I missed this last week, but as we’d previously covered the stated intentions of Rightwingers to sabotage the ‘Recall Walker’ effort in Wisconsin by shredding and burning petitions and the death threats reportedly received by supporters of the effort to remove Wisconsin’s anti-union Republican governor Scott Walker, I wanted to get this on record here.
Jeffery Karnitz, a 30-year old Wisconsinite, has now been cited with two felony election fraud counts for defacing recall petitions in the Badger State. He now faces a year and half in prison and a $10,000 fine for each count. This genius already has a fairly long wrap-sheet, but more on that in a moment…
The Journal Sentinel covers Karnitz’ charges this way…
But when Jeffery Karnitz handed the defaced petition back to a recall volunteer, she told him, "I hope you know that’s a felony,"· and from then, he told police, "I kind of kicked myself in the ass."
On Thursday, Karnitz, 30, was indeed charged with a felony,· "Election fraud – falsifying or destroying nomination papers, recall petitions, etc." — which is punishable by up to 1 1/2 years in prison, two years extended supervision and a $10,000 fine.
According to the criminal complaint, Karnitz was driving down Highway 33 in West Bend Sunday when he saw a woman at 10th Ave. holding a placard reading "sign recall petitions here" with an arrow pointing down 10th Ave. He told police he stopped, and told the woman his opinions about Walker, then drove down to the signing site, where he scribbled on two petitions, one seeking recall of Walker, and one seeking recall of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
After scribbling out names, he drove off. Recall volunteers noted his license plate and called police.
Karnitz appears, from both his rap sheet and a number of photos, including the following one, as posted on his own Facebook page, to be quite a piece of work. I’m sure he’s an exception. Surely Walker’s supporters aren’t all like this guy, right?…
Karnitz is only 30, but already he’s racked up a fairly lengthy record with WI law enforcement going back as far as 2000, for a number of largely petty crimes and misdemeanors, such as carrying a concealed weapon, possession of drug paraphernalia, small claims money judgement, DUI, operating an unregistered snowmobile, divorce, paternity, and a few other driving offenses.
The Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system doesn’t allow for persistent search URLs, but you can look his name up here if you’d like to peruse his record. The record for his charges in the Recall Walker petition election fraud case is here [PDF].
FOX6 covered the story this way:
Spent a few years living in Washington Cty. My retired mother lives in West Bend. Not exactly the best place to live when you’re a Dem. I had looked this guy up on facebook a few days ago after my sister gave me the Dailykos heads up. Let’s just say he reminds me of MANY of the local yokels I had the “pleasure” of serving when I bartended there. So very happy I left there five years ago to return to my home State of California. I don’t miss the weather,and happy to be back in the land of more free thinking people. What Walker is doing is beyond disgusting. While living in WI.,I suffered through having to listen to the ignorant rantings of the Bush/Cheney WMD’s cheerleaders,and nothing I said in opposition got through to them. So thankful to not be there and have to hear them cheering on someone as diabolical as Walker. I will breathe easier if we are able to move my mom out of there and back to California if he remains the Gov.
I can tell poor Jeffrey is terribly upset with himself for what he did. This was a post on his page from Dec. 6 – “Sorry but I can’t tell you what’s on my mind! Yours truely the SCRIBBLER!
Share · December 9 at 9:47pm via mobile”
While going after the low-hanging fruit like Mr. Kranitz, one hopes that those higher up the food chain (ES&S, Sequoia, etc.) are paying attention to the low tolerance for vote misconduct. People are starting to get wise.
Here’s the ACLU lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law.
Of course, he did it for his mommie commies in the cow tit state.
OT alert! Hey Brad – your spam filter still hates me, but I had to tell you: The book got here today, a mere 7 days after it was mailed! This is astonishingly fast. Whoever wants to “privatize” [read “loot”] our government must inevitably stop here (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!) on the way. Keep up the wonderful work, and tell your spa filter to leave aragorn alone, please!
Czaragorn – Are you getting some sort of bounce back notice? If so, can you let me know what it says? (Sorry about whatever seems to be going on!)
Hey Brad, there’s this floating shack on Lake Merrit up here in Oakland that looks like something out of “Li’l Abner” and says “Occupy Oakland” on it. Want me to send ya a picture? I have this mental image of a bunch of riot cops on inner tubes trying to evict this thing from the lake. . . This is not a joke.
What a gross tool for you know who. I still want a fuller account for 9/11, just where the break downs point!
WI woman goes free after sending death threats to WI Republican Senators.
Man sentenced to prison for sending death threats to president.
Got any actual cite for that claim, Patrick? Or is it as imaginary as Fox and Rush’s recent fake reports that Hitler and Mickey Mouse signed the Recall Walker petitions?
http://www.nbc15.com/news/headlines/Wisconsin_Woman_Charged
Thanks, Patrick. But whatever story was there no longer seems to be there.
Try again?
Sorry the link didn’t work. Paste this to your search engine for the NBC story.
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Wisconsin_Woman_Charged_For...
Patrick: The links you provide don’t work. But here’s the actual story.
Katherine R. Windels, 26, of Cross Plains, WI was charged in a complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court after she allegedly sent e-mails to 16 of the 19 GOP senators threatening to “put a nice little bullet” in their heads if they approved the Koch/Walker/GOP union busting measure.
As part of an apparent plea bargain, in which she pleaded guilty to making a bomb threat, a Dane County judge placed her “in a first-offenders program. If she completes the program the charge will be dismissed.”
I know that doesn’t seem to have the punch of the right-wing talking point, “goes free,” but those are the facts.
Oh, and while we’re on the topic of prosecuting people for death threats, you may want to take a quick look at our earlier articles:
Should Neal Boortz be Prosecuted for Incitement to Murder? Removed from the Public Airwaves?
and
Should Major US Pundits, Politicians be Prosecuted for Incitement to Murder, ‘Terrorist Threats’?
Just one more example of the disparate treatment of ordinary citizens like Ms. Windels and our elites.