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Burke charged with 18 felonies
11:09 AM
6/26/02
Phil Brinkman and Dee J. Hall Wisconsin State Journal
indent State Sen. Brian Burke, once considered the leading candidate for attorney general, was charged Wednesday with 18 felonies, including using state resources to run his campaign, trading votes for cash and destroying evidence.
indentThe criminal complaint, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, accuses Burke, co-chairman of the Legislature's powerful budget committee, of "systematically and repeatedly breaking the law" in his quest to become the state's top law enforcement officer, said Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.
indentOver the last year, Burke, D-Milwaukee, transformed his Capitol office into a virtual campaign bazaar, Blanchard said, shaking down lobbyists for campaign donations and using staffers to call contributors. Lobbyists who didn't give were called "deadbeats."
indentWhen some staffers took partial leaves to work on his campaign, Burke arranged substantial raises for them at taxpayer expense rather than have the campaign make up their salaries, according to the complaint.
indentAs investigators began closing in on his office, Burke ordered his staff to alter or destroy records that had been subpoenaed, the complaint said.
indent"The complaint charges that Mr. Burke did this because he knew this evidence would tend to prove his guilt of using state resources and state employees in his race for attorney general," Blanchard said.
indentOther charges include lying on expense vouchers.
indentBurke, 44, dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination for attorney general May 10 hours after it was learned he had hired lawyers at taxpayer expense in the ongoing investigation into illegal campaign activity by the legislative caucuses.
indentThe legal bills submitted to the state revealed authorities had searched Burke's legislative office, seizing computers and documents.
indentHe is expected to appear in Dane County Circuit Court for an initial appearance at 10 a.m. Monday. Burke, who is not running for re-election, promised a "vigorous defense" against the charges in a statement issued through his attorney.
indentThe statement, by the firm of Friebert, Finerty & St. John, questioned the timing of the charges "because we have been engaged in an ongoing, serious dialogue with the district attorney himself regarding what we believe are obvious and serious conflicts of interest on the part of both the Milwaukee County and Dane County district attorneys' offices."
indentLawyers for the firm declined to elaborate.
indentTwo Burke staffers were charged with misdemeanors:
indentTanya Bjork, 31, of Middleton, was charged with one count each of soliciting campaign contributions on state property and evidence tampering for allegedly rewriting large portions of Burke's office calendar after it had been subpoenaed to conceal campaign-related events.
indentBjork's attorney, Lester Pines, declined to comment except to say, "I do not expect there will be any additional charges whatsoever against Tanya Bjork arising from this investigation."
indentRaghu Devaguptapu, 29, described in the complaint as Burke's "bagman," was charged with five counts of soliciting campaign contributions on state property. Devaguptapu now lives in Washington, D.C., where he works for the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
indentDevaguptapu's attorney, Lawrence Bensky of Madison, said his client "was cooperative from the start" of the investigation. He said he hoped there would be no additional charges against Devaguptapu, who also acknowledged in the criminal complaint that he raised money for Assembly Democratic candidates while working for the taxpayer-funded Assembly Democratic Caucus.
indent"My goal will be to reach an agreement (on the fines), get everything resolved and let him (Devaguptapu) go on with his life," Bensky said.
indentThe 34-page complaint is the first fruit of a year-long investigation by Blanchard and Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann into alleged illegal campaign activity by staff of the now-defunct legislative caucus offices.
indentThat investigation was sparked by a Wisconsin State Journal series last year that described how the caucuses often acted as secret campaign machines for legislative leaders.
indentBlanchard said that investigation is continuing and refused to say whether anyone else would be charged. Five lawmakers, including Burke, and at least 63 current and former legislative staffers have hired private attorneys at taxpayer expense to represent them in the probe. Two have repaid the money.
indentWednesday's announcement surprised some, who expected charges against more than one lawmaker.
indent"I think this is the first tremor in what will ultimately be a political earthquake," said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
indentThe complaint filed Wednesday charges Burke with 14 counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of fraudulently hiding public records and one count each of withholding a subpoenaed document and altering a subpoenaed document.
indentEach carries a possible penalty of five years in prison except for the charge of fraudulently hiding public records, which carries a possible sentence of 10 years.
indentThe complaint alleges Burke hired Bjork and Devaguptapu for his Senate office in spring 2001 to run his campaign.
indentWisconsin law prohibits state officials from using their positions to "obtain financial gain or anything of substantial value," which has been interpreted to include using state resources for campaign activities.
indentLawmakers also are forbidden from soliciting or accepting contributions while engaged in their official duties.
indentBurke told Bjork that he had "a small window of opportunity, perhaps six months" to raise money while the state's two-year budget was in play. "After the state budget process was over, those who could give money to the A.G. campaign would not care as much," the complaint said.
indentThe complaint details several meetings Devaguptapu arranged at the Capitol between Burke and lobbyists for various causes. In the first part of those meetings, Blanchard said, participants would discuss legislation.
indent"Toward the end of such a meeting, the conversation would be intentionally steered by Mr. Burke or Mr. Devaguptapu to the attorney general's race, at which time, at least on certain occasions ... specific dollar amounts were asked," Blanchard said.
indentAt an April 2001 meeting with lobbyists from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Devaguptapu asked the group for $25,000, the complaint said. After balking at the figure, the group ultimately gave $6,000, the complaint said.
indentIn March 2001, according to the complaint, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Dental Association met with Burke to push for an amendment to the budget involving dental care in rural areas.
indentAfter discussing the matter, Burke reportedly asked the lobbyist for a $10,000 donation from the group. The lobbyist promised to try, and the group eventually gave $8,000, the complaint said. Burke offered the amendment, but it failed.
indentThe complaint details similar meetings with lobbyists from the law firms DeWitt Ross & Stevens and Foley & Lardner, and the Wisconsin Bankers Association.
indentBlanchard declined to name the individual lobbyists involved, except Ronald Kuehn of DeWitt Ross, and said his office was not looking to charge any of them for their involvement in the alleged wrongdoing.
indentBurke regularly relied on his office staff to make fund-raising calls, update lists of contributors and sign "thank you" notes, the complaint said. The work was done during business hours from Burke's state office, from the office of an unidentified fund-raiser in Milwaukee or using private cell phones, according to the complaint.
indentNew staffers were told they would be expected to do campaign work, the complaint said.
indentIn October 2001 Burke was served with a subpoena seeking information about Devaguptapu. After reviewing one document describing each staffer's "issue areas," Burke allegedly told Bjork he wouldn't provide it to the district attorney because it "makes Raghu look like a shakedown artist or bagman."
indentThe document described Devaguptapu's areas of interest as utilities, financial institutions, insurance and transportation. But "both Bjork and Burke knew that Devaguptapu's role in those areas was primarily to seek campaign contributions from lobbyists," the complaint said.
indentShortly afterward, Burke began ordering staff to erase or alter the contents of his office calendar to cut out references to meetings with lobbyists, the complaint alleges. Other times that had been set aside as "call time" - periods for making fund-raising calls - were changed to "constituent time."
indentStaffers not alerted to the change were mystified by the term, the complaint said, "because Burke did not regularly meet with constituents in his Capitol office."
indentEventually, the calendars were subpoenaed and the cleanup accelerated. After accidentally deleting entire weeks of meetings, the complaint said, Bjork and Burke worked together to reconstruct the senator's calendar, leaving out anything campaign-related.
indentFollowing the seizure of computers from Burke's office in March, investigators found at least 13 meetings had been sanitized from earlier computerized versions of the calendar.
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