Showing posts sorted by relevance for query steven avery. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query steven avery. Sort by date Show all posts

Sep 9, 2021

Making a Murderer — Dark Cloud Hangs over Wisconsin Judiciary Amid Corruption Concerns

The once exonerated Steven Avery faces
his most malicious enemy in the
Democratic Party and a corrupt
Wisconsin Judiciary that has abdicated
its duty to act with impartiality. Damage,
destruction are the aims against Avery
and his nephew who have committed a
mortal sin in Wisconsin: Fighting back
against state violence and corrupt cops.

Avery Seeks New Trial and Evidentiary Hearing in a Corrupt State Court System

Commentary

Update II: Rebuttal to State's Response in Opposition of Mr. Avery's Petition. This is a devastating public explanation that the DOJ undoubtedly will misrepresent amid its posturing that there is nothing to see here.

Updated: Madison, Wisconsin — Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide in Wisconsin in 2007 for the murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. 

Both men are serving life sentences following much criticized investigations and trials held in east-central Wisconsin, known locally for small-town justice and police corruption.

Avery is appealing to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in post-conviction litigation, seeking a new trial and an evidentiary heating in his August petition.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

But the once-exonerated Steven Avery faces a vendetta from multiple foes, including the Wisconsin Democratic leadership, corrupt law enforcement and the Wisconsin Judiciary which has largely abdicated its role as protector of individual Constitutional rights in favor of covering for police misconduct.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin DoJ filed a response opposing Steven Avery's petition for a hearing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Avery seeks a public evidentiary hearing on new evidence that was hidden by the prosecution for the purpose of blocking material facts pointing to Avery's innocence. He also seeks a new trial, reasoning that the non-existent case for his guilt combined with the clear law enforcement misconduct would make the spectacle of another guilty trial verdict impossible.

Notes attorney Jerome Buting: "State’s response to Avery’s @ZellnerLaw petition opposes SCOW review, claiming SA was not treated differently because his case was 'the subject of a television show.' Really? In no other case has WI fought so desperately to avoid any evidentiary hearing."

At each point is his post-conviction litigation, the State DOJ has blocked, delayed, deterred and opposed Avery's quest for his second exoneration.

A reader ought consider this whole affair is not akin to sick, ole-boy Louisiana corruption. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri have nothing on Wisconsin police-prosecutor corruption, more insidious than any conduct our fellows to the South can conjure.

Few believe in the impartiality of the Wisconsin Judiciary which is capable of doing anything in service to a corrupt police force.

Wisconsin has a nefarious cast of characters in law enforcement, but the Avery and Dassey cases approach the demented.

Kenneth R. Kratz, former Calumet County District Attorney, (1992-2010), was forced to resign in disgrace in 2010 for outrageous sexual misconduct in 2009, perhaps earlier, just two years after prosecuting the Avery-Dassey cases.

Kratz is self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions.

But the Wisconsin DoJ has defended the work of this same repulsive figure Kratz in Avery's post-conviction litigation, instead of launching an investigation into Wisconsin law enforcement, Kratz and other prosecutors' subsequent conduct to determine the reliability of convictions.

"The State ... conveys an attitude of impunity for its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence and its current action of continuing the concealment of its destruction of potentially exculpatory or useful evidence," writes Avery attorney, Kathleen Zellner in 2019 in a legal filing in appellate court.

The State of Wisconsin DoJ did worse in post-conviction litigation than convey an attitude of impunity. The DoJ has chided the defense for bringing multiple Brady violations to the attention of the Court, so strong is the prosecution's confidence that the Court will sustain the DoJ's positions.

Avery's attorney, Zellner, reacted with restrained outrage this posture.

Zellner replied to the Court on April 22, 2021: "It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye toward its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence."

On July 28, 2021, the Court of Appeals (Dist II), delivered a results-oriented decision and opinion so blatant in adopting the State's errors that lay parties revealed the decision to be rife with misstatement, and misinterpretation of evidence (Reddit). Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, followed up with a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court some four weeks later.

On Sept 8, 2021, when the DoJ filed its response opposing Avery's petition for a hearing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the large pro-Avery community around the world reacted with gasps and disgust.

This DOJ posture, haughty and disingenuous, raises the question, if the State is so certain that its conviction of Avery and Brendan Dassey are on the level, why does it oppose bringing the case to light before the State high court, an evidentiary hearing, and a new trial?

Avery advocates have noted that the DOJ failed to even challenge Avery's arguments in its response, instead taking on the tone of how dare you challenge the integrity of this conviction?

Attorney Zellner, who has seen every type of State depravity in her practice around the country freeing dozens of wrongfully convicted persons, seemed shook by the pathological tone of the Democrat-led Dept of Justice's latest filing that reads more like a politcal document subtly calling for Party loyalty that a legal filing made in good faith.

Zellner sent out three tweets, deleted two, before she noted: "If we had wanted to re-read the same error filled COA decision again we could have. The State’s Regurgitation Response addresses none of the errors —it just repeats them. Justice delayed again for Steven Avery."

If we had wanted to re-read the same error filled COA decision again we could have. The State’s Regurgitation Response addresses none of the errors —it just repeats them. Justice delayed again for Steven Avery. @MakingAMurderer

This is Wisconsin.

