I give them credit; Republicans have balls. Moon-sized balls.
Kelly Reindfleisch, former top aide to former Milwaukee County Executive (and now Governor), is at it again.
A state Appeals Court panel Tuesday denied a bid by Kelly Rindfleisch, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker, to have her felony misconduct charges dismissed based on a decade-old immunity deal.
If this story sounds familiar, it is. Her lawyers tried this stunt back in July to get her charges dismissed. The judge in the case virtually laughed it out of the court. But those huge moon-sized weren't done yet. The ruling was appealed and today she got another smack down.
It's hard to imagine that someone who faced similar charges in the past, avoided those charges by cooperating with prosecutors and getting immunity in return, would keep on doing the exact same crimes in the future. It's even harder to imagine that anyone would imagine that the courts would consider that immunity to be lifelong. It's like a drug dealer who gets immunity from prosecution by testifying against a drug ring going back out to deal drugs with the expectation that they'll never be arrested or charged again.
Franklyn Gimbel, Rindfleisch's lawyer, had argued that immunity she got from prosecution in the decade-old state Capitol caucus scandal precluded her from facing similar charges dating to 2010, when Rindfleisch was deputy chief of staff to then-Milwaukee County Executive Walker. She is accused of working on campaign fundraisers while at her taxpayer-paid county post.
And that's not all.
Her lawyer has been working hard. He tried and failed to get her trial, currently scheduled for October 15, moved out of Milwaukee County to a, shall we say, more Republican-friendly county in Wisconsin by claiming that she lived there and should stand trial closer to home. The courts disagreed saying that the trial should occur where the crime occurred.
Following that, her attempt to get the charges dismissed by claiming that a 10 year old immunity deal she made with prosecutors to avoid charges in the infamous Caucus Scandal covered her later actions (doing the exact same kind of political work in government offices on taxpayer time). Dismissed by the judge and appealed with todays smackdown as the result.
Her lawyer isn't done, though. He's planning to appeal the judges ruling against supressing evidence gathered during a search of her home last year when a search warrant obtained by the John Doe prosecuters was executed. Sufficient evidence was gathered from 2 of her personal email accounts to file charges.
Bottom line: The already indicted defendents in the John Doe Probe have been systematically delaying their trials. Tim Russell, former top aide to Scott Walker, has changed lawyers 5 times and successfully delayed his trial until after the November election and others are trying delaying tactics as well. They know that damning information will be coming out in the trials and the GOP doesn't need to stink up their chances with the voters, particularly when Democrats are trying hard to maintain their control of the State Senate and gain seats in the State Assembly where Republicans hold such a massive majority that Democrats don't even have to show up for a quorum count.
Here are the trial dates as of now:
September 7, 2012: Pre-trial hearing for Kevin Kavanaugh is underway and expected to last for 1 week. His trial has been scheduled for October 8.
October 15, 2012: Start of the trial for Kelly Reindfleisch.
November 21, 2012: Sentencing for Darlene Wink (plea bargain/cooperating). This date was delayed at the request of prosecutors to ensure continuing cooperation.
December, 2012: Start of the trial for Tim Russell
While information on the John Doe Probe has been scant, expect more information to come out once the trials begin.
12:35 PM PT: I'll be gone for a few hours at an appointment. Computer willing (yes, even after the new motherboard and hard drive, it's still not working properly), I'll be back in a few hours.
4:54 PM PT: I'm back and ready to enjoy your comments.