Posted on 01/19/2006 3:39:04 PM PST by SmithL
MILWAUKEE — It started out with an alert security guard noticing a man urinating on a wall. Then the distinct sound of tires deflating.
Now, two sons of prominent Wisconsin politicians and their three friends could end up in prison for allegedly attempting to sabotage a Republican effort to drive voters to the polls for the 2004 presidential election.
Jurors began deliberating this afternoon in the politically charged trial of five Democratic activists who are accused of slashing the tires of 25 vans rented by the Republican Party to shuttle voters to the polls for the Bush-Kerry presidential election.
In what is perhaps the most extensive Wisconsin case involving a tire-slashing, jurors heard from 16 state witnesses and three defense witnesses during the nearly two-week trial that pitted local Democrats against national Democrats and revisited campaign "shenanigans" from both parties.
Michael Pratt, the son of then-acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt; Sowande Omokunde, the son of Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.); and the three other defendants are charged with criminal damage to property — a felony that carries a maximum sentence of three and a half years in prison and a $10,000.
Republican campaigners had rented more than 100 vehicles for a get-out-the-vote campaign. The vehicles were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office, and party workers planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. on Nov. 2 to deliver any voters who needed a ride.
The state contends that the five men, all local campaign workers, left Democratic campaign headquarters and punctured the tires of vans parked around the perimeter of a staging area so that the vehicles inside couldn't leave.
Attorneys for the five defendants, however, argued that the slashings were part of a broader national campaign by the Democrats to prevent a large Republican turnout in key states, and pointed to several "out-of-state political operatives" brought in by the Democrats as the culprits.
Prosecutors used mostly circumstantial evidence, including cellphone records, statements of the campaign workers the defense alleged were responsible for the slashings, and the testimony of an alert security guard, to connect the defendants with the vandalism.
Sedrick Peoples, hired by the GOP to watch over the vans on the election's eve, told jurors he first noticed something strange at about 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2004. Peoples saw two vans and a man acting erratically and urinating on a wall close to the vans. The guard also took down the license plate of the man's car.
While Peoples said he also saw a white man in the area, he was unable to identify any of the defendants as the men he saw the night the tires were punctured.
But prosecutors hope that the testimony of Opel Simmons III, a Virginia-based campaign strategist brought in to energize black voters in Milwaukee, will help jurors connect the dots.
Simmons, along with four other members of the get-out-the-vote team, testified that the five defendants came back to the office bragging about deflating the tires.
"If these defendants had not gone back and bragged to their co-workers, they would have gotten away with it," Assistant District Attorney David Feiss said during closing arguments Thursday.
It remains to be seen, however, if jurors will believe the testimony of Simmons and his co-workers, all of whom admitted lying, or as Simmons put it, telling "a vague variation of the truth," to investigators when they were initially interviewed.
Simmons himself was an initial suspect in the case and gave up the names of the five defendants only after being held in custody for more than 36 hours.
"These people were willing to change stories to achieve a desired result," Rodney Cubbie, Michael Pratt's lawyer, told jurors during closing arguments.
Omukunde's lawyer, Robin Shellow, said, "How can you tell when these witnesses are lying? It's easy. Their lips are moving."
During jury instructions, Judge Michael Brennan told the panel that to convict the defendants of a felony they have to find that the damage to the vehicles was in excess of $2,500.
A witness from the Republican Party told jurors that he paid more than $4,000 to fix the tires in time to get voters to the polls. If jurors find the damage was less than $2,500, they have the option of convicting the five of misdemeanors.
Court TV Extra will stream the verdict live on the Web.
Thanks for posting this; I had almost forgotten.
This is a defense?
Give'm death by Mumba Mumba!!!
Deadlocked, if we're lucky.
It's a shame that we couldn't have had their trail moved...to Singapore.
ping
["How can you tell when these witnesses are lying? It's easy. Their lips are moving."]
And they're all high ranking campaign workers for the Democratic Party? What a coincidence.
Send 'em to Neverland and subject them to Jacko giving them Rubba Rubba!!!
If tearing down a poster and spitting on it is a "hate crime" that will ruin a young man's military career and future, throw the WHOLE book at these twerps.
It seems like it.
http://www.620wtmj.com/_content/talk/charliesykes/index.asp?
"Attorney Robin Shellow (attorney for the son of rep. Gwen Moore) described to the jury last week a pattern of organized thuggery, which she linked to out of state Democratic operatives.
Shortly after a “core group of operative” came to town in early October, she said, “pandemonium broke lose in Milwaukee.” She reminded jurors how supporters of Kerry/ Edward “stormed” a local GOP headquarters, “standing on desks, intimidating people, getting in people’s faces”"
paretheses mine
In other words, if the tire slashers are to be found not guilty, she needs to convince the jury that there is a vast left wing conspiracy.
I like the way they work that word "alledgedly" in there while admitting that the slashings were part of a "broader national campaign".
This can't be true. I regularly listen to Wisconsin Public Radio, and I've never heard this story.
Jury will let them off and then go out and party with these clowns afterwards.
"It remains to be seen, however, if jurors will believe the testimony of Simmons and his co-workers, all of whom admitted lying, or as Simmons put it, telling "a vague variation of the truth," to investigators when they were initially interviewed"
how do you know he is a democrat?
Sounds like a plan. Hillary won't be pleased.
Deat hby Chi-chi!
Vandals ought to get 5 times the sentence of stealing since it only destroys and nobody benefits. Or caining in lieu of.
"I regularly listen to Wisconsin Public Radio"
There's your problem. Sorry I couldn't resist.
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