Leah Kratz publicly mocks and taunts Avery, innocence advocates, including atty Kathleen Zellner, for post-conviction litigation that points out in legal filings the state destroyed and manipulated evidence in plain violation of state law and Avery's Constitutional rights.

Writes Kratz this weekend:

Hey guys, Stevie’s still sitting in a jail cell 🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻 #MakingAMurderer #MakingAMurderer2 Keep dragin ass, Kathleen. We love it! 😁😁

— Leah Kratz (@LeahMarieKK) February 16, 2019

One can garner much about the culture of east-central Wisconsin from this one tweet from an unhinged hick.

But lucky for Ken Kratz and his ilk in the Manitowoc and Calumet County sheriff offices, they have a friend they may not have counted on: Wisconsin's new Attorney General Josh Kaul (D).

Josh Kaul's office through co-counsel Mark Williams and Thomas Fallon is carrying on the crusade against Avery and Dassey with the same lack of ethics and regard for law that defined the tenure of Kaul's three predecessors in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.
Writes Amelia McDonell-Parry in Rolling Stone this weekend:

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. ...

On the morning of February 13th, Zellner received a voicemail from attorney Mark Williams, who is co-counsel on the Avery case alongside Fallon and Gahn. The voicemail and transcript were filed along with her February 13th letter, and provided to Rolling Stone and can be heard here. Williams appears to be under the mistaken impression that he’s leaving a message Fallon(.)

This message has done little to dissuade Zellner’s fears that the pelvic bone fragments have been destroyed as well. At the very least, Zellner tells Rolling Stone, the message strongly suggests that prosecutors aren’t certain that the bones are still in evidence.

'This is another first for me,' Zellner tells Rolling Stone. 'Many times I have felt that certain prosecutors were obstructing my efforts, but this is the first time a prosecutor has actually called my phone and left a message confirming that fact. It’s really very thoughtful of them.'

Zellner also believes that by destroying the bones, the State not only violated their own statute, they’ve also denied Avery his constitutional right to due process according to Arizona v. Youngblood. The 1988 Supreme Court decision requires proof that the State acted in 'bad faith' by destroying or losing evidence — it’s a very difficult standard to meet, but Zellner believes this case would qualify. Her January 24th motion asks for the case be remanded back to the Circuit Court so it can address these claims, both of which would all but require the court to overturn Avery’s conviction.

'They’ve been lying all this time about it — and they’ve been lying to the court,' Zellner continues. 'This whole concealment of what happened to the bones is really a way bigger issue than testing them even, because if they’ve been destroyed it’s a violation of their state statute. I don’t know if it’s a felony, but it’s it’s up there. And that’s what the court is grappling with.'

What Attorney General Josh Kaul should have done following developments in the preceding days is draft a letter to the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, and chronicle what Kaul has learned the last three months; arrange a conference with the four appellate justices hearing post-conviction litigation; and admit to a pattern of breaches of ethics and state law.

Kaul had better be in consultation with an ethical advisor as well.

Wisconsin news outlets regard law enforcement misconduct as radioactive. And Kaul and law enforcement are arrogant, confident they get away with much misconduct in a lazy state.

But stay tuned. Despots usually think they're untouchable, but they are rarely correct in this assessment.

#WakeUpWisconsin #WorkWithKZ @GovEvers @WisDOJ exonerate Steven and Brendan then you can get to work on sorting out your corrupt police and prosecutors out!! Ken Kratz and co should be in prison NOT Steven and Brendan #FreeStevenAvery #FreeBrendanDassey https://t.co/LuUsUE7iaI

— Paula Sampson (@PaulaPoolton) February 17, 2019

Wisconsin Daily Hits Lawyer Regulation Agency in Call for Openness

A call to hold the legal profession accountable to the public and the rule of law is the subject of the lede editorial this morning in the GOP-leaning Wisconsin State Journal.

The fact—acknowledged in the Wisconsin legal communities—is that the regulatory state agency charged with policing the legal profession is toothless, weak and lazy.

The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) should be more open and accountable, the State Journal argues.

Yes.

"The Wisconsin Supreme Court is wisely considering a more open process that would warn the public about the worst cases the OLR is investigating," notes the editorial.

This is because investigating lawyers now is a secret and closed process, as though the public had no stake in ridding the practice of law of bad actors.

This situation injures the public more profoundly when the the lawyer in question assumes the role of public prosecutor, enjoying immunity for a whole range of offenses that ought to have the public half-scared to death.

The role of the prosecutor ought to see this public official committed as a zealot to ethics and morality in this office.

The best practices of an entire profession are threatened by secrecy and careerism, but when I hear "lawyer," I think of the prosecutor.

This year Wisconsin will elect a new attorney general.

Robert Jackson's words speak loudly this century:

"A sensitiveness to fair play and sportsmanship is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power, and the citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility."

Don't think we're there yet.

Maybe the 10 months before the next election will see the candidates for attorney general appearing before the Wisconsin people in open forums and not so much hiding in the shadows of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Maybe opening up the process of policing the profession as a whole will become an ideal to which we aspire.

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."