rico claim in emails from city of racine
DESCRIPTION
Holmes vs City of Racine WI. Civil Lawsuit. Plaintiffs located numerous e-mails that directly support their RICO allegationsTRANSCRIPT
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
THOMAS J. HOLMES, et. al., Plaintiffs v. Case No.: 14-CV-208 JOHN DICKERT, et al., Defendants PLAINTIFFS’ SUPPLEMENTAL MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF THEIR
MOTION TO COMPEL ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION Plaintiffs, by and through counsel, and in supplement of their previously-filed
Memorandum of Law in Support of Their Motion to Compel Electronically Stored Information
(Doc. No. 116) (“Memorandum”), submit the following additional information in support of
their argument that the Municipal Defendants should be compelled to produce all relevant,
responsive, non-duplicative electronically stored information (“ESI”) located on the City of
Racine’s archive tapes:
In their Memorandum, Plaintiffs referenced a number of specific terms from a list
generated by the Municipal Defendants’ third-party ESI vendor containing the number of “hits”
for individual search terms found in certain City employees’ e-mails from June 2009 – present to
support their contention that relevant ESI is also located on the City’s archive tapes. For the sake
of completeness, Plaintiffs are attaching the entire list of “hits” for the search terms run against
certain City employees’ e-mails from June 2009 – present. (Ex. A, Search Term Results).1
1 The “Privileged and Confidential” designation on this document was erroneously inserted by the Municipal Defendants’ third-party ESI vendor, which was confirmed by counsel for the Municipal Defendants.
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Additionally, when conducting a review of recently-produced ESI late last evening,
Plaintiffs located numerous e-mails that directly support their RICO allegations. In one such
communication, Beth Pramme, who worked on John Dickert’s 2011 mayoral campaign, noted
that the campaign accepted “several illegal contributions” and that the campaign’s bank
account—which was never audited by anyone other than Mary Jerger—was “incorrect,” and had
been “for several years now.” (Ex. B, July 14, 2011 E-mail from B. Pramme to M. Jerger and J.
Dickert). In another, members of John Dickert’s campaign team discussed how certain donors
had reached their individual contribution limits and discussed ways to skirt the law, such as
improperly attributing contributions to non-donors. (Ex. C, Mar. 10, 2011 E-mail from B.
Pramme to M. Jerger). Importantly, John Dickert received both of the aforementioned e-mails
and was therefore acutely aware that members of his campaign team were undertaking efforts to
hide illegal campaign contributions. Plaintiffs are entitled to discover whether similar e-mails are
located on the City’s archive tapes—archive tapes the Municipal Defendants are wrongly
attempting to shield from discovery.
WHEREFORE, for the above discussed reasons, this Court should enter an Order
compelling the Municipal Defendants to produce relevant, responsive electronically stored
information located on the City of Racine’s archive tapes, and to bear the costs associated with
same.
Respectfully submitted, KOHLER & HART, S.C.
By: /s/ Martin E. Kohler
Martin E. Kohler, Esq. WI State Bar No. 1016725 [email protected] 735 N. Water Street, Suite 1212 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
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(414) 271-9595 Attorney for the Plaintiffs
SEGAL MCCAMBRIDGE SINGER & MAHONEY, LTD.
By: /s/ Steven A. Hart Steven A. Hart IL State Bar No. 6306516 [email protected] Brian H. Eldridge IL State Bar No. 6281336 [email protected] 233 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 5500 Chicago, Illinois 60606 (312) 645-7800 Attorney for Plaintiffs
Case 2:14-cv-00208-JPS Filed 02/18/15 Page 3 of 3 Document 118