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Kelly Rindfleisch
Kelly Rindfleisch was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's (R) deputy chief of staff during his time as Milwaukee County executive. She filled this role after Tim Russell vacated it and moved to the Housing Department.[1]
Biography
Rindfleisch received her B.A. in marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. She went on to receive her MBA in business administration and management from the University of Wisconsin Consortium in 2011.[2] Rindfleisch served as deputy chief of staff to then-Milwaukee County Executive Walker for nearly a year.[2]
Following Walker's successful 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Rindfleisch acted as an operations consultant for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Her responsibilities included leading the team that organized the governor's Inaugural events, working with consultants on fundraising, forecasting financial needs and setting goals for the fundraising effort. Since January of 2012, she has served as a marketing consultant at O&A Marketing.[2]
John Doe investigations
Two John Doe investigations, beginning in 2010 and ending in 2015, were launched by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (D) into the activities of staff and associates of Gov. Scott Walker (R).[3] Rindfleisch had been working in her role as deputy chief of staff to then-Milwaukee County Executive Walker for just a few months when the first John Doe investigation began. On May 5, 2010, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf asked for the authority to launch a John Doe investigation into the missing Operation Freedom funds.[3][4][2]
On November 1, 2010, one day before the election for governor, DA investigators executed warrants for the computers in the county executive's office. Warrants were also executed on Rindfleisch's home, car and the home of a friend where Rindfleisch stayed several days a week.[5][6] The search warrants were signed based on testimony given by DA investigator David Budde at a hearing in front of John Doe I Judge Neal Nettesheim. This was the sixth time the scope of the John Doe had been enlarged.[7] The same day, subpoenas were served for the Walker campaign's emails.[8]
In January of 2012, charges were filed against six individuals based on the John Doe I investigation, four of whom were not involved in the situation noted as the original purpose of the John Doe, the missing funds from the Operation Freedom event. Rindfleisch was among the four; she was charged with four felony counts of misconduct in public office for responding to emails from a lieutenant governor candidate, Brett Davis, for whom she was doing fundraising work.[1][9]
She cut a deal, pleading guilty to one felony count of misconduct in public office. She was sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation.[10][11] As part of the plea agreement, Rindfleisch was allowed to file an appeal based on motions that were denied by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher.[12] An appeal was filed shortly after her sentencing on the basis that the search warrants for her private email were overly broad and were a violation of her Fourth Amendment rights. The District 1 Court of Appeals in Milwaukee denied her appeal, two to one.[13] In December 2014, she filed an appeal with the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[14][15]
In March 2015, the state Supreme Court declined to hear Rindfleisch's appeal. With her options exhausted, Rindfleisch began serving her six-month sentence in April 2015.[16][17] Instead of serving her time in prison, Rindfleisch was placed on home confinement and was monitored by an ankle bracelet. While serving her sentence, Rindfleisch participated in a work release program and was employed by Eric O'Keefe.[18]
On February 10, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Columnist Dan Bice revealed on his blog that O'Keefe and Rindfleisch were targets of the second John Doe.[19] No charges were ever filed as a result of the second John Doe investigation.
