Former Wisconsin prisons chief says Brad Schimel's aide declined request for charges against Lincoln Hills guard

MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker’s former prisons chief said he told a top aide to the attorney general two years ago he should charge a guard for pulling a teen inmate by a tether against a door but got little response.

Former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall said the aide to Attorney General Brad Schimel told him charges probably would not be issued against the Lincoln Hills School for Boys guard, who pulled on the inmate's tether just after closing a door on his foot.

Wall resigned as corrections secretary in February 2016 as an array of problems at the prison 30 miles north of Wausau came to light. He returned to a job in Schimel’s Department of Justice but was quickly fired for advocating shredding public records.

An aide to Schimel questioned Wall's credibility and accused him of spreading misinformation but did not specifically deny Wall's claims about the charging decision

The governor last week announced plans to convert Lincoln Hills to an adult prison, open five new teen lockups around the state and expand a juvenile treatment center in Madison. In an interview, Wall said he proposed closing Lincoln Hills more than two years ago, but Walker’s top aide rejected the idea.

Wall downplayed his role in the troubles at Lincoln Hills, one of three dozen institutions he was responsible for running. He maintained he sought help from Walker but was rebuffed, leaving him with no choice but to force employees at the short-staffed juvenile prison to routinely work double shifts that were “beyond reason.”

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Wall’s comments are the latest in a string of critical remarks he has made about how Walker and Schimel dealt with Lincoln Hills and a sweeping probe into prisoner abuse and child neglect. Wall plans to publish a book this summer about his time working for the state.

Wall said he repeatedly watched footage of a November 2015 incident in which guard Jeff Butler pushed inmate Kenyadi Evans into a room and slammed a metal door on his foot. Butler then pulled on a tether that was attached to Evans’ handcuffs that ran through a slot in the door, according to Wall.

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Evans had to have two toes partly amputated. He reached a $300,000 settlement with the state.

Wall said he thought catching Evans’ foot in the door was an accident and not a crime. But he said he considered yanking on the tether a chargeable offense because Butler would have known doing so would have pulled Evans up against the door.

“In my mind, it was clearly assault,” Wall said.

Wall — who was the administrator of the state Division of Criminal Investigation before he was corrections secretary — said he reviewed the video and overall situation “like a cop” and told Schimel’s top investigator at the time, Dave Matthews, that Butler should be charged.

Matthews told him he didn’t think he would be charged, according to Wall. Matthews did not immediately return a call asking for an interview.

Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos called Wall a “failed DOC secretary” who is retaliating against the attorney general for being fired and losing his court attempts to get his job back. He said he would not comment on any discussions Matthews had with Wall or whether Butler should be charged.

“As the AG has said from the outset of DOJ’s investigation of Lincoln Hills, DOJ is not responsible for setting policies for corrections or overseeing correctional institutions, and our mission was only to investigate several altercations that resulted in injuries to youths. Altercations and injuries that happened on Mr. Wall’s watch,” Koremenos said in a statement.

In early 2016, Schimel turned the Lincoln Hills investigation over to the FBI and charging decisions will be made by U.S. Attorney Scott Blader. Blader last month notified two former guards involved in a separate incident that they could be charged.

A spokeswoman for Blader said she could not comment on the Lincoln Hills investigation because it is ongoing. An attorney for Butler did not return a call.

Video of the incident has never been made public. Others who have seen it have given similar descriptions as Wall. After Butler pulled on the tether, he punched the metal door out of frustration so hard that he needed medical attention, according to those familiar with the incident.

The shift had been a hectic one, Evans had been “mouthing off unbelievably” and Butler “lost it,” Wall said. Butler and others had been forced to work long hours, as is often the case at the short-staffed prison.

“People were getting worked beyond reason — we knew that,” Wall said.

Asked if he was responsible for the problems at Lincoln Hills, Wall said, “Yes and no.”

“We begged for more money to hire more people. We couldn’t get it,” Wall said.

With a lack of staff, Wall said, he had “no option” but to make guards routinely work double shifts, sometimes for days in a row. It was difficult to get and retain workers at Lincoln Hills — who now make starting wages of $16 an hour — because there was “better pay at the local Walmart distribution center,” Wall said.

“Would I say it was my fault? No. It’s the fault of the system and the Legislature,” Wall said.

In 2011, Walker and GOP lawmakers closed Ethan Allen School for Boys in Waukesha County and transferred its inmates to Lincoln Hills. Wall said in 2015 he proposed reopening Ethan Allen for juveniles and turning Lincoln Hills into an adult facility for drug treatment.

Walker’s chief of staff, Rich Zipperer, rejected the idea, according to Wall.

“Zipperer said no, he did not want to consider that because the governor was the one who shut it down and there was a developer who was interested (in the Ethan Allen site),” Wall said.

Wall said his plan would have cost about $5 million for repairs at Ethan Allen. Teen inmates would have been held at Ethan Allen and some northern Wisconsin prison camps that now hold minimum-security adult inmates, he said.

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said Walker’s $80 million plan is significantly different than Wall's idea because it would have inmates held in small facilities with a focus on treatment. Walker wants lawmakers to sign off on the plan in the summer of 2019 and the new facilities would be built after that.

"This has been a deliberate process for more than a year," Evenson said in a statement.

Evenson did not say whether a developer had been interested in buying or leasing Ethan Allen, as Wall said.

Wall said he believed Walker — who has faced criticism for the problems at Lincoln Hills as he heads into his re-election campaign — was proposing his plan in part because of Wall’s upcoming book, noting Walker announced his plan just days after Wall appeared on WKOW-TV in Madison to talk about how Walker and Schimel handled Lincoln Hills.

“They’re trying to get ahead of the criticism they know I’m going to be talking about in my book,” he said.

After Wall stepped down as corrections secretary, Wall returned to the Department of Justice but soon got into an employment dispute with Schimel. He sent a letter and other material to Zipperer in an attempt to get his job back and told him "feel free to shred it."

Zipperer made the letter public and Schimel fired Wall for advocating destroying public records.