Heckuva job on Brownie

A Fighting Bob guest blogger, Juris Prudence, offers another enlightening angle on the State v. Brown episode discussed below.

To wit, a bit of procedural history:

What hasn’t been pointed out yet, however, is that the [former Republican Governor Scott] McCallum administration, which Gableman was trying to curry favor with, was the same McCallum administration that was to blame for the decision in State v. Brown. * * *

"On December 30, 2002, the department (of health and family services) filed the updated report, supporting supervised release. The report stated that Brown 'ha[d] completed sufficient treatment at (Sand Ridge) to reduce his risk for sexually violent behavior to the point that he has become an appropriate subject for supervised release.'"

After this filing by the McCallum DHFS, the state then didn’t call a single psychologist to oppose McCallum’s DHFS’s request for release. The result was, not surprisingly, that the state failed to provide enough admissible evidence — so it failed to prove its case. You can’t blame the referee for calling the game for the defendant when the state doesn’t show up to play — or worse, where the administration throws the game.

Why isn’t Gableman attacking McCallum? Of course! Because Gableman gave thousands of dollars to McCallum, held fundraisers for McCallum, and then McCallum gave Gableman his job.

To which I would only add — or inquire, as it were — who was it that argued on behalf of the State of Wisconsin to deny Richard A. Brown his petition for supervised release, before both the Court of Appeals and the State Supreme Court?

None other than Peggy A. Lautenschlauger, Attorney General under current Governor Jim Doyle. Evidently Gableman's benefactors in the McCallum administration didn't leave her much to work with. Although she managed a win in the Court of Appeals, it was all over by the top court (thanks to Justice Prosser's deciding vote).