Ex-judge to plead guilty in kid porn case
A former Milwaukee County Children’s Court judge has agreed to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges.
Brett Blomme, 38, who was elected in 2020, was arrested and charged in March with related charges in state court, and indicted in May by a federal grand jury in Madison. Though he was free on a signature bond in the state case, he’s been jailed since May following the federal indictment.
According to federal court records, Blomme has reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the two counts of the indictment. Each carries a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison plus five years of supervised release.
It was unclear Friday if a date has been set for Blomme to enter the guilty pleas.
He also agreed to not contest forfeiture of the iPhone prosecutors say he used to share the illegal images via the messaging app Kik while at his home in Cottage Grove, in Dane County.
The plea agreement would resolve the pending seven-count state court case against Blomme as well.
Blomme and his husband, who have two children, also own a home in Milwaukee, which Blomme used as a residence to run for circuit judge in spring 2020, when he defeated Paul Dedinksy, who had been appointed to the bench by outgoing Gov. Scott Walker.
Court records do not suggest the couple’s children are part of any of the illegal images.
In the investigation leading up to the state charges, detectives served search warrants at Blomme’s home in Cottage Grove, a friend’s house in Milwaukee and Blomme’s chambers at Children’s Court.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Blomme without pay shortly after he was arrested.
Blomme, who wasn’t practicing law at the time of his campaign, ran on a progressive reform platform.
“I saw the broken criminal justice system we have,” he said. “To begin to try to fix it, we need to elect people with different experience.”
A former assistant public defender in western Wisconsin, Blomme went to work for the AIDS Resource Center, now known as Vivent, and in 2017 became president and CEO of Cream City Foundation, which provides grant money to LGBTQ groups in the Milwaukee area.