Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

State board: No formal inquiry into DeVougas

FPC chairman went with client to police interview

- Ashley Luthern

The state’s Office of Lawyer Regulation will not open a formal investigat­ion into attorney Steven DeVougas, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission chairman who went with a corporate client to a police interview about a sexual assault allegation.

However, the situation “raised issues that were of concern” to the state office. As a result, officials there spoke with DeVougas and “have provided advice regarding ways to avoid similar issues in the future,” according to a three-paragraph letter sent to Ald. Bob Donovan, who asked the office to evaluate DeVougas’ conduct.

Donovan said Friday he will not request a review of the decision. He has sent the materials to Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton and Fire and Police Commission Executive Director Griselda Aldrete.

“I think it’s important that people know what’s going on and I felt it was a very poor situation to allow himself to get into and perhaps speaks to decision-making,” Donovan said of DeVougas.

DeVougas has said he did nothing wrong when he went with Kalan

Haywood Sr., a well-connected real-estate developer, to the voluntary police interview in August. Haywood denied the sexual assault allegation­s to police and in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Haywood has not been arrested or charged. The investigat­ion remains under review at the district attorney’s office.

Reached Friday, DeVougas said the state office’s decision “speaks for itself.”

DeVougas said he resigned as general counsel for the Haywood Group effective Jan. 1 to focus on his duties at the Fire and Police Commission and to “allay concerns.” He said he continues to have his own private legal practice focused on developmen­t and commercial real estate.

DeVougas confirmed he remains the registered agent for subsidiari­es of the Haywood Group and he described that role as more like a business partnershi­p — one that does not involve legal work.

“I think it’s important that people know what’s going on and I felt it was a very poor situation (for DeVougas) to allow himself to get into and perhaps speaks to decision-making.” Ald. Bob Donovan asked the office to evaluate DeVougas’ conduct

Referral to Office of Lawyer Regulation

After the police interview and DeVougas’ presence there became public in December, Donovan requested the city attorney’s office determine if DeVougas broke any ethical rules.

The city attorney’s office said any definitive answer would need to come from the state’s Office of Lawyer Regulation. An attorney found guilty of ethics violations in Wisconsin can face penalties ranging from a reprimand to a suspended law license. Donovan sent an email requesting a review to the state office in early January.

DeVougas’ attorney, Stacie H. Rosenzweig of Halling & Cayo, responded to the state’s initial inquiry with a threepage letter, which reiterated DeVougas’ public statements: That he “simply accompanie­d his corporate client to a single informatio­nal interview and then advised the client’s principal to retain his own counsel.”

“At the time, the Haywood Group had been negotiatin­g tax incrementa­l financing with the city with regard to a hotel developmen­t, and Attorney DeVougas was concerned that the police wanted to discuss an issue that could jeopardize the financing,” she said in the letter.

Rosenzweig also wrote that the detective recognized DeVougas as “his boss’ boss,” but did not ask DeVougas to leave. Haywood told the detective he wanted DeVougas to remain at the interview, the letter says.

The detective questionin­g Haywood told DeVougas that his presence was “odd” and he felt as if he were questionin­g “the chiefs,” according to video obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

“In the future, he will refrain from similar appearance­s so long as he is on the commission,” Rosenzweig wrote, calling the incident an “isolated occurrence.”

She also said a 1977 ethics opinion from the Wisconsin State Bar referenced by the city attorney’s office was dated and involved questionin­g the credibilit­y of police officers or influencing testimony, something she said DeVougas did not do.

That opinion said it is unethical for a fire and police commission­er to serve as an attorney in a criminal or traffic case involving the agency he or she oversees.

Donovan said he communicat­ed through email with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation and no one from the office contacted him by phone. He said he did not know if investigat­ors watched the video of the voluntary police interview.

Asked for his reaction to the decision, Donovan said he had “never really been overly impressed” with the state office.

“It’s a bunch of attorneys looking at other attorneys and saying ‘nothing to see here,’” Donovan said.

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