Fitchburg, Wisc Poll Worker Violates Voter Privacy with Letter, Following Voter Obstruction

Fitchburg Star column in November 2016 issue. Column is
written by Michael Leon, a writer and resident living in Fitchburg,
Wisconsin.

Anatomy of Harassment from Pernicious Poll Workers

Update: A reader asked, "What's Ron Johnson's deal?" Ron, The Racist, Johnson's deal is he is feigning a causal interest in this matter, after participating in a ridiculous voter-obstruction incident on Aug. 9. Ron left a message, (a comment), at this site in August, and is now following my work in different periodicals, leaving behind defamatory commentary. Ron really, really is interested in stopping voter fraud, so interested he lies about this voting-rights activist.
---
Fitchburg, Wisconsin — Ron Johnson is a veteran Fitchburg poll worker who has long-championed Wisconsin's obstructionist photo voter ID law intended to hinder the disfavored people from casting their preference at the voting booth.

Johnson has numerous like-minded colleagues on the Fitchburg election inspector roster.

Johnson, and three other white poll workers, personally obstructed this writer at the polling station on August 9, as chronicled in subsequent communications by me to the Dane County District Attorney's office and the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Unfortunately for me, Ron Johnson is an escalating racist as indicated in Johnson's official conduct as a Fitchburg poll worker. Johnson's status as a white and racist poll worker is not frowned upon by Fitchburg City Hall election officials, and complaints of harassment and discrimination are routinely ignored. I can verify these dynamics as a nine-year sworn Fitchburg election inspector.

Now, Johnson has taken to this site, and the Fitchburg Star, (Woodward Communications), to violate this voter's privacy at the polling place in defamatory editorial comment that chronicles this voter's personalized voting experience on August 9, violating my right to cast a ballot privately in Wisconsin, (Wisconsin Elections Commission).

Wisconsin election officials have a duty to administering elections in a fair, impartial manner that ensures voter privacy.

Ron Johnson didn't get that memo about voters' privacy.

In a letter to the Fitchburg Star, Johnson responds to this writer's column, (column reproduced above-right and below), challenging the racial animus in Fitchburg culture and Fitchburg City Hall. In my Star column I specifically cite the "sacrosanct nature of the booth" vis a vis incursions by Fitchburg election officials.

Putting aside the defamations and inaccuracies in Johnson's letter to the editor, Johnson offers his version of the voter-obstruction incident in a step-by-step chronicle that identifies me as a voter, describes my specific and personalized issues I experienced on Aug 9, and concludes with a chronicling of Johnson's attempt in August to comment at this site. (This site does not run defamations by racists in comments.)

To understand this appeal to privacy in this matter, consider scenarios when a voter enters a polling site and experiences an issue such a spoiled ballot, a 30-minte delay in voting, or the use of a disability apparatus. Now, consider Ron Johnson working a poll worker and publishing a personalized narrative of the voter's experience using this voter's name, replete with invective. This conduct violates privacy expectations, and is pernicious activity committed by a Fitchburg election official.

This conduct does, however, casts light on the state of mind and attitudes of some Fitchburg poll workers towards another poll worker and voter who writes disfavored political analyses and commentary in Newxtex, (now ACI Information Group), and client periodicals.

Am meeting with Fitchburg City Attorney next week, though I am pessimistic with respect to outcomes as racial animus appears to the official and unchallenged policy of Fitchburg City Hall.

Stay tuned.

Above is Fitchburg Star column in November 2016 issue. Column is
written by Michael Leon, a writer and resident living in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

I'm a Fitchburg, Wisconsin Election Inspector, Was Stopped from Voting for 35 Minutes and Harassed

Voter Obstruction and Harassment Has to Stop Now

Update II: White Fitchburg election inspector leaves comment at Mal Contends, corroborating in part allegations below. MC would publish comment, (it is saved), however it is this site's policy not to run the words of racists, as I hate those fuckers.
--
Updated - I have voted at Fitchburg Fire Station, Number 2, for some 15 years, working as a sworn election inspector, (contract employee), for some nine years.

This morning I walked-jogged to my polling place to vote.

I walked into the fire station, said 'hi' to the greeter, said hi to Hertis at the Ballots table, hi to Lynette Rasmusson, a retied teacher, friend and neighbor down our street, at the M-Z voting books.

I walk over to the A-L table to state my name and address, as I do in every election.

I gave the Republican Election Inspector on the A-L books my Wisconsin-issued voter-photo ID who proceeded to take about two minutes time, apparently pretending to inspect attributes.

'Get to work, boys. Leon, Michael, Monticello Way, 5767,' I said jokingly.

But something was up. I worked the voting rolls inspecting IDs in before, and it does not take this long to examine an ID.

Election inspectors typically are not adversarial and hostile except maybe to black folks, but I'm waiting for my voting number to get my ballot.

I take my ID and I place it back in my wallet.

'I need to see your ID again, I have to check, ahh, the expiration date," said the Republican.

—You just saw it and inspected my ID. You don't need to see it again, I say.

This guy is screwing with me, with my vote. I'm pissed.

'I need you to state your address, Mike,' using my name.

—You're screwing with me. I gave you my ID, and my address. You know fully well who I am. Where's my [voting] number. I'm voting today.

I can't believe this Republican is screwing with me, with my vote. He has my name and address, and after examining my ID, now he's preventing me from voting.

I'm going to settle this with the election authorities, I say. I'm being denied my right to vote, I said, glancing at Lynette Rasmusson at the M-Z table.

I call up the US Atty's office, the Wisconsin DoJ, the Fitchburg City Clerk, the Dane County DA and then the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC, formerly GAB).

Should have started with Elections Commission, but my guard is down, I was ambushed. Hey, I'm voting; it's social, civic and political.

So, after being on with the Elections Commission for several minutes, I gave her the name of Dale Z., the Republican Chief Election Inspector seated behind and to the right of the voting rolls.

I hold the phone in the air, and she hears the chatter from the A-L table. 'We need your name and address,' says the Republican.

Okay, they are screwing with me still, and I cannot believe it, but I'll try this again with the Elections Commission on. I give my name and address again. This time, the two Republicans and Ron Johnson, (also working the A-L table), all yell, cheer and say, about time.

The Elections Commission says, what was that? Those are the Republican election inspectors, I reply.

