From Racine County Eye:"Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete received municipal citations Friday night for both operating while intoxicated and hit and run.
"The accident reportedly happened at the intersection of Melvin and Main Streets in the City of Racine near Chiapete’s home.
"Chiapete released a statement apologizing for the incident Saturday morning.
“'I exercised extremely poor judgment on many levels. I did receive municipal citations for OWI and Hit & Run,' the statement reads, 'I take full responsibility for my actions. I am ashamed and embarrassed.'
"Racine Police Chief Art Howell confirmed the citations were issued.
“'We did issue citations to (Mr. Chiapete) following a property damage accident,' Howell wrote to Racine County Eye in an email.
"This is Chiapete’s first offense for both the OWI and the hit and run charges. Howell explained that when an accident does not involve other parties and does not result in any injuries, officers are given the discretion to issue citations instead of elevating the charges to a state level.
"Howell said a full press release – including his statement – is expected early Saturday afternoon.
"Here is Chiapete’s statement in full:
"I wanted to contact you with this information immediately. I did not want you to hear it from some other source. Last evening, I was involved in a single car accident near my house. I was coming home from a birthday party and had a few drinks. I did initially panic and leave the scene. I exercised extremely poor judgment on many levels. I did receive municipal citations for OWI and Hit & Run. I take full responsibility for my actions. I am ashamed and embarrassed. I apologize to my family, to the law enforcement community and to all of the citizens in our community. This should not have happened and I pledge to work hard to restore your faith in me.""We will update this story as more information becomes available."
Read more: http://racinecountyeye.com/2014/04/05/racine-county-da-cited-owi-hit-run/
Press release: http://racineuncovered.org/2014/04/elected-official-cited-for-owi/
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14 comments:
I saw this on the Milwaukee news this evening. The tragedy that is Racine continues. According to reports, he left the car and the police had to go to his home to find him.
It is maddening to think how many people that have been
Convicted in a court of law for the same tort, in
which were in part by his own hands.
Fleeing the scene shows dishonesty.
I wonder what he will plea down to. Should be interesting.
Chiapate wrote, adding that he’d exercised “extremely poor judgment.”
How much more "extremely poor judgement" is Rich Chiapete going to be allowed to exercise?
Why is The City of Racine involved in a huge RICO action, that will cost Millions of dollars, if not TENS of Millions of dollars?
Rich Chiapete was involved in some of those decisions. He has failed in his duty and responsibility to answer to citizen complaints concerning government authorities overstepping their legal bounds. He had to have known that the Court of Appeals decided that The City of Racine violated Thomas Holmes right to due process through deliberately flawed legal proceedings. But Rich decided to remain silent, and let the violations continue, in spite of citizen complaints. His failure to properly investigate the highly questionable proceedings involving CAR 25, even when presented with direct evidence by a Racine City Alderman, further highlights his poor judgement and decision making skills.
This "extremely poor judgement" in both his professional and personal life is going to cost Racine MILLIONS! And rightly so! It is just another part of the pattern, or practice of the organized criminal activity that exists in Racine City and County government.
Vince Bobot warned: Vincent Bobot, a Milwaukee lawyer who represented two of the plaintiffs during their earlier battles with Racine over their liquor licenses, also had little to say when asked about any interest from outside law enforcement. Bobot did say that he has warned Racine officials repeatedly that the way they were handling liquor licenses was wrong and unlawful. "I told the council 'you'll get sued and it will cost the city tons of money Dont' do it.'"
"The facts are only going to get worse for the city of Racine when it goes to depositions," Bobot predicted. "It's alarming."
I don't believe for an instant that this is the first time that Rich Chiapete has tried to cover up criminal activity.
As a person who had tangled with our corrupt Racine county systems, a few years ago I had created a website called Racine County Corruption.
Racine County Corruption would often generate close to two thousand hits a day. During the fight, I amassed thousands of pages of documents and videos to support what I say.
I have first hand knowledge of many of the bad players in Racine county, including those that engaged in criminal acts.
While going through the maze of the corrupt Racine county systems, I have found Rich Chiapete to be through, thoughtful and fair, a man who did not place party before country. So I say this, this incident is a snapshot, albeit a bad one, but not the total picture of the good Rich Chiapete represents. So a friendly reminder Irregulars, drink if you must, and do drive responsibly.
This incident is unfortunate, as a human, Rich made a mistake, as we all do.
Stay focused and well irregulars.
This incident is unfortunate, as a human, Rich made a mistake, as we all do.
True, but then again, he is the Racine County DA and sought and accepted that position.
