Badger Blogger

Kudos to WISN’s Early Spin crew for discussing the issue dealing with Franklin’s response to learning that sexual predator Billy Lee Morford has been coming into their community for the past year and a half. Anyone shining the light of truth on this issue is doing the right thing, these perverts and the state officials that allow it to go on, can not go unnoticed.

The fact that this 4 time convicted Sexually Violent Person is still talking dirty to little boys should set off a huge red flag…. But not at DHFS, or apparently the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office.

Charlie Sykes gave the issue a quick mention, but they are committed to Opening Day coverage, so he couldn’t give it the time it deserves.

UPDATE: Check comments for more details

I don’t know if this will go anywhere, but I think that any effort to shine a light on the whereabouts and traveling habits of perverts like Billy Lee Morford is a good thing.

I find the second paragraph, by the police chief, to be very disturbing… What kind of parent allows a known pedophile around their kids, especially after he was accused of inappropriate behavior with the same family in the past?

JS Online: DayWatch
The Franklin Common Council voted today to authorize a lawsuit against the state for alleged “dereliction of duty” for permitting Billy Lee Morford described as the state’s most notorious sex criminal to commute to Franklin to visit and do odd jobs for a friend.

Franklin Police Chief Richard Oliva also disclosed at the special council meeting that Morford was arrested in 1994 after he was accused of trying to lure a 10-year-old boy into performing a sex act at the same Franklin home Morford has been visiting twice a week over the past 18 months. No formal charges were ever filed.

[…]

Morford has been cited as a prime example of the dilemma state officials face when trying to house habitual sex offenders after they’ve been cleared by doctors for release from Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, a prison-like facility in Mauston. Morford has been living at the N. 51st home since 2003, despite strong objections from neighbors, while officials have run into repeated roadblocks in trying to site a halfway house for sexually violent offenders in Milwaukee County.

Senator Mary Lazich is livid

Senator Lazich has issued the following press release.
Click the link below for the full statement.

State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) is irate that habitual sex offender Billy Lee Morford has been traveling for the past 18 months from his northwest side Milwaukee home to Franklin, and the state failed to notify Franklin.

“This is outrageous,” said Lazich, who represents Franklin. “I am livid that the state Department of Health and Family Services, fully aware of the concerns residents of southeast Wisconsin have about this issue, would allow Morford, who by definition is a sexually violent person, to roam around Franklin without warning or alerting concerned parents. This is an utterly disgusting and dastardly act on the part of the department.”

Morford went to Franklin to visit and work for a friend who lives there. The home is located near a subdivision with many children and about a mile from an elementary school.

“What was the department thinking?” said Lazich. “I am livid at DHFS. It is incomprehensible that the department would send a sexually violent person into Franklin, realizing the Franklin community is intensely involved in an all-out grassroots effort opposing sexually violent persons in their neighborhoods. By their covert action, the department has lost all credibility on this issue and cannot be trusted. It is horrific to know that this sexually violent person was romping through Franklin unknown to the general public, more important, unknown to parents of young children.”
(more…)

I forgot to mention this the other day, but the federal version of Amie’s Law is moving ahead.

Amie’s Law passes House, now heading to Senate
A bill that would focus more attention on sexual predators that has been pushed by a Waukesha County victim is one step closer to reality.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the bill known as “Amie’s Law,” after the 17-year-old Hamilton High School student who has pushed for changes in sex offender notification. It now goes to the U.S. Senate.

Amie Zyla was assaulted when she was 8 by Joshua Wade, of Waukesha, when he was 14. Wade was eventually convicted and served time at the Ethan Allen school.

Wade was again arrested in January on charges of sexual assault and that’s when Amie Zyla and her father, Mark, of Waukesha, decided to take action.

Check the full story for full details.

I have been lax in my coverage if Chai Vang, the Hmong immigrant that murdered six Wisconsin deer hunters last fall. I have been intending to cover his better, but I have slipped up

Here is the latest.

JS Online: Vang defense faces tough challenge
Why were unarmed hunters shot in the back?

To avoid life in prison, Chai Soua Vang must convince a jury that he acted with a true and reasonable sense of imminent danger last November when he shot and killed six hunters, that it was kill or be killed.

His case, set for trial beginning Thursday, has four glaring weaknesses: the four unarmed people he shot in the back.

—-

His trial on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide begins Thursday, with jury selection in Madison. Court TV, a national cable network, plans to cover the trial live, and authorities are preparing for dozens of news reporters and TV crews from the Twin Cities and Wisconsin.

Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel ruled earlier this summer that the jury would be drawn from Dane County because of the intense publicity and strong feelings in Sawyer County.

He would like to have a jury in place soon enough to hear opening statements Saturday, in the Sawyer County Courthouse in Hayward. The trial is expected to last a week or two.

Don’t miss the memorial webpage that was set up in their honor.

Steal a car, lead police on a high speed chase, crash and kill a 13 year old boy and get sentenced to a whopping 4 months… That’ll teach him!

JS Online: Teen gets 4 months, victim’s father says
A 14-year-old Waukesha boy who was the driver in a high-speed chase with police that ended in the death of a 13-year-old passenger was sentenced to four months in a juvenile correctional facility, the father of the boy who was killed said Tuesday.

Terrence Holliman spoke one day after Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis barred the Journal Sentinel from covering the proceedings in Juvenile Court that resulted in the boy’s sentencing Monday in the June 23 death of Terrence Holliman Jr.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis also has a bug up his butt over someone identifying this punk kid, apparently stemming from an interview with the killers grandfather, but the boy himself was NEVER identified by name, but it was enough for Davis to bar any Journal Communications media outlet from covering the case.

I would think he would want to bar the media so they didn’t learn about the lame sentence Judge J. Mac Davis imposed… 4 months

Thanks to Andy for passing this along

To All Citizens for a Safe Franklin (and others!)

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!

We have received a call this morning from Representative Scott Suder who has introduced Bill 591 (Project KidSafe). This bill would require GPS monitoring for the duration of parole, probation, or extended supervision for all sex predators and some classes of sex offenders. The link to the full text of the legislation is below if you wish to read it in its entirety.

This bill is coming up for a public hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 7th at 1:00 p.m. in Madison

We have been asked to put together a delegation (as large as possible) to attend the hearing in support of this measure. We will also need a few people who are willing to speak on behalf of the Citizens expressing support.

If you are able to attend the hearing and/or are willing to speak, please contact me as soon as possible. I will be coordinating our delegation and providing more information as it becomes available. This is only the first of the sex offender legislation that will be considered in Madison this fall. If you are unable to attend on the 7th, please consider helping as more hearings are scheduled. There is not a large window of notice when these hearings are scheduled. Be assured we will pass along the information as soon as it becomes available to us.

If you would like to learn more, Citizens for a Safe Franklin will be meeting tonight, Monday, August 29, 2005 in the Sievert Room of the Franklin Public Library from 7:00-8:15.

Link to AB 591

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/AB-591.pdf

Thank you for your continued support in protecting our community from sexually violent persons!!!

Shari Hanneman

Last week, when two of my truck tires were slashed, I went down to file a police report. They mailed me a copy and I got a chuckle at how he wrote it up.

“Unknown person(s) used a knife to slash victim’s tires without consent“

Without consent? Duh!