Police intervene at Service of Process at Leah Vukmir’s office.
Leah Vukmir is a Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 5th District since 2011. She previously served in the Wisconsin Assembly, representing the 14th District from 2002 through 2011. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC.
Capitol Police intervened Friday in a situation in which more than a dozen protesters tried to serve legal notices at state Sen. Leah Vukmir’s office.
It was the second time in the past six months that a process service attempt at the office of the Wauwatosa Republican caused a stir.
In September, a process server filed an affidavit in court saying a Vukmir aide chased him down and assailed him when he tried to serve notice of an open records lawsuit regarding Vukmir’s involvement with the American Legislative Exchange Council.
This time, the episode involved protesters who had been arrested and ticketed last summer for singing in the Capitol rotunda trying to serve notice to Vukmir’s office because she is co-chairwoman of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules.
The protesters are challenging the constitutionality of the state’s administrative rule that required large gatherings in the Capitol to obtain a permit. The Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the tickets, asked a Dane County judge that the defendants provide proof that they served notice to the co-chairs of the committee as required by law.
The group entered Vukmir’s office Friday afternoon bearing Valentine-decorated service papers with cameras rolling. They posted videos of the episode online.
Dean Cady, Vukmir’s chief of staff, was the only person in the office at the time. He told one of the servers that Vukmir had instructed him not to accept service of legal notices on her behalf. When the server asked for his name, he picked up the phone.
Next, Senate Sergeant at Arms Ted Blazel entered and talked to the group as lawyers tried to explain that they needed to serve papers to Vukmir’s office and the only person there wouldn’t provide his name. Finally, Capitol Police Sgt. Andrew Hyatt entered and spoke with Blazel and Cady before asking the group to leave. In the hallway, police asked the group to form a single line and enter one at a time to serve their papers.
Jim Murray, one of the lawyers representing the protesters, said they had no trouble serving notices to Vukmir’s office previously or to the office of Rep. Daniel LeMahieu, R-Cascade, the other co-chair of the committee.
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