Time for Senator Nelson to show the cards he claims he’s holding?

Pat Powers

Throughout the past several months, State Senator Stace Nelson has been blasting state government and the committee he sits on, GOAC (Government Operations and Audit Committee) for not going after misdeeds that he believes is out there. In fact, Nelson has gone so far as to claim that there’s proof of criminal activity beyond what the Attorney General is prosecuting.

So, the heads of the GOAC committee have gone back to Nelson, and have asked him to show them and provide the proof  – the evidence – to back his allegations:

You can find the document here.

We’ll see if Nelson plans to continue trying to play his hand… or if he ends up folding because he can’t back up his claims.

28 thoughts on “Time for Senator Nelson to show the cards he claims he’s holding?”

  1. MISPRISION OF A FELONY—–Any person who, having knowledge, which is not privileged, of the commission of a felony, conceals the felony, or does not immediately disclose the felony, including the name of the perpetrator, if known, and all of the other relevant known facts, to the proper authorities, is guilty of misprision of a felony. Misprision of a felony is a Class 1 misdemeanor. There is no misprision of misdemeanors, petty offenses, or any violation of § 22-42-5.1.

  2. KELO’s Angela Kennecke reported on this yesterday, focusing on former SD Office of Indian Education Director LuAnn Werdel’s January 10, 2011 e-mail acknowledging her ouster and accusing some of the SD GEAR UP leaders of unethical, and in one case, illegal conduct:

    http://www.keloland.com/news/article/investigates/email-warns-dept-of-education-about-gear-up-grant-problems-in-2011

    The actual e-mail is pictured on the page featuring the story.

    To those interested in delving deeper, look at the agenda for next Tuesday’s GOAC meeting in Pierre and the hyperlinked PDF files containing GOAC questions and responses:

    http://www.sdlegislature.gov/docs/Interim/2017/agendas/AGOA08292017.pdf

      1. I saw the “awaiting moderation” message, but I didn’t worry. I know about the limited tolerance of hyperlinks set in the blog software and typically abide by it. In this case, I wanted to refer to source material rather than either present my own interpretations or reproduce the source documents at length.

        Thanks, Pat!

  3. Looks like Angela Kennecke has beaten Senator Nelson to the punch. I suppose he is very upset for not getting all of the glory. The next question, how could we get Senator Peters to answer questions about running interference for the SDDOE? Are we suppose to have a separation between the executive and legislative branches?

    2. Do you realize how bad that would make Stace look if he was giving information to the Angela but not the investigative committee on which he is a member?

      Stace’s worst detractors would not assert such a thing but his best supporter? The world is really upside down now.

      1. The other 5 members of the GOAC doesn’t want information released. Do you know how bad that looks?

        1. I agree with the lady from Hartford. No more games, no more drama. Let’s get all the evidence out, every e-mail, every documented conversation, every ledger, all of it. If there is evidence of a crime, then forward it to the AG. If not, determine what needs to be done to prevent this from happening again.

            1. Okay, we can involve anyone you like. after the evidence has been presented.

              If and When the good Senator from Fulton presents the documented evidence, the decision can be made to contact the Attorney General, US Attorney, the tribes attorney, the Boy Scouts, the United Nations, and whoever else needs to be contacted.

              However before we do that, whoever has the evidence has to be willing and able to present it the GOAC. Let’s see all it.

        3. Tara do you remember when you stated that Stacey, Lora and Lance weren’t asked to come to Pierre and backup their foolish claims and didn’t show up and then you wrote that I lied because you just spoke with Lora. You are proven wrong again. As a blind follower of this crazy group I am pleased to once again punch a huge hole in your pathetic verbiage. Via another website CH website

          “Lora Hubbel on 2017-08-23 at 11:07
          Cory….your question is a good one. The answer is the same for any dictatorship…they do what they darn well please. I have heard people say, “They can’t do that!” To that I say, “Yes they can IF THE PEOPLE LET THEM!” Our fool’s gold Republicans have tried this before when Joni Cutler (Deb Peters’ BFF) called Stace, myself and Lance Russell to Pierre to force us to testify (while NOT under oath) that our complaint regarding the Governor was unfounded. We were told then that if we did not attend we would lose our elected position. Same thing here. We were the ones trying to maintain the constitutional separation of powers (recall Daugaard wanted to preview my, Stace’s and Russell’s bills before the LRC would even look at them – they can’t do that either, but they did).
          AND if you think they cannot take away an elected position…they have. MINE. I won committeewoman by 73% of the vote. But when I ran against the Daugaard team (as a Republican on an Independent ballot, like Jenna Haggar did), they formed the retroactive “Hubbel Rule” – as unconstitutional as can be – and took away my elected position. Don’t think this dictatorial regime will do any less with Stace.

          1. I said that you lied. Who the hell are you. Can’t accuse someone of lying if I don’t know their name. Thanks for posting Lora’s comments. Excellent. Read the new post on Stace. He’s calling to remove Peters from GOAC.

            1. I’m glad that you can finally admitted you lie for these people! Yes you wrote that I lied and also stated that it wasnt true because you just “spoke with Lora”

              Go to a confessional and there maybe hope for you?

  5. The info he had incriminating goac may have been released by Angela. Doesn’t look good even if they do write it off as a disgruntled employee. It all rings true. Way to go Republicans with your severe incompetence that allowed the theft of millions from taxpayers. Even today, you still don’t have the controls and enforcement in place to prevent it. SOP around here. Socialized risk and shoving profits into private pockets.

    1. This is not a Republican problem. This is a problem of the liberal’s big government, which involves the establishment of both parties. The system is too big to succeed. We should work on reducing the size and scope of government, and then perhaps we would be spending this time fighting, such as we see here between Senator Nelson and Senator Peters.

      2. Ahhh…so it is the liberals fault for giving the Republican controlled govt in SD the ability to mismanage funds to the point that an entire family was murdered. Do you blame guns when people use them to kill others?

        1. I am trying real hard not to simply pick a side and then get into a fight. I have repented of that and now resist that because I will become a total and complete jerk if I do.

          To equate a collectivist process to individual rights is missing the point. I am saying both sides are promoting government as the solution, and that is causing a systemic problem. Instead of finger pointing, I am proposing we come together and fix the system.

  6. Tara,

    GOAC is having a hearing. Your assertion they don’t want the information released is goofy. Makes you look goofy.

    Even so, your statement severely reflects adversely on Stace if true. I don’t think for a minute Stace would or did do as you assert. As a member of the committee, he has an moral obligation to participate. Giving the information to Angela before the committee would violate that principle. Again, I don’t believe Stace did such a thing. I want to be clear since I’m often accused of being anti-Stace.

  7. Of course they don’t want it released. The only way it got released is through investigative reporter, Angela Kennecke. Say what you want Troy, but this cover-up has been going on for years. Maybe you’re the goofy one.

  8. Tara –

    It’s important to distinguish *which* information, since there is so much of it. As I noted above (with hyperlink to the source document), much of the recently released information upon which Angela based her report yesterday comes from GOAC itself – questions and answers (or non-answers in some cases) from Melody Schopp, Tamara Darnall, Schoenfish & Co., and Brinda Kuhn, along with the e-mails associated with LuAnn Werdel’s departure from the SD Dept. of Ed.

  9. Michael, I bet you have a lot of information. lol. I was at the EB-5 GOAC fiasco. I wish they recorded it. If somebody could pull it up you would be quite entertained.

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