Winnebago County judge suspended for seven days for misconduct
OSHKOSH - A circuit court judge in Winnebago County will be suspended without pay for seven days after the Wisconsin Supreme Court found his misconduct “to be serious and to have a significant detrimental impact on the public’s view of the judiciary.”
Winnebago County Judge Scott Woldt used “undignified, discourteous and disrespectful language unbecoming of a judge” and showed “an open disregard of (his) obligation to observe the public in a fair, reasoned, impartial and courteous way,” the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a decision released Tuesday morning.
“We conclude that a short suspension is necessary in this situation to assure the members of the public that judges will treat them with dignity, fairness and respect when they enter the courtrooms of this state,” the court’s ruling says.
Woldt, who has been a Winnebago County judge since 2004, will begin serving his suspension Aug. 2. The Wisconsin Judicial Commission first filed a complaint against Woldt in June 2020.
The commission’s complaint was related to six incidents, including one in which Woldt showed a handgun to a group of high school students during a “Government Day” visit to his courtroom.
Woldt showed his handgun to the students “when responding to a student question about courthouse security generally,” the court’s ruling says, but “the question did not ask him whether he carried a firearm and no one asked him to display a gun.”
Woldt’s misconduct in a few of the incidents had to do with his interactions with crime victims who appeared in his courtroom, including when he told a victim of domestic violence: “I’m just sick and tired of victims coming in here and they call the cops when they need ’em but then later they come and say, ‘Oh, no, this person’s an angel.’ I’m sick and tired of hearing it.”
In a different case, Woldt described a 13-year-old victim of sexual assault as the “so-called victim” — a comment Woldt “deeply regrets,” according to his reply to the commission’s complaint.
Woldt held up a handgun he was legally carrying at a sentencing hearing for a defendant convicted of a stalking charge who “suffered from substantial cognitive deficiencies,” telling him, “You’re lucky you’re not dead because if you would have come into my house, I keep my gun with me and you’d be dead, plain and simple.”
Woldt admitted to the facts of each of the incidents in question, but disagreed with the way the incidents were characterized and questioned why these issues were being raised now, years after the fact. The incidents took place between 2009 and 2016.
The court’s ruling acknowledged that Woldt has “an extended period of service” as a judge, that there haven’t been any prior formal complaints about his conduct and five years have passed since the last incident.
“We remind him and the other judges in this state that how justice is dispensed is often just as important as the substance of the legal ruling,” the court’s ruling says.
A partial dissent written by Justice Rebecca Bradley and joined by Justice Patience Roggensack argues the majority’s attitude toward Woldt’s display of a handgun suggests “it considers the display of a firearm offensive.”
“I dissent from the majority insofar as it disciplines (Woldt) for his displays of a firearm and innocuous statements, which may have offended the sensibilities of three justices, but undoubtedly did not violate the Wisconsin Judicial Code Conduct,” Bradley wrote.
Two justices, Annette Ziegler and Brian Hagedorn, did not participate in the decision.
Despite the dissent, the ruling notes “the participating justices are unanimous that a seven-day suspension is the proper level of discipline to impose in this proceeding.”