This is where Martin Lipske, a contemptible District Attorney in Iron County in northern Wisconsin, was driven into retirement just before Lipske fronted for child trafficking schemes.

So, the Wisconsin District Attorney Association named Lipske Prosecutor of the Year for the Department of Justice in 2016, and awarded Lipske the E. Michael McCann Award from the DA Association. 

The Wisconsin Judiciary cannot be counted on to police corrupt law enforcement, certainly not an odious figure like Kratz and the Democrat-led Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Behind the scenes, the DOJ's attempt to rewrite the state's Brady doctrine will figure into this case.

The four Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are Avery's hope as Wisconsin Democrats will do their worst to protect wrongful convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

The DOJ dismissal of a Brady violation claim is preposterous, for instance, that even the DOJ notes features the defense failure to raise an issue of omission to which the defense was never alerted.


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Apr 12, 2021

Making a Murderer — Avery Attorney Names Apparent Murder Suspect; New Eyewitness Comes Forward, Ids Planting of Victim's RAV-4


Avery Motion Directly Implicates Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, Bobby Dassey and an Older Unidentified Man in Spectacular Development

Updated - The exonerated Steven Avery was made internationally famous in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer, for his exoneration, and subsequent apparent frame-up by crooked Wisconsin law enforcement, resulting in his 2007 conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Today, Steven Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, named Bobby Dassey and "an unidentified older male" as the individuals who planted Ms. Halbach's dark-blue RAV-4 auto in the Avery auto salvage yard, citing a witness who came forward April 11, 2021.

Writes Ms Zellner on Twitter:

Post-conviction litigation is being pursued by Avery's attorneys, Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards, in the Wisconsin court system (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288). The case was awaiting decision in state appellate court (Work with KZ).

This morning on April 12, preceding the announcement, Zellner filed a motion in state appellate court asking for a remand [to County Circuit Court] and a stay of the appeal.

The motion to remand the case is a spectacular development that chronicles two people moving a murder victim's car onto the Steven Avery property after an eye witness, Thomas Sowinski, a motor-route driver for Gannett Newspapers, Inc. came forward on April 11, 2021 (pp 1.2).

After Sowinski witnessed the planting of Ms Halbach's RAV-4, he called the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and was told by a female employee that the Office "already knew who did it," the motion's affidavit reads.

Sowinski said in his affidavit, that not only did he witness Bobby Dassey "suspiciously pushing" the victim's vehicle down Avery Road, but that Bobby attempted to block Sowinski from leaving the property. The second older man ducked down below an open passenger door upon encountering Sowinski.

Sowinski said, "I know that Bobby Dassey and the older individual were doing something creepy." (Affidavit).

As Mr Sowinski's call was not communicated to the Avery defense, the omission by disgraced ex-District Attorney Ken Kratz is a glaring Brady violation.

Zellner told Patch. com (Ferek): "This is an evidence bombshell in the Avery case. We consider it the most significant witness evidence ever in the case, and it's an objective, non-biased witness who notified police in 2005 and he was ignored."

I think Steven Avery never would have been convicted had this evidence been known during his trial, and it destroys Bobby Dassey's credibility and links him to the crime."

The community behind Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey expects a complete exoneration and a criminal probe of Calumet County and Manitowoc County law enforcement, and top officials in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Tips are now coming in to attorney Zellner on the identity of the second person.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice, let by Attorney General Joshua Kaul, appears to be shielding the rampant corruption and criminality of law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

Kaul, who assumed office in 2019, has conspicuously failed to launch any DoJ investigations into law enforcement, including his own department, despite the widespread criticism of police, Ken Kratz, Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office).

Kratz prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases before resigning in disgrace in 2010 after sexual assault and harassment allegations against him came to light and Gov Jim Doyle began removal proceedings.

Gov Doyle (2003-11) and Kaul's mother, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-2007) were bitter political enemies.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice for now is keeping with its strategy on post-conviction litigation by pleading procedural arguments as evidence of law enforcement misconduct mounts.






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Jun 12, 2019

Wisconsin Judge Sutkiewicz Leaves Steven Avery's Legal Team Guessing

A rally is scheduled for Steven Avery and Brendan
Dassey at the Manitowoc County Courthouse
on June 15, 2019 from 11 am to 3 pm
Madison, Wisconsin—A Wisconsin circuit court judge, Sheboygan County Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz (substituting), has apparently adopted stalling and secrecy as a new tactic to sabotage the post-conviction litigation of an innocent man.

Not even litigants in the Steven Avery legal quest for exoneration know the judicial calendar, which in Sutkiewicz' court is a secret, a departure from the judicial norm in which litigants agree to or know a procedural calendar.

A tweet this morning from Avery's legal advocates, (not his attorneys) reads, "Since the 90 days has already passed, either the judge has decided to take more time OR she doesn't have a deadline at all and she'll rule on it when she feels like it."

The latest communication from Avery's legal team makes guesses, educated "conjecture" about what's next in the team's communication on its website.

Sutkiewicz' conduct has resulted in one of the most experienced wrongful conviction legal teams working without knowing the next procedural step.

