The office of Speaker Robin Vos says that a gun threat accusation lodged by state Rep. Greta Neubauer against a fellow Democrat, Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee), was found NOT credible by the Capitol Police as internal Democratic tensions boil over.
Vos’s spokesman says the Legislature’s Human Resources office mistakenly banned Ortiz-Velez from the state Capitol as a result of the now-discredited threat lodged by the state Democrat Party’s minority leader.
“Human Resources made the decision in error and it shouldn’t have happened. We will discuss internal policies moving forward to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Rep. Neubauer reported it to the Capitol Police who found it not to be credible,” Luke Wolff, spokesman for Vos, said in a statement emailed to Wisconsin Right Now on Sept. 4.
Ortiz-Velez, a Milwaukee Democrat who has an independent streak and sometimes crosses over to vote with Republicans (such as on the state budget and making gig workers independent consultants), has adamantly denied threatening anyone. She acknowledges being a hyperbolic speaker at times, but she alleges that she has been mistreated for years by some of her fellow Democrats, and she shared text messages with two of them in which she had informed Democratic legislators that she would no longer participate in their internal caucus.
She says that she withdrew from the caucus the night before Neubauer accused her of making the threat, which Neubauer has so far failed to publicly detail.
A self-described moderate, Ortiz-Velez told WRN that she will remain a part of the Democrat Party, however. Over the years, she has split with her party on some very high-profile issues, raising concerns about legislative maps proposed by Gov. Evers’ Peoples Map Commission.
“You’ve learned tonight that they’ve made accusations back at you after you left the caucus. What do you have to say about that?” we asked.
State Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) alleged: “I believe it’s in retaliation, and that they’re trying to prevent me from telling the truth about the (alleged) abuse of power from County Executive David Crowley.”
“Are any of the things they’re alleging about you true?”
“Absolutely not.”
The non-credible threat claim led to an unprecedented series of actions, as the Democrats’ internal tensions boiled into public view. According to Ortiz-Velez, Neubauer asked Vos to strip her of staff and she was banned from going to the Capitol while the threat was being investigated.
WRN asked Neubauer for comment. We also asked her to specifically detail what she is alleging that Ortiz-Velez said, and to whom. We will add her response into this article if one is received. We’ve also reached out to the legislature’s Human Resources director.
We contacted Capitol Police, and they referred us to Department of Administration spokesperson Tatyana Warrick, who couldn’t answer any of our questions (including to verify Vos’s office claim that the alleged threat was deemed not credible). She told us to file an open records request with DOA so we have done so.
