An excerpt from the #1 most viewed post on this blog, A response to grievances over the FREE DON MILLER websites. .....
Recently, in the course of investigation and research into the case of Don Miller, we have come up against informal complaints and grievances from 2 of the Big 3 who are both public officials and were directly involved in the case of Don Miller and are currently both still in office. They both have made clear they are not happy with the "websites" and I wish to respond to these grievances here as we will be publishing further information soon that is currently undisclosed. We wait to see if they decide to do the just and right thing by helping Don secure the new trial he deserves.
In 2005, Don's son, Kirk, started his website www.freemyfather.com in an effort to inform the local community of his fathers wrongful conviction. It was also advertised in the Ironwood Daily Globe and the websites are advertised in this newspaper to this very day. We thank them for continuing to publish the advertisement in the newspaper everyday for the past 7 years eventhough they have come up against complaints from Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske for publication of this ad and whilst other local publication like the Iron County Miner have refused to print the ad as they claimed it was "too political".
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| Original ad in 2005 in the Ironwood Daily Globe advertising Kirk's website. |
Not long after the advertisement appeared in the Ironwood Daily Globe......
"Rather than act according to his sworn duties, Mr. Lipske RETALIATED against Don for a website publishing evidence of his misconduct. DA Lipske called Don's prison and told officials that Don was calling Connie Vargovich from prison to `harass and threaten' her. Don was hauled into the prison captain's office and forced to answer Mr. Lipske's false accusation. The prison authority who confronted Don, Captain Dohms, investigated. He researched all prison phone records; found DA Lipske's accusation was "baseless"; then promptly dismissed the false complaint. Apparently, Mr. Lipske was unaware that all inmate calls are recorded and are made 'collect'. The prison phone records proved Don never made any such calls. Yet once again, DA Lipske had been caught telling lies.
Don wrote to DA Lipske to ask him to STOP making false accusations. DA Lipske did not respond. Don informed the Wis. Office of Lawyer Regulation and Ironwood Daily Globe newspaper about DA Lipske's lie. He was questioned by both and gave conflicting answers. He told the OLR he didn't make any call to the prison, claimed `someone' from his office had, and told reporter Levra that Iron County corporate counsel, Jodi-Bednar, had made the call. But Captain Dohms said it was Mr. Lipske who called. Finally, DA Lipske confessed to reporter Levra that "Connie lied". If Mr. Lipske is to be believed, Connie had again made a false accusation against Don, probably because she doesn't like the website exposing her as a liar -- which reaffirms Don's trial defense that, when Connie is angry, she falsely accuses them. However, from the conflicting stories he gave, it is also quite probable that this latest false accusation against Don originated with Mr. Lipske. " [written by: Don Miller]
A few years later, Don's brother Dennis also started a website at www.freedonmiller.com leading off from Kirk's website and is advertised in the paper still to this day.
Today, there are several websites documenting the case of Don Miller:
Another complaint made about these websites is that this public official claims we are "attacking the victim" and that the newspaper, by publishing the ad in the paper, is acting as a "conduit" to a website that attacks the victim in this case. We do not believe that to be true and for 7 years it seems the newspaper also disagrees. We publish FACTS, public record and act as a VOICE for Don Miller by publishing documents and narratives he composes of his side of the story some of which may pertain to the alleged victim in this case. We also publish evidence in the form of affidavits and also witness statements of personal knowledge and experience which may also pertain to the alleged victim in this case.
We also believe Don Miller to be a VICTIM in his own right of false accusations, a wrongful conviction and corruption in Iron County. We also believe those who have grievances with these websites know this also to be TRUE.
Both public officials who have recently complained to us about the websites both also recently stated ON RECORD they both wish to see Don Miller out of prison. Read that again. They both wish to see Don Miller out of prison and notably, neither one of these public officials opposed Don's parole in 2008. After Don was convicted in December of 1997, one of these people recommended Don be sentenced to 37 years in prison and the other, in a rare move, added an extra 5 years to it for good measure yet, they both wish to see Don out of prison but, both think he needs to admit that he is guilty.
Don has maintained he is innocent from day one.