The Feb 25, 2019 appellate court order mandating "any proceedings necessary to address [Avery's] claims" points to a hearing.

No such proceedings have been ordered to this date.

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

Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), heading Wisconsin's effort to keep an innocent man in prison, has the discretion to accede to Avery's requests for transparency and open examination of evidence and state misconduct without a judicial hearing or order.

From the June 11, 2019 communication from Steven Avery's legal team, the WorkwithKZ team:

Awaiting ruling from Circuit Court

Update June 11, 2019: The CoA [Court of Appeals] gave [attorney  Kathleen Zellner] a deadline to file but did not specify a deadline for the Circuit Court judge to rule.  Standard procedure and Supreme Court rule dictate 90 days from the completion of the filing (petition plus any responses and/or replies).  That may or may not apply in this instance.  Since the 90 days has already passed, either the judge has decided to take more time OR she doesn't have a deadline at all and she'll rule on it when she feels like it.

(I'm leaving the previous information below for everyone's reference.)

Update June 9, 2019: If we do not see a ruling filed on Monday, June 10, we're probably looking at a new deadline of Monday, September 9.

Explanation for that: The only expectation of information we can give you is mostly conjecture. A lot of this is dependent upon unknown factors like whether or not she's accepting the response and reply. It's not likely that the judge will grant the hearing at this point. We believe she would have granted it already to get it on her calendar if she was going to do that.  If she's not granting the hearing, she's probably not going to accept the response and reply.  If she tells the chief judge she's taking more time, we will have no indication of this. So, if we do not see a ruling filed on Monday, June 10, she has likely decided to take another 90 days. Since she's probably not considering the response and reply, that would put the due date at Monday, September 9. 

An excerpt of a letter from Steven Avery posted on
advocates' site on Facebook.
Advocates for Steven Avery are growing angry at the corrupt effort by Judge Sutkiewicz (substituting) who apparently reached a result adverse to Steven Avery in State v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288 long ago.

But Sutkiewicz works backwards. Result first, then draft an order and opinion to support the position of corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement, an opinion that will, law enforcement and Sutkiewicz believe, prevail in appellate court for a time — a delaying tactic.
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Mar 24, 2019

Making a Murderer—Hearing Will Focus on Conduct by Ex-DA, DoJ and Current Attorney General

Attorneys for the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery
will be afforded the opportunity effectively to put
the state of Wisconsin on trial for its conduct, per
the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Feb. 25, 2019 order.
Innocence workers seek legal relief, likely to be granted or
conceded to at some point, by presenting the factual
record now directly in front of a judicial hearing
that the Dept of Justice worked to prevent.
Misrepresentations discovered in 2019, via a massive FOIA
document dump received in May 2018, are among the legion
of misconduct, deceit and state criminality used to keep
an innocent man in prison (p. 2. March 11, 2019 Supplemental
§ 974.06 Motion for Post-Conviction Relief Pursuant to
State's Violation of Wis. Stat § 968.205
and Youngblood v. Arizona).
Update III: A ruling handed down in August in Manitowoc County Circuit Court is an adverse ruling for Steven Avery, the protagonist and defendant in Wisconsin's Making a Murderer post-conviction litigation.

The ruling was widely expected. Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz again failed to schedule any proceedings.

Yet, Sutkiewicz divined that the state destruction of evidence accomplished by a conspiracy that includes two of the DoJ attorneys now defending the conviction in post-conviction litigation was done in good faith, and what the state purported to be a murder victim's remains were not scientifically established as a murder victim's remains, hence the state may secretly destroy the evidence it believed are the remains of a murder victim, and the defendant has no recourse.

Absurd.

Writes Sutkiewicz: "The report of Deputy Hawkins indicates that he, Sergeant Investigator Mark Wiegert, Attorney Thoman Fallon and Attorney Norman Gahn removed materials stored in evidence, and released them to the Halbach family."

Corrupt judges like Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz are a disgrace.

Can you imagine if Fallon and Gahn had to explain themselves as witnesses in open court? 

Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul continues to allow two DoJ attorneys who disregarded Wisconsin Evidence Preservation statute to work this post-conviction litigation, though their conduct is suspect and worth of a criminal investigation.

Update II: The Feb 25, 2019 appellate court order mandating "any proceedings necessary to address [Avery's] claims" points to a hearing after briefing at the circuit court to which the case has been sent back.

The Manitowoc circuit court has not set a timeline, a calendar, hence references here to the contemplated hearing use "to-be-scheduled."

The headline should be be changed to reflect the 'as-yet-ordered' status to clarify the hearing has not been scheduled (as noted) meaning not yet ordered.

The appellate court notes the case's "extensive history," that in this case means voluminous law enforcement misconduct that cannot be reasonably adjudicated at circuit court without a hearing, consistent with the appellate court's order of "necessary proceedings" to produce the appellate court's stated desired "ruling," (p. 3).

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—The Wisconsin criminal justice system is working against an innocent man.

Not an unusual state of affairs in Wisconsin, but this case—featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary Making a Murderer—promises to reveal a spectacular law enforcement scandal in a to-be-scheduled May hearing in Manitowoc County that the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DoJ) worked to prevent. [See Appeal Number 2017AP002288 for case history.]

