The facts in this story
courtesy of
WBAY Action 2 News
After a First Alert Investigation by WBAY-TV began in late October, concerns and questions about the missing in action Waushara County District Attorney, Laura Waite, continued. Laura Waite resigned days after she lost the election in November.
Through open records requests that took more than a month to obtain by Action 2 News, new information about what unfolded in the months prior to election was revealed. The open records obtained confirmed that Waite was paid for the four months she didn’t show up for work. Time sheets and work logs Action 2 News obtained, showed dozens of entries, with eight hours of work recorded each day from April 27th through November 6th, three days after the general election.
Waite is under investigation by the Office of Lawyer Regulation.
In April, Governor Tony Evers appointed Waite to the role of Waushara County District Attorney, and a letter obtained by Action 2 News, he wrote Waite would receive an annual salary of $100,122. Those records also showed the Department of Administration wrote to Action 2 News that the state statute ‘allows district attorney’s to take vacation without loss of pay.’
In a July 2nd email, Waite wrote to Kasey Deiss, the director of the state Prosecutor’s Office, that she’d ‘need to take a medical leave for at least six weeks’ and apologized for the inconvenience.’
In late October Judge Guy Dutcher assigned a new attorney to temporarily handle Waite’s duties in her absence. That hearing included testimony that Waite was on a conference call with the Democratic Party for Waushara County in July and indicated “everything was going good in the office and made it seem like (she) was in the office and partaking in cases and caseload.”
In the November 3rd election Matthew R. Leusink (R) won the election for Waushara County District Attorney with 9188 votes. Laura L. Waite (D) received 3954 votes.
