Compare Jensen Charges & ADC Activity

COUNT ONE (JENSEN, FOTI: MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE)

THE ABOVE NAMED COMPLAINING WITNESS, BEING DULY SWORN, SAYS THAT DEFENDANTS SCOTT JENSEN AND STEVEN FOTI, AS PARTIES TO THE CRIME, IN THE COUNTY OF DANE, STATE OF WISCONSIN, between on or about January 27, 1998, and on or about October 8, 2001, at the City of Madison, in their capacities as public officers, did by acts of omission and commission, exercise their discretionary powers in manners inconsistent with the duties of their offices, with the intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for others, by hiring, retaining, and supervising a State employee, namely Sherry Schultz, to solicit, account for, distribute and publicly report money for political campaigns, and assist others in these same tasks, during times when Schultz was compensated as a State employee or using State resources or both; contrary to Sections 939.05 and 946.12(3) of the Wisconsin Statutes, a Class E felony; and upon conviction may be fined not more than $10,000 and imprisoned not more than five (5) years or both.

• Meeting with Democrat Legislative Campaign Committee occurs in Krug office. 11/08/01 Bjork page 11
  
  
• Bjork stated that there would be meetings involving how to raise more money, and they would occur in Krug’s office. 11/08/01 Bjork page 14
  
• Bjork stated that it was the job of Jeff Plale, Gregory Huber, Antonio Riley, Mark Pocan and Krug to carry the brunt of the fundraising responsibilities. Bjork relayed that there would have been meetings about that in Krug’s office. 11/27/02 Bjork page 3.
  
• Bjork stated that Raghu was introduced to the non-leadership Assembly members during a closed caucus meeting at the capital. During that time members were asked to sign up to help with a fundraising event that was coming up…Bjork relayed that during that closed meeting, she believed that Pocan and Plale were “plants” within the meeting, stating “I’ll sign up” with the intent that others would see them and volunteer and also sign up to make calls. This meeting occurred on state property. 11/08/01 Bjork page 14

• Team meetings centering around a fundraising vent were called for and held in Krug’s office. Krug wanted to have these meetings…In January 2000, fundraiser meetings were usually held in Krug’s office; Krug rarely came to the ADC office. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 9
  
• Turning to ADCC meetings, R.D. said that he, Bjork and Judge would meet with Plale and Pocan usually in Plale’s office in the Capitol every few weeks during an afternoon…During these meetings the group talked about candidate recruitment They would go through each race. Fundraising was also discussed…One focus of the ADCC meetings in Plale’s office was how and when to do events to raise money. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 10

• Bigger ADCC meetings attended by Krug and Riley were held in the ADC conference room and others at the Democratic Party Headquarters. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 12.

• In 1999, Judge attended two ADCC Meetings that were held in Plale’s Capitol office. Pocan and Devaguptapu were also there. The purpose of the meetings was to discuss fundraising for members including topics such as how to mobilize campaign workers, how to be the most effective, how to raise money for the ADCC and how to put together call lists. 10/16/01 Judge page 2.

• Judge attended “closed caucus meetings” that were held in the Capitol caucus rooms…leadership such as Krug and Pocan would request Bjork and Judge to attend these meetings and to do things such as handing out biographies for candidates and giving fundraising updates. 10/16/01 Judge page 6.

• Throughout Judge and Bjork’s time together at ADC they would report at “closed caucuses,” closed meetings of the Assembly Democrats, the state of where they were in terms of campaign activity. This occurred four to six times over the course of two years. Judge and Bjork attended the caucuses together each time. Bjork would give status reports on how the quest to get targeted by DLCC was proceeding and about ADCC fundraising. Judge’s area was more the particulars about campaigns in various districts and the lay of the state politically…Judge answered campaign related questions in the closed caucus and gave a report on the election. 12/11/01 page 5.
  
  

COUNT TWO (SCHULTZ: MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE) AS A SECOND AND SEPARATE OFFENSE: THAT DEFENDANT SHERRY SCHULTZ, AS PARTY TO THE CRIME, IN THE COUNTY OF DANE, STATE OF WISCONSIN, between on or about January 27, 1998, and on or about October 8, 2001, at the City of Madison, in her capacity as a public employee, did by acts of omission and commission, exercise her discretionary powers in manners inconsistent with the duties of her employment, with the intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for others, by soliciting, accounting for, distributing, and publicly reporting money for political campaigns, and assist others in these same tasks, during times when Schultz was compensated as a State employee or using State resources or both; contrary to Sections 939.05 and 946.12(3) of the Wisconsin Statutes, a Class E felony; and upon conviction may be fined not more than $10,000 and imprisoned not more than five (5) years or both.

