Indiana prosecutor Carlos F. Lam resigns after recommending Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stage fake attack against himself

Indiana official Carlos F. Lam initially denied sending email

8:39 AM, Mar. 25, 2011
by Vic Ryckaert and Kevin O'Neal
23 Comments

For the second time, an Indiana public official has lost his job because of provocative comments made about the political brouhaha in Wisconsin.

Carlos F. Lam, a Johnson County deputy prosecutor, resigned Thursday after acknowledging he sent an email last month urging Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to discredit labor union protests by orchestrating a fake assault on himself.

Possibly, Lam suggested, the pretend assailant might even use a firearm.

Lam's boss, Prosecutor Bradley D. Cooper, accepted the resignation. He called Lam's Feb. 19 email to Walker a "foolish suggestion."

On Feb. 23, the Indiana Attorney General's office fired deputy Atty. Gen. Jeff Cox after he suggested in blog posts and on Twitter that police use live ammunition on protesters who had poured into Wisconsin's Capitol.

The political fight in Wisconsin erupted when Walker, a Republican, called for eliminating collective bargaining for public employees. That bill passed March 10 and was signed into law the next day.

Lam's message, posted on The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism's website, said, in part: "If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the public unions."

Lam could not be reached Thursday. Efforts to reach the governor's office in Wisconsin were unsuccessful.

A spokesman for Walker told the center for investigative journalism that the governor condemns the email's suggestion and supports the union supporters' right to peacefully protest.

Lam began his email to Walker by urging the governor to stay strong in the face of the massive union protests.

The email closed with: "Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and umbrella union organizations in the protest," the email said. "Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions. God bless, Carlos F. Lam."

Lam initially told The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that he did not write the email and suggested that someone must have hacked into his account.

"I am flabbergasted and would never advocate for something like this, and would like everyone to be sure that that's just not me," Lam told the center.

Lam was hired in 2004 to prosecute juvenile crimes in Johnson County.

His boss, Cooper, initially defended Lam saying that he believed that the email account had been hacked.

"Whether there's rules of professional conduct that apply or not is irrelevant, because he didn't send it," Cooper told the center.

The nonprofit watchdog group posted the comments Thursday in a story on its website, Wisconsin Watch.org. Hours later, Cooper announced that Lam admitted writing the message and had resigned.

The center found Lam's email among tens of thousands that media organizations received as part of a settlement to an open-records lawsuit.

The blog posts and comments from Cox, the fired deputy attorney general, came to light when they were posted on Mother Jones magazine's website.

In addition to his political opinion and "strategy," Lam also included a phone number.

It's been disconnected.

Vic Ryckaert and Kevin O'Neal write for The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett newspaper.

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