It sounded like a gasp, but I don't know.

I call a Fitchburg Alder, Tony Hartman, and the Fitchburg Star and a bunch of local politcos and elected officeholders.

This harassment and voter obstruction has to stop now.

Tony Hartman says he'll talk to Patty and Tracy at City Hall. I'm on with Mike Haas at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and tell him in no uncertain words, this harassment has to stop.

I call City Hall, the election inspector dismisses my complaint out-of-hand with no investigation.

By not taking my complaint seriously, she was giving tacit approval to the violators and condoning their action.

City Hall doesn't like my writing, doesn't like my sticking up for voters. I'm still on with Haas.


Jackie, my life partner who is in ill health, calls from the living room and said, there is Fitchburg Police squadron stopping at our home, and two armed FPD officers walk up our drive-way and pound at the door.

Jackie is scared is her own home, and she cannot afford stress.

This is voting today, this has to stop. Right now.
--
Email to Fitchburg, Wisconsin Common Council members sent Aug. 9

This needs to stop right now.

I had multiple conversations with District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, the GAB's Mike Haas, and State Rep. Robb Kahl's office, among many other parties.

I related this morning's events about being obstructed to vote for 35 minutes, followed by two visits of Fitchburg

Police banging on our home, and upsetting Jackie to tears. Her health is not good, and she need a stress-free environment. I will file a civil rights complaint and a civil suit if personal injury results.

These events are chronicled here.

The voter obstruction and police harassment comes as a partisan tactical voter suppression campaign is clear, and secondly my status as an ethic minority is met with hostility by Republicans including but not limited to three Republican Fitchburg election inspectors and Tracy Oldenburg.

There will be an investigation conducted by the District Attorney's office as well as the Elections Commission, I have been assured.

Prior to these investigations, it is incumbent that we realize Tracy is not capable of addressing complaints, as evinced by her behavior in which she summarily dismissed my complaint with no investigation.

More insidious is the fact Republican election inspectors felt entitled and empowered to engage in this clearly hostile voter obstruction. Tracy Oldenburg is incapable of administering elections and an inquiry should be addressed with an eye towards removing her.

I would ask for a thorough consideration of the facts of harassment against my family and me, and voter obstruction conducted with the assent of Tracy Oldenburg.

Mike Leon

Fitchburg, Wisc Mayor's Remarkable Public Apology Rings Hollow

Wanda Smith is a popular community activist and child-care
activist against whom Fithcburg Ald Dorothy Krause began
a character assassination project, attempting to enlist
the Fitchburg City Manager, the Fitchburg City Attorney's
office, and the Fitchburg Police Department. A subsequently
contrite Fitchburg Mayor issued an apology to Ms. Smith on
behalf of the City of Fitchburg on Nov. 17, throwing
Ald Krause under the bus, and opening the City to a
possible federal civil rights action by Smith. Smith is speaking
at the apology press conference above.

Fitchburg—the city's name is an imprecation, a curse against democratic norms and generations-long commitment of the progressive state, Wisconsin

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—The bullshit piles up so high here, you need wings to stay above it.

The Fitchburg, Wisconsin mayor issued a well-conceived PR apology for cutting off a commenting citizen in mid-sentence and then instructing the Fitchburg City Administrator to phone the police about this disturbance at a budget hearing last week, (Wisconisn State Journal, Fitchburg Star).

This mayoral apology directed at multiple citizens—Kaleem Caire, Amelia Royko Maurer, Nate Royko Maurer, and Wanda Smith for First Amendment-protected speech—fell flat last Friday, (Nov. 17).

No citizen reached was surprised the Fitchburg police were contacted as a complaint against a citizen attending a Common Council meeting, ejecting citizens from a public meeting, that a Fitchburg alder would engage in a character assassination scheme against another citizen, or that Mayor Jason Gonzalez' effort at damage control would be so transparently disingenuous.

"There was some … improper exercise of discretion by myself when I interrupted two speakers. When I ran, I ran on a platform of inclusion and bringing our city together. It appears I’ve gone astray, and I apologize for that," said Gonzalez, (Fitchburg Star, City of Fitchburg). Gone astray?

Voter obstruction will continue in Fitchburg, and as most young and minority voters in alder district one know, the polling place here is hostile to their presence on Election Day.

This is Fitchburg, and the norms prevailing in other municipalities do not apply here where retaliations by elected and appointed Fitchburg officials against whistle-blowers, black people, and assorted progressives (they're a perceived problem), are routine.

Some take-aways from the last few weeks of life in Fitchburg, Wisconsin:

• Nicholas Garton deserves recognition for his investigative reporting at the journal, Madison.365.
• Fitchburg Alder Dorothy Krause has been thrown under the bus after the mayor issued his remarkable public apology on behalf of the entire City of Fitchburg specifically citing Krause's character assassination project against citizen Wanda Smith. Krause is now an alder without a district, and resides in political no-woman's land.
• Kaleem Caire, a commenting citizen at the budget hearing who was subjected to public abuse and an outrageous police call, has been revealed as an opportunistic pol who can be expected to use this outrage for his own political benefit, against the benefit of the community. Caire isn't fooling anyone and standing up for Caire is just, is the consensus among progressives here.
• The Recall-the-bums campaign is still on, and the mayor's public dumping of Krause and his apology change nothing.
• Former mayor Steve Arnold is a keeper of valuable voting lists. 
• City officials still feel entitled to treat the Fitchburg Police Department as a political hit-squad for corrupt purposes such as defaming citizens.
• Wanda Smith is a political force to be reckoned with.
• Wisconsin State Journal columnist, Chris Rickert, who penned a racist, black parents-should-feed-their-kids piece in his coverage of Fitchburg earlier this month, is now working at a new position to improve local coverage at the daily, what used to be the life-blood of newspapers.
• Fitchburg is racist to the bone, and any young and minority person locating here should be prepared to fight for your rights, perhaps more than folks have ever had to before.

Wisconsin Republicans' Voter-Suppression Project Stopped 10,000s in 2016

Human Being, Gladys Harris of Milwaukee,
stopped by Wisconsin Republicans
from voting in 2016. From photo by
 Carrie Antlfinger, Associated Press.

2,976,150 Votes Is Less than 3,068,434 Votes
- "They prevented us from voting," says human being.

