Corrupt Iron County DA Has Conservationists Looking to Neighbor

Update: Heavily Armed Bulletproof did operate illegally in Ashland County. The StellaReport has the story.

As light shines on the isolated Iron County in northern Wisconsin, its corruption and the lurid nature of its public officials are getting a wider audience.

The light comes after the proposed Gogebic Taconite iron mine in Iron and Ashland counties was approved with special mining-company-written legislation, rushed through the Wisconsin legislature with sole Republican Party support in early 2013.

The Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske used to support Wisconsin Democratic Party Governor, James Doyle, but after Scott Walker and the GOP drummed up support for the mining bill, Lipske changed his party affiliation from the Democratic Party and ran as an independent in 2012, narrowly winning reelection.

Lipske is known in Iron County for fronting for the GOP-mining interests, and protecting it, refusing, for example, to prosecute the heavily armed rightwing militia, Bulletproof Securities, for operating without a license in criminal violation of Wisconsin law.

Now, citizens in Iron County are looking for evidence Bulletproof operated in neighboring Ashland County, in the face of Lipske's refusal to prosecute Bulletproof for repeated violations of the law.

Lipske is infamous locally as well for launching a prosecution against an innocent man whom Lipske incredibly taunts in a recent letter sent to the man, Donald R. Miller, in prison, chastising Miller for the work of his parents and supporters for maintaining a website—Anatomy of a Wrongful Prosecution.

Miller refused to plead no-contest after Lipske in a DA-proposed plea agreement in 1997.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project was working on freeing Miller from 2011-12, obtaining an agreement from Lipske stipulating Miller's immediate release in late 2012.

Lipske reneged on the agreement after Lipske's political mentor and predecessor as DA, Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden, rejected the agreement in late 2012 with no objection from Lipske.

Now, the Innocence Project continues its work.

A parole hearing is scheduled for later this year.

The Innocence Project is scheduled to meet with Lipske's office this week.

The latest:

Read this letter below and tell me the Wisconsin Iron County District Attorney's office is not corrupt.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske taunts innocent man,
sending him a letter while in prison