Art Hackett:
Our next story is kind of like the end of the NFL season. A team knows it's going to make the playoffs, but it still has to compete for home field advantage. The difference here is that this is no game for former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen. He's the last of the lawmakers still in court fighting charges stemming from the 2002 capitol caucus scandal. Former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen was convicted of misconduct in public office in March of 2006. However, he was granted a new trial because Dane County Judge Steven Ebert gave faulty instructions to the jury. In the past, that new trial would also have been held in Dane County. But one year after the trial, the state legislature turned enforcement of ethics rules involving state officials to a new agency, the government accountability board, or the GAB. Jensen argues the legislation creating the GAB requires lawmakers investigated by the new board to be tried on home turf, which in Jensen's case would be Waukesha County.
Robert Friebert:
In 2007, the legislature specified venue for the trial of certain criminal actions. A second term was a public official charged with a crime involving official functions. Mr. Jensen is awaiting trial on charges of misconduct in public office that directly arise from and relate to his official function as a member of the assembly and involve elections and ethics laws.
Art Hackett:
But Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard pointed out that the law refers to officials investigated by the GAB. The GAB didn't exist in 2002 when the alleged offenses occurred.
Brian Blanchard:
We should assume a common sense pro-justice, if you will, approach by the legislature, which is one that was operating not in a vacuum, but with the entire history of the state of Wisconsin using place of crime venue for crimes. They made a change. But we shouldn't assume that they made the broadest possible change.
Art Hackett:
An interesting footnote to Tuesday's hearing. The case was heard by only six of seven justices. Justice David Prosser recused himself since he served in the assembly with Jensen and was a character witness for the speaker at the first trial. If the decision comes out as a 3-3 tie, Jensen loses and the case goes back to Dane County.