Steven Avery, the twice-wrongfully convicted man, faces multiple Wisconsin law enforcement personnel engaging in misconduct.

Yet no members of Wisconsin law enforcement have stepped forward as whistle-blowers, out of a sense of decency, to simply state, framing Steven Avery is wrong.

Disgraced ex-District Attorney Ken Kratz

Avery's quest for exoneration is a legal war against the work of Ken Kratz, the disgraced ex-district attorney who is a sex offender (sexual harassment, and outright assault allegations), who can no longer practice law in Wisconsin because of a suspended license.

Former Calumet County District Attorney,
Ken Kratz, helped frame, and prosecuted
the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery, say
Avery's advocates. Kratz' law license
is suspended in Wisconsin.
Kratz' legal and personal reputations have taken such a beating that he is attempting to sell the Internet domain name of his private law office, Kratzlawfirm.

Kratz Law Firm, LLC [Entity ID K040945] dissolved in February 2012, according to records at the Wisconsin Dept of Financial Institutions (DFI).

As late as 2015, Kratz claimed to be doing business in private practice in Superior, Wisconsin, at Kratz Law Firm (Mal Contends).

A search of Wisconsin DFI records reveal no business entities registered to Kratz during 2015, or after Feb 2012.

This raises the question, why was Kratz claiming to do business as Kratz Law Firm, LLC, when state records reveal that no such business entity existed after February 2012?

Attorney General Josh Kaul 

No matter.

Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) has taken up defending Kratz' bad-faith prosecution.

Under the administration of Attorney General Joshua
Kaul (D), the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DoJ) refused
to address the merits of Steven Avery's characterization
of Wisconsin's post-conviction misconduct
— DoJ bad faith, evidence destruction and suppression
— because the DoJ cannot credibly do so.
In under three months since assuming office, Kaul has presided over both committing and defending acts of evidence concealment and destruction, while misleading Avery's attorneys and state appellate justices (p. 2. March 11, 2019 Supplemental § 974.06 Motion for Post-Conviction Relief Pursuant to State's Violation of Wis. Stat § 968.205 and Youngblood v. Arizona).

Kaul proved anew Wisconsin Democrats are as complicit as Republicans in defending wrongful convictions, deflating hopes the Wisconsin police-prosecutor state is under serious challenge by reformists after the 2018 elections.

Notes Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, in her Feb. 1 legal filing.
The [State] ... conveys an attitude of impunity for its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence and its current action of continuing the concealment of its destruction of potentially exculpatory or useful evidence. ...

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

Reads the Feb. 25 Court ruling in part:
The State’s objection does not address the merits of Avery’s claimed statutory and constitutional violations, and it has not responded to Avery’s supplemental filings alleging the possible destruction of evidentiary items which, it appears, the parties previously agreed to preserve.

The State suggests that the appeal is languishing and that if Avery wishes to pursue new claims outside the scope of the WIS. STAT. § 974.06 post-conviction orders presently on appeal, he could dismiss the pending appeal, or wait until its conclusion to file his new claims. As to the former, Avery understandably disagrees, aware that dismissing this appeal will preclude review of the underlying orders entered to date (emphasis added).
The State previously suggested to the Court in its Dec. 28, 2018 filing that Avery and Zellner drop their appeal without the state ever having "admitted or disclosed that it had given the bones back to the Halbach family in 2011 without notice to Mr. Avery or his counsel," notes Kathleen Zellner her Feb. 1 Reply filing.

The DoJ can be counted on to do its worst in this post-conviction litigation.

Wisconsin v. Steven Avery (2017AP002288)

The DoJ improbably cleared Manitowoc County law enforcement, including District Attorney Denis Vogel, for the first wrongful prosecution of Avery (Amy Lehmann, Deb Strauss, Peg Lautenschlager. DoJ Avery Review. Dec 17 2003).

The DoJ's Division of Criminal Investigation's (DCI) Deb Strauss, co-author the 2003 review that cleared Manitowoc County en masse, was so eager to pin another violent crime on Avery, that when murder victim Teresa Halbach went missing, Strauss contacted Calumet County offering to investigate Avery.

What was Strauss doing?

Now, the DoJ under Attorney General Kaul's administration is engaging in its own misconduct in obstruction (Rolling Stone).

One wonders if Kaul will order a review of the second investigation and prosecution of Avery after the conclusion of Avery's post-conviction litigation.

Further subjects of a DoJ review should include the DoJ's own attorneys and the facts and circumstances of their conduct in the post-conviction litigation.

For Wisconsin law enforcement and adjudication of criminal justice, we are a nation of men and women, laws and ethics are optional.

In opposing post-conviction litigation by concealing evidence against Avery, (Making a Murderer), Wisconsin Attorney Josh Kaul (D) is offering polemics, pointless antagonism and the defense of apparent criminality and willful violation of constitutional rights and state law committed by Wisconsin law enforcement.

Kaul is delaying the inevitable, defending a miscarriage of justice and doing dishonor to Wisconsin.

I have lived in Wisconsin all my life, and I do not see the bottom, though Josh Kaul is dredging the filth of Wisconsin as he blocks, obscures and delays, motivated from a pathology only Kaul can truly explain.

