MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin legislator with disorderly conduct Wednesday in connection with a feud over who was involved with drafting resolutions honoring Hispanics last year.
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, a Milwaukee Democrat, faces up to 90 days in jail if she's convicted in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Online court records didn't list an attorney for her and she didn't immediately respond to a voicemail message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
According to a criminal complaint, the feud began in August as Democrats were planning resolutions honoring Hispanic heritage and Hispanic veterans in observance of Hispanic Heritage Month in September.
Ortiz-Velez grew angry because she thought the legislator drafting the heritage resolution had intentionally excluded her from working on it. The legislator is not named in the complaint.
Ortiz-Velez had been invited to work on the resolution in June, chose not to participate, but still wanted to help draft the language, according to the complaint.
Ortiz-Velez contacted media outlets saying she'd been intentionally excluded from the resolution. She also told the resolution's author that she felt excluded from working on another resolution that same legislator was crafting honoring Hispanic veterans, saying her late husband was a Hispanic veteran.
Two more lawmakers — both unnamed in the complaint — told investigators that Ortiz-Velez told them in separate phone conversations that she was going to spread “negative personal information” about the resolutions' author to the media and that “they are going to do what I want them to do, or I'm going to x, y and z.”
When one of the lawmakers asked her what that meant, she made comments about the resolutions' author's personal life and other legislators. The complaint characterized those remarks as “indecent and tended to disrupt the good public order.”
The complaint did not elaborate on Ortiz-Velez's comments and offered no other specifics about the situation.
Democratic leaders issued a statement in September saying Ortiz-Velez had made a comment about shooting three caucus members. That statement came a day after another statement announcing that Ortiz-Velez was leaving the Democratic caucus. In interviews with the news website Wisconsin Right Now and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ortiz-Velez denied that she threatened her colleagues.
Ortiz-Velez won a third term representing central Milwaukee in November 2024. She told Wisconsin Right Now that she has endured years of “unacceptable, very vicious, vile and cruel” treatment from members of her caucus and that party leadership allowed it.
The Legislature's website still listed Ortiz-Velez's party affiliation as Democrat on Wednesday. Messages left with aides for Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer and Republican Speaker Robin Vos weren't returned.
FILE - A cyclist rides past the Wisconsin State Capitol July 30, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The FBI served search warrants Wednesday at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and the home of its leader, a former Superintendent of the Year who was knighted by Spain for his work.
The nature of the federal investigation involving the nation’s second-largest school district and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home was not immediately clear. The district said in a statement that it “is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time.” The FBI also searched a third location near Miami, where Carvalho previously led the public schools.
TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Carvalho’s home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown LA. There was no visible sign of agents outside the LA district's headquarters as of mid-morning.
Rukelt Dalberis, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, confirmed that agents were at the properties to serve warrants but declined to comment further because affidavits laying out details for the basis for the searches were under seal.
Before taking the helm of the Los Angeles district in 2022, Carvalho oversaw Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, from 2008 to 2021. During his tenure, he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance. The national superintendents association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014, and Spain knighted the Portugal-born administrator in 2021 for his work in expanding Spanish-language programs for Miami-Dade County schools.
In California, Carvalho has stood out as a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, especially following raids in Los Angeles last year. When its 500,000 students returned to classes in the fall, Carvalho urged immigration authorities not to conduct enforcement activity within a two-block radius of schools.
“I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world, regardless of my position today, if today I did not fight for those who find themselves in the same predicament I faced over 40 years ago when I arrived in this country at the age of 17 as an undocumented immigrant,” Carvalho said at a news conference last year.
Carvalho arrived in Los Angeles at a critical moment, as the district found itself flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief money but still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment. He previously sparred with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order that schools not require masks during the pandemic.
The Miami-Dade school system said in a statement that it was aware of the investigation involving Carvalho but did not have any comment at this time.
James Marshall, an FBI spokesman in Miami, told the AP that agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, which is in Broward County west of Fort Lauderdale, on Wednesday morning and “have since cleared the scene.” He said no further information was available.
Wednesday's search was the second time in a week the Justice Department has taken action against the LA school district. On Feb. 19, the Trump administration joined a lawsuit alleging that the district discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search, noting the public school system operates independently of city government.
__
Tucker reported from Washington and Watson from San Diego. Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, also contributed to this report.
The exterior of the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is shown on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
Media stage outside the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
The exterior of LAUSD headquarters is shown Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Media stage outside the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
outside the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
Photos of board members decorate the walls inside LAUSD headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The exterior of LAUSD headquarters is shown Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The exterior of LAUSD headquarters is shown Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
People stand in the lobby of the LAUSD headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Media stages outside LAUSD headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
FILE - Los Angeles District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, at podium, holds a news conference as SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, listen, in Los Angeles City Hall, Friday, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
