Crime and Court Roundup: New head of prison system puts employees on notice

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MADISON - The new head of Wisconsin’s prison system has told his employees they can be fired if they spread, quote, “false or malicious information” about the Corrections Department.

The Associated Press said Ed Wall put out the warning in an e-mail on Monday, the day before the state Senate confirmed him as the new corrections’ secretary. An employee sent the e-mail to the AP, and the news service said the agency verified it. Then yesterday, Wall e-mailed employees to say he wanted to treat the corrections department more like a family and quote, “less like a bureaucratic coffee grinder.” In the first e-mail, Wall wrote that he was disturbed by baseless rumors that his department might be opening a new prison – or getting a private company to run the prisons. He called them false rumors, and said those involved in spreading them should “stop immediately.” Wall said there’s no choice but to fire those responsible, quote, “when the false information causes panic and degrades morale like these things do.” Governor Scott Walker’s office responded to the e-mails by saying there are no plans to privatize the prisons. His Thursday e-mail was in response to a state Assembly hearing Wednesday, when union chief Marty Beil said seven guards were assaulted since Christmas Eve – and it made workers feel unsafe. Wall told his employees that Beil exaggerated the extent of injuries in two of the cases – but he tried to reassure his staff that he was taking the assaults seriously.

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A possible murder trial in Door County would get a jury from someplace else. Brian Cooper won his argument that he cannot get a fair trial in the county where he allegedly killed a woman and an unborn child. That’s because of the heavy publicity the case has attracted. The 36-year-old Cooper is from Plainfield Illinois. Prosecutors said he took 22-year-old Alisha Bromfield to a wedding, to try and improve his own romantic relationship. But instead, she talked about breaking up – and Cooper allegedly responded by strangling and sexually assaulting her. That killed both Bromfield and her unborn child. Cooper has pleaded insanity. He’s charged with two counts of homicide and third-degree sexual assault. A judge has not decided where the jury would come from for a trial. Jury selection is set to begin April fifth, and a week of testimony would start April eighth unless there’s a plea deal before then. The judge also ruled that Cooper’s statements to police could be heard by a jury, including a 911 call he made to report the slaying.

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The U.S. Justice Department will review the shooting death of a musician by a Madison police officer. U-S Attorney John Vaudreuil asked for the probe, after his office got dozens of letters asking for an independent review of Paul Heenan’s death. Recent news accounts said the 30-year-old Heenan mistakenly entered a neighbor’s house while drunk on November 9th – and he got into a scuffle with Kevin O’Malley, who was trying to get Heenan to his own house. Madison Police officer Stephen Heimsness saw the scuffle when he arrived. Reports said the officer told the men to settle down, and Heenan then grabbed the officer’s arm and reached for his gun. Heimsness then pushed back and shot Heenan three times. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is expected to take a few weeks to investigate. Madison Police officials said the officer did not violate policies on deadly force – and he was put back on the street after a few weeks on administrative leave. During that leave, WKOW TV said Heimsness got over a-thousand dollars in overtime pay. Officials said Heimsness was called in for meetings, but the nature of those meetings was not disclosed.

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State Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack has at least nine times as much campaign money as each of her two challengers. But it’s not a lot, compared to some races. New state reports show that Roggensack had 55-thousand dollars in her campaign fund at the start of the year. Milwaukee attorney Vince Megna had 69-hundred in the bank, and Marquette law professor Ed Fallone had 54-hundred. Roggensack, who’s running for her second 10-year term, raised 34-thousand dollars in the second half of last year. And the Journal Sentinel said over a quarter of it came from groups connected to Republicans. Megna says he’s a Democrat, and he believes it’s a sham to call Supreme Court races non-partisan. He said the new campaign figures prove that Republicans believe Roggensack will promote their agenda. Roggensack consultant Brandon Scholz disputes that – and he says the campaign would be happy to take money from Democratic groups. Scholz also took issue with the claim that the incumbent’s campaign money would influence her case rulings. As Scholz puts it – “She rules by the law. That’s what her job is as a justice.” Megna and Fallone are funding most of their campaigns by themselves. Yesterday, former U-S Senate Democrat Russ Feingold issued a fund-raising appeal on Fallone’s behalf. A primary will be held February 19th, which will eliminate one of the three candidates for the April general election.

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Bond is set at $400,000 for a Milwaukee Army veteran charged with shooting his wife to death during a quarrel last Sunday. 27-year-old Keith Brooks made his first appearance in Milwaukee County Circuit Court yesterday on charges of first-degree intentional homicide and battery. Brooks told police that 27-year-old Anita Brooks, a poet, killed herself after they spent the previous few days arguing about infidelity. But the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office said Anita could not have fired the fatal shot. That’s because the direction of the bullet indicated that it was not fired from extremely close range. Also, police said a video was found on Keith’s cell phone which showed him berating Anita while making numerous slurs and epithets. According to police, Brooks met his wife in Arkansas – and they moved to Milwaukee last October soon after he left the Army. He’s due back in court next Friday, when a court commissioner will decide if there’s enough evidence to order a trial.

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A former Dane County man has pleaded innocent to torturing and killing his autistic half-brother, and burying his body in a wooded area. An attorney for 28-year-old Jeffrey Vogelsberg entered the pleas yesterday to charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. Authorities said Vogelsburg often tortured 27-year-old Matthew Graville before killing him last July when the two lived together in Mazomanie. Prosecutors said the defendant placed Graville’s body in a freezer, and then buried him in a five-foot-deep grave near Lone Rock. The body was discovered in early November. Vogelsburg was arrested in Washington State, where his wife works at a military base. He refused to waive extradition, and Governor Scott Walker had to step in to help get Vogelsburg back to Wisconsin. The defense now claims that Vogelsburg cannot get a fair trial in Dane County due to the heavy publicity in the case. A judge will consider a request on May sixth for a change of venue in Vogelsburg’s possible trial.

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A former Kenosha mortgage broker has been sentenced to 14 months in a federal prison for helping run a fraud scheme that netted 14-million dollars. Paul Zaleski, formerly of Twin Lakes, was one of five people convicted in an operation that ran from 2004-to-’06. Zaleski, who now lives in Ojai California, recruited people who assumed they were joining an investment group – and they put up the money to buy 50 properties which had fake loan applications and false appraisals. The properties were in southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois, and most of the mortgages ended up in foreclosure. Zaleski pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Two co-conspirators each got one year in prison. An investor and a loan processor were each put on three years of probation.

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