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Jun 12, 2019

Steven Avery Sends Message to Supporters after News of Stalling by Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz

Steven Avery sends public a message from Waupun
maximum security prison.
News delivered to Steven Avery that Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz is dithering on his case has not discouraged this innocent man featured in the Emmy-wining Making a Murderer.

Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, posted Avery's message on Twitter this afternoon after visiting the wrongfully convicted man in a maximum security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin yesterday.

Avery has now served 34 years in prison. He was exonerated for the first frame-up after being cleared of an attack on an innocent woman in 1985.

Avery then sued Manitowoc County in a civil action that implicated several law enforcement officers.

While depositions were under way, police in the Manitowoc and Calumet sheriff offices in east-central Wisconsin framed Avery for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Currently, the case has been sent back to Manitowoc County where Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz is presiding.

The sheer demented consciousness of Wisconsin law enforcement has Avery's advocates both terrorized and incensed.

Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) is leading the state effort to keep the innocent man imprisoned.

Steven Avery's message is reproduced below in Ms. Zellner's Tweet, and in text form.

Message from Steven Avery

To my supporters,
There are times that I feel like giving up. I've been in prison 34 years as an innocent man.
THIS IS NOT JUSTICE.
I was framed by corrupt prosecutors, bad lawyers, and crooked cops. I am fighting for my life. Can you hear me?
I need all the public support you can give me. I will not give up if you do not give up on me.
Thank you for your support.
Truth wins,

Steven Avery
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Oct 14, 2019

Steven Avery Appeal Filed — Shines Light on Wisconsin Law Enforcement Corruption in Fight for Exoneration

Is the government required to follow the law when the state
investigates, and litigates against a defendant? Yes,
Steven Avery argues in a 135-page brief filed today in
Wisconsin appellate court. Avery argues the law enforcement
team that conspired to destroy biological evidence engaged
in an illegal scheme that runs afoul of the effect of  two
critical cases protecting innocents. Reads the brief in part,
"[T]e Youngblood test examines the government’s role
  in  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  destruction  of
the evidence. 488 U.S. at 56–58. If a criminal
defendant can satisfy either  test,  then  a  court 
will  rule the destruction of evidence was a violation
of due process and reverse the defendant’s conviction. 
Youngblood, 488 U.S. at 54; Trombetta, 467 U.S. at 484." 
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — A much-anticipated appeal from Steven Avery was filed in state appellate court this morning, court records indicate, (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288).

The 135-page appeal asserts numerous instances of law-breaking committed by Wisconsin law enforcement including DNA evidence destruction, evidence concealment, myriad Brady violations, and deprivations of Due Process and Constitutional rights that helped to convict and illegally block post-conviction litigation efforts of a man whom millions world-wide believe to be innocent.

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

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

The text of the appeal is posted on social media and the site, WorkwithKZ, and can be found here as well.

Attorneys Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards are Mr. Avery's attorneys.

The bizarre post-litigation case includes a flaunting of Wisconsin's evidence preservation law in a law enforcement scheme that saw the remains of murder victim Teresa Halbach illegally transported to the Halbach family in 2011 by Calumet County Sheriff Deputy Jeremy Hawkins, Sergeant Investigator Mark Wiegert,and DoJ Attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norman Gahn.

Chutzpah and Wisconsin Law Enforcement

Fallon and Gahn helped to prosecute the Avery case in 2007, then in 2011 destroyed biological evidence in their scheme, presenting to the Halbach family numerous bones as Teresa Halbach's remains.

Now, Fallon and Gahn argue in state appellate court that since the evidence they destroyed is forensically worthless because of contamination, its exculpatory value to defendant Avery can no longer be ascertained.

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

"Inexplicably released" is a disingenuous characterization for the illegal destruction of evidence that not only implicates Fallon, Gahn and Wiegert, but also is a clear violation of the Due Process Clause, and is a Brady violation under Wisconsin judicial doctrine.

Avery in his brief today argue that Wisconsin's "DNA evidence preservation statute presumes that every violation constitutes 'bad faith,'" (See pp 128-1320.)

The brief is also critical of the lower circuit court's handling of the post-conviction litigation by Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz, arguing the judge abused her discretion in several instances, and that her reasoning on several points is deeply flawed.

Abusing discretion. That's legal language for grave misconduct that in this case prevents Avery from receiving a fair hearing in post-conviction litigation.
Brady Violations

Violations of the Brady Rule, prosecutors’ duty under the Brady v. Maryland (1963) case to turn over to the defense exculpatory evidence are "epidemic," to borrow a term from an opinion from former Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (Cassens-Weiss, ABA Journal).

The state of Wisconsin law enforcement conducts
its Brady obligations as though these constitutional safe-
guards were optional, and of no importance. Steven
Avery is arguing against this position and Avery is
on strong footing as he attempts to gain his freedom.

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

The state of Wisconsin's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence in its litigation against Avery should result in a reversal or a vacating of the 2007 conviction.

In Feb 2019, notes the Evidence Prof Blog, the burden is now on the state in Wisconsin to follow the dictates of Brady after a powerful opinion in State v. Wayerski, 2019 WL 471276 (Wis. 2019):

[T]he Supreme Court of Wisconsin issued an opinion that might have huge implications for the Brady doctrine. Under that doctrine the prosecution has an affirmative obligation under the Due Process Clause to disclose material exculpatory evidence to the defense. In its opinion in State v. Wayerski, 2019 WL 471276 (Wis. 2019), however, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that Wisconsin courts had shifted the focus from the State's misconduct to the defense's due diligence and issued a course correction.

