DA Fights Potential Reprimand re Claimed Concealment of Plea Deal with Witness
A Wisconsin prosecutor is vowing to fight a disciplinary case in which she faces a potential public reprimand after being accused of concealing a plea deal with a witness in a robbery trial.
The ethics case against Outagamie County District Attorney Carrie Schneider resulted from a campaign by a former witness coordinator in Winnebago County. She says she complained three times before the state Office of Lawyer Regulation agreed to pursue the issue, reports the Post-Crescent.
At first, says Sheila Martin Berry, she was told by an investigator she couldn’t make a complaint against Schneider because she didn’t live in Wisconsin and wasn’t a party to the case. Then she was told her complaint was moot because the defendant in the robbery case had won a new trial due at least in part to nondisclosure of plea deal discussions with the witness, according to the newspaper. Berry is now is a law firm paralegal in Richmond, Va., and operates a nonprofit organization concerning criminal justice system deficiencies.
Schneider says she did nothing wrong and says the ethics complaints were made around the time that she ran for a seat on the state judicial bench.
“I unequivocally deny the present charges,” she wrote in a statement yesterday. “I have told OLR I will not accept a public reprimand. I have served Outagamie County as a prosecutor for more than a decade, and I have always sought to maintain the highest ethical standards. No disciplinary action has ever been taken against me.”