Legal actions
In June 2015, Rindfleisch filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out her conviction. Rindfleisch and her lawyers argued "investigators exceeded their constitutional authority" when searching her emails and violated her Fourth Amendment rights.[20]
The petition stated:[20]
| “ | Not just in Wisocnsin, but in many other state and federal courts that find themselves nearing the bottom of a decades-long slippery slope, the state may now seize a citizen's entire email account, search it in secret, and retain all of the seized email for future perusal.[21] | ” |
Several constitutional law experts, including liberal-leaning law scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and Arthur F. McEvoy, filed amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, voicing their support for Rindfleisch's appeal. According to one such brief, "The sweeping power to secretly intrude on private communications claimed by the state of Wisconsin in this case may be as egregious a departure from the original constitutional understanding as this Court will ever see in a case involving the seizure (and subsequent search) of emails pursuant to a warrant.”[22]
After the Wisconsin Supreme Court officially ruled to end the second John Doe investigation, noting "the special prosecutor's legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law," Rindfleisch's attorney asked the prosecutors "to reopen and dismiss Rindfleisch’s felony conviction." Citing an opinion by Justice David Prosser that denounced the "wide-ranging Fourth Amendment abuses" committed during the John Doe investigations, Rindfleisch's lawyer demanded her immediate release. According to Wisconsin Watchdog, "The attorney also is exploring whether to bring a writ of habeas corpus in Sauk County, where Rindfleisch is serving her six-month sentence on home confinement, charging that she is being illegally held."[23][24][25]
Prosecutors rejected the notion of reopening and dismissing Rindfleisch's conviction, with Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf saying Prosser’s opinion represents a “generalized writing, not based upon issues before the court or facts on the record.”[25]
On October 5, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Rindfleisch's petition to review her case. Rindfleisch said the following in response to the Court's decision: "So now we regroup and figure out another way to fix the precedent so other citizens of Wisconsin are protected, whether it be finding another case or asking the (Wisconsin) Legislature to pass legislation."[26]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Kelly Rindfleisch Wisconsin. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Wisconsin
- Milwaukee County
- Scott Walker
- John Doe investigation
- John Doe investigations related to Scott Walker
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 State of Wisconsin Circuit Court Criminal Division Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "State of Wisconsin v Kelly M Rindfleisch," January 25, 2012
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 LinkedIn, "Kelly Rindflesich," accessed July 20, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Milwaukee Division, "Eric O’Keefe, and Wisconsin Club for Growth, Inc.," accessed February 23, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Reporter, "John Doe I judge says he’s not responsible for John Doe II," June 10, 2014
- ↑ Circuit Court First Judicial District Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Search Warrant," November 1, 2010
- ↑ Circuit Court First Judicial District Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Search Warrant," November 1, 2010
- ↑ State of Wisconsin Circuit Court Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Court Transcript, November 1, 2010," November 1, 2010
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Walker says he was unaware of aide's immunity deal," September 27, 2011
- ↑ Wisconsin Reporter "Disparate treatment: Civil rights lawsuit claims conservative speech trampled," February 11, 2014
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Campaign, county work intertwined under Walker, prosecutor says," November 19, 2012
- ↑ Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, "State of Wisconsin vs. Kelly M Rindfleisch," accessed February 24, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Reporter, "Kelly Rindfleisch tells conservatives, ‘Don’t back down’," June 26, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Reporter, "Kelly Rindfleisch will fight on in Fourth Amendment case," November 13, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Reporter, "Rindfleisch appeals to Supreme Court in John Doe Fourth Amendment abuse case," December 12, 2014
- ↑ Supreme Court State of Wisconsin, "State of Wisconsin v Kelly M Rindfleisch," accessed February 25, 2015
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Former Scott Walker aide heads to jail Wednesday," April 1, 2015
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Former Scott Walker aide Rindfleisch denied state high court appeal," March 17, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Watchdog, "Political prisoner Kelly Rindfleisch on home confinement, working for O’Keefe," May 8, 2015
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Rindfleisch, O'Keefe identified as subjects in John Doe probe," February 10, 2014
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Madison.com, "Ex-Scott Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch asks US Supreme Court to erase conviction from John Doe probe," June 16, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Wisconsin Watchdog, "Legal experts on right and left seek review of Rindfleisch John Doe conviction," July 21, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin State Journal, "Supreme Court ends John Doe probe that threatened Scott Walker's presidential bid," July 16, 2015
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs nameddecision - ↑ 25.0 25.1 Wisconsin Watchdog, "Kelly Rindfleisch seeks release following death of John Doe probe," July 20, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Watchdog, "Supreme Court will not hear Kelly Rindfleisch’s Fourth Amendment case," October 5, 2015
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