The following is a quote from a passage in a book Don told me about in one of his recent letters to me:
We also believe that it is OUR DUTY to publish all of Don Miller's material and documents as one of these public officials FAILS to perform HIS DUTIES by refusing to read Don's mail and file his legal pleadings and colludes with and ORDERS others to deny Don access to the courts and further violate his civil rights. Therefore, the websites also serve as a platform to make the public aware of the continuing violations of Don's civil rights.
If the content of the websites shocks the local community now... In just over 3 weeks from the date of this post, June 17, 2012, we will begin a campaign of publishing material over the course of several weeks that will colourfully illustrate the true depth of corruption in Iron County and in the case of Don Miller. Kirk began this campaign with his website and the knowledge his father was wrongfully convicted and he spent his entire adult life, far too short adult life, fighting for justice for his father and we intend to finish his campaign for him now that he is gone.
RIGHT TO CRITICIZE CORRUPT PUBLIC OFFICIALS:
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| Click to enlarge. |
Patrick Madden took another stab at the Free Don Miller web campaign at Don's sentence modification hearing on September 27th, 2012.
This is a quote from Patrick J. Madden at the hearing that one of Don's supporters posted on the facebook page....
"And also, there's been a shift, which to this court is unacceptable, that Mr. Miller is a victim. Mr. Miller is not a victim. Mr. Miller is a criminal. Mr. Miller has engaged in confabulation for the entire time that he has been in prison. He has lied to himself. He has lied to others to the extent that he truly believes that he is innocent." – Judge Patrick Madden
I can only reiterate that we believe Don Miller to be a victim of a corrupt justice system in Iron County, Wisconsin. He is a victim of Patrick J. Madden's abuse of his position as a Judge. He had no business presiding over this case. He has admitted to us in an interview on May 21, 2012 that he would recuse from any more business to do with Don Miller yet, he presided over Don's latest hearing.
In the 9 months that this website has been live, we have exceeded the 10,000 visitor mark and frankly, last weeks hearing has only poured petrol on the fire that drives the Free Don Miller web campaign and Don's supporters.
Here is a post I made on the Free Don Miller Facebook Page after Don's hearing...
I posted this screenshot from my blogs statcounter on my personal timeline just hours before Don's hearing. They spent one and half hours on the blog reading several posts and downloading documents. They had also been on the blog the 2 days
preceding Don's hearing. Although they've been visiting my site off and on since it went up, and certainly probably all the other ones as well including the facebook page, this past week the State has been very active on the blog and it is very interesting the information they are looking for and reading on it! They have also followed links to several of the radio shows.
Somebody working for the State of Wisconsin has a very close eye on what's happening in Iron County with Don Miller.
Maybe this is part of the reason why "some" people are so upset with the 7 year web campaign Kirk started all those years ago??
We also get regular visits from the Michigan State Government and a few different FEDERAL agencies along with of course local government people right there in Iron County. Let's not forget also CBS News Corporation along with other television and film media companies have visited the sites as well.
Yesterday, the blog had an unprecedented level of activity.
In 1997, the people in Iron County who made sure Don would be put away for a long time and "kept quiet" weren't to know how big of a beast the power of the internet and social networking would become and nor do they seem to realise this beast cannot be tamed and controlled like those at the mercy of their corrupt justice system.
I believe we all saw the true colours of Patrick J. Madden Thursday as he called Don a LIAR and spat his pacifier out and stamped his feet like a petulant little child over the long running web campaign and Don's supporters that are working to and succeeding to expose the corruption in Iron County that he orchestrates and the injustices dealt to Don Miller and his family.
The hearing yesterday spoke VOLUMES about Patrick J. Madden. He showed his weakness and vindictiveness and now he has crapped in his own den. I don't believe many of his colleagues even are too happy with what happened and how he acted and hopefully Marty has courage and will not take this lying down.
Here is to Kirk, who started this campaign all those years ago! Well done to everyone who has had the courage to step up, support and speak out about Don's wrongful conviction!
We are even more fired up than before the hearing and the phone calls, emails, letters, interviews and release of information we've held fire on while we waited for this process to happen will be coming forward soon fast and furiously.
Whoever that was that was quoted in the paper as saying, "You ain't seen **** yet!" couldn't have been more correct!
FREE DON MILLER!
I truly believe the web campaign laying out the facts of the Don's wrongful conviction has been the largest thorn in their side for the past 7 years, especially as it is their biggest complaint, which is all the more reason why it will continue.