Update - See Berman, The Nation.
Fitchburg, Wisconsin — When Wisconsin Republicans began their massive voter-suppression project in 2011, mandating a new voting qualification in photo voter IDs, the prospect made Republicans "giddy," noted a staffer, Todd Allbaugh, present at a Republican Party caucus, (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Sommerhauser, Wisconsin State Journal).

Associated Press writers, Christina A. Cassidy, Ivan Moreno, have a piece out showing Wisconsin Republicans' transformation of election law yielded significant results in stopping people from voting, lowering the total vote in Milwaukee and statewide, (Wisconsin State Journal). [See also Mal Contends, Mal Contends, Chris Carson and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

"Overall, nearly 3 million people in Wisconsin voted last November, about 91,000 fewer than in 2012. Milwaukee, a power center for Democrats, reported that 41,000 fewer people voted there than in 2012," note Cassidy and Moreno.

The 41,000 voting decrease in Milwaukee alone, where "urban" types reside as noted by Rep. Paul Ryan in 2012, nearly doubles Donald Trump's 2016 victory margin of some 22,000 votes.

In 2012, some 3,068,434 votes were cast for president in Wisconsin. In 2016, this figure is 2,976,150 votes.

The Republican voter suppression project, not often acknowledged, extends to the polling place where voters are harassed in a corruption of the voting process.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin

Today, at 5:00 p.m. (Central), this writer, a Wisconsin voter and a current, 11-year election inspector, will attend the Fitchburg, Wisconsin Municipal Court to challenge a bogus civil citation for disorderly conduct, issued in retaliation for years of sticking up for voters obstructed and harassed in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, an increasingly racist and toxic city of some 25,000 people.

I urge you to attend the proceeding, or view on on of these Charter Communication cable channels: Fitchburg City Channel 985, Fitchburg City Channel 986, or Fitchburg Access Community TV, (FACT) Channel 987, as possible.

A small number of white citizens in Fitchburg, Wisconsin aspires the community to become a white-dominated police state, and is making consequential strikes.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin Pols and City Officials Veer into Misconduct Against Citizens, Again

Kaleem Caire, president of One City Learning Centers,
in Madison, Wisconsin, attended the Ftichburg
Common Council hearing at which funding for non-
profits was addressed. The Mayor of Fitchburg instructed the
City Administrator to call the police on Mr. Caire,
while testifying at a public hearing on the budget last night.
The mayor, city administrator and several alders
walked out of the meeting and ordered the police
to remove Kaleem Caire from the building or they
would not return. This is Fitchburg, Wisconsin.
Via Facebook

'Never seen anything like this before'

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—There is no apparent bottom to how low the Fitchburg Common Council, City officials and Fitchburg Police can sink.

In Fitchburg, police harass and fine residents objecting to this municipal, seemingly socio-psychological experiment on how far city bureaucrats, racists, white poll workers, and cops will go to silence, (and this is in an American city in Dane County Wisconsin), citizens objecting to municipal public policy such as obstructing voters, harassing black residents, and cutting public funds for non-profits serving minorities.

The latest from Fitchburg.

At a public hearing on the proposed 2018 budget last night, Mayor Jason Gonzalez decided he did not like Kaleem Caire, CEO and founder at One City Early Learning Centers, asking a question of Gonzalez.

So, naturally Gonzalez called the police. [Note: This is Fitchburg, Wisconsin, so again this type of absurdity is SOP.]

Reports, Michael Johnson, CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Dane County and all-around scary black man on Facebook last night:

The Mayor of Fitchburg instructed the City Administrator to call the police on Kaleem Caire, President and CEO of One City Learning Centers while testifying at a public hearing on the budget tonight. The mayor, city administrator and several alders walked out of the meeting and ordered the police to remove Kaleem Caire from the building or they would not return. Kaleem was respectful, raised valid points and was the first person of color to speak to only be threatened to be arrested for speaking up for local kids.

Kudos to the Fitchburg Police Department for their professionalism and telling the city leaders they had no grounds to remove Kaleem for raising issues during the testimony session of the meeting. He then told a white community leader who spoke up for the kids to leave and to 'get out of here' or he would be arrested. I have never seen anything like this before from a city leader.

Putting aside Johnson's erroneous description of the Fitchburg Police Dept, no one contacted today is surprised by the Fitchburg Common Council which rejects democratic norms such as citizen input, unmolested attendance of public meetings, and promotes the use of the machinery of public government against citizens.

Writes Cindy Johnson, a Dane county resident in Facebook this morning "[This] is insane but not surprising. Years ago when I lived there the corrupt mayor yelled 'this is MY meeting' when a room full of us were trying to save the Green Prairie."

Another illustration: In August 2016, Mal Contends entered the voting place to cast a vote some four months after alerting state election authorities, the new, (a racist), white chief election inspector refused to place a polling place sign outside the polling place on Election Day, April 5, 2016 in voting district one, and short-staffed a polling station on the 2016 presidential primary election featuring the heaviest turn-out to date. In retaliation against me, after being obstructed at the poll on a false pretense in August 2016, the City Clerk's office phoned police and contrived with the City Attorney office in what became two bogus disorderly conduct citations, rubber-stamped by the Fitchburg Municipal Court.

It is insane, and it's Fitchburg.

Meanwhile, the Council cut funding for non-profits serving black and brown-type humans, and installed a new City funding mechanism to assist the corrupt Ald Julia Arata-Fratta's professional career in a seedy move that is the new Fitchburg Idea.

Still, as seedy as municipal policy is, the idea that Council members and City Hall bureaucrats feel it's standard and acceptable, much less Constitutional, to phone police whenever they encounter objecting citizens raises a host of public integrity, Constitutional and concerns involving ongoing public misconduct under Wisconsin statutes.

In a related story, a Ftichburg alder, Dorothy Krause, continued an outrageous smear campaign and character assassination of a black woman, Wanda Smith, whom Krause said, in ludicrous public statements, should not be allowed around children.

Writes Nicholas Garton in Madison365:

A Fitchburg alder released more than 70 pages of unredacted police reports that Fitchburg police had clearly marked as not to be re-released Monday, posting the documents in a Facebook group and emailing them to a reporter in an ongoing feud with community volunteer Wanda Smith. The documents were removed from the Facebook group by an administrator.

