Opponent Releases Audio Tapes of D.A. Paulus

The battle for the Winnebago County district attorney's office just got nastier. The current D.A., Joe Paulus, is under investigation for whether his office reduced charges in exchange for money. Paulus is also the subject of some taped conversations by his political opponent and former assistant, E.J. Jelinski.

Jelinski released excerpts of those tapes to the media Wednesday.

Jelinski says he is the man for the district attorney's office, not Paulus. He says the taped conversations with the current D.A. prove it.

"I don't think it's mudslinging," Jelinski said. "I think it is informing the public in this county about the truth of what's going on in the D.A.'s office."

He says the truth is in a conversation he had with Paulus in late February, when he says Paulus bragged about having sex with women in the D.A.'s office during work hours:

"I have intercourse with her, 10:45 in the (inaudible). My phone's ringing. My intercom is going haywire, and I'm (expletive) her, and I'm loving it."

Jelinski, who's running against Paulus, says the taxpayers should be outraged.

Paulus says he made it up to impress Jelinski. He responded, "That was nothing more than boy talk, exaggerated boy talk."

Paulus fired Jelinski in May for what he called poor performance as a prosecutor. The firing was after Jelinski announced his candidacy for district attorney in April.

In fact, Jelinski says, Paulus praised him during that February conversation:

"From what I can tell you, I think you've got skills and real potential and I have confidence in you."

But Paulus responds that Jelinski's performance dropped since February. He said what Jelinski did on Wednesday is the only way Jelinski has a possible chance of beating him in the election.

"Everybody knows he's a peeping tom, that he's been tape recording people. Nobody trusts him in the office, nobody trusts him in the system, and he has to do something dramatic to turn the tide," Paulus said.

Paulus said the release of the audio tapes does not change his mind about running for re-election.

DA candidate releases tapes of Paulus conversations

Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

OSHKOSH — A Winnebago County district attorney candidate said he will release audio tapes to the media today of conversations he secretly recorded with his former boss Dist. Atty. Joseph Paulus.

He said the tapes prove his May firing was politically motivated.

Edmund Jelinski also said Paulus discusses his close relationship with local defense attorneys on the tapes. Jelinski alerted the FBI earlier this year to cases in which he said charges were reduced or dismissed possibly after money or favors passed between defendants, select defense attorneys and prosecutors.

Jelinski earlier said he would not use the tapes in his campaign. But he said Tuesday that Paulus’ public criticism of the secret tapings warrants their release.

“I have no other way of proving the things he (Paulus) said aren’t true,” Jelinski said.

Paulus said he didn’t care to listen to the tapes, called their release a desperate mudslinging tactic and questioned his opponent’s trustworthiness.

Paulus has denied all allegations of misconduct. He and Jelinski will meet in a three-way Sept. 10 Republican primary for the district attorney job.

Waupaca County Assistant Dist. Atty. Bill Lennon is running as a Republican.

Posted Aug. 01, 2002 

Paulus denies having sex in office 

DA admits to remarks, but says story is made up 

By Dan Wilson 
Post-Crescent staff writer 

OSHKOSH — Winnebago County Dist. Atty. Joe Paulus Wednesday dismissed as “boy talk” sexually explicit comments on tapes released by political opponent Ed Jelinski in which he brags about having sexual encounters in his office.

On the tapes, Paulus said he has had relations with five or six women in his office.

Paulus is locked in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for district attorney, along with Jelinski and Waupaca County Assistant Dist. Atty. Bill Lennon.

Paulus admitted making the remarks, but said it was a made-up story told out of bravado.

“I never had any tryst in the office,” said Paulus. “Yes, I had the conversation, but it was an after-hours boy-talk raunchy conversation that I regret, but I never anticipated that it would be tape-recorded and released to the public.”

The tape with the sexually explicit talk was taped by former Assistant Dist. Atty. Thomas Chalchoff in February while the two were riding in a car on the way down or way back from Milwaukee, where they attended a retirement party.

Chalchoff, now Jelinski’s campaign manager, was fired with Jelinski in May when Paulus became aware of the taping and that Jelinski and Chalchoff were trying to prove Paulus was showing favoritism in the handling of drunken-driving cases.

Most of the tape consists of office gossip, but in one segment, Paulus brags about a woman he dated when he was divorced. He tells Chalchoff she paid him an unscheduled visit at the office during working hours. She came in, closed his door and locked it behind her.

Paulus makes frequent use of profanity in describing the encounter that took place on his desk.

“My phone is ringing, the (expletive) intercom is going off …” he says on the tape.

It is not possible to discern from the tape when the tryst took place and the woman is not identified.

The tape, released to the media by Jelinski Wednesday, was professionally edited. Jelinski said the editing was done to delete the names of women named by Paulus and to edit out references to sexual bragging involving incidents outside of the office.

“The majority of the tapes will not be released as they involve other people being discussed by Mr. Paulus and personal activities that occurred outside of the office. To release them would serve no purpose other than to destroy innocent people’s lives, families and careers,” said Jelinski.

Much of the tape relates to Paulus’ opinion of Chalchoff’s and Jelinski’s work, which is positive. It was that kind of conversation Jelinski said was the goal of the taping. The tape also includes conversations with both Chalchoff and Jelinski in which Paulus is speculating on who is leaking information out of the office.

“My intent was to use them because Mr. Chalchoff and I were confident that should Mr. Paulus discover we had talked to federal authorities he would make up allegations of our inability to prosecute cases and our incompetence to fire us, and he did,” said Jelinski.

Paulus said Wednesday that he has not heard the tape “and I don’t care to.”

He said he was set up.

“I was baited into that discussion in the first place and those guys duped me. It is clear from the tenor of those tapes they were baiting me on several things and I was clearly duped. I never expected my private conversations to be made public,” he said.

Paulus said he intends to campaign on his record.

“I always thought this campaign was about experience and protecting the public,” he said. “If some folks don’t like the nature of my conversations, then I am prepared to live with that, but in the light of day I hope people remember my public performance, not my private conversations with colleagues and friends. I fully accept responsibility for what I said and I am prepared to move forward and deal with it.”

Jelinski said the tapes show Paulus’ character.

“The tapes are an attempt to point out the fact that Mr. Paulus in front of the cameras is an entirely different person than the Mr. Paulus in the office, behind closed doors or when he is with people he is comfortable with,” said Jelinski. “He is an individual who is very professional in front of the camera but very unprofessional behind the camera.” 

Dan Wilson can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 304, or by e-mail at dwilson@ postcrescent.com