Carolyn Fath
Ismael Ozanne and Bob Jambois
Bob Jambois calls the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, where he works, “the most dysfunctional, disorganized and demoralized office I have ever seen.” He says his boss, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, whom he is challenging in an Aug. 9 election that many voters don’t know is happening, has “no conception of how to lead this organization.”
That’s some serious dissing of the boss. Here’s Ozanne hitting back: “My opponent has [made] a baseless attack on me which basically plays on implicit bias and explicit racism,” Ozanne charges. “I’m not the first person of color to be called lazy, incompetent and not coming to work.”
Such is the nature of this heated face-off for what may be the single most important local elected office. District attorneys wield vast and largely unchecked power, including the power to do nothing — that is, to not file charges.
Because no Republican is running, the primary between Jambois and Ozanne, both Democrats, will decide the winner. It is the first electoral contest faced by Ozanne, 45, who is the first African American district attorney in Wisconsin history.
Ozanne was appointed in 2010 by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle (Jambois also sought the post) and was elected unopposed to a four-year-term in 2012. He prosecuted lawmakers, without success, for open meetings violations when they gutted public employees’ union rights, and took part in the suspended John Doe probe into alleged illegal activities involving Gov. Scott Walker. Ozanne ran for state attorney general in 2014, finishing third in the three-way Democratic primary.
But Ozanne’s biggest public moment came in May 2015, when he declined to charge the Madison police officer who killed Tony Robinson, an unarmed black teenager. Ozanne’s measured remarks, including reflections on his own experience with racial bias, prompted the Wisconsin State Journal to editorialize that he “shined under intense pressure with humanity and grace.” But his finding that the officer had no choice but to use lethal force was blasted by others, including the ACLU, which mused, “Are police officers above the law?”
Jambois, 64, is a veteran prosecutor who formerly served as district attorney in Kenosha County. He has prosecuted high-profile cases, like that of Mark Jensen, convicted in Kenosha County of killing his wife; Jensen’s conviction was overturned, and Jambois is still assigned to the case as a special prosecutor.
Some local criminal defense attorneys call Jambois an “old-school” prosecutor with a penchant for seeking harsh sentences. Jambois rejects this criticism, saying his sternness is reserved for “violent repeat offenders.”
Jambois represented a Democratic state lawmaker in the open meetings case brought by Ozanne, effectively arguing the same position. And he was pro bono counsel for protesters fined for singing in the state Capitol, leading to the dismissal of 160 citations. (Ozanne also takes credit for standing up for this group, by refusing to prosecute these cases.)
Jambois says he had no plan to run for the DA’s job when Ozanne’s office hired him as an assistant in May 2015. But “within a matter of weeks, I saw it was in terrible disarray.” While he declines to critique Ozanne’s handling of specific matters, like the Robinson case, pretty much everything else is fair game.
Ozanne, according to Jambois, is too often absent and not sufficiently engaged. The office’s prosecutors, he says, are “undervalued and demeaned.”
Exhibit A is a staff meeting in May, shortly before Jambois announced, in which Ozanne ripped what he felt was racial bias in the case file notes of some prosecutors. Jambois says it was unfair to chew out everyone for the actions of a few. Ozanne defends his decision, saying he wanted the whole team to be aware of his concerns. “If that demoralizes Mr. Jambois, so be it.”
Ozanne admits he was especially astringent because he had just learned of “someone” in the office saying, “Do you think if I came in in blackface, I won’t have to go” to a training program on implicit bias.
Race looms prominently in Ozanne’s view of his role and people’s reactions to him. Take his decision to frame Jambois’ criticisms of his work ethic as an attempt to portray a person of color as “lazy” and “incompetent.”
Beverly Jambois, the challenger’s wife and campaign manager, is upset by Ozanne’s reference to race. “We have an African American daughter,” she writes in an email. (The couple has fostered 25 children, many black, including their adopted daughter; Bob Jambois is the former vice president of the Kenosha NAACP.) “We find his statement reprehensible.” She says her husband never called Ozanne “lazy” or “incompetent.”
Ozanne’s campaign manager, Alan Furnas, says his candidate was “paraphrasing.” A Jambois campaign flier says Dane County voters deserve a DA who “actually shows up to work.”
Ozanne says he’s in the office almost every day and is often working when he is not. He shared hundreds of pages of calendars and card swipe records that track his comings and goings, saying, “I’m 24/7, 365 days a year, for every year of my term.”
The Dane County DA’s office, like others in Wisconsin, is a bifurcated operation. It has more than two dozen prosecutors, Ozanne included, who are state employees; its support staff, consisting of about 80 people, work for the county.
