Address the mess at Department of Justice

An editorial  —  6/04/2008 6:11 am

There is no easy way to sort out the breakdown of functioning that now afflicts the state Department of Justice. It is fair to say, however, that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is struggling in the position to which he was narrowly elected in November 2006.

While the troubles in the department now appear to be widespread, the root of the current crisis can be traced back to Van Hollen's failure to play an effective leadership role in the investigation of last fall's shootings in Crandon.

As the state's chief law enforcement officer, Van Hollen needed to take the lead in dealing with the most serious and most politically complex investigation that the state has seen in years. The case was complicated by the fact that the individual who went on a shooting rampage that ultimately left seven people dead was an off-duty Forest County sheriff's deputy.

No one but the attorney general was in a position to ensure that the investigation was handled properly.

Unfortunately, Van Hollen was not ready for the responsibility. He squandered precious time making bizarre pronouncements about who should and should not talk to the media and in other ways micromanaging non-essential aspects of the investigation.

As a result, more than seven months after the murders, there is still confusion, mistrust and troubling speculation about what happened in Crandon.

Van Hollen, who we prefer to think is overwhelmed as opposed to malicious, has not proven to be adept at managing his agency's most vital responsibilities.

At a point when he should be cleaning up the mess, he is instead making things worse.

Van Hollen has been demoting veteran Department of Justice professionals in an apparent effort to deflect the blame for an investigation that some of the targeted employees suggest went awry because of the ineptness of Van Hollen and his political appointees.

Things have spun so out of control that Van Hollen is accusing law enforcement professionals of threatening the lives of his political appointees. A review of the e-mails that the attorney general says caused him to act makes Van Hollen seem ridiculous. As Dan Bach, former deputy attorney general who has stepped in to represent one of the demoted employees, says, "There is nothing in those e-mails that would lead any reasonable person to conclude that a threat was made, or implied, to anyone's safety."

Remarkably, Van Hollen is not having the individual he says made the threats removed from the department; he is simply reassigning her. This response confirms that the attorney general does not take seriously the charges he himself is making. After all, if the state's senior homicide investigator really did pose a threat to Van Hollen's partisan picks, wouldn't the attorney general have a responsibility to have the individual not just reassigned but arrested?

Van Hollen needs to recognize that circumstances in his department are rapidly going from bad to worse. And he must move quickly to repair the damage.

To wit, he should:

1. Accept that his own credibility and that of the department have been harmed and address this harm by endorsing an outside investigation of decisions to demote the senior homicide investigator and the director of the department's Public Integrity Bureau and also of reported threats to reassign the top state criminal investigator, who abruptly retired several months ago. This investigation might be carried out by the state Government Accountability Board or the state Supreme Court, which through its administrative and regulatory authority over the practice of law should have some say with regard to the actions of the state's top lawyer.

2. Recruit a respected apolitical manager to take over important administrative responsibilities that have been placed in the hands of political appointees. Former Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin, a respected lawman who has served as administrator for the department's Division of Law Enforcement Services, would be a smart pick. Turning more authority over to Hamblin -- and to nonpolitical aides selected by the former sheriff -- would ensure that the Department of Justice has the adult supervision it currently lacks.

An editorial  —  6/04/2008 6:11 am