Former deputy to Tearman Spencer charged with failing to disclose private law firm

The top deputy of former Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer has been criminally charged, accused of falsifying financial disclosure forms by failing to disclose ownership of his private law firm while he was representing the city.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has charged attorney Odalo Ohiku, 46, with a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail. The criminal complaint says he "attempted to make an entry in a statement which in a material respect he intentionally falsified."

Ohiku did not respond to messages on Wednesday. His attorney, Nate Cade, declined to answer questions about the case.

An initial appearance is scheduled for July 24 before Judge Milton Childs Sr.

The three-page 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 said.

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 aprivate 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."

Not only did Ohiku fail to list his ownerhip of his private law practice, but he also didn't list any paying clients of the firm, the complaint says. This would have made it known if there were any "potential conflicts that exist between who was paying the defendant’s business money and who the city attorney’s office was tasked with representing."

In an interview with prosecutors, Ohiku acknowledged that he filled out his own financial statements in 2021 through 2023.

"The defendant stated no one directed him to omit his private law firm from the statements of economic interest," the complaint concludes.

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.

He was also investigated by the city Ethics Board over whether he failed to disclose income from his private law practice while working for the city. But the board dropped the probe when Ohiku quit his city job.

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, according to online court records.

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 2020, the Journal Sentinel reported that Ohiku still had 45 open court cases in which he was the attorney of record for one of the parties, mostly criminal defendants. Only a month into the job, Ohiku had made more than a half-dozen appearances in court during the workday.

The Journal Sentinel reported in 2021 that Ohiku spent four consecutive days during work hours representing a 52-year-old Atlanta man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl while they lived in South Milwaukee.

Kohlheim also concluded that Ohiku failed to disclose income from Ohiku Law Office in his statements of economic interest even though he was doing private work on city time.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Daniel Bice can be reached at daniel.bice@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former deputy to Tearman Spencer charged with failing to disclose private law firm