Inmate had falsely accused captain
By PATRICK MARLEY
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON, Wisc. — The state agreed Wednesday to pay the legal fees of a state employee who was falsely accused by an inmate under the state’s John Doe law.
The state Claims Board agreed to pay $4,408 to cover the legal bills of Steven Schueler, a former Waupun Correctional Institution captain who was charged by a judge with assaulting an inmate last year after the prisoner launched a John Doe investigation. The charge was dropped after a special prosecutor found there was insufficient evidence to support it.
Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, said the decision was the first time a state employee had attorney fees reimbursed after being charged under the John Doe law.
Under the 169-year-old law, any citizen can force a judge to hold a hearing by sending a letter alleging a crime has been committed. Judges have little discretion in such proceedings, and some judges believe they must charge the subject of a John Doe investigation if it is plausible to believe the person has committed a crime - a much lower standard than the one district attorneys must meet before they can charge people.
Correctional officers say inmates increasingly are using the law to harass them with baseless charges that damage their reputations and cost them legal fees. Inmates and their advocates argue the John Doe law is a time-honored measure that ensures everyone has access to the courts.
Schueler said prisoner Jason Procknow asked him to take a statement from him about a white supremacist symbol left in the prison. After Schueler interviewed him, Procknow accused him of assault. An internal inquiry found no evidence of abuse, and Procknow requested a John Doe investigation.
Schueler, now the security director at the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution, said he was stunned when Dodge County Circuit Judge Andrew Bissonnette charged him after holding a brief hearing with the inmate.
“This process was ridiculous,” he said. “It met no thresholds of anything. . . . I had to tell my family, ‘You may see my name on the front page of the newspaper.’ ”
Bissonnette assigned the case to a special prosecutor, who ultimately dropped the charge for lack of evidence.
The union has pushed changes to give judges more discretion in handling the cases or to bar inmates from using the John Doe law. Legislators said they wanted to help officers, but Republicans and Democrats couldn’t agree on how to change the law in the legislative session that ended in March.
Beil said lawmakers were “boneheaded” for not solving the issue. He said he’s heard of a dozen or more John Doe investigations of correctional officers now under way, but the cases are hard to track because they are often secret proceedings.
Similar John Doe charges against another correctional officer, Gabe Umentum, recently were dropped. Beil said he would soon be requesting that his legal bills be paid by the state.
Copyright 2008, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)
Copyright 2008 Journal Sentinel Inc.