Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madison — As attorney general, J.B. Van Hollen asked the state’s corrections secretary at the time to give his wife a state job so his family could keep health benefits, according to testimony Wednesday.

“He asked me to find her a position there (at the Department of Corrections) as an attorney since he was not running again so they would have an income source and benefits,” former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall testified.

Wall said he told a top lawyer at the department that Van Hollen’s wife might be applying and he wanted nothing to do with the hiring process. Few applied for the job, and Lynne Van Hollen did get the job.

The testimony came as part of an attempt by Wall to return to a job heading the Department of Justice’s investigative unit.

Wall held that job before he was corrections secretary and sought to return to it when he stepped down as corrections secretary in February.

Attorney General Brad Schimel, who replaced J.B. Van Hollen in 2015, allowed Wall to return to the job, but immediately transferred him to a different position and put him on paid leave. That was done to protect the integrity of an investigation into abuse at the Department of Corrections’ juvenile prison, Lincoln Hills School for Boys.

In fighting his job transfer, Wall sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker’s chief of staff, Rich Zipperer, and told him he could “feel free to shred” documents he had sent him.

Schimel fired him, saying Wall attempted to undermine the open records law. Wall is now asking the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to give him his job back.

In discussing what happened to him at his hearing before the employment commission, Wall described J.B. Van Hollen’s attempts to help his wife.

After Lynne Van Hollen worked as a Department of Corrections attorney, she sought to become the department’s chief counsel. Wall did not go along with that.

J.B. Van Hollen then contacted Walker’s chief of staff at the time, Eric Schutt, in an effort to get her the job, according to Wall’s testimony Wednesday. Wall remained steadfast and she did not get that job.

In a written statement, J.B. Van Hollen called his wife "an accomplished lawyer and former prosecutor."

"She applied and competed for a job as a lawyer at Corrections through the civil service process and was hired under Correction's appointing authority," his statement said. "Questions about her hiring should go to those responsible, not me."

Lynne Van Hollen has since left her corrections job and is in private practice.