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Candidate for Bosworth’s Next Attorney: Accused Child Rapist Jansen

I can think like Chad and Annette. It makes me ill, but I can do it.

Annette Bosworth may have just found her next attorney. After betraying Joel Arends and monkey-wrenching Brandon Taliaferro's best efforts to defend her, the former fake Senate candidate, petition fraudster, and drama queen may be the least appealing legal client since Ted Klaudt.

But Attorney General Marty Jackley, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, and Hughes County States Attorney Wendy Kloeppner may have just delivered the indefensible doctor a defense attorney: Christopher Robert Jansen. The Selby attorney served a term as Walworth County states attorney from 2009 to 2012, then resigned a few weeks early to enter private practice after voters turned him out in favor of James Hare. And Tuesday, Jackley, Johnson, and Kloeppner had him arrested for three counts of first-degree rape. The three alleged victims are under the age of 13.

One would think that no reasonable client would want to pick Jansen for counsel right now. "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't stop defendants from minimizing their exposure to possible bad press. But in the "writhing snakepit of treachery and mind games" of Team Bosworth, no press is bad press. In Bosworth and husband Chad Haber's reading of Chad's bible, The 48 Laws of Power, the client no attorney wants and the attorney no client wants are the perfect unpredictable, attention-getting, water-stirring, misdirecting match.

Jansen would also be the next poster boy for Chad Haber's hashtag exploitation of child rape victims. As the centerpiece of his quixotic but devious bid for the Libertarian nomination for attorney general, Haber is charging that Attorney General Jackley has a "big pedophilia problem" in his failure to prosecute child rapist Richard Mette as vigorously as he should have. Haber needs to stop the Attorney General's new prosecution of child rape from puncturing Haber's political narrative. Haber thus needs to bring Jansen into his wife's camp and pump him for information with which Haber could spin Jansen's prosecution into persecution. He needs to make Jansen's story just another aspect of corruption in South Dakota, just like Jackley's prosecution of Haber's wife.

Expect Bosworth to announce Jansen as her attorney, and expect Haber to launch a new hashtag any day.

* * *

Even if The 48 Laws of Power can be read as a bastard's handbook, he wrote it to demystify the dirty tricks of the executives he encountered during a dispiriting period as a Hollywood screenwriter. "I felt like a child exposing what the parents are up to and laughing at it," he says. "Opening the curtain and letting people see the Wizard of Oz."

....Greene claims that most of the emails he receives are from readers who used his first book to understand and outwit manipulative people, but surely he has inadvertently created a few scoundrels himself? "There are people on the borderline and maybe the book helps them to move into that sociopathic realm so then I feel bad," he concedes, "but mainly it's positive" [Dorian Lynskey, "Robert Greene on His 48 Laws of Power: 'I'm Not Evil – I'm a Realist'," The Guardian, 2012.12.93].

* * *

Update 15:17 CDT: Oops—Jansen might have trouble representing Bosworth from the Hughes County Jail. At Jansen's first hearing in Pierre this afternoon, Jansen did not seek and the judge did not set bail. State's attorney Kloeppner says the state believes Jansen is a danger to the community and to himself.

24 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2014.07.31

    This could get uglier in a hurry. On a side note-the alternate universe(PP) mentioned John Thune's efforts to make union financial dealings transparent.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2014.07.31

    mike,
    The headline in the RCJ was "Thune to Fight Union Corruption", it appeared the same day that South Dakota Democrats were fighting Republican legislature for transparency over the GOED/EB-5 scandal.

  3. mike from iowa 2014.07.31

    Thanks Roger. I just happened to see this at PP's blog while I checked out his coverage of Jansen's arrest.

  4. JeniW 2014.07.31

    Safest place for him to be because there might be someone(s) who would do him harm, plus providing room and board?

    There are people who do not take too kindly of people who are, or have been accused of, sexually abusing children.

    If he is a suicide risk, does not imply some type of mental health issue that can be used as a defense?

    A lot of potential scenarios, but that leaves Annette having to seek a different attorney.

  5. mike from iowa 2014.07.31

    JeniW-we'll see how close an eye officials keep on him while incarcerated. I am naturally suspicious and from the minute he's locked up there should be a suicide watch in progress.

  6. Joe K 2014.07.31

    The big question I have, is where are our champions for the children who have been subjected to abuse, Chad and Lee? You think they would be all over this...

