5 charged in GOP tire slashings
2 sons of prominent Democrats among those charged in tire slashings
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 24, 2005
Five Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democrats, were charged Monday with the election day tire slashings of 25 get-out-the-vote vehicles rented by Republicans.
Election Day Vandalism
Five Charged
Lewis G. Caldwell
Justin Howell
Lavelle Mohammad
Sowande A. Omokunde
Michael Pratt
Related Coverage
Criminal complaint
Video: TMJ4 report
Recent Coverage
1/22/05: Expect tire-slashing charges Monday
1/18/05: Spivak & Bice: Charges imminent in election day tire slashing
11/11/04: Police arrest ex-mayor's son in tire-slashing
11/10/04: FBI starts own probe of vandalism of GOP vehicles
11/4/04: Spivak & Bice: Tire-slashing questions await Democrats' sons
11/2/04: Republican rental vehicles vandalized
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced the felony charges each of which could result in a 3 1/2-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine - in a rare news conference.
This isnt what goes on all the time in Wisconsin, McCann said. I dont think that it takes a great deal of acumen to estimate what the intent was.
The men charged with flattening 40 tires include Michael Pratt, 32, the son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, and Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee). According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, the five men conspired, without the knowledge of top Democratic Party officials, to plaster Republican Party headquarters on W. Capitol Drive with Democratic signs and stickers, something they dubbed Operation Elephant Takeover.
But they dropped that plan when they learned that the targeted GOP headquarters were patrolled by a security guard, according to the criminal complaint, which does not describe how the tire-slashing plot came up.
The five men appeared briefly before a Milwaukee County Circuit Court commissioner Monday afternoon. All will have preliminary hearings Feb. 1 and were released on $1,000 personal recognizance bonds.
Moore sat in the gallery but would not answer questions about the incident afterward, replying to each reporter by saying how much she was looking forward to getting back to Washington for the upcoming session of Congress.
Besides Michael Pratt, of the 4000 block of N. 16th St., and Omokunde, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, the others charged were Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St. and Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of Olive St., Racine.
Because the repair bill from the slashings was $4,192.35, plus $1,125 in towing charges, the damage easily passed the $2,500 threshold for felony charges for criminal damage to property party to a crime.
McCann said being a longtime Democrat made him even more keen to investigate the allegation of sabotage against Republican operations and criticized those who had accused him of dragging his heels.
Those who know nothing about the progress of the investigation are perhaps a touch arrogant, McCann said.
McCann said it had taken nearly 12 weeks to assemble charges because potential witnesses had dispersed to the East after the election, leaving his office with two practical options: Convene Milwaukees first grand jury in 36 years to subpoena them, or get the FBI to conduct the interviews. The FBI, McCann said, was the cheaper, if slower, option.
McCann said he didnt get the final FBI report until Jan. 14, possibly because the agency had other priorities. Youve got to understand how this looks elsewhere, McCann said. Its a tire-slashing case.
In a prepared statement, Republican Party state Chairman Rick Graber labeled the length of the investigation unfortunate and said reducing the charges to irrelevance in exchange for a guilty plea would merely add insult to injury.
McCann would not comment on the likelihood of plea bargains.
According to the complaint:
A security guard for the Republican National Committee office at 7113 W. Capitol Drive said he spotted suspicious behavior about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 2. When a car pulled up, the guard wrote down the Illinois license plate. The guard told investigators he didnt see the slashed tires until later.
Police tracked down the car later that day and learned it had been rented by Opel Simmons, a Democratic campaign staffer. Simmons told police he had warned the five defendants that GOP headquarters were closely guarded and thought Operation Elephant Takeover had been dropped.
About 3 a.m. at Democratic headquarters, Simmons said, he saw the five, all wearing Mission Impossible-type gear, black outfits and knit caps, and asked them what they were going to do.
One of the five responded by telling him words to the effect of Oh, man, you dont want to know, you dont want to know. He indicated that they were laughing and joking with him and told him again that they couldnt tell him what they were about to do and that he didnt want to know, the complaint states.
They didnt tell him about the tire slashing until after it happened, Simmons told police.
On election day, Simmons spoke with Mohammad, who said he was going to get an article about the tire slashing that was on the Journal Sentinels Web site and frame it. Simmons stated that he interpreted this as a sort of you cant catch me type statement by defendant Mohammad, the complaint reads.
Another election worker, Levar Stoney, told an FBI agent in Virginia that he had been taunted for dropping out of Operation Elephant Takeover but that the five defendants talked afterward about how many tires each had stabbed while Mohammad ran interference, the criminal complaint says.
McCann said it was apparent that those who slashed the tires werent professionals because security guards ability to foil political sabotage was known well to those of us who lived through Watergate.
Seth Boffeli, spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, denounced the slashings and said the felony charge seemed appropriate.
This really doesnt have anything to do with politics, Boffeli said. This isnt anything that we tried to orchestrate. This is something that some young people who used some incredibly bad judgment did on their own. |
