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What took the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel so long to file legal motion to unseal John Doe investigation records?

   September 19, 2013

This is good news, but what took so long?

Thousands of Milwaukee County documents and emails seized in a John Doe investigation remain sealed seven months after the inquiry ended, and should be returned to the county so the public can gain access to them, according to a legal filing by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Lawyers for the Journal Sentinel and reporter Dave Umhoefer filed a motion Wednesday asking that the Doe be reopened for a hearing on the newspaper’s request that District Attorney John Chisholm return the sealed records to the county.

Not doing so, the paper argued, “would encourage other public officials and employees to pursue similar approaches to try to avoid public oversight of their conduct.”

It’s been nearly 7 months since the John Doe investigation was officially closed, and so I’m wondering why the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel chose to wait so long to request the records relating to the John Doe investigation be unsealed for the public to see.

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13 thoughts on “What took the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel so long to file legal motion to unseal John Doe investigation records?”

  2. Would they want those emails just to publish them? They might be fishing for details on a story they’re working on.

  3. Maybe the tide is turning, Wishful thinking?? But to be called out on the Grant issue and now this, Makes you wonder, Buyers remorse? It is a good thing, A question @ MARK or anyone for that matter, What is the status of that Odonnell Parking garage Lawsuit, Anything more related with regard to the sealed E-mails? Just a thought.

  4. Hey, have you heard that there is an election in 2014 and Walker is seeking reelection?

    The long delay in request/release works to Walker’s disadvantage by having a rehash(and maybe new revelations) of his secret Milwaukee government, campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime, and his association with and lack of supervision by those convicted. It will also remind the electorate of Walkers failings as County exec with privatizing the Courthouse guards, the O’Donnell Park tragedy and coverup, and other accounts of Walker’s incompetence.

    And won’t it bring to mind recent events of all those pending legal challenges against ACT10, etc, not to mention Walker’s (via Erwin) brutalizing of the elderly,the young, the infirm, and mere singers who were expressing their rights of speech, petition, and assembly at the Capitol?

    I swear I can hear Walker squealing like a stuck pig, or as he thinks of himself, a martyr.

    Yep, the MJS request is JIT.

  5. The media maintaining balance, Zach. A lot of money is coming in right now on the ACA/deficit-limit issue.

  6. I wouldn’t count Scotty out. He could be exonerated on those charges: emails can be very nebulous in certain hands. And that would then exculpate Walker on all the atrocious legislation or lack there of complained about by “union thug” Democrats.

    1. “The truth shall set you free.” Thank you, MJS.

      Either way; if Walker is found not to be aware of or complicit in the vast and lengthy criminal enterprise by close members of his Milwaukee County staff directly under his watch and supervision in the past, then we must conclude for the future he is incompetent and not fit to govern and serve Wisconsin citizens in any capacity. Of course since then, with his signature on a multitude of divisive and self serving ALEC bills, Walker has betrayed his solemn promise to the people he made on January 3. 2011 as follows.

      “Today, I stand before you, not as the Governor of one party or another; or the governor of one part of the state or another. Today, I stand before you as the Governor FOR ALL OF THE PEOPLE (emphasis mine) in this state of Wisconsin.”

      WTF did Walker mean or intend by his words written for his inaugural address which will be recorded in Wisconsin history ad infinatum; a grand deception, a monstrous lie, or political blather?

      And a follow-up question; what has Walker done “FOR ALL OF THE PEOPLE?”

  7. “would encourage other public officials and employees to pursue similar approaches to try to avoid public oversight of their conduct.”
    Does anyone know what the timeline this filing is compared to the attorney general’s move to protect Leah Vukmir? That sentence right there seems like a shot across the bow.
    Maybe J-S is beginning to realize that the people in power might make decisions that affect them, not just ordinary citizens. I can’t imagine why a paper that up until recently has been so spectacularly uninterested in looking beyond the most superficial layers of our current State government is suddenly getting religion.

  8. One possibility, J-S first reading of the emails allows them to begin to infospin any of it, in whatever direction they might choose.

    Is motive as plain and simple as a temporary bump in readership, translating to slightly higher rates for advertisers? Too easy an answer?

  9. When I talked with George Stanley about this a few weeks ago he said they were trying to get then through a ” unique ” avenue, presumably without formal legal action. It might be as simple as the fact that lawyers cost a lot of money.

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