Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Credibility

The problems of the Steven Avery murder investigation and trial continue. One of Avery’s trial attorneys, Jerome Buting, filed a complaint after discovering misconduct at the Madison Crime Lab.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen responded with the claim that misconduct did not affect the case.

But, Van Hollen has a credibility problem in an area unrelated to the Avery case.

Van Hollen earlier embarked upon a legal maneuver to deny voters in the State the right to vote. He did this by demanding the city and town clerks implement a plan to challenge voters when there was obviously insufficient time. Van Hollen then sued the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to force the issue.

He wanted the board to check every registered voter name against various databases with the intent of disenfranchising every voter whose name did not exactly match. So, if a middle initial was present on a driver’s license but not on the voter registration that person’s right to vote would be in jeopardy.

After Van Hollen’s suit was dismissed some wondered how much his frivolous lawsuit cost the State. He responded with $155.00. Apparently, one lawyer worked on the case for fifteen minutes. Actually, the claim is that the only expense is a filing fee. No one was involved with filling out the forms or filing the documents.

It turns out that at least $43000.00 was spent on the case and that does not include catered lunches.

But, Van Hollen is not to be stopped. He plans on dispatching Department of Justice attorneys throughout the State to challenge voters at the polls on 4 November, 2008. He asked for the names of duty judges so his crew could get instant warrants. But, many areas do not have duty judges despite Van Hollen’s belief.

After these shenanigans, I’m not about trust Van Hollen’s claims about the behavior of persons at the crime lab.