I also truly believe that in 1997 they thought they could put Don away and he could be silenced and never heard from again. No where do we have more proof of this than here...
This is a box of 40+ unopened letters Don wrote to Judge Madden over the years shoved away in this box. Don made a complaint to District Court Administrators office about Judge Madden neglecting his duties of opening and responding to Don's letters. Suffice to say, the Judge was scolded by the District Court Administrator and directed him to open and respond to Don's letters. The Judge was to cc the District Court Administrator on his responses to Don.
Here is the only letter Judge Madden has ever written to Don...
Again, Judge Madden believes he can claim that Don's grievances over the corruption in Iron County can be passed off as a "threat to the judiciary" when the truth of the matter is that the Judge really only feels threatened by the cracks and blemishes in the integrity of the Iron County justice system being uncovered and exposed.
I want to speak to the people in the State of Wisconsin, Department of Administration who have been visiting this website. The story of corruption is much bigger than the story of Don Miller. You will be hearing from us soon with a letter and memory stick of interviews, evidence and other paperwork we have compiled over the past several months not just about the Don Miller case but, other completely unrelated issues that strike at the very heart of corruption in Iron County. We thank you for taking the time to read about the Don Miller case and hope you will investigate what is going on in Iron County.
The following is an example of some of the unrelated issues we are investigating. An excerpt from SEALED RECORDS in Iron County ....
Awhile back in our research, we came across 6 sealed court cases on the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access website, both misdemeanor and felony cases going back as far as one can go on the WCCA website. What are sealed records? Records may be sealed for a wide variety of reasons including any records that may impede a current investigation like we have recently seen in the case of the Aurora Colorado "Batman" shooter, James Holmes, psychiatric records, mistaken identity cases, confidential informant records and of course entire records may be requested sealed after an application for expungement has been granted. In Wisconsin, convictions of young persons, 25 and under can be expunged and therefore placed under seal.
The 6 sealed court cases in Iron County can be summarised as follows:
- 1x case is clearly marked on the record as "Mistaken Identity"
- 2x cases contain no name whatsoever on the record & we presume from this that they are expunged records.
- 3x cases contain a blanked out name in the "Name" column on WCCA results but, their name remains in the "Caption" column which presumably rules out the possibility of an expunged record. Clicking on any of these 3 cases produces this result:
Before I tell you who these sealed records concern, I want to stress that it is my belief that not one of these 3 people are aware that these records or sealed nor am I implying any of these 3 are involved in anything untoward. Anyone following the case of Don Miller and aware of the judicial integrity issues involved in his case will already know that the questions raised by the sealed record discovery goes further to question Judge Patrick Madden's conduct and integrity in other cases and not the people subject of the cases. If you are new to the Don Miller case and are unaware of the issues of judicial integrity, I suggest you read "Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction Part 1 & 2" available at the links on the right column of this blog and examine the supporting evidence provided for these documents.
It is worth mentioning that the State of Wisconsin has a very strong open records law where all public records are presumed open to examination by the public unless there is strong overriding reason for non-disclosure. This is a difficult test for the record custodian to overcome when choosing to withhold records from public inspection.
An absolute right of examination applies to Wisconsin circuit court records required to be kept in the office of the clerk of circuit court. Wis. Stat. § 59.20(3);State ex rel. Bilder v. Delavan Tp., 112 Wis. 2d 539, 551-54, 334 N.W.2d 252 (1983).The clerk must file and keep all papers properly deposited with him or her in every action or proceeding. Wis. Stat. § 59.40(2)(a); Bilder, 112 Wis. 2d at 554.
There are three exceptions to the “absolute right of examination” rule. First, documents may be closed to public inspection when a statute authorizes the sealing of otherwise public records. Second, documents may be closed to public inspection if disclosure would infringe on a constitutional right. Third, when required by the administration of justice, a circuit court may order documents or cases sealed pursuant to the court’s inherent authority to preserve and protect the exercise of its judicial function. Bilder, 112 Wis. 2d at 554-56;
In the case of the 3 sealed records, the ENTIRE record is sealed which is quite unusual. Even the decision made by the Court is sealed in the instance of these 3 cases. See the following:
However, we have been advised of no powers possessed by any judge of this state to suppress a decision from the public after it has been made available to the parties thereto. Whatever the motives of the county judge may have been, and we acknowledge that they were of the highest nature, they cannot supersede the clear public policy pronouncements of the legislature that a decision must be filed with the clerk of court and when, so filed, it is subject to examination by "any person."
