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MADISON - Mike Myszewski had settled in
with the History Channel on the evening of July 31 when the phone
rang.
The administrator of the state Division
of Criminal Investigation picked up. On the other end was an operator
from the state Justice Department. The Marinette County Sheriff's
Department was desperately searching the woods along the Michigan
border for Scott Johnson, who'd gunned down three teenagers that
afternoon. And they needed help. Myszewski quickly got Sheriff's
Detective Anthony O'Neil on his cell phone.
"Whatever you need, you got from
us," Myszewski told him. Within two hours more than 20 state
agents had assembled in Marinette County.
That's how the state Justice Department
officials say their agency is supposed to work — scrambling agents,
crime analysts and attorneys to help local police and prosecutors hunt
down suspects, figure out whodunits and litigate complex court cases.
But DOJ officials say the Legislature's
Joint Finance Committee has cut their 2009-2011 budget so deep it
could cripple the agency.
Scores of agency employees now face
layoffs, setting the stage for weak responses to aid requests,
mounting evidence backlogs and cutting back on litigation, they say.
The cuts came after the committee's Democratic chairmen spent months
squabbling with Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, prompting
complaints of political payback.
"The fact is that the JFC ignored
our public safety mission and services to law enforcement, crime
victims and citizens across this state. We never imagined that the
Justice Department would be treated so inequitably and in such a
seemingly partisan manner," Van Hollen said in an agency-wide
e-mail Friday.
State Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, who
runs the committee along with Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, denied
anyone was out to punish Van Hollen. He said every agency has taken
cuts as lawmakers grapple with Wisconsin's $6.6 billion deficit.
Van Hollen got an increase in the last
state budget to hire more DNA analysts, he said. The attorney general
has shown he can be frugal, returning $1.2 million in unused money to
the state last year, Pocan added.
"I'm very confident he'll make the
right decisions," Pocan said. "If I didn't think he could,
I'd make those decisions for him."
Pocan and Miller have been at odds with
Van Hollen since September, when Van Hollen filed a lawsuit demanding
state election officials verify the identity of tens of thousands of
voters in the weeks before the November election. Van Hollen
maintained federal law mandated the checks. Democrats accused him of
trying to disenfranchise voters.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit before
the election. Pocan and Miller demanded to know how much Van Hollen
had spent on it, asking him three times. Van Hollen said the final
cost was only $720 and DOJ doesn't track attorney time. Pocan and
Miller didn't buy that.
Pocan and Miller also have locked horns
with Van Hollen after police departments disputed the accuracy of a
DOJ gang assessment report and the attorney general started showing up
at finance committee hearings around the state to decry Doyle's plan
to shave time off criminal's prison sentences for good behavior.
During budget deliberations over the
last month, the Joint Finance Committee slashed about $13.5 million
from the department over the next two years, or about 10 percent of
the agency's budget, department officials said. Those cuts included $1
million to cover raises for prosecutors and public defenders and
another $2.7 million from all agency operations, wiped out during an
all-night committee session last week.
That all comes on top of mandatory
furloughs Doyle ordered for state employees and doing away with 2
percent raises for non-unionized employees.
The agency already is holding about 45
positions open, DOJ spokesman Kevin St. John said. The new cuts will
mean an additional 80 layoffs. That means investigators, crime
analysts and attorneys.
Department lawyers who represent the
state may have to stop filing appeals and start turning down requests
for help from local prosecutors on complex cases, St. John said.
Analysts might have to quit visiting
crime scenes, he added. Training for district attorneys and local
police could go, and evidence waiting for tests, including DNA
samples, might start piling up, he said.
The agency would have fewer agents
spread over a larger area, slowing response times and slashing the
manpower available to help local agencies like the Marinette County
Sheriff's Department.
"Who are they going to turn to for
help?" St. John asked. "The locals will have to do it on
their own."
Doyle, a former attorney general, said
all agencies face deep cuts to help fill the budget shortfall.
"I'm not aware of any picking on
of any agency," the governor said.
The state is set to receive about $30
million in federal stimulus money for public safety. About $11 million
of that will go to local police agencies, according to the state
Office of Justice Assistance.
A plan to disburse the remainder needs
Joint Finance Committee approval. That outline calls for DOJ to get
$750,000, mostly for crime lab enhancements. The agency could apply
for chunks of the rest of the money for specific projects.
The budget isn't a done deal yet. The
Assembly, Senate and Doyle must approve it.
Van Hollen has promised to lobby
lawmakers to at least restore the $2.7 million the committee cut in
the middle of the night last week, but Democrats control both houses
and the governor's office.
Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan,
D-Janesville, said he planned to meet with Van Hollen on Tuesday, but
everyone has to make sacrifices.
"It looks pretty grim,"
Myszewski said.
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