Smith said she has consulted a civil rights attorney but has not decided on whether to pursue any legal action. ...

Smith, who runs the Peace Network, meets three times a week to help at-risk youth with homework, meals and a safe environment. Krause told Madison365 in an interview two weeks ago that she wasn’t sure if Wanda Smith had the right temperament or educational credentials to run such a club.  Krause said she would seek police reports on Wanda Smith and hoped to draw a conclusion about Smith’s abilities from those reports. ...

In addition to several pages listing police contacts, Krause obtained more than 56 pages of officer written synopsis of police contact at Wanda Smith’s address covering 176 calls between 2015 and 2017 to the building Smith’s apartment is in.

None of those incidents involved Wanda Smith as a target of police action or intervention. At no time was she arrested or questioned by police concerning her conduct. Smith was never detained, investigated or reported as having been the target of a police response to that area. 

Ftichburg being Fitchburg, accusation, innuendo and character assassination of citizens are the norm from police, from the Common Council and from City Hall bureaucrats.

Meanwhile, the political party, Progressive Dane, has issued a press release supporting Wanda Smith against attacks on her from the city of Fitchburg.

Reads the Progressive Dane release:

In Spring 2017, Progressive Dane endorsed Wanda Smith’s candidacy for Fitchburg City Alder based on her commitment to public service and strong record of leadership within the Fitchburg community. As Founder and President of the Peace Network, a local mental health service provider, Smith serves area youth and adults through one-on-one group workshops and seminars to equip them with the skills necessary to fulfill their potential as individuals in the community. At the Peace Network, Smith runs a homework club, which meets three times per week to provide students with academic supports, meals, and a safe environment. She also works with youth in the Middleton, Cross Plains, and Monona Grove school districts as a substitute teacher, and has mentored hundreds of youth throughout her career. As a locality that harbors some of the worst racial disparities in the country, Dane County needs to support more service providers led by people of color such as the Peace Network, and support progressive leaders like Smith, to begin counteracting the systemic racism that plagues our Greater Madison community.

Progressive Dane appreciates Smith’s work in the Fitchburg community, especially her compassion for youth and ongoing commitment to their success. We also support her advocacy for the restoration of 2018 budget funds to support local non-profit organizations that provide local services to many children of color in the King James Way area and Fitchburg at large.  Progressive Dane has been working with our members in Fitchburg, including Smith, to draft a City of Fitchburg platform.  Similar to our other policy platforms, we are drafting a Fitchburg platform that strongly supports civil rights, including the rights to assemble and protest, making decisions with an equity analysis, funding safety net programs, affordable housing, and neighborhood organizations, and economic development planning that prioritizes neighborhoods most in need of investment.

Progressive Dane is committed to racial justice, equity, and inclusion throughout Madison and Dane County. Any elected official endorsed by Progressive Dane is expected to support and demonstrate these values and implement policies laid out in our platforms. Progressive Dane electeds who fail to do so should expect to be held accountable by the elections committee and membership.

Progressive Dane is an independent, progressive political party in Dane County, Wisconsin. Progressive Dane believes that ordinary citizens should control public policies at the community and national levels. We support tax justice, better social services, equality in public education, affordable housing, and public transportation. Progressive Dane helps community members organize around issues that are important to them and also works on the grassroots level to elect progressive political candidates.
#

Trump Escalates Republican War Against Voting in Cuckoo Recount Effort

Jacob Lawrence - from the Migration Series (1940–41)

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — In modern America, the Republican Party's war against voters is waged as a full-spectrum assault against liberty, accelerating in the last ten years.

Destroying black and brown lives, stripping human beings of dignity and liberty, have long been sport for white folks here. But Republicans have escalated  systemic destruction of the foundational right to cast votes (see Article III, Wisconsin Constitution; Ballotpedia).

Trump's new effort to ultimately convince courts to declare that 100,000s of voters' ballots are illegal is the latest of this anti-human project.

Trump's campaign gives County Canvassing Boards names of disfavored voters and says, throw out these ballots.

Extreme action for certain, but business as usual in a broader sense.

I worked as a Wisconsin election inspector (poll worker), for some 60 shifts between 1998 and 2016.

It used to be funny — because it was pathetic — to witness the sudden chill in the room, uncomfortable shifting in chairs, worried expressions of white poll workers morphing into grimaces bordering on disbelief as young black men entered the polling place in the morning shift at the old Fire Station Number Two in Fitchburg, Wisconsin (Alder Dist One).

Well, who can blame the white folks? 

You should have seen the voters' black hair, dark-brown skin, often adorned in golden jewelry and tight dark tee-shirts of I don't know what. You know what they do, who they are. 

And our white votes get cancelled out by these guys?

It's the way it is.

White poll workers and the Fitchburg City Clerk's office were not amused by black folks. In fact, they were hostile to anyone who reported Fitchburg racism. I know. [By the way, anecdotal reports from the 2020 presidential general elections indicate the voting experience is getting better now.]

This is Wisconsin, so it may surprise readers what one becomes inured to, but from a first-person stand-point, I can say I tried to alert the political world about Fitchburg. See also Kaleem Caire, president and CEO of One City Learning Centers, and his experience with Fitchburg.

Nothing surprises me here.

Trump's latest absurd forays into obliterating swaths of voters can be seen as a continuation of white efforts to troll black and brown folks, ongoing Republican work to transform election law to stop non-Republican voters and a heightened operation against entire jurisdictions such as Dane County and Milwaukee County. (See Beck, Glauber and Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Nichols, The Capital Times).

In 2016, in the voting rights litigation, One Wis­con­sin Insti­tute v. Thom­sen, much Repub­li­can vot­er-obstruc­tion leg­is­la­tion was swept away, opening up metro voting districts to help voters vote and have those votes count.

Of course the Republican legal empire struck back.

In June 2020, Judge Frank Easterbrook, from the Seventh Circuit, using his propensity to play loose with facts, penned Luft v Evers; One Wisconsin Institute, Inc. v Jacobs, (Nos. 16-3003, 16-3052), (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Easterbrook reinstated most of the Republican-enacted restrictions on early voting.

Easterbrook sees no racism in Republicans' Wisconsin election law, as long the Republican Party's animus toward minorities includes an animus toward Democrats. A bizarre judicial doctrine.

Crazy is the order of the day.

