No Bail for Michael McGee

Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee Jr. should look on the bright side.

Yes, his appeal to be released from jail while he awaits trial on a laundry list of federal and state charges has been rejected.

But taxpayers are still paying his salary and he's still conducting business from jail.

Being behind bars hasn't kept McGee from going about some of his normal activities, like intimidating witnesses and violating court orders.

[Prosecutors] say while in the Milwaukee County Jail, McGee used three-party calling - in which one person calls another and connects that person with McGee - to encourage witnesses to "lay low" and to suggest that others be encouraged to recant statements.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Haanstad said it was clear McGee knew this was not allowed. He said in one call, McGee's wife, LaSonia McGee, said something to the effect of: "Those of you who are listening, it's I, the wife, making the three-way call, not Mr. McGee."

No, McGee's not going anywhere for now.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Ald. Michael McGee will remain behind bars into next year as he awaits trial on federal and state charges after a higher court rejected his appeal for release.

A three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a July 10 decision by U.S. District Chief Judge Rudolph Randa to detain McGee.

Prosecutors said McGee made several calls from jail intended to intimidate witnesses and sway testimony. In July Magistrate Judge Patricia Gorence set bail for McGee at $10,000, along with a series of restrictions that largely would have confined him to his home.

Prosecutors appealed to Randa, who overturned Gorence's decision.

The 7th circuit panel upheld Randa in a single-page order issued late Wednesday. It didn't comment on the merits of either side. The panel, which did not hold a hearing in the matter, was made up of Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and judges Richard Posner and Daniel Manion.

McGee, 37, who is in the Waukesha County Jail, is charged with seeking and accepting bribes from businesses in his district in exchange for help obtaining or keeping liquor licenses. In state court, McGee is charged with nine felony counts, including making threats and election violations. The trials are not expected until sometime next year, when McGee also is up for re-election.

This latest setback for McGee is likely to rile his supporters and solidify their beliefs that McGee is a political prisoner.

...No tapes of those jailhouse calls where played before Gorence. Instead, Haanstad played tapes relating to the state charges that McGee violated a court order not to talk about a secret John Doe hearing.

McGee's attorney, federal public defender Calvin Malone, argued that without playing the tapes it was impossible to assess the evidence against McGee. He also noted that Randa didn't have a transcript of the hearing before Gorence prior to overturning her order.

Malone said he hadn't received anything from the appeals court as of Thursday afternoon and was disappointed that the court was releasing only a one-page order with no comment. Without more from the appeals court, he said it would be difficult to further argue for McGee's release.

At the beginning of this month, in "Tales of injustice find audiences via Internet," Eugene Kane notes that stories otherwise lost can gather steam and receive nationwide attention.

He tells about the impact of "public support after e-mail campaigns and petition drives designed to get the cases more attention succeeded."

Kane writes:

In the age of point-and-click communication, spreading news about questionable court decisions involving African-Americans is easier than it's ever been.

That can only be a good thing.

Closer to home, an e-mail campaign in support of jailed Ald. Mike McGee questions whether the government's case against him is racially biased and criticizes a judge's refusal to grant bail on corruption charges. The campaign hasn't gone national yet, but I suspect "Free McGee" petitions might start circulating on the Internet if more people knew some of the puzzling turns taken by prosecutors in regard to the alderman's bail.

With the latest developments in McGee's case, expect the Free McGee crowd to push its Internet campaign into high gear.

Does the Waukesha County Jail give inmates Internet access?

I think being denied the Internet might be considered cruel and unusual punishment.