While appellant argues that it is within the inherent power of a court to withhold its decision from the public while making its mandate known to the parties, we have been cited no instance of such exercise of power. While we recognize the inherent power of the courts, in many respects, goes beyond those conferred by statute, we have been unable to find, and appellant has given us, no authority in this jurisdiction to sustain his point of view that such inherent authority exists with respect to withholding a decision. Rather, we believe it an inherent obligation of a court to promptly make its decisions available to the public. We believe that the policy to be followed was properly summarized in 21 C. J. S., Courts, pp. 415, 416, sec. 223:"Justice requires that the public shall have free access to the opinions of the courts and it is against sound public policy to prevent such access ...." While the statement appearing in Corpus Juris Secundum quoted refers to appellate courts, we see no difference between a trial court and a final appellate court in its obligation to reveal its decisions.
Id. At 312. State ex rel. Journal Co. v. County Court, 168 NW 2d 836 - Wis: Supreme Court 1969
So, we see above that refusal to even produce the decision of the Court in these 3 cases is against "sound public policy". The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that both trial courts and appellate courts have an OBLIGATION to reveal its decisions. We have been denied access to any documents including the decisions in the 3 sealed cases.
Also, expungement of these records we have ruled out based on the age of the subjects of the cases and the fact that when a record is expunged, the names are completely removed/sealed from the file. While these 3 records have had the name removed from the "Name" column the name still remains in the "Caption" column.
A written records request has been made to both the Iron County Clerk of Circuit Court, Mrs. Karen Ransanici, the legal records custodian, for information on these cases. We requested that they produce either the court orders sealing the records or requested the release of the records themselves if the reasons for sealing them were not sufficient given many factors. We were provided with neither the court orders nor the records themselves.
Patrick J. Madden instead issued an order directing/ordering Clerk of Court Ransanici to essentially deny our request as the Court ordered pursuant to its "inherent powers" that the records remain sealed for all purposes.
Again, see case law above regarding failing to reveal the Courts decision pursuant to its "inherent powers". Further on the issue of "inherent powers" see the case law that follows.
In Matter of Estates of Zimmer, 442 NW 2d 578 - Wis: Court of Appeals 1989 :
The court went on to state, however, that before any question of inherent powers would even arise, the party seeking closure must "overcome the legislatively mandated policy favoring open records...." Bilder, 112 Wis. 2d at 556, 334 N.W.2d at 261.
The court then discussed the reasons advanced for closing the file in light of state statutes and other indicia of public policy favoring access and concluded that it need not decide "whether a circuit court may ever use its inherent power to seal court documents," because "Bilder has failed to overcome the legislative policy set forth in sec. 59.14 that the denial of public examination of a court record is contrary to the public policy and the public interest favoring open court records." Id. at 559, 334 N.W.2d at 262. We reach the same conclusion here. The issue of inherent powers does not arise because the strong public policy favoring access to court records has not been overcome.
"there is an absolute right to inspect a public document in the absence of specifically stated sufficient reasons to the contrary." Id., quoting
Beckon v. Emery, 36 Wis. 2d 510 - Wis: Supreme Court 1967.
We have been given no specifically stated sufficient reasons from the records custodian nor the Court as to why the records should be or remain to be sealed that may overcome the strong public policy favoring access to the records. Therefore, they should be made available to public inspection.
As for the latest Order of the Court ordering that the records are to remain sealed for all purposes pursuant to its "inherent powers", in Zimmer the Appeals Court stated, "The issue of inherent powers does not arise because the strong public policy favoring access to court records has not been overcome."
Clerk of Circuit Court Ransanici provided us with no reasons for denial of our request only an attached Court Order from Judge Madden. As she is the legal and proper records custodian it is for her to determine whether there is sufficient reasoning in the original court order sealing the files and whether the files requested should be released for public inspection. So, we can see from the above case law that denying the request under direction of the Court's "inherent powers" without examining the other factors surrounding the sealing of the files is improper.
Download our request for the records and the Clerk of Courts response along with the Court Order issued by Patrick J. Madden.