You hear about the Trump campaign attorney heading up the stop-the-ballots effort here? 

Trump's lead attorney, Jim Troupis, and his wife's votes would be invalidated, were Trump to prevail in his current recount-and-stop ballots efforts in Wisconsin (see Beck, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and Law and Crime). 

This is because Trump wants early voting, (in-person, absentee), votes invalidated in Dane and Milwaukee counties. 

One can think of a few Due Process and Equal Protection problems with Trump's sought-after remedy for an imagined injury at the hands of Dane and Milwaukee counties.

Bear in mind, limiting early voting and racial intent and effect in Republican efforts to halt voting in jurisdictions where black and brown people live is fine, [no Constitutional problems], with Easterbrook.

But even Easterbrook, were this case to reach the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, would recoil.

It's crazy time in Wisconsin, but crazy is pretty much standard-going the last ten years, and is consistent with Wisconsin's secular religion: Most white folks really don't like black and brown people very much.

Fitchburg, Wisc Alders Up Attack on Non-Profit Supporters, Launched Character Assassination Move Against Black Citizen, Report Shows

Fitchburg Wisconsin City Hall and Common Council alders
really do not like black people. Above is a press conference at
City Hall in October 2017 conducted by scary, blackish people
objecting to a scheme by the Fitchburg Common Council and
Mayor to defund non-profits too cozy with urban types. Black
people congregating in Fitchburg, Wisconsin have long caused
consternation and anxiety among whites here who see danger
and a threat to public safety when they gather.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin Officials Keep up Battle Against Citizen Critics; Includes Unprecedented Character Assassination Campaign Plot Hatched by Common Council Alders

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—Ald. Julia Arata-Fratta amped-up a crusade against the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County by calling for the Fitchburg City Manager and City Attorney's office to investigate and ultimately seek revocation of the popular non-profit's 501(c)(3) status under Internal Revenue Code regulations, a news report reveals, (Garton, Madison 365).

The move by a Republican-leaning alder is part of a long effort by Fitchburg City Hall staff and the Common Council against minorities and those working for minority citizens.

Boys and Girls Club of Dane County is a non-profit, tax-exempt, non-stock entity assisting all children in Dane County and a move on the Common Council this autumn to defund Boys and Girls Club and another non-profit has highlighted the long hostility of Fitchburg City Hall against minority citizens.

Writes Nicholas Garton in Madison365:

On October 3, the same day the (proposed recall the Common Council idea) was announced, Alder Julia Arata-Fratta, a close ally of [Mayor Jason] Gonzalez, used her private Gmail account to direct City Manager Patrick Marsh to inquire with the IRS, according to emails obtained by Madison365.

Non for profit (sic) cannot do political activities otherwise the IRS can revoke the tax exempt status,' Arata-Fratta wrote to Marsh. Check with Valerie or Mark and send an inquiry to IRS.'

Marsh forwarded the question to City Attorney Mark Sewell and Assistant City Attorney Valerie Zisman, telling Arata-Fratta they would 'provide next steps.'

The City of Fitchburg with Sewell and Zisman's active participation has also worked recently against voting rights in Fitchburg aldermanic district one, as chronicled at Mal Contends.

Garton's investigative reporting in Madison365 has also uncovered a political plot by Fitchburg Alder Dorothy Krause, another Common Council member working against funding non-profits, that proposes to enlist City officials in a character assassination project against Wanda Smith, a former aldermanic candidate who works to help black families through informal homework clubs, recreational outings and community events.

Smith is a critic of the racism of the white-dominated Fitchburg City Hall and Common Council and has frequently engaged in First Amendment-protected political activity against racism in Fitchburg on social media and at her attendance at Fitchburg Common Council meetings.

Reports Garton:

Fitchburg alder Dorothy Krause wanted to use police records and licensing requirements to shut down the after-school homework club run by longtime community volunteer Wanda Smith, who she considers 'not someone who should be in charge of groups of children,' according to emails obtained by Madison365.

An open records request into internal communications between Fitchburg Common Council members revealed that Krause sought potentially damaging and explosive information about the fitness of Smith to supervise the club.

In an October 9 email to City Manager Patrick Marsh, Krause wrote,'From what I’ve witnessed firsthand at the fire station, at city hall, and online, among others, she is not someone that should be in charge of groups of children.'

Krause wrote that she had sought police records about how many times officers have responded to the residence or adjoining residences of Wanda Smith, who previously ran for a seat on the council and has publicly supported a recall of Mayor Jason Gonzalez.

Online court records indicate no criminal convictions against Smith. One charge against Smith was dismissed in 1999, court records show.

In the email, Krause also asked whether the city could require a homework club like Smith’s to obtain a daycare license. She also inquired as to whether children could be removed from a Common Council meeting 'if and when bullying and abusive language is used.'

Marsh responded that he didn’t think the City could require such a license, or ask that children be removed from the Council chamber.

Smith spoke forcefully in October at the Fitchburg Common Council’s budget hearing about Gonzalez’s decision to remove more than $100,000 in the 2018 budget to support local nonprofit organizations that provide services to Fitchburg residents, and how the removal of non-profit funds would impact children of color in the King James Way area and Fitchburg at large. Smith was rebuked by Marsh for personally attacking council members Dorothy Krause and Anne Scott by name during the hearing. 

As a long-time Fitchburg resident, Mal Contends can confirm the toxic, racist climate in Fitchburg, and the past efforts of City Hall officials to use the municipal government as a legal tool against political opponents, including Alder Dorothy Krause in 2011-12.

Said Smith:

'For them, (the Common Council and City Hall staff] to try to lower my reputation is a total disgrace. All I’m trying to do is serve these kids. I didn’t even know that they could go this low. I’m appalled right now. My track record when it comes to kids is proven. They went this low over 50 grand?' she said, referring to the amount cut from the budget that would fund the Boys and Girls Club. 'They don’t like the fact that I came to City Hall and I stood up to them to their faces. I cannot believe this. Dorothy Krause is supposed to be supporting the children in this community.'

Fitchburg resident Monica Howard has worked with Wanda Smith for many years and is described by supporters of Smith as "deeply offended" by Fitchburg officials' work against this Smith.

