State files new criminal charge against McGee; Wiretap issue will
Prosecutors on Tuesday filed a new criminal charge against Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee, but kept it secret pending a likely legal fight over whether recordings of wiretapped conversations can be used in court.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said he was barred from discussing the new charge under state law dealing with wiretaps. Chisholm agreed to turn over copies of the wiretapped conversations to attorneys for McGee and two co-defendants.
The FBI tapped three phone lines under a court order issued May 26 by federal Judge Lynn Adelman, FBI Special Agent Daniel Hargreaves testified Tuesday in state court.
Defense lawyers are expected to seek to have the wiretap recordings kept out of the case. A hearing that likely will include requests for suppression of the wiretap evidence will be June 22, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Moroney ruled.
McGee was charged last week with conspiring with two other men to assault a family friend they suspected of burglarizing the home of Little Al Stewart, described as McGee’s godfather. Stewart, 52, and Dimitrius L. Jackson, 38, were also charged in connection with that case.
For now, details of that case remain under seal, as does the charge filed Tuesday, Moroney ruled.
Review period
Defense lawyers for McGee, Stewart and Jackson will have 10 days to review the tapes and decide whether to seek to have them suppressed.
Chisholm has previously said he’ll push to have the tapes admitted into evidence in the case.
Moroney said he would rule on a defense motion to suppress the tapes within about three days of receiving it, but he warned that a hearing on suppression would be closed to the press and public. The unusual step is allowed under a state Supreme Court decision regarding use of wiretapped conversations in criminal cases.
Lawyers for McGee, Jackson and Stewart received copies of the new criminal complaint, but the judge warned that they were bound by his order not to reveal any details. The new charge applies only to McGee.
McGee and his two co-defendants did not speak during Tuesday’s hearing. About three dozen supporters of McGee stood and many returned a clenched fist salute to McGee when he entered the courtroom.
McGee and Jackson are being held in the Milwaukee County Jail. Stewart is free on $20,000 bail. Chisholm has said McGee, Stewart and Jackson first talked of killing Pierre Crawley, 19, and later agreed on a “beat down.”
‘Family altercation’
During a phone call from jail to radio station WNOV-AM (860) last week, McGee described the matter as a “family altercation” and denied there was any intent to hurt Crawley.
Glenn Givens, McGee’s lawyer, has said Crawley was “almost a foster child” to Stewart.
McGee, 37, also faces federal bribery charges that accuse him of extorting $500 to $2,500 in bribes each from several liquor store and gas station owners in his district over the past year. McGee traded his backing for city licenses to the businesses in exchange for cash, a federal complaint says.
The FBI is continuing its investigation.
As the result of a secret John Doe probe, two McGee election workers have been charged with vote fraud in the past week. Criminal complaints say Garrett L. Huff and Khadijah Anwar paid undercover police officers $5 to vote in the McGee recall election in April, which McGee won.
Meanwhile Tuesday, a Common Council committee responded to charges that McGee was shaking down business owners seeking city licenses by delaying action on two liquor licenses in his district. The owners of the two businesses seeking licenses have not been linked to the bribery allegations against McGee.
Common Council President Willie Hines Jr. has called for a probe of all pending city business, including liquor license applications, in McGee’s 6th Aldermanic District.
The delay affected two taverns: the Downtowner, 432 E. Center St., owned by Stephen Johnson; and the Cottage Club, 400 E. Locust St., owned by Demaine Thompson and Rivera Allen. Both new businesses are on the site of closed bars. McGee supported the Downtowner but opposed the Cottage Club, said his aide, Mary Fitzgerald.
Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.