Milton “Skip” Ohlsen gets 30-month sentence
Ohlsen
Milton “Skip” Ohlsen III, a key figure in the political conspiracy charges that felled two Missouri lawmakers, was sentenced today to more than two years in federal prison on unrelated charges.
Ohlsen was sentenced to 30 months in prison for violation of federal fraud and firearms regulations.
Ohlsen, who about a decade ago was convicted of a federal drug charge, pleaded guilty to the crime of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was pulled over last year in Ladue with a handgun that had been reported stolen.
Additionally, Ohlsen admitted overstating his income on a mortgage application to purchase a house in Town and Country.
Previously, Ohlsen was named in a federal search warrant related to the unsolved Oct. 2008 bombing in a Clayton garage that injured an attorney. No mention of that investigation was made in court Friday. Acting U.S. Attorney Mike Reap made clear that the sentencing was for “this case alone,” referring to the firearms and mortgage fraud charges.
Reap referred to Ohlsen as a person “that is not conducive to the rule of law in our society” and that has a “love affair” with guns.
Ohlsen is a former Democratic operative who was involved in the failed 2004 Congressional campaign of Jeff Smith. Steve Brown, who later became a state representative from Clayton, also was involved in the campaign.
Smith, Brown and a former Smith campaign worker, Nick Adams, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Aug. 25 to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with their activities in the 2004 election, which was won by Russ Carnahan. Additionally, Smith and Adams pleaded guilty to another county of conspiracy to obstruct justice in a federal grand jury investigation this year.
The two lawmakers admitted lying about their connections to a series of fliers attacking Carnahan.
Evidence submitted by federal prosecutors included recordings of conversations with Ohlsen, who had been surreptitiously employed by Smith, through Brown, to produce the fliers.
On Friday, Ohlsen, appeared in shackles and a tan jail jumpsuit. He has been incarcerated in the St. Louis County Jail for the past year.
In a meandering statement, he took swipes at the media and his ex-wife, and he apologized to anyone who had been “stained by being associated with me.”
Ohlsen also said that he believed had John Kerry won the 2004 presidential election, he had a “good chance” of getting a pardon for at least some of his crimes. But ultimately he took responsibility.
“I have no one to blame but myself,” he said.
Sounds like Ohlsen pulled some strings with his Democrat pals in order to get a lighter sentence. Investigation anyone?
I was there. Ohlsen had and pulled no strings. Was given maximum allowable by the judge, I believe. And tho I’m not objective, because I’ve reached out to befriend, of sorts, Ohlsen, even tho we didnt get along when we worked together, and he has acted badly in several ways, maybe very badly, I thought his remarks were good and appropriate. If you mention several things, I suppose you can call it meandering but that has a perjorative connotation not appopriate here. It’s the first and maybe only chance he had to speak publicly. He apologized to his wife for cheating, and said he hoped she would forgive him for the sake of his children; he mentioned several times how important it is to have a relationship with his children and took responsibility for his actions that made that more difficult; he denied any drug use or abuse since his arrest in 1993 and that seems supported by the facts; he said he knew his possession of guns was illegal and that he will disavow that in the future as he has recovered from his drug problem of 15 years ago. He’s down pretty good through his own doing; I dont think Tony needs to take a cheap shot but saying “meandering”; he was coherent and organized with three pages of notes. It’s on line, you’re not restrained by space; why didnt you just say what he said as I did and leave the editorializing out; that was lazy, wrong, bad journalism, and unnecessary, in my opinion.
As for the reasons I’ve reached out to him, if anyone is interested, I had mixed feelings for a variety of reasons, but adults like children need love the most when they deserve it the least. Not love, of course, but had compassion for him as a human being; he will be out one day and needs to make better choices; that’s in his interest and society’s. Even if most people wouldnt understand, I’m glad I did. Anyone can do a good thing when it’s easy; doing when it’s not easy, is better if harder. He would be the first to agree that he should pay for the mistakes he made. Having people believe you can do better, helps you do better. As I always say, if we could watch a videotape of someone’s life, we’d understand why they acted badly, and have compassion even if we dont like what they did.
This is why I never vote for DEMONCRAPS. They are silly and corrupt!
Tony is a great reporter but has a bad tendency to be very biased in his writing.
ps, Tony, my brother; I look up “meadering” in the dictionary; it had a reprint of your article yesterday on EColigate; hey, dont be mad at me, talk to Marian Webster - it’s her dictionary.
Bill -
Come on. You buy that bleeding heart nonsense? His life is a lie, everything he said in court today is a lie, a facade. He brought up his wife only to blame her for his ‘getting caught’ and putting her on notice that as soon as he gets out - it’s ‘on’. He minimized his culpability at every step and played up what a wonderful human being he is. Please.
Here you are playing lapdog to a dangerous criminal. His victims thank you.
BTW - It’s not Tony’s article.
What?
Apologized to his wife? You are joking. Right?
He brought her up to take shots at her and blame her for all of this. “I pray when I’m released she’ll quit hurting our children for my infidelity.”
my bad on authorship! thanks for pointing that out; I just presumed that since it was Tony’s story, he would have the update; a rookie’s mistake; and it seemed unlike Tony and had Jake written all over it; so my apologies to both of them. and as for the rest you say, I’d be glad to give you my take since you gave me yours, but since I acknowledge being there and my interest and possible bias, and you dont use your name, I wont. If you care to indentify yourself, I might. Suffice it to say that I cant be sure you’re wrong, and you cant be sure I am, and even Skip might not know for sure; we’re entitled to our opinions. I hope for all’s sake that I’m right and you’re not. But it is fair to say that I believe in redemption. It must be hard on you that you dont. I dont agree with you on your characterization of his remarks, nor on my role. But it’s nice to see that bitter cynicism is still alive and well. I’ll stand by my behavior and opinions and am not afraid to put a name with them. People who believe that he might do better when he’s released is good for all concerned. and btw, am I allowed to say you both can kiss my donkey butt on here? (If not, Jake, welcome to remove.) I dont mean that in a bad or disrespectful way. It must be hard always thinking the worst of everybody. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt within reason; sort of a Reagan, trust but verify; and think it says more about you than it does about me or Skip.
btw, if I had to guess, or were going to, I would say you’re both the person whose ex-wife Ohlsen dated. I dont know you, so I wont judge, but as part of his closing remarks, as he was discussing his being clean from drugs for 16 years, he mentioned that he twice took her to rehab for drugs supplied to her by her ex-husband; it’s part of the public record. I have no independent knowledge of whether that’s true or not, and certainly hope not, I suppose, but it does seem unlikely he would knowingly manufacture something like that out of whole cloth in his remarks before sentencing. Whose victims thank whom now? Just saying, not judging.
As I said, his life is a lie, everything he said is a lie.
It’s all ‘knowingly manufactured’…
There is nothing to substantiate that, and it’s outright false.