• (In her interviews on 11/08/01 and 2/04/02, Bjork explains at great length how she and Krug set up an independent campaign effort by creating the organization, finding the treasurer, filling out the paperwork, raising the funds, recommending the districts for advertising and editing the television and radio ads. Indeed, Bjork even wrote out some of the checks from the supposedly independent Wisconsin Voter Education Fund.)
  
• In the email, Bjork asked Legro to send her some blank checks. Bjork explained that she probably needed the checks to send a payment to different places, for instance Dixon Media Group as she explained earlier. Bjork stated that Legro did send some signed blank checks for Bjork to use. 2/04/02 Bjork page 4.

• Bjork stated that once the WVEF was referred to in the newspaper, and it said that $400,000 was given to Assembly candidates, everybody knew where the money had come from and what it was used for. Bjork stated that Pocan knew that DLCC money went to the WVEF, as he co-chaired the ADCC and was very involved. Bjork state that she believed Antonio Riley also knew about the money transfer as he was very involved in the fundraising aspect… 11/08/01 Bjork page 13.

• He recalls Raghu going through photocopies of contribution checks payable to ADCC while at Raghu’s desk in the ADC office. Ross believes Raghu’s only role was fundraising. 11/07/01 Ross page 5.

• After the 1998 elections, Bjork and Judge decided that they needed at “point person” to handle ADC fundraising…Later the decision was made that he (Devaguptapu) would become the “point person” for ADC fundraising. Bjork made the decision some time after the Special Election around April 13, 1999. 10/16/01 Judge page 2.

• Devagupatu did work on fundraising while he was employed by and working in the office of the ADC. Two other ADC employees, Mike White and Dan Langer who worked with computers, helped Devagupatu. Bjork also assisted Devagupatu and they worked together to compile a contributor list for ADCC fundraising. Judge said this list occupied a substantial amount of Bjork and Devagupatu’s time during the early months of Devagupatu’s employment at the ADC…Devagupatu’s role was to raise money for “vulnerables” meaning Assembly Democrats who appeared to be in danger of losing elections. This was true for 1998 and 2000, although it was more focused in 2000. 10/16/01 Judge page 3.
  
• Devagupatu occasionally worked at the ADCC office to do such things as “member call time”, but he would also make fundraising calls at the ADC. 10/16/01 Judge page 4. Bjork was asked about the occasion when Devagupatu moved to a separate office within the ADC. Bjork state that Devagupatu’s office moved so that he could have more space and because of the nature of his activities. 11/08/01 Bjork page 14.

• The ADC fundraiser’s salaries were paid by the ADC, not by the ADCC. 10/16/01 Judge page 4.
  
  
  
  AS A THIRD AND SEPARATE OFFENSE: THAT DEFENDANT SCOTT JENSEN, AS A PARTY TO THE CRIME, IN THE COUNTY OF DANE, STATE OF WISCONSIN, beginning no later than in or about November 1997, and continuing to in or about May, 2001, at the City of Madison in his capacity as a public officer, did by acts of omission and commission, exercise a discretionary power in a manner inconsistent with the duties of his office, with the intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for others by intentionally hiring, or retaining and supervising, Ray Carey and Jason Kratochwill, State employees, to recruit and otherwise directly assist candidates for political office as candidates, and cause others to do the same, during times when Carey and Kratochwill were compensated as State employees or using State resources or both; contrary to Sections 939.05 and 946.12(3) of the Wisconsin Statutes, a Class E felony; and upon conviction may be fined not more than $10,000 and imprisoned not more than five (5) years or both.
  
• Judge said that he was interviewed by a panel, which included several representatives. Judge recalled that Spencer Black, Antonio Riley, Shirley Krug, Mark Pocan, Peter Bock, Greg Huber, and Jon Richards were on the interview panel. During his interview, Judge recalled Black asked Judge what he was going to do to “help political campaigns in big city suburbs.” Judge said that most of the questions he was asked were campaign related and included topics such as candidate recruitment and questions as to why candidates lost elections regarding some of the campaigns Judge had been involved in. 10/16/01 Judge pages 1 and 2.