  7. Roger Cornelius 2014.07.31

    First of all, with Annette's failure thus far to retain competent legal council, maybe Chad's experience at attempting to run as attorney general will qualify him to defend his wife
    Is this Jansen a Republican or Democrat?

  8. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.07.31

    I hate child molesters. (It is extremely rarely that I use the word "hate", but I have no qualms about using it here. I do hate those bastards!)

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.07.31

    Roger, Jansen is a registered Republican.

  10. Roger Cornelius 2014.07.31

    How come I knew that Cory?

  11. daleb 2014.07.31

    48 laws of power is a well written book. It explains a principle and then gives a few historical examples about each principle and some practical applications of it.

  12. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.07.31

    Dale, the impression I get from the author interview is that it's meant to warn sane people about the tactics less sane (or less moral) people will try to use to exert power so that we don't fall for such tactics.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.07.31

    Well, Roger, throw a rock in South Dakota, and you have a 46% chance of hitting a registered Republican.

  14. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.08.01

    I've been looking at this organization and I feel good about what they are doing. https://movetoamend.org/wethepeopleamendment

    The Madizens' comments seem to be looking for a savior. While I understand that, MLK needed people beside him and behind him. In fact, others created the mechanism that enabled him to lead formidable numbers.

    I'm as guilty as others of sitting back while bemoaning the situation. See my earlier comment for a perfect example. I truly do believe that we are the ones. I don't necessarily mean that we will save SD or the USA. But we can play an important role in laying the ground work.

    A centerpiece of any oppressive regime, whether corporate or not, is to create a sense of helplessness among those being oppressed. Then the Oppressees do the majority of the work for the Oppressors. That is what must be most fiercely fought against.

    I'm looking at Move to Amend to help me avoid feeling helpless and play a part in creating the mechanism for a powerful leader to arise among us. We need our Ghandi, Red Cloud, MLK, Walesa, Mandela, McGovern, etc.

  15. JeniW 2014.08.01

    Deb, how did you happen upon the Move to Amend organization.

    I looked at a little bit of their web-site. Definitely interesting.

    I will look at it again soon.

  16. daleb 2014.08.01

    @cah

    that's pretty accurate but it reads more like a history book in my opinion. the thing is the lessons are easy to grasp philosophically but applying them in day to day life is hard. it takes a lot of practice. almost like 10-15 ppl meeting weekly to go over one law then practice it that week kind of study. its not really a dark book but if someone was predisposed to evil it could hone that in and refine it. evil ppl are pragmatic to the core, if what the do doesn't work they learn from it and adapt.

  17. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.08.01

    Dale, applying those laws in one's actions should be hard for any person with a moral compass. The laws themselves are Machiavelli, the pure pursuit of power, with no moral aim. No moral person should seek to internalize and apply those rules other than to recognize and defuse the use of those rules by others.

  18. Douglas Wiken 2014.08.01

    So Jansen is a Republican. No wonder none of our regular SD rags mentioned his party affiliation.

  19. Craig 2014.08.01

    Doug - in their defense this guy is an attorney... not an elected official. Mentioning his party affiliation is akin to mentioning the color of his skin or his religion. It really has nothing to do with the crime.

  20. Douglas Wiken 2014.08.01

    He is a lawyer who was a states attorney. If this was a former Democratic official who kicked his dog, the papers would have big headlines, "Former Democratic States Attorney cruel to his dog." The story would have a half dozen brain-dead Republicans commenting about how evil this Democrat is and how he must beat his wife and children because he kicked the dog that was trying to kill his cat.

  21. Roger Cornelius 2014.08.01

    Doug, you're right.

    When the Democratic for the statehouse was recently busted in sex sting in North Dakota, the SD media couldn't wait to go to print and point out that it was a Democrat.
    The ink was still wet on my Journal that day.

  22. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.08.01

    When Ted Klaudt was arrested in 2007, KELO opened with this text: "A former South Dakota lawmaker is accused of molesting his own foster children and legislative pages. Ted Klaudt, 49, a Republican rancher from Walker, faces a long list of charges...."

    You'll notice that I made the editorial decision not to include the defendant's political affiliation in the original post, even though I had checked it.

  23. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.08.01

    JeniW, I don't recall how I found it. Perhaps it was in a tweet.

    Cory, indeed it is in the wrong place. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll post it there.

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