Crime and Court Roundup: Rhinelander postal employee charged with OWI

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A postal employee in Rhinelander has admitted driving a mail van while drunk. 57-year-old Edward Bradaseric was fined 817-dollars for his first O-W-I offense, which is not a criminal charge in Wisconsin. He also had his driver’s license suspended for eight months, and he was told undergo alcohol counseling. Police were called to the Rhinelander Post Office on March 13th to check out a report that a worker was driving a postal van while drunk. A resident on the man’s mail route also filed a similar complaint. According to police, Bradaseric admitted being drunk – and he was upset because he had run over a dog with his car.

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There’s a new legal dispute involving Wisconsin’s limits on public union bargaining. A union said the Columbia County Board in Portage held illegal secret meetings, when the county created a new policy manual for its employees. And when the policies were finally adopted in mid-January, they were in the form of a county ordinance which the public had no chance to review before-hand. Last year’s bargaining law stripped most public unions of their rights to negotiate everything but small pay raises. And for the first time, management made all the rules for employees to follow in most state-and-local governments and school districts. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees accused Columbia County of holding illegal secret meetings on the new policy manual since last April. A union representative asked District Attorney Jane Kohlwey to prosecute County Board members. But she told the Portage Daily Register she’d have an obvious conflict-of-interest – and she’ll refer the case to a prosecutor from another county, or state Justice Department. County officials have not commented. The union wants all actions that were approved in the closed sessions to be rescinded.

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The Wisconsinite who ran Herman Cain’s failed presidential campaign last year is now said to be under a federal investigation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the F-B-I recently talked to donors and others connected with two groups run by Cain’s former manager Mark Block. The groups are the Wisconsin Prosperity Network and Prosperity U-S-A – both of which are apparently being probed for violating limits on campaign donations. Journal Sentinel columnist Dan Bice reported last year that Prosperity U-S-A helped get Cain’s Republican White House campaign off the ground with chartered flights and numerous equipment. And Cain’s people reportedly never paid a 40-thousand-dollar debt to the Prosperity group. Also, the Journal Sentinel says the group borrowed up to 150-thousand dollars from two people – and then gave most of the money to a conservative civil rights group, right before it brought in Cain to speak at Martin Luther King Day dinner last year. The paper said neither of Block’s groups obtained tax-exempt status, even though donors were told they could write off their gifts. Block has not commented on the apparent federal probe. Assistant U-S Attorney Richard Frohling would not acknowledge that the investigation exists.

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It will be against the law for Wisconsin’s youngest drivers to use their cell-phones behind the wheel. Governor Scott Walker signed a bill in Milwaukee yesterday that prohibits drivers with instruction permits and probationary licenses from using wireless devices. The Assembly passed the bill unanimously last month, and the Senate gave it overwhelming approval earlier this month. Teen drivers who violate the cell phone ban would be fined 20-to-40 dollars for their first ticket. Repeat offenders will be fined 50-to-100 dollars.

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A New London man will be sentenced April 12th, after he was found guilty yesterday of stabbing an elderly neighbor to death in their apartment building. A Waupaca County jury deliberated for three hours before convicting 35-year-old Chad Magolski of first-degree intentional homicide. He faces life in prison for the slaying of 77-year-old James Park in the victim’s apartment in late 2007. They lived in two building’s three units. Prosecutors said Magolski intended to rob Park, and use some of the money to pay overdue rent and utilities. Police said the two got into a violent struggle before Park was wounded numerous times. Officials said he might have been dead for a week before his body was found in December of 2007. Magolski wasn’t arrested until three-and-a-half years later, after Park’s D-N-A was found on a 50-dollar bill which the victim’s landlord gave to police as evidence. Magolski’s attorney said his client was innocent – and the state Justice Department relied on coincidence and flimsy evidence to build its case.

Tags: crime and courts, news, wisconsin, crime