xrayzebra
01-11-2006, 05:07 PM
I just want to know, according to many who post on this forum, how
some dimm-o-craps would do such a thing. I know, I know: these are
republicans play acting as dimm-o-craps. Good dimm-o-craps would
only do the right thing. Never try to change the results of an election.
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/384299.asp
Outside operatives blamed in tire case
But prosecution says locals ran amok in damaging GOP vehicles
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
[email protected]
Posted: Jan. 10, 2006
The real culprits in the election day 2004 tire slashings of Republican Party vans were emotional Democratic operatives from out of state, lawyers for some of the local men charged in the crime said Tuesday at the start of their trial.
Election Day Vandalism
Photo/Benny Sieu
Sowande Omokunde (right) huddles with his mother, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), during a recess in his property damage trial Tuesday.
Quotable
These aren’t just card-carrying staffers...They believe the fight is for legitimate democracy, and they’re passionate.
- Defense attorney Robin Shellow, speaking of outside Democratic consultants
"The out-of-towners, the industry people," played key roles in the tire-slashing but figured out how to shift blame onto the local party workers after John Kerry carried Wisconsin and they left, Craig Mastantuono told jurors in his opening statement.
But Assistant District Attorney David Feiss said the low-level Milwaukee staffers just ran amok and turned "Operation Elephant Takeover," a plan to plaster Milwaukee Republican Party headquarters with Democratic signs, into felony destruction of property designed to immobilize the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort.
"They almost got away with it," Feiss said in his opening statement.
Those on trial include the sons of two prominent local Democrats, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt. Both watched Tuesday's proceedings from the front row of the gallery. Michael Pratt, Sowande Omokunde, Moore's son, Lavelle Mohammad, Lewis G. Caldwell and Justin Howell face up to 3½ years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 if convicted.
Ever since the incident was reported, the case has been fraught with political implications. District Attorney E. Michael McCann was heavily criticized for taking nearly 12 weeks to bring a case against the five men. He said it took so long because many of the people involved were Democratic Party workers who had returned to their out-of-state homes after the election.
Feiss said he will tie the defendants to the crime with cell phone records and the testimony of Democratic staffers about the defendants' own braggadocio.
He quoted Mohammad as having boasted after the attacks: "We got 'em. We got 'em good."
Several of the five defense attorneys tried to undercut the Democratic Party witnesses expected to testify for the state. They blamed Democratic national consultants brought to political battleground Wisconsin from out of state with masterminding - and possibly carrying out - the tire slashings.
Robin Shellow, representing Omokunde, tied the vandalism to reputed bitterness over losing the 2000 presidential election and claimed aggressive protests in the 2004 campaign were linked by strategy to the tire-slashings.
"These aren't just card-carrying staffers," Shellow said of the outside consultants. " . . . They believe the fight is for legitimate democracy, and they're passionate."
"Until Opel Simmons and his team hit Wisconsin, nothing like this had ever happened," said Rodney Cubbie, Pratt's attorney.
Simmons, of Virginia, told investigators he and a fellow national Democratic staffer had gone to Madison the night before the election but returned to Milwaukee to see some of the defendants leave the local party headquarters, return and brag about the vandalism, according to the complaint and prior testimony.
The first and only witness to testify Tuesday was Cedric Peoples, the security guard on duty at GOP headquarters on W. Capitol Drive on Nov. 2, 2004. He said he doesn't have a full memory of what he saw.
He testified that he saw a white man in an alley and a black man pass through the area before being driven away. He heard air escaping from some tires but said he didn't see the tires get cut. In all, 40 tires were damaged on 25 vehicles.
"I don't recall exactly what I told the dispatcher," Peoples said.
His testimony will continue today.
The trial almost got delayed after jury selection. The defense asked Circuit Judge Michael B. Brennan to start the whole jury selection process over because prosecutors used six of their 10 challenges to remove minorities.
Feiss said his strikes were not racially motivated and gave Brennan some of the reasons the state struck four of the jurors: One grew up with defense attorney Cubbie's sister, one had worked with Mohammad in a Best Buy years ago, another said on his juror questionnaire that he hated police, and one was about to start a teaching job, a profession Feiss said is generally thought to contain people more inherently sympathetic to defendants.
Brennan denied the defense request and started trial with the original 14 jurors: ten whites - five men, five women - and four blacks - three women and one man.
From the Jan. 11, 2006, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Have an opinion on this story? Write a letter to the editor or start an online forum.
