Posted on Tuesday, 29th April 2008 by Bruce
Maybe State Rep. Jason Fields plans to follow through on his original promise and plead guilty to his OWI charges after all. That’s what Fields is telling BadgerBlogger, at least, in response to our recent questions.
A few days ago, BadgerBlogger e-mailed Fields for comment after we learned that he had apparently had a brief “change of heart” since his charges for operating while intoxicated last month. For the record, Fields had a BAC of 0.13 on his breath test, well over the legal limit.
You’ll recall that, in the days following his arrest, Fields put out a very contrite press release, offering sincere apologies for the incident, stating succinctly, “There is no excuse for driving impaired, I am thankful that no one was hurt. I accept full responsibility for my actions and I ask my constituents for forgiveness for my error.”
A few days ago, BadgerBlogger reported that Fields had recently retained colorful local attorney Alan D. Eisenberg and had entered a plea of “not guilty” to the charges, paid his jury trial fees, and scheduled a pre-trial conference for the middle of next month.
Fields wrote me back yesterday, indicating that he was planning to plead guilty to the charges all along, that he had informed his attorney of these plans, and “hadn’t received anything that goes against those instructions” from his attorney.
I wrote back, asking him, if that were in fact the case… Why plead “not guilty” in your initial appearance, pay the jury fees in two separate charges, and schedule a date for a pre-trial conference in mid-May?
Fields replied by e-mail: “Bruce, I will be advising my attorney to change the plea and pay the fines. I thank you for contacting me. I simply wanted to handle this situation as accurately as possible, that is why I had a lawyer. Again, I will be changing the plea and paying the fines. Thanks“.
All correspondence took place with Fields using his state issued, “legis.wisconsin.gov” e-mail address, and is a matter of public record.
I guess Jason Fields is the stand-up guy many of us around here believed from the beginning after all… well, hopefully. Now, we must give him a chance to keep his word to the public. We’ll be watching.
If every politician sincerely believed that there was one person, keeping an eye on their every action, maybe we could change the way that government functions in this state. Don’t ever think you can’t make a difference. You can. You elect these people, and you have every right to help them keep their published promises.
Spread that word.
Posted in Home | Comments (16)
16 Responses to “State Rep. Jason Fields has a “change of heart” to his “change of heart””
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April 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
It’s much easier to be a stand up guy when someone is watching. And with the growth of the Alternative Media, more of us are watching.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Alan’s gonna be hacked off — this is going to cut into his fees and publicity…good work Bruce!
April 29th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
This isn’t the first time Mr. Eisenberg has been exposed on this blog. In September of last year he wrote a story for the El Conquistador newspaper accusing the Mequon Police Department of racial profiling Latinos. He even supplied a picture of two Mequon officers arresting a Latino man… But after obtaining a copy of the picture and with information from the Mequon Police Chief and Charlie Sykes, I proved that the photo was a fake.
This story also set off a bit of a firestorm between Sykes & Eisenberg, and I have coverage of that too. You can read it all, and see the faked pictures here.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
If every politician sincerely believed that there was one person, keeping an eye on their every action, maybe we could change the way that government functions in this state
Every? That statement is not very consistent with past behaviors now, is it?
April 29th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
In Operating While Intoxicated cases, no one pleads guilty in intake court, not in municipal intake court nor in Intake Court for the County of Milwaukee. It may sound inefficient or well, stupid, but that’s the way things always are. And the payment of a jury fee doesn’t mean that the defendant is in fact exercising their right to a trial by jury, it means the court demands that the fee be paid then, or the jury (not the trial) is waived. So Eisenberg did what he should do in paying the jury fee. Back off of Mr. Fields – he’s a man of his word, as you correctly assumed. And for the record 0.13 is probably where every one of you “drinking right” boys where when leaving Papa’s…..