Writes Howard on Facebook:

I have worked with Wanda for over 10 years. She has been amazing not only with my own daughter but several other children. She is passionate about children’s rights and advocacy for advancement. Her passion is mistaken for hostility and that’s not the case. She is dedicated to the success of youth and this is highly unnecessary. Why all of the sudden is a homework club a problem. It hasn’t been all this time. This is where the City needs to separate their personal feelings and allow a great program to continue.

Contacted this weekend by phone, Smith said she is contemplating legal action against the City of Fitchburg for defamation.

Voting Rights Battle in Fitchburg, Wisc; Pursuit of Poll Worker, Civil Rights Activist Proceeds

Fitchburg, Wisconsin Municipal Judge
Hamdy Ezalarab is a popular figure on the
 bench in Dane County, Wisconsin.
Photo is from 1969,
(Schmidt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Memorial Union TerraceViews)

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — Who knew advocating for voters would provoke the wrath of a handful of white bureaucrats of a small Wisconsin suburb?

If you knew Fitchburg aldermanic district number one like I do, you would know.

I've worked roughly 10 years as a poll worker in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, and voted at the same polling place for some 18 years.

Fitchburg is heavily segregated, stained by open racism, and my voting district's poll workers include a handful of white racists who loathe me, I calculate, roughly to the degree I regard them as miserable, xenophobic and deceitful.

The all-white Fitchburg City Clerk's office backs the racists, fervently.

On August 9, 2016, I was obstructed from voting by this group, and after I objected, citing election law and election authorities, I received a civil citation for disorderly conduct.

Why did this happen? The full context is I regularly embarrassed the City Clerk's office by pointing out defects in the operation of my polling place. I'll get specific in Dane County, (Wisconsin), Circuit Court.

The United States and Wisconsin Constitutions and state election law are diminishing under the white-power banner predominating among this small number of racists in our city.

On May 10, 2017, Fitchburg Municipal Court, (a fine, municipal judge), found me guilty of the civil citation, ordering no fine. No fine.

Clearly, I will avail myself of a jury trial in Dane County Circuit Court and appeal this bogus citation.

Not easy to hear racists, whom I explained are the "White Power Caucus," lie repeatedly in open court but at trial I followed advice of friends and more or less went along with a few objections.

I will prevail in Dane County Court in front of a jury, Dane County Circuit Court is a different forum.

Of note, before defamations from the City Clerk's office were ruled inadmissible, the City Attorney's office in the person of one asst. City Attorney Valerie Zisman, threatened in a conference in the hall to write a new citation for August 9, 2016, which is precisely what happened after court adjourned.

I am confident.

Now, however, I have two disorderly conduct citations, one going to Dane County Court, and the new citation in limbo for now.

The second citation was indicated by the City Atty's office in court, to which the judge replied, not in my court. The judge also stated, he was finished with the citation and the matter was closed, stating he had enough, (not a direct quote).

Stay posted. This may appear light stuff from a small, corrupt Wisconsin city. It's not light stuff. From an email sent by me to the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Aug. 5, 2016, four days before I was obstructed from voting on Aug 9, received the first two of four visits to our home by armed Fitchburg Police, and received the first of now two civil disorderly conduct citations:

From: Mike Leon [ ...]
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2016 8:42 AM
To: Lowe, Diane - ELECTIONS
Subject: Polling Place
Importance: High

Diane,

Could you email me a URL or GAB (WEC) memo that would indicate how many election inspectors are supposed to hand out ballots at a table in a polling place? I believe it to be two.

A ... chief election inspector in our polling place, where I worked on April 5, positioned one election inspector at the ballots table, and predictably quite a voter bottleneck ensued.

Other elections to my memory featured two inspectors on ballots.

I need a memo or other publicly available authority on this two-people-on-ballots question.

I emailed our election and city clerk, around late April on this but no one got back to me. They are not too crazy about questions RE what they regard as their apparent turf, though I believe myself as a resident and long-time election inspector to be a stakeholder.

Administering elections should be about rules and regulations, to my view.

Mike
--
More to come. Much more.

Out in the Cold—Fitchburg Kicks Black Children out of Shelter, Wisconsin Winter Looms

Beautiful children in Fitchburg Wisconsin
are relegated to picnic tables by City officials.
Those who dare care for minority children
are targeted by the Fitchburg Common Council
and white City Hall bureaucrats.

Fuck you, Fitchburg—An editorial

Update: Group is now meeting at an area church, Facebook reports. Good hope; one feels confident cops will not invade, harass, fine or kill there.
--
Fitchburg, Wisconsin—Fitchburg is a suburb just south of Madison run by white people, for white people, wrestling with the Black Problem.

It's August 2014 and a Fitchburg cop pulls outside of the polling place in district one with red and white lights flashing, creating a barrier between the polling place and King James Way, the black sector of the Jamestown neighborhood named after a 17th century Virginia slave colony.

I'm working as a poll worker and I point out the cop car outside the polling place: "Good," says the new chief election inspector, a white racist named Dale Zahorik.

Zahorik hates black people. Do you think communities of interest who don't trust cops should have to encounter a cop car with lights flashing as a condition of voting? I ask.

Zahorik evades the question, and I call up the City Clerk's office, and its reaction, from one Patti Anderson, vacillates between feigned indifference and hostility toward me challenging why I am questioning the presence of the cop.

The cop is but one example of white hostility towards black folks here. There's Zahorik's refusing to put out a polling place sign out on Election Day, April 2016, short-staffing the ballots table, open antagonism towards black voters, intimidation, stuffing the roster of polling workers with white racists, Ron Johnson and Pat McCutcheon for example, several instances of voter obstruction I have witnessed, challenged and documented between 2007 and 2016, most recently in a related civil case in Fitchburg Municipal Court where I testified under oath a detailed chronicling of the placing of the White Power Caucus in Fitchburg aldermanic district one polling place.

Zahorik and the City Clerk's attitude exemplify the white consensus towards black residents from City Hall. Blacks are not wanted here and they should leave.

Sometimes though, pictures tell a clearer story.

Wanda Smith runs an informal, after-school club to help out children with homework, structure, comfort, encouragement, a little something to eat, and a general peace-and-love gathering to help children not-quite-yet-traumatized by living in Fitchburg.

Fitchburg knows how to handle Wanda Smith.