================================================== =======
Cant wait for buotons remarks on this case.
some dimm-o-craps would do such a thing. I know, I know: these are
republicans play acting as dimm-o-craps. Good dimm-o-craps would
only do the right thing. Never try to change the results of an election.
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/384299.asp
Outside operatives blamed in tire case
But prosecution says locals ran amok in damaging GOP vehicles
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
[email protected]
Posted: Jan. 10, 2006
The real culprits in the election day 2004 tire slashings of Republican Party vans were emotional Democratic operatives from out of state, lawyers for some of the local men charged in the crime said Tuesday at the start of their trial.
Election Day Vandalism
Photo/Benny Sieu
Sowande Omokunde (right) huddles with his mother, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), during a recess in his property damage trial Tuesday.
Quotable
These aren’t just card-carrying staffers...They believe the fight is for legitimate democracy, and they’re passionate.
- Defense attorney Robin Shellow, speaking of outside Democratic consultants
"The out-of-towners, the industry people," played key roles in the tire-slashing but figured out how to shift blame onto the local party workers after John Kerry carried Wisconsin and they left, Craig Mastantuono told jurors in his opening statement.
But Assistant District Attorney David Feiss said the low-level Milwaukee staffers just ran amok and turned "Operation Elephant Takeover," a plan to plaster Milwaukee Republican Party headquarters with Democratic signs, into felony destruction of property designed to immobilize the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort.
"They almost got away with it," Feiss said in his opening statement.
Those on trial include the sons of two prominent local Democrats, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt. Both watched Tuesday's proceedings from the front row of the gallery. Michael Pratt, Sowande Omokunde, Moore's son, Lavelle Mohammad, Lewis G. Caldwell and Justin Howell face up to 3½ years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 if convicted.
Ever since the incident was reported, the case has been fraught with political implications. District Attorney E. Michael McCann was heavily criticized for taking nearly 12 weeks to bring a case against the five men. He said it took so long because many of the people involved were Democratic Party workers who had returned to their out-of-state homes after the election.
Feiss said he will tie the defendants to the crime with cell phone records and the testimony of Democratic staffers about the defendants' own braggadocio.
He quoted Mohammad as having boasted after the attacks: "We got 'em. We got 'em good."
Several of the five defense attorneys tried to undercut the Democratic Party witnesses expected to testify for the state. They blamed Democratic national consultants brought to political battleground Wisconsin from out of state with masterminding - and possibly carrying out - the tire slashings.
Robin Shellow, representing Omokunde, tied the vandalism to reputed bitterness over losing the 2000 presidential election and claimed aggressive protests in the 2004 campaign were linked by strategy to the tire-slashings.
"These aren't just card-carrying staffers," Shellow said of the outside consultants. " . . . They believe the fight is for legitimate democracy, and they're passionate."
"Until Opel Simmons and his team hit Wisconsin, nothing like this had ever happened," said Rodney Cubbie, Pratt's attorney.
Simmons, of Virginia, told investigators he and a fellow national Democratic staffer had gone to Madison the night before the election but returned to Milwaukee to see some of the defendants leave the local party headquarters, return and brag about the vandalism, according to the complaint and prior testimony.
The first and only witness to testify Tuesday was Cedric Peoples, the security guard on duty at GOP headquarters on W. Capitol Drive on Nov. 2, 2004. He said he doesn't have a full memory of what he saw.
He testified that he saw a white man in an alley and a black man pass through the area before being driven away. He heard air escaping from some tires but said he didn't see the tires get cut. In all, 40 tires were damaged on 25 vehicles.
"I don't recall exactly what I told the dispatcher," Peoples said.
His testimony will continue today.
The trial almost got delayed after jury selection. The defense asked Circuit Judge Michael B. Brennan to start the whole jury selection process over because prosecutors used six of their 10 challenges to remove minorities.
Feiss said his strikes were not racially motivated and gave Brennan some of the reasons the state struck four of the jurors: One grew up with defense attorney Cubbie's sister, one had worked with Mohammad in a Best Buy years ago, another said on his juror questionnaire that he hated police, and one was about to start a teaching job, a profession Feiss said is generally thought to contain people more inherently sympathetic to defendants.
Brennan denied the defense request and started trial with the original 14 jurors: ten whites - five men, five women - and four blacks - three women and one man.
From the Jan. 11, 2006, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Have an opinion on this story? Write a letter to the editor or start an online forum.
================================================== =======
Cant wait for buotons remarks on this case.