Tuesday Afternoon Massacre: Paulus Fires Two Assistant District Attorneys
May 14, 2002
From WBAY:
Winnebago County prosecutor Ed Jelinski is out of a job. Jelinski announced a month ago he was running against his boss, district attorney Joe Paulus.
Paulus has blamed his political opponents for what he says is a smear campaign against him, including accusations that Paulus may have been involved in some bribes.
Paulus fired Jelinski and another assistant, Tom Chalcoff, who is Jelinski's campaign manager. Paulus also fired Oshkosh police officer Jim Curtis, who worked in the district attorney's Domestic Abuse Unit.
Faxes received by Action 2 News Tuesday afternoon may have prompted the firings. The faxes were sent to Fox Valley Bureau Chief Jerry Burke from an unlisted number at 3 p.m.
The fax lists cases another assistant D.A., Milt Schierland, was supposed to be handling this week. He suddenly took the week off. Schierland is at the center of allegations that people paid money to have charges reduced or dismissed when he was a defense attorney two years ago.
Right after we got these faxes, the firings took place.
The county human resources specialist says there's nothing the county can do about the firings. "We have no control over the attorneys in the office. We do have oversight of the support personnel, but the attorneys, that's a matter for the state," Ron Montgomery said.
"The D.A. can control the personnel matters of the state employees in his office," he expounded.
Action 2 News tried to contact E.J. Jelinski throughout the afternoon but has been unable to reach him.
We also tried to talk with John Jorgensen who announced Monday he is running against Paulus as a Republican for the district attorney's post. He is unavailable and says he does not want to talk at this very sensitive time. The same applies to Brad Priebe, another assistant D.A., who is running on the Democratic ticket.
Mr. Paulus says he is not allowed by state law to discuss personnel matters. He said it was done because of what was going on in his office, that was all he could say.
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