Kelly Rindfleisch, the former aide to Scott Walker when Walker was the Milwaukee County Executive, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of doing work for Walker's gubernatorial campaign while on county time.
Rindfleisch's hiring was signed off personally by Scott Walker, as was her later promotion to Deputy Chief of Staff, yet Walker has claimed he had no knowledge of the illegal activity conducted by Rindfleisch as alleged in the criminal compaint against her.
Background on Rindfleisch and a pdf copy of the complaint can be found here.
Perhaps the most interesting side issue to come to light in Rindfleisch case is that her attorney has requested a change of venue, claiming Rindfleisch was not a resident of Milwaukee County at the time the alleged criminal activity occurred. A hearing to consider having the trial relocated to Columbia County is scheduled for March 3oth.
The problem with that request is that her job with Milwaukee County required her to reside in Milwaukee County under county rules. According to the criminal complaint, Rindfleisch claimed at the time that she resided at 1331 South 93rd Street in West Allis, which is in Milwaukee County.
That address is of a home owned by James Villa, a former chief of staff in the Milwaukee County Executive's office and an advisor to the Friends of Scott Walker campaign organization. According to the complaint, Villa testified to the grand jury that in March, 2010, Rindfleisch began staying at Villa's home "several days a week" in order to establish residency in Milwaukee County.
If, as her attorney now argues, Rindfleisch was residing in Columbia County when she worked for Walker, then someone is possibly guilty of attempting to evade Milwaukee County's residency laws. A check of her voter registration record on the web site of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board shows that she has been registered at a Columbus, Wisconsin address (in Columbia County) since 2006. Her voting history from that site verifies that she voted in the September, 2010 primary and the November, 2010 general election, while supposedly residing in West Allis. One of Rindfleisch's emails documented in the complaint shows she had no intention of ever establishing a true residency in Milwaukee County.
The pleas of not guilty could indicate she has not been willing to strike a deal with prosecutors and rat on her former boss, Scott Walker. It could indicate she is stalling to see if her request for a change of venue is successful. Or, it could indicate she feels she has done nothing illegal and that the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.