District Attorney Fires Two Assistant Prosecutors

Winnebago County prosecutor Ed "E.J." Jelinski is out of a job. Jelinski announced a month ago he was running against his boss, district attorney Joe Paulus.

Paulus has blamed his political opponents for what he says is a smear campaign against him, including accusations that Paulus may have been involved in some bribes.

Paulus fired Jelinski and another assistant, Tom Chalcoff, who is Jelinski's campaign manager. An Oshkosh police officer Jim Curtis, who worked in the district attorney's Domestic Abuse Unit, told Action 2 News Paulus asked him to resign, but Curtis said he refused.

Faxes received by Action 2 News Tuesday afternoon may have prompted the firings. The faxes were sent to Fox Valley Bureau Chief Jerry Burke from an unlisted number at 3 p.m.

The fax lists cases another assistant D.A., Milt Schierland, was supposed to be handling this week. He unexpectedly took the week off. Schierland is at the center of allegations that people paid money to have charges against them reduced or dismissed when he was a defense attorney two years ago.

Right after we got these faxes, the firings took place.

The county human resources specialist says there's nothing the county can do about the firings. "We have no control over the attorneys in the office. We do have oversight of the support personnel, but the attorneys, that's a matter for the state," Ron Montgomery said.

"The D.A. can control the personnel matters of the state employees in his office," he expounded.

E.J. Jelinski told Action 2 News, "Anyone who goes up against Joe Paulus can expect this kind of behavior." He said his campaign will continue.

We also tried to talk with John Jorgensen who announced Monday he is running against Paulus as a Republican for the district attorney's post. He is unavailable and says he does not want to talk at this very sensitive time. The same applies to Brad Priebe, another assistant D.A., who is running on the Democratic ticket.

Mr. Paulus says he will not make any comment on the recommendation of the state attorney general's office, and he is not allowed by state law to discuss personnel matters. Paulus did say it was done because of what was going on in his office, and that was all he could say.

The firings are the talk of the Winnebago County courthouse. "Don't know what to think now," county employee Krystal Thompson said. "And now it seems everybody is running for the D.A.'s office. We don't know what's going on."