For working with minority children, Smith has been unremittingly harassed by City Hall and the Common Council. In a piece that is shaking the conscience of Dane County Wisconsin, Nicholas Garton reports, "Fitchburg alder Dorothy Krause wanted to use police records and licensing requirements to shut down the after-school homework club run by longtime community volunteer Wanda Smith, who she considers 'not someone who should be in charge of groups of children,' according to emails obtained by Madison365."

This is pure character assassination and harassment of a peace-loving citizen.

There's a small, unoccupied park shelter off King James Way in Fitchburg in the black sector. Smith meets with the children near there.

Writes Amelia Royko Maurer in Facebook last night:

Wanda Smith has to conduct her after school program outside if they want to be near their homes, which they do because it builds a sense of place and community and saves on transportation costs. The city of Fitchburg won’t let them use the unoccupied park shelter without paying an unaffordable amount. [Alders] Dorothy Krause, Jason Gonzalez, Tony Hartmann, [and former Mayor] Shawn Pfaff, if you’re looking for criminal behavior, look no further than yourself and colleagues. This is unconscionable and your collective regrets and care are proven hollow by your willingness to let this continue.

Soon, the kids are going to get cold. But besides the weather, they have to cope with Fitchburg City Hall and the Fitchburg cops who relegate the kids to a picnic table.

Below are recent shots of these human children.

Fuck you, Fitchburg.

To Wanda Smith and those children blessed by her love, this is for you:

"Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Robert F. Kennedy
University of Cape Town, South Africa
"Day of Affirmation" Speech June 6th, 1966 

GOP Going All-out to Block Wisconsin Voting‏

Sen. Frank Lasee is not working for you

Update: AB 396 passes on an 17-16 vote, with Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) joining the pro-democracy Democrats.

Update: Look for a constitutional challenge to many of these anti-voting initiatives, for example AB 396: restricting absentee voting by residents of certain adult-care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted-living facilities by placing unnecessary and burdensome notice requirements prior to the absentee voting process. These anti-voting bills would target and destroy the right to vote of discrete segments of the population in, for example, Agrace HospiceCare of Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Dying of Agent Orange, huh, well you can't vote!

On March 11, the GOP-controlled Wisconsin state senate is set to consider a raft of bills aimed at impeding Wisconsin voters, consumers, and victims of poison and other toxic agents.

Who are the Republicans working for? Not us.

From the AFL-CIO:

Voting rights are under attack in Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin State Senate is getting ready to vote on multiple anti-democracy and voter suppression bills on Tuesday, March 11. These bills will promote ‘pay to play’ politics, deny citizens’ access to the ballot and make it more difficult for people to register to vote.

Also, up for a vote on Tuesday are changes to the Milwaukee Mental Health Complex (SB 565). This bill would remove local control over a local institution, a notion that runs afoul to fundamental democratic principles and should frighten communities across the state. 

Republicans in the state legislature are trying to ram these bills through as quickly as possible in the final days of session. Contact your legislator today in opposition of these bills. 

Anti-democracy bills that will expected to go to vote on Tuesday, March 11 as of March 10, 2014 include:

•    SB 324: Limits early voting hours allowed by municipalities and removes the option of weekend and evening voting leading up to Election Day.  This would end convenient opportunities for working people, the elderly and the disabled to vote prior to Election Day. 

•    SB 267:  Places additional burdens on people who wish to register early and on the municipal clerks who register them by demanding certain documents as proof of residence and that the clerks record 2 or 4 digits of the document account number on voter registration forms. It amounts to an unnecessary hurdle for both voters and clerks.

•     SB 655: Pay to Play Politics -- allows lobbyists to donate to politicians during election years even if session is ongoing.  This allows lobbyist more time to bribe elected officials and unduly influence state policy. 

•     AB 396: Restricts absentee voting by residents of certain adult-care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted-living facilities by placing unnecessary and burdensome notice requirements prior to the absentee voting process. In addition, all voting at certain adult-care facilities must occur in the presence of 2 election officials, one from each political party. Further, if some residents in an assisted living facility vote absentee at the facility, then all residents must vote by absentee at the facility and are disallowed from voting in the clerk's office or by absentee mail ballot.

*Sen. Grothman has introduced an outrageous bill to end same day voter registration in Wisconsin!   Allowing citizens to register to vote on Election Day makes our democracy strong and accessible.  People who work for a living, move frequently or are voting for the first time can find it burdensome to register to vote prior to Election Day.  In Wisconsin, we have a proud tradition of welcoming all citizens to participate in our democracy.  Sen. Grothman’s attempt to control the electorate and limit the voting population is transparent and disgusting. 

Update on Local Living Wage Preemption:  This bill stalled in the state Senate last week with Sen. Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) stating it is “unlikely that it will move through the Senate.” However, Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) has said he and Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) will continue to lobby fellow legislators for support adding that, “in the Legislature you never count on something being dead until session is actually complete.”

There is still time to make your voice heard.  Contact your legislator today in support of voting rights and democracy!

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—Creating a Slush Fund in the Scott Walker Era

Fitchburg, Wisconsin is a freak show.

Corruption in Plain Sight in the Rats' Nest of Dane County Wisconsin

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—This isn't about the money; it's about making a "better way" to fund community non-profits, said Fitchburg ald. Tony Hartmann in an October email to Mal Contends.

It is about the money.

What Hartmann calls media "misinformation" about a proposed Common Council scheme to fund nonprofit groups draws laughter, anger and the start of a recall-the-Mayor initiative in this politically progressive community with the Republican-dominated City Hall, police department and elected municipal government.

With growing minority and young populations here, Fitchburg civil and elected officials have accelerated a Republican program to consolidate political power as this city becomes a flashpoint as Gov. Scott Walker kicks in 2018 reelection mode.

In Fitchburg, Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has been defeated at
the ballot box. Above are the results for Fitchburg in the 2014
general election. First column is the total votes, second column is
Dem. nominee Mary Burke's votes, and third column is Walker's.

Gov. Scott Walker, (R), made numerous public visits to Fitchburg since becoming governor in 2011. At the ballot box, though, Walker was clobbered here in the 2014 general and 2012 recall elections. In ald dist one, (one of four voting districts composed of 19 wards), Mary Burke defeated Scott Walker with 1,528 votes for Burke and 410 votes for Walker out of 1,966 votes cast for a 77 percent to 20 percent defeat of Walker in the 2014 general election. Since 2014, incidents of voter obstruction and harassment of voters by white poll workers and white Fitchburg City Clerk staff, Patti Anderson and Tracy Oldenburg, have increased in wards one-four, district one, as has been documented and stated publicly at municipal civic trials by former Fitchburg poll worker, ((2007-2016), Mal Contends).

