Chief Judge Mary Triggiano reported that Milwaukee County Circuit Court is emerging from the pandemic, and the public and justice system participants can look forward to the future with optimism.

The misdemeanor court backlog is gone, and 475 jury trials have taken place since July 2020. Although “it was no cake walk,” the court’s commitment to public health and safety allowed the court to reopen more quickly than other courts around the state, she said.

Triggiano gave a state-of-the-court address at the Milwaukee Bar Association’s luncheon meeting on Wednesday, October 12.

“Sometimes things worked out” but other times the court “had to go back to the drawing board,” she said.

She called the pilot misdemeanor night court run by Judge Christopher Dee a success and noted the addition of multiple felony courts to address the felony court backlog, with reserve judges and court reporters hired using extra funding. Milwaukee County’s felony backlog still makes up about 12% of the backlog statewide, she said.

She thanked Deputy Chief Judges Judge William Pocan and Carl Ashley for their assistance in guiding the court through the pandemic while managing their own caseloads. She also thanked Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Maxine Aldridge White “for always taking [her] phone calls” and providing advice.

Triggiano indicated that despite the court’s best efforts, the public health crisis took a toll on court staff, causing a wave of resignations and retirements. In addition, the court is impacted by the shortage of defense attorneys available for appointment by the State Public Defender.

However, recent funding has allowed for the hiring of eight law clerks for the civil division. The court has received a grant for an eviction diversion coordinator. And Triggiano and Clerk of Court George Christenson worked on a budget that increases staff pay to attract and keep high-quality employees.

The court also plans to expand its mental health court, she said.

Following Trigginao’s talk a panel of three judges answered questions about the court’s adoption of videoconferencing for court proceedings.

Judge Jane Carroll indicated that videoconferencing “is here to stay” and was one good thing that came out of the pandemic. The court now needs to figure out how to best incorporate it going forward, she said.

Judge David Feiss remarked that virtual proceedings have made the court rethink its operations. For instance, criminal court had often held “cattle calls” with many cases given the same time for appearance and a full courtroom waiting for cases to be called, he said. Virtual proceedings caused a shift to staggered schedules, which “has improved the quality of the services we provide,” he said.

Judge Kevin Martens noted that virtual proceedings may have increased access for some self-represented parties who previously faced challenges in getting to the courthouse.

Martens was chief of the civil division during the pandemic and estimated that the length of time civil cases took to resolve probably doubled during the pandemic. However, even though resources may have been taken from the civil division to help the criminal division tackle the backlog there, the pandemic impacted the civil division less than the criminal division because many civil hearings could easily move to a virtual format.

Carroll echoed that comment. Because the family division does not hold jury trials and rarely involves someone in custody, that court was able to move very quickly to virtual proceedings, she said.

Martens indicated that when jury trials returned to the courthouse the entire civil division was allowed only one civil trial per week. That number is now up to four trials per week, he said.

​On July 20, Anna Hodges and George Christenson, the Democrat candidates running for Milwaukee County Clerk of Court, joined us to talk about their resumes and answer questions from attendees. Topics ranged from general matters such as the candidates' plans for the office if elected to specifics on divorce judgments, e-filing, and traffic cases.

Voters will choose between Hodges and Christenson in the primary election on August 9. Because no Republican is running, the winner of the primary is expected to win in November as well.

If you missed the Salon, or if you want to watch or listen again, click on the image below to view the recording.

​Recordings of this and several past Salons are also available on WJI's YouTube channel here.

On Tues., Aug. 2, at noon, WJI will hold a virtual candidate forum with the three Democrat candidates for Milwaukee County Sheriff. You can register for that event here.

By Gretchen Schuldt

A County Board committee has recommended, 3-1, rejecting a proposal to support minimum bail for some people charged with crimes.

Instead, the Intergovernmental Relations Committee unanimously recommended the state adopt a program similar to New Jersey's, which allows preventive detention of people who have been found by a validated risk-assessment tool to pose a significant danger to the community, and allows release of defendants charged with less serious and non-violent offenses. 
 
County Supervisor Patti Logsdon sought support for bills in the legislature that would require a minimum $5,000 bail for anyone accused of a crime who had previously been convicted of bail jumping and a $10,000 bail for anyone accused of a violent misdemeanor or any felony.

"These people – they're not following the law," Logsdon told the Intergovernmental Relations Committee. 

"If you have a felony conviction in the past, you should have a bail set...They need to be put in our jail or House of Correction until we find the facts of it," Logsdon said.

She said existence of the minimum bails could also be "a good consideration for them to think before they do the crime."

