AP source: Walker donor arrested as part of probe
MADISON, Wis. — A commercial real estate broker in Milwaukee has been arrested for failing to cooperate with an ongoing investigation involving some of Gov. Scott Walker’s current and past aides, a source close to the investigation said Wednesday.
Andrew P. Jensen Jr. was arrested Tuesday night and remained in custody Wednesday. Charges were pending, according to the Milwaukee County sheriff’s department website. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department said charges could come later Wednesday or Thursday.
The arrest was first reported Wednesday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which also broke the news of the probe’s existence in 2010.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm declined to comment. Jensen’s attorney, Patrick Schott, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
The person, who requested anonymity because those involved in such secret proceedings are prohibited by state law from talking publicly about them, told The Associated Press that Jensen was arrested for failing to cooperate with the ongoing John Doe investigation. In those secret investigations witnesses can be compelled to testify under oath about potential criminal matters.
The arrest raises more questions about the extent and direction of the ongoing secret probe, which began in May 2010 and has served as a distraction for Walker as he faces a possible recall election next year motivated by anger over his proposal effectively ending collective bargaining rights for public workers.
Online campaign finance records show that Jensen, a commercial real estate broker with Boerke Co. and a past president of the Commercial Association of Realtors-Wisconsin, donated $850 to Walker’s campaign between 2008 and 2010. But he also gave $100 to Walker’s Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. He also has given $400 to committees to elect Democrats in the state Legislature.
Two prominent Republicans, Walker’s spokesman Cullen Werwie and Milwaukee County Republican Party official Roseann Dieck, have already been granted immunity in the investigation. Earlier this month, a state appeals court denied the request of an unnamed person to conduct an immunity hearing in secret.
The investigation began in May 2010, around the time that Darlene Wink quit her job as the Milwaukee County constituent services coordinator under Walker when he was county executive. Wink admitted to posting anonymous political comments on websites and blogs while at work.
Authorities searched her home in August and took the work computer of Tim Russell, a former Walker campaign staffer who was then working as Milwaukee County housing director.
In September, law enforcement officers raided the Madison home of Cindy Archer, who had worked for Walker at the county and followed him to Madison, where she was one of his top aides at the Department of Administration. Archer maintains that she’s innocent and continues to work for the Walker administration, but in a lower profile job at the Department of Children and Family Services.
Walker has said he has not been contacted by prosecutors and he’s defended his integrity, saying he lives by the standards he got from his mother and father, a Baptist minister.