Milwaukee County Supervisor Charged with Taking Bribe

Fair

59°

Feels Like: 58 °
More Weather

Conditions at Wausau Downtown Airport, WI

Posted: Thu 5:17 PM, Feb 02, 2012

A A

Reporter: Associated Press

Back to HomePage

Milwaukee County Supervisor Charged with Taking Bribe

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Prosecutors have charged Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny L. Thomas with accepting a bribe in exchange for promoting a company on a county contract.

Thomas was charged Thursday with two felony counts -- one for accepting a bribe and the other for misconduct in office.

Thomas is accused of accepting $500 in cash in an undercover sting operation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the charges say Thomas also agreed to accept another $500 in campaign donations to move forward with recommending the contract.

The charges say one day after accepting the $500 bribe, Thomas added an item to his committee agenda to extend the contract from the company that he thought was offering the cash.

Thomas' attorney, Mike Maistelman, says Thomas is innocent and will be "vindicated and cleared of all charges."

Next Story >

Read Comments

All comments must adhere to the WSAW.com discussion rules.

by Anonymous on Feb 5, 2012 at 08:04 PM

I wonder just how deep this will travel in Milwaukee? How many people have been charged with crimes while Walker was in office? I wonder if Walker expects the boom to be lowered on him in the near future. He took along 2 lawyers. If I was in the DA position and saw a person of interest come in with 2 lawyers I would ask why? I would wonder if I have been digging far enough. Time to be more through in my investigation. Could we be lucky enough to see Walker charged? There has to be something. I think the 2 laywers may have tipped his hand.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by Steve Location: Tomahawk on Feb 5, 2012 at 09:27 AM

Didn't notice if he's a Dem or Republican; guess if he was a Republican they would say so.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by Jim Location: Central Wis. on Feb 3, 2012 at 10:03 PM

I was thinking about Wisconsin's woes and I think their is good solution that will make everyone happy. Take Minnesota's southern border and extend it to the east across our state to lake Michigan. Now the area south of this line joins Illinois and us in the North will make Green Bay our new Capital, oh i forgot the UP is welcome to join us and break off from southern Michigan. Sounds good to me so how can we get this going? Do we have to start a petition or something?

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by Old man on Feb 3, 2012 at 05:03 PM

I believe this is a case of association. If you are a politican from Chicago people believe you are on the take. It may not be true. NOW, with what is happening in Milwaukee, it is that people believe that politicans are on the take. This means BOTH sides. The party really doesn't matter. Just like Chicago. We in Wisconsin graduated to the BIG time in corruption. Oh how we voters long for the good old quiet days in our state.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by Kris Location: Chicago on Feb 3, 2012 at 09:52 AM

This is a separate issue but crook is still a crook. No matter party affiliation.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by kris Location: chicago on Feb 2, 2012 at 09:25 PM

I'm from Chicago and it's pretty much amatuer hour in Millwaukee. You on the right have no idea what's going on. So I am going to break it down for all of you. To enrich yourself you need a source of concentrated wealth and convince the people who actually own the money that you can be entrusted to protect or actually grow the investment promising bigger dividends bonuses etc.... Once you earn their trust you promise them everything is going great while you are taking and pocketing the money yourself. Once they catch wind of an irregularity you don't answer e-mails text then they start looking at you more differently. For whatever reason someone catches a bad case of honesty and sees the irregularities or the lie spins out of control you have to cover one lie after another while you are still taking you can't replace the missing cash. Far too often people that you have entrusted with it look to you as a sucker. To insure themselves, if and when they get caught they share what they are doing to other people closely and it may not be true Walker knew are participated in this scam. Once that accusation is out, people who once beleived in them they think twice about entrusting them with their personal assets again.I still don't understand your concept that Walker and Crew should still be trusted,all the while they look to all of us as suckers.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by chuck Location: wis on Feb 2, 2012 at 07:22 PM

No think about this Walkers a Republican not a crook like the dems and obama!! The real crooks in this country!!

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by jim Location: wausau on Feb 2, 2012 at 06:58 PM

And YES He's a DEMOCRAT, And should be locked up just like The GUV !!!

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.
by Think about this. on Feb 2, 2012 at 05:22 PM

Milwaukee is starting to sound like Chicago. Isn't this where Walker came from? Makes you wonder about those people from Milwaukee.

[ Report Abuse ]

You have successfully replied to this comment.