If Darrell Brooks Jr. had not been released from the Milwaukee County Jail on $1,000 bail, she said, the six people he allegedly killed in the Waukesha parade tragedy "would still be with us."

Committee members agreed, as has District Attorney John Chisholm, that Brooks should not have been released.

Supervisor Anthony Staskunas said he believed the resolution supporting the New Jersey program would be a better way to deal with pre-trial defendants and any threat they may pose. That resolution was introduced by Supervisors Shawn Rolland, Ryan Clancy, and Willie Johnson Jr.

"These people aren't convicted of anything yet," Staskunas said. "They're presumed innocent."

The minimum-bail proposals, he said, are "unfunded mandates to stuff our House of Correction and stuff our jail when we don't have any room and not give us any money to do anything."

Clancy, who is not a committee member, spoke against Logsdon's proposal at the meeting, noting the need to look at data and "what actually works, rather than what feels like justice."

"I understand the desire for justice in this case (the Waukesha parade tragedy) in particular as well as in others, but this resolution does not get us closer to justice, but to vengeance," he said. The "people of Milwaukee County deserve safety, not punitive retribution." 

"Higher bails do not keep us safe," Mia Noel, founder and director of the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, told the committee. "They keep poor people in jail for months," she said. "Additionally, it costs Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars a year to keep poor people in jail."

Johnson was the only committee member to support Logsdon's resolution. Supervisors Joseph Czarnezki, who is committee chair and a WJI Board member, Staskunas, and Sequanna Taylor opposed it.

By Gretchen Schuldt

The Milwaukee County Board on Monday unanimously approved establishing a program to provide defense counsel to indigent defendants accused of violating county ordinances.

The measure, introduced by Supervisors Joseph Czarnezki and Ryan Clancy, picked up 11 additional sponsors during Monday's meeting. They were Board Chair Marcelia Nicholson, and Supervisors Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, Eddie Cullen, Russell Antonio Goodwin Sr., Jason Haas, Willie Johnson, Jr., Patti Logsdon, Felesia Martin, Shawn Rolland, Steven Shea, and  Sequanna Taylor.

Czarnezki, during the Board discussion, noted that the county put significant resources into writing tickets, prosecuting their recipients, and collecting forfeiture amounts owed. Yet defendants are expected to represent themselves in court without assistance if they cannot afford it, he said. (Full disclosure: Czarnezki is a WJI Board member.)

Approving the pilot is a small thing the county can do to improve justice and equity in the county, he said.

"By providing funding for legal counsel for indigent individuals, County Board members showed they believe in justice for the most vulnerable in our community," he said after the meeting.

The 17-0 vote came during the County Board's deliberations on the 2022 county budget. The budget still must be approved by County Executive David Crowley.

By Gretchen Schuldt

A Milwaukee County Board committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended establishing a program to provide defense counsel to indigent defendants accused of violating county ordinances.

The county pays for sheriff's deputies to write tickets, lawyers to prosecute the cases, and agencies to collect overdue payments of forfeitures levied as a result, Supervisor Joseph Czarnezki, a sponsor of the measure, told the Finance Committee. (Full disclosure: Czarnezki is a WJI Board member.) Yet defendants are expected to represent themselves, even if they don't understand what is going on in the courtroom or how to proceed.

"This is not what I would call justice," Czarnezki said.

Under the proposed 2022 budget amendment, co-sponsored by Supervisor Ryan Clancy, the corporation counsel's office would seek proposals for a contract attorney to represent the defendants. The $50,000 program would be a pilot, and data would be collected to help determine if it should be continued.

The program would be patterned after one operated by Legal Action of Wisconsin that provides defense lawyers for indigent defendants in Milwaukee Municipal Court, which hears cases involving city ordinances.

While indigent defendants in criminal cases are provided with publicly-funded lawyers, poor people accused of ordinance violations are not provided with lawyers because the violations are considered civil, not criminal, matters. Generally, those wanting legal representation ordinance cases must hire their own lawyers.

State law mandates that people arrested for certain ordinance violations, such as controlled substance offenses or some gambling cases, have their personal and arrest information entered into the state's criminal database, where it is available to potential employers, colleges,  landlords, or anyone else with the $7 fee to get it, Czarnezki said. While those who are never actually charged or who are acquitted can request that their information be removed from the database, most people don't know how to go about doing that.

A lawyer, Czarnezki said, can help clients negotiate the court process. remind them about court dates, help them with payment plans, and help get records removed from the state database.

As a matter of equity, he said, "I think this is something we should do."

Clancy, who sponsored unsuccessful measures to reallocate some Sheriff's Department funding, said that having fewer deputies making arrests would be best, but the attorney resolution is "the second-best way to go."