April 29th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Opps, that’s “were” not “where”
April 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I mean “oops” (I give up)
April 29th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Yeah Lew, thats cuz we don’t drink Vinegar and water like you.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Hey Lew / Lou / Loo:
Jason Fields retained Alan D. Eisenberg, entered a plea of not guilty, scheduled a jury trial, paid his jury fees and allowed a date to be set for a pre-trial conference. You know that Fields planned to fight the OWI, most likely at the behest of Eisenberg. You’re a bright guy.
Jason Fields pledge to his constituents in the days following his arrest was that one of his first actions would be a speech to students at Custer High discussing his OWI and addressing the problem of drunk driving.
By my accounts, his first “speech about drunk driving” occurred less that two weeks later, when he appeared at the rally for the “police abused” Hmong man, defending the drunk who tried to run over a cop, and telling the gathered crowd “I got your backs”.
If you haven’t seen the full video that Patrick shot, I would encourage you to watch it at this link. I believe we were the only folks in Milwaukee that had the full video including Fields’ comments to the Hmong that were calling for the police chiefs job, including Fields’ baffling comments to the crowd… “Call me if you need anything”.
That’s when he hit my radar screen and became fair game, nice guy or not.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am
No where do I read this – is this guy a democrat or republican. I’m guessing democrat because it’s not printed anywhere. If he were a republican I’m sure it would be right there in the headlines.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Kneenor, he is a Democrat, but someone that I always had great respect for. He fought hard for School Choice and I had heard him speak a few times in public and always liked the guy, heck, I even voted for him, and when he was arrested for OWI, I posted here on this blog that I respected the way he was handling things and expected the best. But about a week and a half later, he showed up at that rally at the 4th district police station and made what I thought to be a jaw dropping speech, totally disrespecting the officers that protect most of his, 11th Assembly District (the 7th police district covers the Southern portion) and the three witnesses that called 911 to report what was going on.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
The Morning (er, Afternoon) Scramble – 4/30/2008…
Sorry about being late. I guess I should’ve put the causation of the reason I’m late up yesterday; I crossed the 124th Street line to attend the first Waukesha “Blog n Grog”. Note to self; bloat the roll again. Oh well; let……
April 30th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hey everyone I wanted to make sure you all heard it from my mouth. I stated before that I was going to not contest this. I planned on holding true to my word whether you guys were watching or not. My family raised me to do what is right even when no one is watching. I employed a attorney simply to make sure everything was handled correctly. I have informed Att. Eisenberg that i want to pay the fines and take responsibility for the action that was committed. Again, I do apologize for the incident and look forward to moving on. Likewise, my statement regarding the MOU case was not against the MPD in fact I beleive we have fine officers within the city of milwaukee as well as fine sheriffs. I stand by the fact that there were some items not fully disclosed and that the process should be allowed to be followed within the confines of transparency. Nothing more, nothing less.
Again thank you all for being involved citizens and please feel free to contact me with any suggestions on how to make our state a better place for all of us.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Seems like if you make a bad choice (drunk driving) the logical thing to do is follow it up with another bad choice (retain Attn Eisenberg).
I hope you stick to your word, you know we will be watching. I also hope that, as an elected official, you start advocating on the right side of community issues. You are doing yourself no favors associating with Hmong group and Attn. Eisenberg.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Well he certainly did show an extreme lapse in good judgment by retaining Eisenberg. I mean c’mon, surely he couldn’t have been ignorant as to what that man is?
Don’t ever think you can’t make a difference. You can. You elect these people, and you have every right to help them keep their published promises.
Spread that word.
Bravo…do spread that word, will continue to spread that word, and hope and literally pray others do, too.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Clearly, if you have Eisenberg, Fields, Wasserman, and the Hmong together you may form one full brain. Eisenberg and Fields form bad judgements, Wasserman can’t spell or be grammatically correct, and the Hmong seem to equate criminal behavior to racial profiling. This is how society is and it will only get worse, like Chicago.