Monday, July 7, 2025
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Monday, July 7, 2025

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Bob Donovan Accuses Cavalier Johnson of Cover Up Relating to Brother’s Shooting

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“For the love of St. Peter, who the hell does he think he’s dealing with? C’mon. We weren’t born yesterday” – Bob Donovan on whether Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson has been honest about what he knew about his brother’s warrant and arrest for a shooting and when he knew it.

Former Ald. Bob Donovan is accusing Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and possibly the Milwaukee Police Department of a “cover-up” relating to the shooting that Johnson’s brother is accused of committing.

Donovan said he does not believe Johnson is being honest when he says he did not know his brother was wanted by Milwaukee police or had been arrested for the shooting until a day after the March 29 arrest. Donovan, who is running against Johnson in Tuesday’s mayoral election, also said he thinks it’s possible that Johnson knew where his brother, Allen Addison, was “hiding out.”

See Donovan’s Full interview here.

Wisconsin Right Now obtained Donovan’s first comments on Addison’s arrest in the January shooting of Eddie Knox, who was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting, including in the head. Donovan, who spoke to WRN on video on April 3, 2022, had refused to comment to other news outlets.

Knox survived but has lost his home improvement trade as a result. Milwaukee police were searching for Addison, Johnson’s half-brother, since January, via a felony warrant; they finally arrested him after a two-hour standoff on N. 41st St., on March 29. The SWAT team was at the scene, as was the brothers’ mother, who was outside. The house in question has a Cavalier Johnson yard sign on its front lawn.

Allen addison jr cavalier johnson's brother

We asked Donovan about whether, when he said there’s a cover up, he’s saying Johnson is covering things up relating to his brother and what he knew.

“I just have extreme difficulty believing otherwise,” Donovan said. “You can not tell me, and we were not born yesterday, none of us are, and for him to go around saying he knew nothing about it. For the love of St. Peter, who the hell does he think he’s dealing with? C’mon. We weren’t born yesterday.”

Asked if he was saying Johnson was covering up when he knew that his brother was wanted and arrested and being investigated, Donovan said, “Yes. And possibly where he was hiding out. You can’t tell me they didn’t know. Oh, for Pete’s sake.”

Wisconsin Right Now previously reported Johnson’s mother was at the scene screaming from across the street as police tried to get Addison to exit the N. 41st St. dwelling.

Addison, who is also accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm, was in a home that WRN has discovered has ties to a Johnson relative.

Addison eventually surrendered to police.

Johnson has said, through his spokesman Jeff Fleming, that he did not know his brother was wanted for the shooting, or even that he had been arrested, until Wednesday, March 30 – the day after the arrest.

“The mayor had no knowledge of the shooting, the warrant, or the arrest before a social media post on Wednesday,” said Fleming.

Bob donovan cavalier johnson

Fleming wouldn’t say which social media post. We spoke with Knox, the shooting victim, who told us that he told the DA’s office that he’d heard Addison was at the brothers’ mother’s house in January, and he believes police went there several times to look for him to no avail. He also said three of Addison’s teenage children knew Addison was wanted in the shooting from the start. In light of all that, Addison said he found it hard to believe that the brothers’ mother, and Johnson, did not know, saying the news “ran through the family.” (Read more about that interview and what happened at the scene here.)

Asked whether he believed Johnson was honest with the public on the matter, Donovan told WRN, “I have some very serious concerns regarding that. I believe Ald. Johnson has a need to be upfront with the citizens of Milwaukee. I certainly can not condemn anyone for the behavior of a sibling; that’s not what I am doing. What concerns me is the apparent cover-up here. That concerns me a lot.”

Donovan added: “And it also concerns me and it ought to concern every single Milwaukeean that the Milwaukee Police Department may indeed have been part of this coverup; that concerns me a lot.”

Addison was arrested on Tuesday, March 29. MPD and Johnson did not tell the public about the arrest. WRN first broke the story based on sources on Friday, April 1. MPD has said very little since that time. The department even refused to confirm that the mayor’s brother had been arrested, instructing WRN to check the police blotter.

Eddie knox bob donovan cavalier johnson
The victim, eddie knox.

We have asked the Milwaukee Police Department whether they told Johnson his brother was wanted and when, but they have refused to answer the questions. The police chief, Jeffrey Norman, is a political ally of Johnson, who advocated for Norman to become chief. As acting mayor, Johnson appoints Fire and Police Commissioners who name police chiefs, and he is involved in setting the department’s budget.

Specifically, we asked MPD:

1, Did police tell Cavalier Johnson or anyone in the mayor’s office about the arrest? When?

2, Did they seek his help in locating his brother during the last two months when he was wanted on serious felony warrants? Why or why not?

3, Did police tell Cavalier Johnson or anyone in the mayor’s office that his brother was wanted on a warrant? When?

“I think he has the need to come forward and be honest and upfront with the residents,” said Donovan of Johnson.

We also asked MPD, “Can you detail please what police did to try to find Allen Addison during the two months he was wanted on a felony warrant? Did they contact his mother? Chevy Johnson? His other siblings? If not why not? Which addresses did they check? Why did it take two months to find him? How eventually did they find him and where? Please answer these questions before the election. The public has a right to know the answers especially due to chief Norman’s close relationship with Johnson.”

MPD refused to answer the questions, saying only, “MPD will not discuss investigative steps about any case whether it involves an elected official or a member of our community. Ultimately, MPD respects and appreciates all the sources that provide information that lead to successful apprehension and prosecution of offenders. We do not discuss which particular source shared information for the safety of that individual. You are welcome to submit an open records request to obtain records at [email protected]. You can also direct questions to Mayor Johnson’s Office that may pertain to him.”