Ozanne argues that morale is worse for the state employees because they are “under the boot” of a state government that has “taken every opportunity to kneecap workers.”
Jambois chides Ozanne for not handling more jury trials, to ease the workloads of others. But previous district attorneys personally tried only a small number of cases, and Ozanne says he is properly focused on larger issues.
The DA’s office has seen an exodus of experienced prosecutors. A State Journal article from June 2016 tracks the loss of 11 prosecutors with a combined 230 years of experience in just over a year. Jambois, in a press release, says 20 prosecutors have left during the last two years.
Jambois blames Ozanne, saying, “I had a pretty low turnover rate when I was Kenosha DA.” But Ozanne notes that the loss of experienced prosecutors began before he took office and owes mainly to other factors, such as staff shortages and stagnant pay.
Assistant District Attorney Matt Moeser, a veteran prosecutor, says he left the office in late 2014 because of low pay and returned a few months later when Ozanne found a way to increase his salary. He calls Ozanne a good boss, saying most people in the office like him and feel supported.
“I really think a lot of the criticism of ‘Ish’ is unfair,” says Moeser. “The frustrations people feel are due to the workload and [other factors] outside of his control.”
Shelly Rusch had 28 years of prosecutorial experience (including a stint working under Jambois in Kenosha) when she stepped down as a Dane County assistant DA to work for the state Justice Department in mid-2015. She agrees pay and staffing are serious problems, but says that wasn’t why she left. Rusch puts that on Ozanne, whom she says spent too much time on outside meetings and things like “showing students around the office,” when he should have been “rolling up his sleeves” and pitching in.
“The office could work better if we had leadership,” says Rusch, adding that Ozanne does not have the respect of other key players in the criminal justice system.
Ozanne recently drew flak from two Dane County judges for his absence from a meeting over new rules to speed up bail hearings for poor inmates. Judge Juan Colas pointedly declined Ozanne’s request to further delay the changes, after the DA’s office raised belated concerns.
Jambois cites the episode as evidence that Ozanne is “disengaged.” But Ozanne says the changes created “unintended consequences” he was right to oppose. Both claim to be looking out for the best interests of poor, often black, suspects.
The Aug. 9 ballot features only a few local races, also including a three-way Democratic primary for county treasurer and primaries for area state Assembly races. It’s a low-profile affair certain to have low turnout.
Ozanne is running on his record, including expanded drug treatment courts and other diversion programs, and increased efforts to keep people with mental health issues “out of the justice system.” He has created child abuse initiatives to protect children and teach positive parenting techniques. “If we can educate parents and effect positive change, we can protect that child and every child in that home,” he says.
Jambois boasts of having efficiently run the Kenosha County DA’s office, improving its handling of domestic abuse, child protection and sensitive crime prosecutions. “I have always been an innovator and a reformer in the course of my legal career,” he says on his website.
Ozanne has secured some big endorsements, including Madison Teachers Inc., AFSCME Council 32, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Sheriff Dave Mahoney, state Sens. Fred Risser and Mark Miller and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan. Jambois says he has not asked supporters for endorsements but has gotten a few, including former state Department of Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi.
Campaign filings show that Ozanne raised no money in 2015, except for a small loan from himself. He raised $14,225 this year through June 30, including a $3,200 self-loan, and after various disbursements had $3,786 cash on hand. Jambois, meanwhile, has raised $16,855 this year, including $10,800 from himself and his wife. He reported having $12,710 on hand.
Ismael Ozanne
Website: ishozanne.com
Background: Lifelong Madison resident, sixth-generation Wisconsinite; graduate of University of Wisconsin Law School, 1998; Dane County assistant district attorney, 1998-2008; executive assistant Wisconsin Department of Corrections, 2008-09; Dane County DA since 2010.
Family: Married with two daughters.
Soundbite: “We have changed this criminal justice system here more in six years than has been done the last 20.”
Bob Jambois
Website: bobjambois4daneda.com
Background: Native of Monona,
UW Law School graduate, 1981; assistant Kenosha city attorney, 1981-88; Kenosha County district attorney, 1989-2005; state Department of Transportation chief counsel, 2005-11; attorney in private practice, 2011-15; assistant Dane County DA since 2015.
Family: Married with two daughters, one adopted; has fostered 25 foster children.
Soundbite: “I’m running because of my dissatisfaction with the DA’s office.”
DA candidate debate
Isthmus is hosting a debate between the two rivals for Dane County district attorney, incumbent Ismael Ozanne and challenger Bob Jambois, on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 3 p.m. The 60-minute event will be live-streamed and archived on Isthmus.com. The election is Tuesday, Aug. 9.