To read the State's position in State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, misleading the defense, concealing evidence and destroying evidence are effectively not a matter of Constitutional importance.

See also:

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Jan 27, 2019

New Motion in Making a Murderer Case Implicates Wisconsin Law Enforcement

Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept Lt., Andrew Colborn, (Ret),
was implicated in misconduct in the second Steven Avery
frame-up, becoming a major disgraced public figure, as
documented in Making a Murderer, and Wrecking Crew,
Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery, (Ferak).
Numerous other Wisconsin law enforcement officials
have been implicated in criminal misconduct, uncharged
but not forgotten.

Framing innocents and conviction protection define Wisconsin 


Madison, Wisconsin — What do you call it when the police and prosecutors break the law to frame a man whom they know to be innocent?

Wisconsin, a state in which a disgraced ex-district attorney and sexual harasser Ken Kratz (who can longer practice law in Wisconsin) and his wife carry the public relations fight for wrongful convictions.

The Kratz are human garbage. After former attorney general Peg Lautenschlager passed away last year, Leah Kratz made jokes about her death on Twitter. The Kratz also support Donald Trump and assorted rightwing causes.

Manitowoc County is not Milwaukee, so Manty Co police do not kick the shit of a prone man for a traffic stop with the knowledge Mayor Tom Barrett is ready to support police misconduct, including murder, mayhem and beating a handcuffed man into convulsions and fracturing his face.

But Manitowoc and Calumet counties are cesspools of police corruption.

Police misconduct in Wisconsin's legal and political culture is like cold in Winter — it's the way it is, and human rights and social justice work are not going to change the cops or the weather, it is widely believed.

A motion filed Jan 24, 2019 by attorney Kathleen Zellner —  who represents the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery featured in the Making a Murderer docuseries —  seeks post-conviction relief because the Calumet County Sheriff's Office secretly and knowingly transferred evidence 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.

Plot, evade, hide and deny everything is the motto of Wisconsin law enforcement, and Zellner's client, Avery, is another victim.

The new Avery motion was made in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District Two as part of a post-conviction strategy demonstrating violations of Avery 's Constitutional rights by multiple jurisdictions of Wisconsin law enforcement.

The post-conviction news draws national headlines.

From Kelly Wynne in Newsweek:

Bones that could have been tested for DNA in the case of Steven Avery have been returned to Teresa Halbach’s family, though it’s unclear if the bones were hers. Wrongful convictions attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a motion to have the bones tested in December, but that motion was quickly denied.

Zellner filed a second motion Thursday, which asserts the state violated Avery’s 14th amendment rights by denying DNA testing and failing to inform Avery’s prior legal council that the bones would be returned to Halbach’s family. The motion argues this amounts to an attempt by the state to 'destroy evidence' in the case.

The motion claims the bones were returned to the Halbach family in September 2011 at the Wieting Funeral Home by the Calumet County Sheriffs Department. 

As seen on Making A Murderer, the bones in question were found in the Manitawoc gravel pit, off of the Avery property. Much of Avery’s conviction was based on forensic evidence found on his property, according to the motion. Zellner explained if Halbach's bones were found in another location, it would negate the state’s arguments about how and where Halbach was killed, possibly clearing Avery’s name. The bones have never been tested for DNA.

The decision to give the bones to the Halbach family is in violation of Wisconsin’s 'preservation statute,' Zellner told Newsweek.

'We are very curious to hear the State’s explanation for violating the Wisconsin preservation statute,' she said. 'No notice was given to Avery or his attorneys at the time. The State claimed at trial there was no evidence the quarry bones were human, so why were they given back to the Halbachs? Giving the bones to the Halbachs confirms the State’s belief that not only were they human—they belonged to Teresa Halbach. The State cannot have it both ways. The destruction of material evidence is a serious constitutional violation.' 

The trial of Avery was a feast of lies and perjury committed by cops.

The Appleton Post-Crescent reports:
The attorneys argued that the appeal should be temporarily halted so the case can be sent back to the circuit court to determine if Avery's due process rights were violated. The motion came a little more than a week before a deadline for Avery's attorneys to file a brief before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

A spokesperson with the Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Avery's attorneys, the state violated the law by failing to preserve certain suspected human bone evidence and failing to notify Avery and his attorneys of the state's intent to destroy it.

At trial, the state told the jury that all of the incriminating forensic evidence was in close proximity to Mr. Avery's residence and that bones found in his burn pit were the most important evidence against Avery, they wrote in the motion.

Jerome Buting, one of Avery's defense attorneys at trial, countered that bones found in the nearby Manitowoc County gravel pit were also important, but were glossed over by then-Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz because they didn't fit with the state's theory of Avery's guilt.

Kratz dismissed defense attorneys' claim that those bones were human, saying it had not been scientifically verified, Zellner and Richards wrote in their motion.

However, by giving the bones back to Halbach's family, the state implicitly admitted that they were human and belong to Halbach, they wrote.

