GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A federal civil rights complaint is being planned against the City of Green Bay after a judge threw out a disorderly conduct citation against an election observer – claiming the city issued it as an act of retaliation.
Erick Kaardal, an attorney for election observer Janet Angus, told FOX 11 the next legal actions are being taken in hopes of preventing the city from taking similar action against anyone else.
“We’ll be looking at a federal civil rights complaint against the City of Green Bay,” said Kaardal. “It’s the worst case of retaliation that I’ve ever seen. Judge Hock’s comments confirm that.”
Kaardal has filed dozens of election integrity lawsuits for conservative groups since the 2020 election. He was also a top investigator for Michael Gableman’s taxpayer-funded probe into the Presidential election that provided no evidence of widespread fraud.
Kaardal, however, says Angus’ case isn’t really about election integrity.
“This is about can the city office use its prosecutorial power to go after people who are criticizing the government.”
On April 5th, 2022, Angus questioned City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys about accepting two absentee ballots from one person, which is only allowed when someone is turning in a ballot for a voter with a disability.
A complaint about Jeffrey’s actions was filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on April 20th.
A Green Bay Police detective says about a month after the original incident, he was told city hall called and wanted an investigation into Angus’ actions.
The investigation resulted in Angus being issued a disorderly conduct citation on June 28th.
Last Friday, Brown County Circuit Judge Tammy Jo Hock threw out the citation.
I don’t find that Miss Angus’ behavior was disorderly, but I will observe that it does appear that this municipal citation was retaliatory due to the Wisconsin Elections complaint that was filed,” said Judge Hock.
“The use of law to suppress people, that is tyranny,” said Kaardal. “We don’t use that word much, but think about this situation where Ms. Angus was in a calm way pointing out that the government was violating the law and Clerk Jeffreys and the City of Green Bay went after her for complaining about an actual violation of law.”
Green Bay City Attorney Joanne Bungert issued FOX 11 a statement.
“We respect the decision made by Brown County Circuit Court Judge Tammy Jo Hock,” wrote Bungert. “The result from last week’s appeal hearing was part of the judicial process. The Municipal Court found Ms. Angus guilty while the Circuit Court disagreed. The City proceeded in this case as it would in any other.”
FOX 11 asked the city for a response to Kaardal’s threat of a civil rights complaint, but Bungert said they had nothing else to release at this time.
In December of last year, the Wisconsin Elections Commission upheld the complaint filed against the city about the incident Angus questioned. The commission said there was probable cause Clerk Jeffreys violated state law.
Jeffreys has said city policy was corrected shortly after the incident.
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