By Natalie Arnold

The FBI says their key to investigating former Winnebago County DA Joe Paulus was one man: Neenah attorney Joe Schierland.

Schierland was so close to Paulus, the FBI says, that he hatched the bribery scheme with Paulus, only to turn on the former prosecutor to save his own skin.

The Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section says Paulus was quite cooperative with them...for he had to be.

"Once we confronted Mr. Paulus with the evidence against him," says the Justice Dept.'s Noel Hillman, "he recognized it was over."

In 2002 the FBI started to investigate the bribery allegations.  At one point, agents focused in on  Schierland: primarily a defense attorney, but also Paulus's deputy DA from 2000 to 2002.  The  Department of Justice and the IRS found that Schierland failed to report more than $150,000 of income from 1997 to 2000...about a $50,000 tax loss.
 
Once agents showed Schierland the evidence, Schierland showed them he was ready to cooperate against Paulus.

All the FBI would say is covert techniques were used.

"This is classic law enforcement," Hillman says.  "You find someone who has committed a crime, you get them to acknowledge their own conduct, you get them to cooperate against others."