We also sent a request to the Iron County Sheriff's Department records custodian, Sheriff Tony Furyk, for the criminal complaints relating to the sealed records. Sheriff Furyk also refused our request with no sufficient reasoning and attached the same Court Order issued in response to our request to the Clerk of Courts. However, the Order does not constrain the Sheriff, the legal custodian of records at the Sheriff's Department from releasing records he has regarding these cases. Furthermore, we responded to inform him of the following annotation under 19.35 of the Wisconsin Statutes:
Foust held that a common law categorical exception exists for records in the custody of a district attorney's office, not for records in the custody of a law enforcement agency. A sheriff's department is legally obligated to provide public access to records in its possession, which cannot be avoided by invoking a common law exception that is exclusive to the records of another custodian. That the same record was in the custody of both the law enforcement agency and the district attorney does not change the outcome. To the extent that a sheriff's department can articulate a policy reason why the public interest in disclosure is outweighed by the interest in withholding the particular record it may properly deny access. Portage Daily Register v. Columbia Co. Sheriff's Department, 2008 WI App 30, 746 N.W.2d 525, 07-0323.
Sheriff Furyk has ignored our response.
Also, do note that Judge Madden cc'd DA Lipske and Sheriff Furyk on his latest court order. Why? Sheriff Furyk is the legal custodian of the Sheriff Department records. Judge Madden has zero say on what records the Sheriff can and cannot release for public inspection, so, why has he cc'd him on this order? Karen Ransanici told Steve in another conversation that the Sheriff handed our request to them to deal with. Why is the Iron County Sheriff asking the court house to do his job as legal records custodian?
Download the request, response and court order for sheriff department records.
Why are we so interested in these 3 records? The first of the 3 were discovered by accident and it so happened that one of the subjects had a connection to another issue we were looking into with regards to "judicial integrity" in Iron County. When I searched every case in Iron County since the current Judge has been sitting it was interesting to find only 6 cases sealed in their entirety. 3 of which happen to deal with "exotic dancers" and the others are explained by presumed expungements and mistaken identity. The 3 unexplained all have the same common denominator.
Whilst I am not making any accusations, I am merely raising questions. A BIG question... of judicial integrity in Iron County based on what we already know and what has been revealed to us by a number of parties about the Judge's relationship with Connie Vargovich before, during and after Don's trial and his personal relationships with others he has dealt with in the course of his career as Iron County Circuit Court Judge.
Above, if you have downloaded the documents and details of our requests, you'll know the names of the subjects of the 3 unexplained sealed records which can all be confirmed by looking on WCCA for yourself. While one of the subjects is a male, another party to this case is an "exotic dancer".
See a snippet of a transcript of a conversation regarding this sealed case between DA Lipske and Stephen Williams.
Note this person had no idea his case was sealed, it is our belief the other people were not aware their cases had been sealed and closed off from public inspection.
Prior to making official records requests about the sealed records, Stephen Williams, asked Judge Madden about the sealed records on two different occasions. Many of the Judge's responses to Stephen's questions in the following May 21st, 2012 conversation were quite curious.
In the court order issued in response to our records request, the Judge specifically quotes the Bilder case wherein the court allowed a newspaper to intervene in a case to unseal certain records which was affirmed by the Appeals Court as well so, I find it difficult to make sense of the Judges rather dubious statements to the fact that sealed records cannot ever be opened once sealed.
Whilst there are remedies which may be pursued after a denial of an open records case such as mandamus and even the latest court order conceivably could be challenged in the Court of Appeals, we will be passing the info onto the appropriate authorities for them to look into.
Most of all, I believe this information should be brought to light to the people of Iron County for them to look at and wonder after all that has been discovered about the Judge's relationship with the woman who falsely accused Don Miller and the knowledge that he spent much of his free time partying and drinking in the taverns of Hurley by his own admission....
Coincidence? I will leave the reader to decide.
This concludes this weeks series on Judge Patrick J. Madden. We hope it has given newcomers to Don's case a bit of insight on not only what is happening in Don's case but, hope also that it raises questions in peoples minds of judicial integrity in Iron County that need answering.
Please join us on Facebook and "Like" the page to keep up to date with developments in Don's case. http://www.facebook.com/freedonmiller
Follow links from our facebook page to the Recall Judge Madden page as well.
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