Peggy West-Schroder was a Milwaukee County Supervisor for fourteen years. She is now the Executive Director for an organization assisting pregnant women in jail, but was almost behind bars herself a few years ago. WTMJ’s Libby Collins sits down with her to discuss being born in a prison and her early life, her time in local government, and more on this edition of WTMJ Conversations. Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
LIBBY COLLINS: You did plead guilty to election fraud charges. Can we talk about that?
PEGGY WEST-SCHRODER: I was set up, I absolutely was. Especially now that you have this guy who just got charged with the same thing I got charged with and he got a misdemeanor, and I got a felony. I had to be on probation and all these other ridiculous things, and the same white guy just did the same thing that I did, and he got a misdemeanor, and he is still on the county board. Yeah, I do feel like I got set up.
I was the first vice-chair of Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors; I would have been in a position where right now I would be the chair of the county board if that hadn’t happened. So, how do I not think that I was intentionally set up. This is the second or third time that there have been people that have had issues with their papers, and I’m the only one that ended up being a felon for that.