Trish Wonch Hill, a political activist & UNL employee, was found not guilty of vandalizing Sen. Deb Fischer’s #LNK office in 2018. In a bench trial, Judge Joseph E. Dalton said he believed Wonch Hill did it, but that the state failed to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Wonch Hill said afterwards the Lancaster Co Attny was pressured into prosecuting the political speech of a private citizen by Republican politicians, wasting taxpayer time and resources in the process.
The prosecution relied upon statements from an employee in Fischer’s office and a fingerprint analyst with LPD. The analyst said 5 latent prints pulled from Betsy Riot stickers and a sign taped to the office door matched samples provided by Wonch Hill.
The same analyst conceded, however, that the prints didn’t prove it was Wonch Hill “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Wonch Hill said she is filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for pressuring LPD to do the investigation.
And quick correction: the City of Lincoln filed charges against Wonch Hill, not the county attorney.
City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said prosecutors felt they had the evidence for a conviction and going to court was a proper use of taxpayer resources.
"At some point, if everybody says it's not a big deal, then it has an impact on the quality of life in the city," he told me.
Kirkpatrick said the city attorney's office was not politically pressured to pursue the case. "You can argue some of this is political speech. We felt this was covered under city ordinance, and the evidence was strong enough to convict."
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Good afternoon from the #neleg, where the Education Committee will conduct a trio of interim hearings related to parental involvement in schools, social-emotion learning, and the use of federal funds for the Launch Nebraska website.
Updates will be in this thread:
Educ Comm. Chair Sen. Dave Murman, the sponsor of the interim hearings, says the hearings were motivated by Westside school officials discussing how they would look for ways around limits put on teaching critical race theory.
Murman says he handed out a packet of screenshots of material he finds objectionable to the committee.
It includes info related to HIV education (I think he objects to references of race, sex, gender), the Trevor Project, culturally relevant teaching.
It's Day 78 of your #neleg and we're nearing debate over a proposal to combine two of the most controversial bills introduced this session:
--A ban on gender-affirming care for Nebraskans under 19
--A ban on abortion after 12 weeks gestation.
Updates will follow in this thread:
Several senators have mentioned they are trying to kill time -- apparently not all of the supporters of the transgender care/abortion ban are here right now.
The trio of senators who introduced a bunch of filibuster motions have pulled them all.
If there are only 32 senators for a cloture vote on LB574, the measure would fail today. The abortion ban amendment would not get attached.
There are a lot of conversations going on underneath the balconies and the breakroom.
On LB77 from Sen. Tom Brewer, which would allow Nebraskans to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, lawmakers got the 33 votes needed to shut off debate.
(Fixed an unfortunate typo in previous tweet.)
LB77 passes on final reading 33-14.
Someone in the north balcony starts yelling “Shame” and is escorted from the chamber.
Another woman just yelled “We’ll remember you guys” and the said she’d see herself out.
Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly just ordered the balcony cleared.
Jack Riggins, the host Drive Time Lincoln on 1400 KLIN, is not on air this evening. Riggins was apparently behind a tweet by NEGOP last week posting sexual images from a graphic novel. Station management said they are discussing the situation with Riggins.
Drive Time Lincoln is otherwise continuing with guest Matt Innis, who is on to basically defend the NEGOP tweet that the book in question is available in Nebraska schools — something dozens of teachers have said isn’t the case.
Innis is using a letter from the Nebraska Library Association asking the State Board of Education not to censor library books as evidence that the books in question shouldn’t be in schools.
GREENWOOD — We’re a little more than an hour away from Charles Herbster speaking at a rally at I-80 Speedway that was rescheduled from Friday due to severe weather.
Trump is scheduled to appear at 5 pm.
A dance party has broken out up front, as others wait in line. I believe they are going to fill out the bleachers and some standing room only areas in the wings.
Herbster is speaking with reporters in the press section. Here he is being interviewed by OAN.
Hearing the speakers are being moved back to 3 pm, which I’m sure means Trump will be later as well.