Wisconsin Right Now

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney has charged Gary Eugene Davis with the domestic violence murder of Jacquelyn Jo Rooney, 51. The victim died from over 12 stab wounds to the torso, three skull fractures from blunt force trauma and blunt force trauma to her jaw "which broke her upper jaw off." The criminal complaint says that Davis, 57, is from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and he was dating Rooney. He is also known as Gary E. Davis. Davis was charged with first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon as well as mayhem and hiding a corpse. He is a repeater because he was previously convicted of Felony Intimidate Victim/Threaten Force - Domestic Abuse. Bail was set at $2 million, according to online court records. "She was born on January 27, 1971, in Fond du Lac, the daughter of Warren and Sharon (Hoch) White," Rooney's obituary reads . "Jackie was a 1989 graduate of Laconia High School. She was a loving, caring, free spirit...

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul came out swinging in the Wisconsin Attorney General debate on Oct. 27, 2022, but he ended up botching the debate in some big ways. We counted at least 7. Kaul squared off against his Republican challenger, Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney. Kaul seemed his most animated when he brought up abortion. He distorted Toney's record on some key issues. However, on questions of public safety - with homicide skyrocketing - Kaul flubbed badly. Here are the 7 ways Kaul botched the Wisconsin Attorney General's debate, which was held at the State Bar of Wisconsin : 1. Walking Coldly Away When Asked About the Mother of Child Murder Victim Lisa Ann French & Accusing the Grieving Mom of Playing Politics https://youtu.be/sS0tQCoyy4U Kaul's biggest flub came in the parking lot on his way into the debate. A key requirement of any attorney general is to have empathy for victims. However, when asked to respond to comments ...

Eric Toney to Josh Kaul: "I will not stand for our children being put at risk" Attorney General Josh Kaul has dropped the ball in a big way on Internet Crimes Against Children tips and referrals, with a backlog that may exceed 1,000, Republican candidate Eric Toney says. This means that some predators targeting children may be going free. Toney is demanding that Kaul immediately release the backlog numbers after hearing about them from multiple sources. He has submitted an open records request because Kaul has not provided the information. Challenged on the backlog byToney at Sunday's Up Front debate, Kaul didn't deny it, and he offered no defense. The referrals often come from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Normally, they would be assigned to a Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation employee or local police agencies for further investigation. Under Kaul, they are just sitting there, Toney said. ICAC referrals includ...

"Families are having justice stolen from them by a governor who either didn't care or was asleep at the wheel" -AG candidate Eric Toney Tim Michels, Eric Toney, and a murder victim's family joined together at the Milwaukee Police Association's headquarters to call for changes to the state's parole process, slamming Gov. Tony Evers for the discretionary paroles of heinous killers and rapists during his tenure, saying they have harmed victims' families. Both Toney and Michels said change is needed at the top to put victims first, and they pledged to do so. Two sisters of murder victim Johanna Balsewicz, Karen Kannenberg and Kim Cornils, said at the Friday news conference that they hope Michels is elected this November because "things need to change" with how the state handles paroles, and they believe he would appoint a better Parole Commission chairman. "Our fight isn't over. Our fight is to change the system. I am hoping Michels...

It's very unusual that law enforcement and DAs have so firmly turned their back on the man who holds the position considered by many to be the state's "top cop." Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has only been able to get 5 of the state's 71 Wisconsin district attorneys to support his campaign, laughably calling it a bipartisan "coalition." His Republican opponent, Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, the president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association, has the support of 30 district attorneys, 28 who are sitting DAs and two who are retired. Furthermore, Kaul has announced zero law enforcement endorsements from police chiefs, police associations or sheriffs, whereas Toney has a long list. Kaul's bizarre attempt to turn a measly 5 DAs into a "coalition" is reminiscent of the wording used by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, who initially announced a grand total of 9 law enforcement endorseme...

We knew it would get ugly, but this is really beyond the pale. A text message push poll went out to Wisconsin conservative voters today that is supportive of Republican Attorney General candidate Adam Jarchow and tells a stone-cold lie about his opponent, Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney in an attempt to turn voters off of Toney. Specifically, the push poll lies to voters about Toney, who is a Republican, saying: "Eric Toney prosecuted Kyle Rittenhouse for murder after Rittenhouse defended himself from attackers during rioting in Kenosha." The poll then asks people if that "fact" makes people more or less likely to vote for Toney. We've obtained a screenshot: However, Eric Toney did NOT prosecute Kyle Rittenhouse . He did not have anything to do with that prosecution at all. Toney is the District Attorney of Fond du Lac County. Rittenhouse was prosecuted by the office of Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley and his assi...

 Misleading criticisms do not help anyone... except Democrat Josh Kaul. Republican Attorney General candidate Eric Toney, the district attorney of Fond du Lac County, refused to help prosecute the ultimately discredited John Doe probe into former Gov. Scott Walker and his associates, Wisconsin Right Now has learned. We asked Toney for his stance on the John Doe probe after he was the subject - yet again - of a misleading attack piece by his Republican opponent for attorney general, Adam Jarchow, and Jarchow's associates. This time the piece - by political strategist Deb Jordahl - attempted, without any evidence whatsoever, to attach Toney to the excesses of the Doe. "Milwaukee and the GAB led a politically motivated John Doe investigation that was a fishing expedition off the rails," Toney told us. "I was asked to join the John Doe investigation once I became District Attorney, and I rejected the request." We think the article - written for a nation...