On the Fitchburg Common Council, Hartmann, Ald Julia Arata-Fratta and Mayor Jason Gonzalez, (after amassing a wide coalition in his 2016-17 campaign), have thrown in with Republicans on the eight-member Council, and are eyeing money in the city's Community Development Grant Program, (CEDA), to be used as a slush fund [information describing the city's CEDA including how to apply, was posted on the city website Aug. 18, 2017 some five weeks before Mayor Jason Gonzales posted his proposed 2018 budget calling for the "removal" of $110,000 in non-profit funding, (The Capital Times)].

We want that money

"Fitchburg Alds. Julia Arata Fratta, Dan Carpenter and Dorothy Krause are sponsoring an amendment to the proposed 2017 budget that would remove club funding from the city budget and put it under the control of the Community Economic Development Authority, whose eight members would decide how to allocate it," notes The Capital Times in 2016.

Many Fitchburg residents are watching whether Arata Fratta-linked non-profits have become new applicants for the slush fund, if the budget proposal gets passed.
---
Meanwhile recall alders and mayor efforts continue as political observes gaming out scenarios fish around for mayoral candidates in a possible 2018 recall election, including perennial mayoral candidate Jay Allen, a supporter of several Republican Party congressional nominees, including John Sharpless, Dave Magnum and the far-right fringe candidate, Ron Greer. 

ACI Info Group Writer Remains Target of Fitchburg, Wisc Republicans

Update: State and municipal corruption now have a free hand in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Ethics Commission, a titular election watchdog, member, Robert Kinney has resigned in disgust.

Reports Jason Stein: "Kinney said that in a private session the commission has already declined to take action on a complaint that he believed merited it."

"If financial or ethical improprieties are leveled, or allegations of quid pro quo corruption are made, they must be thoroughly and timely investigated, and, if warranted, aggressively prosecuted. Sadly, it appears we have created a system which almost guarantees that this will not occur," Kinney said in a statement Monday (Stein, MJS), (Capitol Newspapers).
 ---
Nearing the age of Donald Trump, some local Wisconsin municipalities cannot wait to get started.

Following is a first-person saga chronicling a small Wisconsin city targeting a nine-year veteran poll worker, writer, PR Specialist and voting rights activist.

Harassed as a poll worker, several Fitchburg, Wisconsin Republicans, fundamentalist Christians, and white racists decided to obstruct and harass this now-former poll worker, me, at the polling place in the Fall Primary election, now held in August.

The crusade continues as a Fitchburg poll worker is now violating Wisconsin's voter-privacy guarantees in his bizarre pursuit of this voter.

Silence emits from City Hall officials who have failed to respond to numerous requests for investigation and comment.

Fitchburg Election Inspector Ron Johnson has now taken his crusade against me from the polling place to content at my ICI Info Group site, Mal Contends, to now the Fitchburg Star, (Woodward Communications).

State law and ethics prevents official such as poll workers from acting officially in a matter in which s/he is privately interested.

From an email sent this morning to Fitchburg City Clerk and asst City Clerk:

... It would appear that Ron Johnson feels secure in his reading of Wisconsin election law that he as an election inspector is relieved of his duties to help administer impartial elections free of hostile and discriminatory conduct, and an election inspector's duty to protect the privacy of voter, (in this instance, me).

Ron Johnson's defamatory editorial comment in the Star chronicles this voter's personalized voting experience on August 9. Ron Johnson violates my right to cast a ballot privately in Wisconsin, (Wisconsin Elections Commission).

Putting aside the defamations and inaccuracies in Ron Johnson's letter to the editor Ron Johnson offers his version of the voter-obstruction incident in a step-by-step chronicle that identifies me as a voter, describes my specific and personalized issues I experienced on Aug 9, and concludes with a chronicling of Johnson's attempt in August to comment at this site.

To understand this appeal to my privacy in this matter, consider scenarios when a voter enters a polling site and experiences an issue such a spoiled ballot, a 30-minte delay in voting, or the use of a disability apparatus. Now, consider Ron Johnson working a poll worker and publishing a personalized narrative of the voters' experience using this voter's name, replete with invective in these instances. This conduct violates privacy expectations, and is pernicious activity committed by a Fitchburg election official.

This conduct does as well casts light on the state of mind and attitudes of some Fitchburg election inspectors towards another former election inspector and voter who writes disfavored political analyses and commentary syndicated through Newxtex, (now ACI Information Group), and client periodicals.

I suggest you contact the City Atty's office, (Cced), as well consider SCR 946.12(3), Misconduct in public office.

With respect to election inspector Ron Johnson's conduct in the attached letter, I expect a reply detailing the scope of your investigation, the protocols of this investigation, and the resolution of Ron Johnson's conduct, including specifically whether Ron Johnson will not be on the roster of election inspectors working in 2017.

Frankly, I want a resolution of these matters, though some in City Hall and those retained as election inspectors have quite different aspirations.

I have copied some text Re SCR 946.12(3)

946.12 Misconduct in public office.

(1) Intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, nondiscretionary, ministerial duty of the officer's or employee's office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law; or

(2) In the officer's or employee's capacity as such officer or employee, does an act which the officer or employee knows is in excess of the officer's or employee's lawful authority or which the officer or employee knows the officer or employee is forbidden by law to do in the officer's or employee's official capacity; or

(3) Whether by act of commission or omission, in the officer's or employee's capacity as such officer or employee exercises a discretionary power in a manner inconsistent with the duties of the officer's or employee's office or employment or the rights of others and with intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for the officer or employee or another; or

(4) In the officer's or employee's capacity as such officer or employee, makes an entry in an account or record book or return, certificate, report or statement which in a material respect the officer or employee intentionally falsifies; or

(5) Under color of the officer's or employee's office or employment, intentionally solicits or accepts for the performance of any service or duty anything of value which the officer or employee knows is greater or less than is fixed by law.

I would note as well that Johnson's continuing conduct buttresses contemplation of investigation of abuse-of-process questions.


Mike Leon

#