MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Assembly Democrats are demanding former Majority Leader Bill Kramer resign in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations.
Majority Republicans stripped Kramer of his leadership position last month. They have asked Kramer to resign but say they won’t push to expel him from office. The Assembly has adjourned for the year and Kramer has said he won’t seek re-election in November.
Four Democrats sent Kramer a letter Monday demanding he resign. They also sent a letter to Republican leaders accusing them of not going far enough to discipline Kramer and suggesting they form an ethics committee to develop sanctions.
Kramer’s attorney, James Gatzke, says both Democrats and Republicans are ignoring Kramer’s due process rights to score political points. A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos didn’t immediately return messages.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Republican Rep. Erik Severson is not seeking re-election, becoming the 11th Republican and 17th member overall to announce they will not be returning.
Severson is an emergency room doctor from Osceola who was first elected in 2010. He announced his decision not to run again on Monday.
Severson chaired a special task force on mental health this session which resulted in passage of more than a dozen bills designed to improve services across the state. His vice-chair on that committee, Democratic Rep. Sandy Pasch, is also not running again.
Severson continues to work at the Osceola Medical Center. He says he is looking forward to spending more time with his family.
Republicans currently hold a 60-39 majority in the Assembly. All 99 seats are up for election this November.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin man who fatally ran over his 2-year-old son and allegedly stabbed the boy’s mother entered a plea deal Monday just as his trial was to begin.
Jesus Castillo-Dimas, 32, pleaded no contest to first-degree reckless homicide in the 2012 death of his son, Yandel Castillo-Castillo, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend, Maria Castillo-Castillo, the boy’s mother.
Castillo-Dimas also pleaded no contest to second-degree reckless endangerment for stabbing Maria Castillo-Castillo’s boyfriend. That charge was reduced from another count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
The plea agreement was finalized Monday morning as jury selection was scheduled to begin, the Wisconsin State Journal (https://bit.ly/1ilTdXxhttps://bit.ly/1ilTdXx ) reported. The trial was canceled. Castillo-Dimas had pleaded not guilty to the charges, citing mental disease or defect.
The trial would have determined whether Dimas was mentally fit at the time of the July 9, 2012, attack in Fitchburg and whether he intended to kill his son and the boy’s mother.
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors can ask for as much prison time for Castillo-Dimas as they want, up to the maximum penalty. His lawyers agreed to seek no less than 30 years of confinement.
Castillo-Dimas would have faced a mandatory life prison sentence if convicted on the original first-degree intentional homicide charge. Sentencing is set for June 12.
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FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) - A Kenosha man is the prime suspect in the 1990 slaying of an 18-year-old woman found dead in Fond du Lac County, authorities said Monday.
No arrests or charges are imminent, Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mylan C. Fink said at a news conference, and investigators are still looking at a number of other possible suspects. But Fink said detectives are closer to solving the homicide than they’ve been in years.
“I’ve got a problem with (the term) ’person of interest.’ I would call (the man) a suspect, a prime suspect,” the sheriff said.
Berit Beck of Sturtevant disappeared in July 1990 on her way to a computer seminar in Appleton. Her van was found in a Fond du Lac parking lot two days after she vanished; investigators collected more than 70 pieces of evidence from the vehicle. Beck’s body was discovered in a Fond du Lac County ditch about a month later.
The case has languished for years. This past February, however, detectives received information about five pieces of evidence, according to court documents released Monday. Investigators determined one item is linked to the now 60-year-old Kenosha man. The documents did not elaborate on any of the evidence or how detectives linked the item to the man.
Multiple pieces of electronic equipment that over-the-road truckers use were missing from Beck’s van and the man’s ex-wife told investigators he may have been a trucker when Beck went missing, the documents said.
Last month investigators obtained a search warrant granting them permission to take photographs of the Kenosha man’s hands. The photographs would help further analysis, according to court documents.
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