Inspector general recommends criminal charges against City Attorney Tearman Spencer and his deputy

This story was republished Jan. 15, 2024, to make it free for all readers.

Milwaukee's inspector general is recommending the Milwaukee County district attorney bring criminal charges against City Attorney Tearman Spencer and his Deputy City Attorney Odalo Ohiku after concluding Ohiku was allowed to do work for his law firm while on the city clock.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern said late Wednesday the office had received the referral and was reviewing it.

Inspector General Ronda Kohlheim is also urging the Common Council to remove Spencer and Ohiku from office as one of 16 findings in her report, a move two aldermen said was unlikely to happen with the next election early next year.

She will also be referring Spencer and Ohiku to the state's Office of Lawyer Regulation, which investigates and prosecutes violations of lawyer ethics rules.

Ohiku "committed time and attendance abuse" — on time cards approved by Spencer — and both may have tried to conceal Ohiku's work on those private cases from public scrutiny, the new report found.

"The (inspector general) declares that neither CA Spencer nor DCA Ohiku imparted their full cooperation during the course of the investigation," Kohlheim wrote. "The (inspector general) opined that they were withholding pertinent information by barely or not replying to interview questions or record requests, and negligently provided requested records."

The Journal Sentinel first raised questions in November 2020 about Ohiku's work on his private caseload during the workday.

The 57-page report said Ohiku spent an estimated 88 hours working for clients of his personal law firm while on the city clock, bilking the city out of $5,766. Kohlheim said, though, that her estimate was conservative and, for instance, could not account for the hours when he did not have court appearances.

State court records became an important source of information in the inquiry.

Kohlheim wrote that Ohiku had declined to provide a list of court cases in which he performed some sort of activity or made a court appearance for his private law firm during his tenure as a deputy city attorney. She said Ohiku cited "ethical rules that prohibit disclosure" even though the information she was requesting is public record and available on the state's court website.

She also noted that Ohiku had withdrawn his name as the attorney handling many of his firm's private cases but then continued to perform work.

"Additionally, in some instances case details disclosed that DCA Ohiku appeared in court with one of his associates. This could have been an attempt to conceal his business involvement or any activities related to Ohiku Law Office from public scrutiny," she wrote.

Furthermore, Ohiku submitted personal financial statements for three consecutive years that didn't say whether he was receiving any income from his private practice.

Kohlheim accused Spencer of failing to verify Ohiku's time cards for accuracy. She also concluded that Spencer knowingly gave misleading remarks to a council committee, the media and the inspector general about Ohiku's plan to wind down his private practice.

"The (city attorney’s) response to the (Office of Inspector General) was another instance of misconduct that unquestionably substantiates dishonest, deceitful, and inexcusable behavior through his actions of lying by both commission and omission while serving in public office," Kohlheim wrote.

She accused both city officials of a count of misconduct in public office — a Class I felony — and violations of several city ordinances and policies.

Reached briefly on Wednesday, Spencer was dismissive of the report, calling it "ludicrous" at one point. Ohiku was not immediately available for comment.

The report is to be taken up Monday by the council's Judiciary and Legislation Committee.

The committee's chairman, Ald. Mark Borkowski, was just reviewing the report late Wednesday but suggested that it's unlikely other council members would follow Kohlheim's advice to boot Spencer and Ohiku.

"I don't think there's a will on the part of the Common Council to do that to either of those guys," said Borkowski, who recently announced he is retiring soon.

That sentiment was echoed by Ald. Michael Murphy, who said while the report is damaging, he did not think it was likely that the council would seek to remove Spencer before the April 2 election, when his term ends. Murphy also is stepping down from the council at the end of his term.

Spencer has not said whether he is running for re-election. Democratic state Rep. Evan Goyke announced late last year that he would run for the seat.

Still, Murphy said he and likely other council members would be looking at changes Kohlheim recommended making to the city's code of ethics ordinance, including to prevent a deputy city attorney from engaging in private practice for compensation while employed by the city.

The report is just the latest blow for the beleaguered first-term city attorney.

This week, it was disclosed that a state investigator has found "probable cause" to believe Spencer violated state labor law by effectively forcing a female attorney out of his office after she reported that he had touched her inappropriately. He told the Journal Sentinel that he can't discuss pending legal matters but added that he expects to win the case.

The complaint is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge in late April.

Spencer has been the center of controversy since soon after his election in April 2020.

His staff, including his own appointees, started leaving in droves, which he blamed on his predecessor, Grant Langley, media coverage and pay.

He was accused of harassing female staffers and publicly corrected by the city’s then-Department of Employee Relations director when he repeatedly claimed an investigation by her office determined the complaints were "unfounded."

Instead, she said, the investigation determined he could not be held accountable to the anti-harassment policy as an elected official and that his actions were not illegal, even if they were "inappropriate and unbecoming of his position."

Several former workers claimed the agency has become a toxic work environment, something he disputes.

Spencer hired Ohiku in October 2020 at an annual salary of $131,000 a year to oversee 10 staffers, including seven assistant city attorneys.

In her report, Kohlheim said concerns about Ohiku's appointment were raised when the Journal Sentinel reported that he still had 45 open court cases in which he was the attorney of record for one of the parties, mostly criminal defendants. Only a month into the job, Ohiku had made more than a half-dozen appearances in court during the workday.

In March 2021, the Journal Sentinel reported that Ohiku spent four consecutive days during work hours representing a 52-year-old Atlanta man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl while they lived in South Milwaukee.

Those four days were among the 11 in which Kohlheim argued that Ohiku had "defrauded" taxpayers.

Quizzed about Ohiku's work schedule, Spencer told a council committee in early 2021 that his deputy had been given six months to wrap up his private legal work.

Kohlheim said she received a complaint in June 2022 from a confidential tipster accusing Ohiku of misconduct, neglect of duty, inappropriate activities and time and attendance abuse. That prompted the inspector general to launch her probe.

As part of her review, she inspected Ohiku's time cards, remote access to his work computer, records indicating when he visited City Hall and 152 hours of court records.

In the end, Kohlheim concluded that he worked on his private cases on 11 full days in which he was on the clock with the city. Ohiku did not make any changes to his time card on any of these days.

"Ohiku received payment for a standard 8-hour workday — even though he was conducting business affairs for clients of Ohiku Law Office," Kohlheim wrote.

She added later, "The actions of DCA Ohiku support the conclusion that he knew his time and attendance certifications were false."

In fact, during the probe, Ohiku said he was down to a single client and he was using "flex time" when he had to work on that case during the week. Spencer, however, told Kohlheim that his deputies do not earn flex time.

Policies at the City Attorney's Office require employees to get Spencer's approval before doing any private legal work and they must use vacation time when doing it.

Kohlheim requested records to determine if that happened but she came up empty.

"Spencer does not enforce or does not have adequate internal controls in place to prevent or deter this type of abuse," she said.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

Contact Alison Dirr at adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.