• Rich Judge assigned ADC staffers to work on political campaigns. Judge assigned him to work with Lewis Rosser, a Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican John Townsend in Fond du Lac. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 6.

• R.D. was also assigned to watch incumbents Mark Miller and Tom Hebl as candidates. R.D. set up a meeting, which was to be held in Hebl’s legislative office, with Andy Wiesner. The meeting was held at Hebl’s legislative office. He attended the meeting along with Judge, Hebl and Wiesner. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 7.

• …he did the bulk of his campaign related work at the ADC office. 12/03/01 Devaguptapu page 8.

• Judge named the following individuals as ADC staff who spent substantial amounts of time working on campaigns out in the field: Jake Whitwar, who is currently a law school student; Michelle McGrorty; Scot Ross; Scott Adrian; Brad Koch; Matt Pagel; Jamie Kuhn; and John Milke… Other than Milke and Adrian, Judge said that he did not believe any of the other employees he listed who worked in the field had enough vacation time to cover the amount of time that they were actually out in the field working. 10/16/01 Judge page 5.

• Judge was asked whether he had knowledge about conversations, which took place between Jensen and Krug regarding ADC employees working out in the field. Judge said that he had heard rumors about such conversation in that supposedly Jensen was upset with the ADC because the Republicans were placing their employees on leave time in order to work on campaigns, whereas the Democrats were not. 10/16/01 Judge page 5.
  
• Ross basically managed VanAkkeren’s campaign, writing a fundraising plan and letters for the campaign. None of this work was done in Sheboygan. Most of the work he did for VanAkkeren was done at the ADC office. Some work was done at Ross’s home. Ross made the decisions on who to target for fundraising and was supported by Bjork and Judge regarding his campaign approach for VanAkkeren. 11/07/01 Ross page 4.

• During the last two and a half months of the race Ross was on the road a significant amount of time, pretty much out of the office entirely during August, September, and October 2000. Ross was involved in both the VanAkkeren and Swoboda races at the same time. 11/07/01 Ross page 5.
  
• From June 2000 to November 7, 2000 Ross worked on campaign matters every day. During this period of time he worked very minimally on legitimate Legislative work. Ross cannot recall specifically any legitimate work that he might have done during this time; nothing comes to mind; it was campaign season…He received no salary from a private organization for this period of time. 11/07/01 Ross page 5.

• Monday morning meetings at the ADC continued to be held during the campaign time period. Bjork discussed campaign issues at the meetings. All ADC staffers reported about campaigns during these meetings … 11/07/01 Ross page 5.

• Twigg stated that he was involved in the Sarah Wakau special election in the 35th District. Twigg stated his role was to help write press releases for the campaign and with questions for pollsters to ask. Twigg stated he also worked with judge, who was running the race and with the ADC graphic designers (Lindner and Williams) on literature and mailers. 11/08/01 Twigg page 5.
  
  
  COUNT FOUR (JENSEN: MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE) AS A FOURTH AND SEPARATE OFFENSE: THAT DEFENDANT SCOTT JENSEN, AS A PARTY TO THE CRIME, IN THE COUNTY OF DANE, STATE OF WISCONSIN, between in or about 1997 and in or about November 2000, at the City of Madison, in his capacity as a public officer, did by acts of omission and commission, exercise a discretionary power in a manner inconsistent with the duties of his office, with the intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for Taxpayers for Jensen, by intentionally retaining and supervising State employees to work on Taxpayers for Jensen during times when the employees were compensated as State employees or using State resources or both; contrary to Sections 939.05 and 946.12(3) of the Wisconsin Statutes, a Class E felony; and upon conviction may be fined not more than $10,000 and imprisoned not more than five (5) years or both.

• (In her interviews on 11/08/01 and 2/04/02, Bjork explains at great length how she and Krug set up an independent campaign effort by creating the organization, finding the treasurer, filling out the paperwork, raising the funds, recommending the districts for advertising and editing the television and radio ads. Indeed, Bjork even wrote out some of the checks from the supposedly independent Wisconsin Voter Education Fund.)