Former top Tearman Spencer aide pleads guilty under deal that could later wipe slate clean

The top aide to former Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer will avoid having a criminal record if he abides by requirements imposed Wednesday under a deferred prosecution agreement.

Former Deputy City Attorney Odalo Ohiku, 46, was charged earlier this year with one count of attempted misconduct in public office for failing to disclose ownership of his private law firm while he was representing the city.

Ohiku pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in court on Wednesday, but Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Milton Childs withheld entry of a judgment of conviction against the veteran attorney.

If Ohiku commits no other criminal offenses, completes 10 hours of ethics continuing legal education credits, writes an article for publication about his conduct and completes 20 hours of community service by the end of the year, prosecutors will move to dismiss the case.

If convicted of the Class A misdemeanor, Ohiku was facing a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail.

After the hearing, Ohiku referred questions to his attorney, Nate Cade.

Cade said Ohiku pleaded guilty under a deferred prosecution agreement because he would have faced a felony or multiple felonies if he hadn't. Ohiku didn't want to risk losing such a case and face sanctions from the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

"I thought I had very good, valid defenses," Cade said. "But it is the potential loss of his law license — that is the issue."

That said, Cade said, "I'm not a criminal defense lawyer, but do I think I could have won? Absolutely."

The three-page criminal complaint said Ohiku owned Ohiku Law Firm the entire time he worked for the City Attorney's Office but that he failed to disclose this information on his annual statement of economic interest, which is required of top city employees. The firm employed multiple attorneys as associates, the complaint says.

The public relies on these records to determine whether a public official has a conflict of interest or other financial issues.

Ohiku made $141,507 annually when he left office.

His private firm had a criminal defense practice, the complaint notes, meaning it could have been handling cases critical of the Milwaukee Police Department, which lawyers in the City Attorney's Office are responsible for defending against charges of illegal conduct.

"The fact that someone is employed as a deputy city attorney for the City of Milwaukee and maintains a private law practice is neither unethical nor illegal in and of itself," the complaint says. "However, the defendant did not disclose this conflict on his lawfully required statement of economic interest."

Ohiku resigned earlier this year amid allegations he was doing private legal work on the taxpayers' dime. At the time, he was under investigation by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, which was looking into allegations of misconduct in public office , in addition to several other violations.

In his resignation notice, Ohiku said he was leaving city employment for better work-life balance, salary or incentives and "Peace, Health, Love & Happiness."

The investigations were prompted by city Inspector General Ronda Kohlheim's conclusion that Ohiku was working on his private law firm's cases on city time and lying about that work on his timecards, allegations included in a 57-page report.

Spencer called the report, in which Kohlheim also recommended that Spencer be charged , "ludicrous." No charges have been filed against Spencer.

Assistant District Attorney Nicolas Heitman wouldn't say after the court hearing whether his agency is finished with its investigation of Spencer.

In April, Spencer lost his re-election bid to state Rep. Evan Goyke after one term in office.

Kohlheim's report said Ohiku spent an estimated 88 hours working for clients of his personal law firm while on the city clock, bilking the city out of $5,766. Kohlheim said her estimate was conservative and could not account for the hours when he did not have court appearances.

Those issues are not addressed in the criminal complaint.

In his interview with the Journal Sentinel, Cade said there is a reason for that omission. He said there was no basis for the allegations raised by Kohlheim about Ohiku doing private work on city time. He said someone should hoist Kohlheim "on her own petard."

As to the charge that Ohiku failed to list his law firm on the financial disclosure form, Cade was equally dismissive, "So what? Who's harmed?"

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com . Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice .

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former top Tearman Spencer aide pleads guilty under deal that could later wipe slate clean