Our open records requests are pending.

“I just find it very, very difficult to believe that he would not know this,” Donovan said. “That the police did not tell him that his brother was wanted. And then we have this huge, almost like a hostage situation at his home and so on. There were a lot of resources going into looking for him. You can’t tell me that acting mayor Johnson didn’t know about it.”

We asked about claims by some police sources that Johnson’s mother was screaming at the scene of Addison’s arrest before he came out of the house, and that she brought up Johnson’s name and title as acting mayor at the scene. We asked the mayor’s spokesman about these claims, and he did not respond. A neighbor said she heard Johnson’s mother call for Addison to come out of the house; she did not hear the part about Cavalier Johnson but said she didn’t hear everything Denise Townsend said.

“That’s frustrating as well, and there seems to be mounting evidence that people are using his position to get away with a lot of things,” said Donovan of Johnson. “That’s totally and completely inappropriate.”

He added: “Quite frankly, I’m concerned about the apparent coverup incident involving his nephew in Waukesha.”

In that situation, the suspect, Johnson’s 14-year-old nephew, allegedly took an 87-year-old woman at knifepoint from the book return area of the Waukesha library on Tuesday Nov. 30, 2021, and then sexually assaulted her. The situation remained unknown to the public until Wisconsin Right Now learned about it from a source and reported about it on Dec. 8, 2021. The rest of the media then followed with stories. When WRN first contacted police after hearing about it from sources, Waukesha police said they didn’t want more “bad news” and initially released few details.

Donovan said he was concerned about “how the Waukesha Police Department sat on this for such a lengthy period of time. No information was forthcoming. That’s not appropriate. Any time you mix politics and policing, that’s a bad mix, let me tell you.”

He said, “The police departments have a job to do to irregardless of politics. They have a job to do and represent all of the residents of Milwaukee in so far as safety and the rule of law.”

We’ve reached out to both Fleming and MPD to give Johnson and police a chance to comment about Donovan’s remarks. We have not heard back.


Bob Donovan’s Full Interview

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(The Center Square) – Josh Schoemann, the only Republican currently in the race for governor next year, is criticizing Gov. Tony Evers’ approach to the next state budget by comparing it to his plans in Washington County.

“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Republican Legislative leaders backed out of negotiations after he agreed to “an income tax cut targeting Wisconsin’s middle-class and working families and eliminating income taxes for certain retirees.” He said Republican leaders would not agree to “meaningful increased investments in child care, K-12 schools, and the University of Wisconsin System.”

Republican Assembly leaders said the two sides were "far apart. Senate leaders say Evers’ desires “extend beyond what taxpayers can afford.”

“The Joint Committee on Finance will continue using our long-established practices of crafting a state budget that contains meaningful tax relief and responsible spending levels with the goal of finishing on time,” said a statement from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Finance Co-Chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam.

Evers said that there were meetings between the sides every day this week before the impasse.

“I told Republicans I’d support their half of the deal and their top tax priorities – even though they’re very similar to bills I previously vetoed – because I believe that’s how compromise is supposed to work, and I was ready to make that concession in order to get important things done for Wisconsin’s kids,” Evers said.

Senate Republican leadership said that good faith negotiations have occurred since April on a budget compromise.

“Both sides of these negotiations worked to find compromise and do what is best for the state of Wisconsin,” said a statement from Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Senate Joint Finance Co-Chairman Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green.

In early May, the Joint Committee on Finance took 612 items out of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, including Medicaid expansion in the state, department creations and tax exemptions.

Born previously estimated that Evers’ budget proposal would lead to $3 billion in tax increases over the two-year span.

Wisconsin Policy Forum estimated that the proposal would spend down more than $4 billion of the state’s expected $4.3 billion surplus if it is enacted.

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The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced it is investigating California for violating Title IX by allowing males to participate in female student sports.

“Title IX exists to protect women and girls in education,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for Civil Rights. “It is perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies.”

In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning males from participating in female student sports, and he has threatened to block California's federal funding for continuing to defy his order. With California facing deficits in the tens of billions of dollars each year, it's unclear how the state would offset any losses or pauses in federal funding.

Notably, California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosted conservative pundit Charlie Kirk on his podcast and told Kirk that he thinks it’s “deeply unfair” that boys are participating in girls’ sports.

When asked later at a press conference what this means for state policy, Newsom demurred, painting the matter as a marginal, non-issue not worth his time.

“You're talking about a very small number of people, a very small number of athletes, and my responsibility is to address the pressing issues of our time,” said Newsom.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs student sports in California, has since responded to Trump’s threat by announcing a new pilot program to allow girls who otherwise would have qualified for sports finals had the finalist spots in girls’ sports not been taken by transgender-identifying boys to participate in said finals.

Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972 to ensure that schools could not discriminate against female students. It requires they be provided with equal opportunities to engage in athletics, extracurriculars and education.

DOJ’s letter of interest says it is investigating whether California’s Assembly Bill 1266, which requires transgender-identifying students to be allowed to participate in sports consistent with their gender identities, violates Title IX.

“As a result of CIF’s policy, California’s top-ranked girls’ triple jumper, and second-ranked girls’ long-jumper, is a boy,” wrote the DOJ. “As recently as May 17, this male athlete was allowed to take winning titles that rightfully belong to female athletes in both events.”

“This male athlete will now be allowed to compete against those female athletes again for a state title in long, triple, and high jump,” continued the DOJ. “Other high school female athletes have alleged that they were likewise robbed of podium positions and spots on their teams after they were forced to compete against males.”

Should the DOJ find California is in violation of Title IX, it says it will “take appropriate action to eliminate that discrimination, including seeking injunctive relief.”