FORMER D A CHARGED WITH BRIBERY, TAX EVASION

Former Winnebago County District Attorney Joe Paulus was charged Tuesday with bribery and accepting nearly $50,000 in bribes from a defense attorney and for failing to report the money on his federal tax return.

Paulus, who served as the county's top prosecutor for more than 13 years, is accused of taking bribes in 22 cases, six of which were criminal and 16 of which were drunken driving or traffic cases, according to documents filed Tuesday in U.S.  District Court in Green Bay.

Paulus' attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, said his client hopes to reach a plea agreement with federal authorities, who have been investigating Paulus for two years.  A plea hearing has been scheduled for April 26.

"The information in the document I have seen before, and it's not a surprise," Gimbel said.  "I expect it to come to an agreed conclusion within the next couple of weeks."

Paulus, who was a finalist for U.S.  attorney and interviewed for the job at the White House, solicited and accepted $48,050 in bribes over two years - from June 1998 through June 2000, according to the charges.

In each of the 22 cases, Paulus received half the defense attorney's fee in exchange for "dismissing cases, reducing charges, returning seized property and requesting lenient treatment" for a defendant in a neighboring county, according to the documents.

The case in the neighboring county involved a defendant who had been charged with felony possession of marijuana.  Paulus lied to the prosecutor there, asking him to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor becacuse the defendant was cooperating in a Winnebago County drug investigation, the documents said.  In return, Paulus received half the defense attorney's $2,500 fee.

The court records do not name the defense attorney, and no related charges were filed against a defense attorney Tuesday, according to a spokesman from the Public Integrity Section at the U.S.  Department of Justice.

The federal investigation began after Edmund Jelinski, who was fired by Paulus as an assistant district attorney, and Ann Gollner, a police officer who used to work in Paulus' office went to the FBI in 2002 with allegations of impropriety.  The probe focused on drunken driving cases in which defendants claimed they paid former defense attorney Milton Schierland under the table in order to plea bargain for shorter sentences.  Schierland has denied wrongdoing and did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors based in Washinigton, D.C., filed the charges against Paulus.  Steven M.  Biskupic, U.S.  Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, recused himself from the case.  Biskupic, his first assistant, Francis Schmitz, and Paulus all were finalists for the U.S.  attorney's post, which may have posed a conflict of interest.

Paulus, 44, lost the Republican primary election for Winnebago County district attorney in 2002, after one of the messiest campaigns in the state's history.  An updated version of this story will appear online tonight and in Wednesday's edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.