The unfair attacks came from a website that Toney's primary opponent recently helped run and quoted a defense attorney tied to the man he defeated to become DA. Political attacks accusing Republican District Attorney Eric Toney, a candidate for Attorney General, of unfairly going after a pet shop owner for selling an invasive species, a form of Mexican crayfish, are unfair and leave out key information. The attacks are framed to exact maximum damage against Toney, the only Republican in the race who has ever prosecuted a criminal case. Toney, former legislator Adam Jarchow, and attorney Karen Mueller are vying to go against Democrat Josh Kaul in the fall. We started seeing the crayfish story everywhere, pushed hard by Jarchow and his allies, and on the surface of it, they made Toney sound terrible, so we decided to look into it and see what it was all about. They are trying to create a narrative against Toney, a rule-of-law style prosecutor, as an over-zealous prosecutor ru...

"The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office provided analysis as to why they believed criminal charges against the WEC board could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. They are wrong on the law" - Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney. Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney is asking Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to remove five members of the Wisconsin Election Commission because he believes they violated Wisconsin law during the 2020 presidential election. Toney, who is running for state Attorney General as a Republican, filed a verified complaint with Evers' office, asking that he remove Wisconsin Election Commission board members, Marge Bostelmann, Julie Glancey, Ann Jacobs, Dean Knudson and Mark Thomsen, "for cause based on their actions in knowingly exceeding their statutory authority by violating Wisconsin laws during the August and November elections in 2020." Toney is running as a Republican for Wisconsin Attorney General. Democratic AG J...

"Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and must be safeguarded at every turn," DA Eric Toney. Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney announced the filing of five felony voter fraud cases on Feb. 10, 2022, bringing the total number of voter fraud cases in Fond du Lac County to seven. The new criminal complaints say that the five illegally registered to vote using a PO box for a UPS store. "These five cases came from an investigation conducted by the City of Fond du Lac Police Department. The allegations relate to individuals that illegally registered to vote using a PO Box as their address with three of the five voting in the November 2020 election. All defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court," Eric Toney said in a press release. Eric Toney is running for state Attorney General as a Republican. "Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and must be safeguarded at every turn. It is crucial to educate the pu...

"Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and must be safeguarded at every turn," DA Eric Toney. Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney announced the filing of five felony voter fraud cases on Feb. 10, 2022, bringing the total number of voter fraud case in Fond du Lac County to seven. The new criminal complaints say that the five illegally registered to vote using a PO box for an UPS store. "These five cases came from an investigation conducted by the City of Fond du Lac Police Department. The allegations relate to individuals that illegally registered to vote using a PO Box as their address with three of the five voting in the November 2020 election. All defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court," Toney said in a press release. Toney is running for state Attorney General as a Republican. "Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and must be safeguarded at every turn. It is crucial to educate the public and en...

New Attorney General candidate Adam Jarchow raised zero dollars in his first campaign finance report, deleted a childish website he created painting his Republican opponent as a marionette, said police reform is probably needed in Milwaukee, and once pushed a bill with liberal Democrats to decriminalize some possession of marijuana cases and argued to legalize the drug. We think there's an even bigger problem, though: He's never prosecuted a criminal case. There's a new Republican candidate for state Attorney General and, as with Professor Ryan Owens , Adam Jarchow has never handled a single criminal case in Wisconsin, according to a review of online court records. He's tweeted, "Running DOJ has nothing to do with courtroom experience" before scrubbing his Twitter account, and a Madison newspaper reported that he doesn't think Republicans should define the state's top law enforcement official (Attorney General) as the state's top cop. Here...

Calling it a “life and death Decision,” the Milwaukee Police Association endorsed Eric Toney for AG, slamming Josh Kaul for failing to prioritize public safety. The Milwaukee Police Association has endorsed Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney for Attorney General instead of Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul, slamming Kaul for putting "safety at the bottom." "Milwaukee Police Association members are working on the front lines every day to provide the highest degree of uninterrupted public safety service to the community. So is Fond du Lac District Attorney Eric Toney," wrote Andrew Wagner, MPA president, in a news release. "That is why the MPA, representing 1,500 professional Police Officers, Forensic Investigators, and Detectives of the City of Milwaukee, proudly announces its endorsement of Eric Toney for the office of Wisconsin Attorney General," the release continues. The MPA said that Eric Toney "is the tough-on-crime prosecutor Milwaukee and ...

Calling it a “life and death Decision,” the Milwaukee Police Association endorsed Eric Toney for AG, slamming Josh Kaul for failing to prioritize public safety. The Milwaukee Police Association has endorsed Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney for Attorney General instead of Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul, slamming Kaul for putting "safety at the bottom." "Milwaukee Police Association members are working on the front lines every day to provide the highest degree of uninterrupted public safety service to the community. So is Fond du Lac District Attorney Eric Toney," wrote Andrew Wagner, MPA president, in a news release. "That is why the MPA, representing 1,500 professional Police Officers, Forensic Investigators, and Detectives of the City of Milwaukee, proudly announces its endorsement of Eric Toney for the office of Wisconsin Attorney General," the release continues. The MPA said that Eric Toney "is the tough-on-crime prosecutor Milwaukee and t...

Josh Kaul crime failure: He's dropped the ball on fighting crime, Eric Toney says . Republican attorney general candidate Eric Toney, who is the Fond du Lac County DA, says Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has defunded prosecutors and law enforcement, showing he "isn't serious about addressing the violent crime epidemic. Toney also called out Kaul for his failures to effectively manage the state crime lab. (Read our investigative piece on that here. ) “Josh Kaul is pushing a recycled, liberal wish list of ideas which shows he isn’t serious about addressing the violent crime epidemic. He has defunded prosecutors and law enforcement from DOJ when more police officers and resources for law enforcement are what’s needed," Toney said in response to a big media push Kaul is making for election time on crime. Toney says the AG's press conferences on crime obscure his failed record on the issue. “It takes a focus on traditional law enforcement —  not poli...