Former Walker Aide Kelly Rindfleisch To Be Tried In Milwaukee County

<p>Former Scott Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch lost her appeal to be tried in Columbia County instead of Milwaukee County, where she allegedly committed her felonies.<br /><br />The decision by a three-judge panel was made last Thursday, according to the <a href=\"http://wcca.wicourts.gov/courtRecordEvents.xsl;jsessionid=24294B33478E5997A7EA7A8154ED031E.render6?caseNo=2012CF000438&amp;countyNo=40&amp;cacheId=036A3512746FB5C670F70E9192F195DA&amp;recordCount=1&amp;offset=0&amp;linkOnlyToForm=false&amp;sortDirection=DESC\" target=\"_blank\">court\'s website.</a> The judges were acting on Rindfleisch\'s appeal of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Hansher\'s decision in March to keep the case in Milwaukee.<br /><br />Looks like Rindfleisch will be tried in the Milwaukee County courthouse. </p> <p>Didn\'t she once work there?&nbsp;</p> <p>Prosecutors in the sprawling John Doe investigation have charged Rindfleisch with four felony counts of misconduct in office. Rindfleisch, according to the <a href=\"http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/_120126_Rindfleisch_Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">criminal complaint</a>, was working as a paid fundraiser for Republican lieutenant governor candidate Brett Davis at the same time she was a paid aide to then-County Executive Walker and worked just steps away from Walker in his executive office suite. <br /><br />IndeedWalker hired Rindfleisch for her job as a policy analyst, then promoted her when his deputy chief of staff, Tim Russell, moved on to the housing department. Russell\'s been charged with felonies for allegedly embezzling from a veterans\' charity that he set upand Walker personally signed off on.<br /><br />Walker stuck up for Rindfleisch last week, when he told a reporter <a href=\"http://eye-on-wisconsin.blogspot.com/2012/05/walker-she-did-what-she-was-expected-to.html\" target=\"_blank\">“She did what she was expected to do.”</a><br /><br />Hmmm…<br /><br />The John Doe investigators also claim that Rindfleisch exchanged more than a thousand emails with Walker\'s top campaign aides (campaign manager Keith Gilkes, deputy manager Stephan Thompson and spokeswoman Jill Bader) while working for the county.<br /><br />I really<em>really</em>want to know what\'s in these emails and why she wasn\'t charged for exchanging them.<br /><br />I also really<em>really</em>want to know if Walker was copied on any of these emails. If so, that means that Walker knew that his county aide was campaigning while on the taxpayers\' dime.<br /><br />Then again, Rindfleisch should know all about that, since she was given <a href=\"http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/caucus-scandal-all-over-again/article_548bf94c-4d2c-11e1-8c58-0019bb2963f4.html\" target=\"_blank\">immunity from prosecution</a> in 2002 during the caucus scandal.<br /><br />I always get a good laugh out of Rindfleisch\'s attorney\'s attempt to dismiss these charges, claiming that her 2002 immunity deal gives her blanket immunity from these sorts of crimes forever.<br /><br />That argument didn\'t fly, either. <br /><br /> </p>