Will Justice David Prosser's refusal to prosecute a pedophile priest when Prosser was Outagamie County district attorney be an issue in his re-election campaign for State Supeme Court next year?
It's an interesting story -- the priest went on to abuse other young boys and was later convicted -- but the Lawrence Welk connection is really intriguing.
Two brothers, age 12 and 14, in Freedom, WI were prepared to testify against the priest, John Patrick Feeney The Journal Sentinel reported:
Prosser, accompanied by a deacon and another member of the parish, went to the woman's home, where he told her the trial would be too hard on her sons.
"I was ready to take the stand," Troy Merryfield said. "He (Prosser) said it would be too embarrassing for a kid my age and said what jury would believe a kid testifying against a priest? Then he said, what really makes it bad is that Feeney's brother, Joe, sang on the Lawrence Welk show and everybody watched that back then."
Joe Feeney, who sang for 25 years on the Welk show, died in 2008.
What his fame had to do with a pedophilia case against his brother is something only David Prosser can answer.