The identification of the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit bone fragments as Ms. Halbach's is material because it is apparently exculpatory and potentially useful in proving the murder and mutilation did not occur in a location tied exclusively to Mr. Avery, Zellner and Richards wrote. No reasonable trier of fact could conclude that, if Mr. Avery murdered and mutilated Ms. Halbach in the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit, he would move her bones from the gravel pit to his own burn pit and thereby incriminate himself.

If this latest motion were filed before an unbiased and rational state appellate court, this would be an explosive development shaking the foundations of Wisconsin law enforcement.

In Wisconsin, however, the judiciary is corrupt and acts as little more than a shield for corrupt public officials in law enforcement in criminal law cases.

Reads Avery's motion in part, (with some links added):
STATE OF WISCONSIN, Plaintiff-Respondent, STEVEN A. AVERY, SR., Defendant-Appellant.

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT'S MOTION TO STAY APPEAL AND REMAND THE CAUSE FOR PROCEEDINGS ON CLAIMS FOR RELIEF IN CONNECTION WITH THE STATE'S VIOLATION OF WIS. STAT. § 968.205 AND YOUNGBLOOD V. ARIZONA

Defendant-Appellant, Steven A. Avery, Sr., ("Mr. Avery'') by his undersigned attorneys, Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards, moves this Court to stay this appeal and remand the cause for a hearing on a claim for re ... [links added]

Supporters across the world look to Wisconsin with appropriate disgust.


The Constitutional violations are blatant; stay tuned.

To paraphrase Archibald Cox: Whether we shall continue to be a state of laws is now for ultimately the Wisconsin people to decide.

This would be easier if a handful of Wisconsin jurists acted in good faith.
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Jul 8, 2021

Dolores Avery — Dead from a Broken Heart

Madison, Wisconsin — Dolores Avery, the mother of the once-exonerated Steven Avery, passed away this morning.

Mrs. Avery is featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries, shown contending with the ordeal of her son in his battle with dubious law enforcement, as an apparent frame-up scheme by Wisconsin law enforcement devastates her family in 2005.

Steven was exonerated and released in 2003 after an earlier frame-up scheme in 1985 was exposed by the Innocence Project.

After Steven Avery filed a federal civil rights suit, law enforcement took unusual notice of Avery, singling him out as a perpetrator for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach.

The Making a Murderer docuseries offers a poignant look at Dolores Avery, distraught and helpless as law enforcement targets and convicts her son and grandson, Brendan Dassey.

Dolores was known locally as a kind-hearted and principled woman who died never understanding why law enforcement and now the Wisconsin Democratic Party leadership worked so hard to imprison a man whom they know to be innocent.

The world-wide community supporting Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey appears to be grieving today.

Avery is awaiting the decision in state appellate court on several pending motions.

Viewers of Making a Murderer were compelled to feel the pain and suffering of Mr. and Mrs. Avery.

Both come off as salt-of-the-earth and bewildered by the massive and onerous Wisconsin legal system that separated their family until Dolores Avery's death.


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Feb 7, 2019

Making a Murderer Case Is Atop a Precipice of Scandal and Depravity That Could Break and Send Cops to Their Doom

Wisconsin Either Gave Animal Bones to Murder Victim's Family, or Intentionally Destroyed Material Evidence Proving Innocence

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Dept of Justice is caught in multiple dilemmas as it continues to block a hearing for the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery, framed for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

For bad measure, Mark Wiegert, (sergeant (and now Sheriff) at the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator), goaded another innocent, Brendan Dassey, to mutter words portrayed as admission of guilt, supporting a lurid, contrived tale of Avery's guilt in this malicious prosecution of Avery, (Ferek, Appleton Post-Crescent). Former Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R) (2007-2015) announced on May 2, 2008, Wiegert and Fassbender, received the Meritorious Service Award from the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators, (Wisconsin Dept. of Justice).

This is Wisconsin law enforcement. No cop, retired or active, speaks out against the bad faith and routine depravity.

Wiegert and Fassbender are typical Wisconsin cops. Would you work to convict someone whom you knew be innocent?

Kathleen Zellner wouldn't.

Zellner — who represents the wrongfully convicted Avery featured in the Making a Murderer docuseries — filed an explosive motion Jan 24, 2019 seeking a hearing because the Calumet County Sheriff's Office secretly transferred evidence, the remains of a murder victim, Teresa Halbach, to private custody in 2011, in violation of state statutes that govern preservation of physical evidence collected, subject to criminal investigations.

Zellner's Jan 24 motion in state appellate court seeks an order to remand, send back, the case to circuit court for the hearing.

The Jan 24 motion, followed by the state's Jan 29 reply motion and Zellner's Feb.1 response, is a potentially devastating development for the state because Zellner shows either the state of Wisconsin gave the Halbach family animal bones in 2011 and told the family the bones were the remains of Teresa Halbach; or the state conspired to illegally destroy exculpatory evidence.

The post-conviction news draws national headlines.

From Kelly Wynne in Newsweek:


Bones that could have been tested for DNA in the case of Steven Avery have been returned to Teresa Halbach’s family, though it’s unclear if the bones were hers. Wrongful convictions attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a motion to have the bones tested in December, but that motion was quickly denied.