From the Nuremburg War trials:
Superior orders, often known as the Nuremberg defense, lawful orders or by the German phrase "Befehl ist Befehl" ("Orders are Orders"), is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether a member of the armed forces or a civilian, not be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior officer or a public official.[1]
The superior orders plea is often regarded as the complement to command responsibility.[2]
One of the most noted uses of this plea, or "defense," was by the accused in the 1945–46 Nuremberg Trials, such that it is also called the "Nuremberg defense". The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the main victorious Allied forces after World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. It was during these trials, under the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal which set them up, that the defense of superior orders was no longer considered enough to escape punishment; but merely enough to lessen punishment.[3]
Superior Orders
Either Rich had a duty to a higher order, as evidenced by his position of authority, or he is a common criminal and worthy of punishment and loss of office.
Rich destroyed public property, and attempted to cover up his crime. He MUST be held to a higher standard because he was entrusted with judging others.
He did not have to accept that office and responsibility
Why couldn't this have happened to Mike Nieskes instead?
I have no firsthand knowledge of Mr. Chiappete, but I remember legal stranger telling me that he thought Chiappete is a good man.
I respect legal's opinion, so I don't have much to say. As an alkie, I drove drunk thousands of times.
At least when caught, Chiappete didn't lie, like so many of our other public officials. Lying John will destroy Racine before he admits to his lies.
Yes, it can happen to anyone. However, he has prosecuted many and has first hand information on protocol. When you work as a public servant, you know your behavior is held to a higher degree. I wonder if we will learn the blood alcohol level? There was damage to a street sign and a tree?
Witnesses say they saw him running away from the scene. Fleeing is never the correct course if action... that is the part that bothers me the most. Like BLB said, it shows dishonesty.
Friday night about 630pm I was going down Main St. to talk my daughter home and Drew's son home. This is really scary to think if I took them home later it could have been us in the car when he was driving down the road. I always tell Drew I don't want to be out on the road at night because of people driving home drunk.
The thing I do like is that he did confess to what he had done. That takes a lot of guts for someone to do.
Why did he flee? Did he have drugs or was he on drugs? Where his his blood alcohol content? No Breathalyzer Report?
Confessing takes guts?
What if the other option was drawing blood and searching his person/car/house like any other criminal?
OWI: Under the influence of an intoxicant, a controlled substance, a controlled substance analog or any combination of an intoxicant, a controlled substance and a controlled substance analog, under the influence of any other drug to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving, or under the combined influence of an intoxicant and any other drug to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving; or
(am) The person has a detectable amount of a restricted controlled substance in his or her blood.
And if you have prescription drugs in your possession, for which you don't have a prescription, where did you get them from?
He's the DA! HE knows the law. He knows he has to take a charge, but he is going to do everything to minimize those charges. Go home, flush the evidence and then admit.
If he had just been a little drunk, there would no need to panic. There were witnesses and the damage was undeniable. He could even saw he was on his cell phone or something distracted him.
But no.
You panic when you got something bigger to hide.
When officers arrived, they found a 2004 Volkswagon but not the driver. Police determined the driver was Chiapete, so they went to his home where they placed him under arrest for first offense OWI and cited him for “duty upon striking property, also referred to as hit & run on/or adjacent to highway,” the release continues.
My suspicion - he ran home to flush something. He appears drowsy and drunk and admits to drinking too much. No blood draw.
No search.
WHEW!
The JouranlSentinelOnline comments on this story are nothing but democrats bashing republicans and vice versa. This is a fucked up time to be living in. If you say one word, an extremist will run with it and label you something you've never even heard of. Then you have to choose sides: right or left. You HAVE to choose, or you'll be labeled anyway.
I say nuke the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor and start over.
I'll bet lying John is grateful that this took the shooting downtown off of the front page.
The Republicans definitely pulled some strings in minimizing newspaper coverage. It has been given limited coverage when it should have received more - even if it wasn't Rich Chiapete involved.
It shortly appeared, then disappeared as a blurb under crime in the Wisconsin State Journal, then was shuffled off.
It's odd - do a search for Rich Chiapete at The Wisconsin State Journal.
No mention of the story at all.
Now do a search for Rich Chiapete at the lessor known Capital Times.
It's there, but was downplayed and no comments, so the rabid Democrats in Madison likely missed the story.
The Republicans are pulling some big strings to cover this up.
Sorry Orbs, read the updated Journal Times report taken directly from police reports that show that the hypocrite DA lied to the officers stating he had been sleeping for hours. The officer then told him he knew he was lying because he saw the DA enter his house moments before. Do you still think that this DA is a good guy just because someone told you so?? He exercised thug mentality against his own police officers and HE MUST RESIGN ASAP!!!!
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