Carrie Schneider — experienced leadership for Outagamie County

Timothy Schmidt

Now that the current district attorney of Outagamie County is running for Attorney General, Carrie Schneider, currently Outagamie County’s deputy district attorney, seeks to fill his shoes. Of the attorneys under Vince Biskupic, including Schneider’s opponent, only Carrie was chosen as his top assistant in 2000. She is currently responsible for the management of 12 attorneys and 17 support staff, and acts as a direct liaison for 14 different law enforcement agencies.

During her time as deputy district attorney, Schneider has gained experienced leadership. She has handled the county’s highest percentage of felony cases outside of Biskupic, prosecuted 10 homicide cases since 1999 and in the last four years has taken more criminal misdemeanor and felony cases to jury trial than any other attorney in the office. Her work in prosecuting Outagamie County’s Operating While Intoxicated cases resulted in 60% of the felony offenders receiving prison sentences, compared to 14% before her handling of the OWI cases.

Carrie Schneider is tough on crime. She prosecuted James Gallitz under the “two strikes” law for child sex offenders, resulting in a sentence of three consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole: the longest sentence in county history.

Schneider has been recognized at the state and national level as an innovator in domestic violence and innovative criminal diversion programs. She has given presentations at five national and state conferences on the topic of domestic violence prosecution. In 2001, a state legislator consulted her on new legislation relating to domestic violence, restraining orders and stalking. As a result of the legislation that she helped develop, crime victims are now better served.

Schneider also wrote grant requests that resulted in over a half a million dollars in state and county tax dollars returned to Outagamie County to help the victims of crime. The grant programs cover domestic violence cases, drunk driving offenses, a restorative justice grant and a national neighborhood prosecution grant.

The people of Outagamie County deserve the best possible district attorney, regardless of political affiliation. Carrie Schneider possesses the most leadership experience of the two candidates. She has proven her value to the community in the past, and we could greatly use her as our district attorney.