Zellner filed a second motion Thursday, which asserts the state violated Avery’s 14th amendment rights by denying DNA testing and failing to inform Avery’s prior legal council that the bones would be returned to Halbach’s family. The motion argues this amounts to an attempt by the state to 'destroy evidence' in the case.

The motion claims the bones were returned to the Halbach family in September 2011 at the Wieting Funeral Home by the Calumet County Sheriffs Department. 

As seen on Making A Murderer, the bones in question were found in the Manitawoc gravel pit, off of the Avery property. Much of Avery’s conviction was based on forensic evidence found on his property, according to the motion. Zellner explained if Halbach's bones were found in another location, it would negate the state’s arguments about how and where Halbach was killed, possibly clearing Avery’s name. The bones have never been tested for DNA.

The decision to give the bones to the Halbach family is in violation of Wisconsin’s 'preservation statute,' Zellner told Newsweek.

'We are very curious to hear the State’s explanation for violating the Wisconsin preservation statute,' she said. 'No notice was given to Avery or his attorneys at the time. The State claimed at trial there was no evidence the quarry bones were human, so why were they given back to the Halbachs? Giving the bones to the Halbachs confirms the State’s belief that not only were they human—they belonged to Teresa Halbach. The State cannot have it both ways. The destruction of material evidence is a serious constitutional violation.' 
The trial of Avery was a feast of lies and perjury committed by cops.

The Appleton Post-Crescent reports:
The attorneys argued that the appeal should be temporarily halted so the case can be sent back to the circuit court to determine if Avery's due process rights were violated. The motion came a little more than a week before a deadline for Avery's attorneys to file a brief before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

A spokesperson with the Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Avery's attorneys, the state violated the law by failing to preserve certain suspected human bone evidence and failing to notify Avery and his attorneys of the state's intent to destroy it.

At trial, the state told the jury that all of the incriminating forensic evidence was in close proximity to Mr. Avery's residence and that bones found in his burn pit were the most important evidence against Avery, they wrote in the motion.

Jerome Buting, one of Avery's defense attorneys at trial, countered that bones found in the nearby Manitowoc County gravel pit were also important, but were glossed over by then-Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz because they didn't fit with the state's theory of Avery's guilt.

Kratz dismissed defense attorneys' claim that those bones were human, saying it had not been scientifically verified, Zellner and Richards wrote in their motion.

However, by giving the bones back to Halbach's family, the state implicitly admitted that they were human and belong to Halbach, they wrote.

The identification of the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit bone fragments as Ms. Halbach's is material because it is apparently exculpatory and potentially useful in proving the murder and mutilation did not occur in a location tied exclusively to Mr. Avery, Zellner and Richards wrote. No reasonable trier of fact could conclude that, if Mr. Avery murdered and mutilated Ms. Halbach in the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit, he would move her bones from the gravel pit to his own burn pit and thereby incriminate himself.
In a state other than Wisconsin, this misconduct and the crusade against Steven Avery would have resulted in multiple criminal charges against dozens of corrupt cops.
Notes attorney Jerome Buting, Avery's 2005 co-counsel, uninvolved in the post-conviction litigation:
Cops have many secret weapons, one of which is the Lautenschlager-Kaul family.

After Steven Avery was exonerated for the first (1985) wrongful conviction, "Lautenschlager, Wisconsin's Attorney General [2003-07] in 2003, directed the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate the merits of the 1985 wrongful conviction of Steven Avery. The DOJ released an 18-page report on Dec. 17, 2003, finding 'there is no basis to bring criminal charges or assert ethics violations against anyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case,'" (Ferak, Appleton Post-Crescent).

Lautenschlager is the current Attorney General Josh Kaul's (2019-present) late mother.

Kaul inherited his mother's taste for defending wrongful convictions and police misconduct.

Or, maybe the Oshkosh-Fond du Lac family drank too much of Lake Winnebago's increasingly polluted waters. One wonders if Lautenschlager told her son the truth about she did, and warned Kaul to keep the bad work top secret.

In any event, now Kaul is pursuing a reckless and hostile battle against Avery in post-conviction litigation with the mission of drowning out truth at any cost: Even humiliating a murder victim's family and mocking an innocent man's effort to prove what Kaul knows is a frame-up.

Corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement has met a determined adversary.

Writes Zellner in part:

The State should not benefit from concealing a report, failing to give notice, and facilitating the destruction of biological evidence. The State's opposition to Mr. Avery's motion is tantamount to asking this Court to sanction a rule where "prosecutor may hide, defendant must seek." Banhs v. Drethe, 540 U.S. 668, 696 (2004). Such a rule "is not tenable· in a system constitutionally bound to accord defendants due process." Id. After all, the State, in its response to Mr. Avery's motion, makes no effort to deny the due process violations Mr. Avery alleges, i.e., that the State concealed a  police report, failed to give statutorily-mandated notice to Mr. Avery and his attorneys of its intent to destroy biological evidence, then facilitated the destruction of the same evidence. The State should not now reap the benefit of its past statutory and due process violations. Such an outcome would contravene the sense of basic fairness inherent in our justice system. (p.7)
--
Yes.
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