Man charged with defaming Rebecca Dallet
MILWAUKEE - A 55-year-old St. Francis man used profane and defamatory language against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet during her successful campaign for the state Supreme Court, according to a criminal complaint.
Despite the partisan tone of the Supreme Court race, the language was prompted by the man’s anger over losing a case against a pet grooming school in 2016.
Joseph R. Wilke was charged with identity theft, a felony, and three counts of defamation, a misdemeanor. According to the criminal complaint: Dallet contacted investigators Nov. 13 to report harassing emails and profane and defamatory comments posted about Dallet on blogs and websites.
Dallet had previously ruled against Wilke in a civil case involving his complaint against a pet grooming school that failed him after five months of instruction and wouldn’t refund his tuition. An administrative judge had ruled against him earlier.
Of particular concern to Dallet: Wilke had used her campaign letterhead to send some of the defamatory allegations.
He sent the letter to the Wisconsin Justice Initiative, a legal affairs blog. In it, he pretended to be Dallet and wrote baseless allegations about her taking bribes and fixing cases.
On May 5, he had sent an email to faculty and staff of Marquette University Law School, calling for Dallet to be removed from the faculty.
The email was sent to more than 100 attorneys and staff members and accused Dallet of “shaking down litigants in her court for bribe checks” and using her “position to cheat the disabled in order to solicit bribes.”
On Aug. 22, he posted “vile and defamatory” comments about Dallet on the Facebook page of her opponent, Michael Screnock, whose campaign apparently refused to take them down. The posts repeatedly used a profane word to describe Dallet.
Two Milwaukee County circuit court judges have recused themselves from Wilke’s case. It is pending before Circuit Judge Pedro Colón, with a status hearing set for May 8.