Judicial candidate says foe running racist campaign
Shelton acknowledges run-ins with law, others
To Danielle Shelton, her campaign for Milwaukee County circuit judge comes down to one thing:
Race.
Shelton chalks up most of her past run-ins with cops and private individuals to the “lived experience” of an African-American woman in southeastern Wisconsin.
Those include an arrest for disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer in 1991 after she and her boyfriend got into a heated argument on a sidewalk in Oconomowoc. She spent a night in jail and was convicted of one misdemeanor.
In 2011, Shelton accused a Shorewood police officer of a "personal vendetta against me and my family" and alleged 11 instances of harassment in a letter to police.
And, twice, the first-time judicial candidate was hit with requests for restraining orders by a neighbor and a friend of her daughter over outbursts she had with each. Both requests were denied, but she was ticketed for disorderly conduct in one of the incidents.
“This restraining order and the ticket I got out of this incident is about a racist neighbor (and) a racist cop attacking a black family in Shorewood,” Shelton said in a recent interview with the Journal Sentinel.
The neighbor in the case accused Shelton of calling him a pedophile “at the absolute top her lungs” several times during a five- or six-year period — though she claimed she made the baseless claim only once.
The Milwaukee County court commissioner who dismissed the request for a restraining order made it clear that he was unimpressed with Shelton: “To a certain degree, I agree with the (neighbor) that the respondent (Shelton) is some sort of a bully.”
And now Shelton — a 54-year-old public defender — is accusing her opponent, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Andrew Jones, of running a rac-
ist campaign because his allies are circulating material from these personal courtroom battles.
Shelton stopped just short of calling Jones racist. The two face off in the April election.
“If you’re running a racist campaign, what does that make you?” Shelton said in the interview.
If elected, she would be the third black female judge in the state.
Jones, who was appointed to the bench last year by then-Gov. Scott Walker, said he was running a positive campaign based “solely on my record as a lawyer and a judge.” He was the only candidate to apply for the vacant post last year.
Records show Jones gave two $50 donations to Walker, a Republican, and $500 to conservative Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley. But he also gave $500 to liberal Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet and smaller amounts to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and other Democrats.
Neither has raised a huge amount so far, but Jones has put $125,000 into his campaign account and Shelton just $5,500.
Both have multiple endorsements from Milwaukee County judges, but Jones has several more. Shelton is backed by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.
Asked repeatedlywhether his allies were circulating negative information about Shelton, Jones said, “I really have no idea about what she’s talking about or referring to.”
At least a half dozen of Jones' supporters have passed along information about her history to Journal Sentinel reporters. This story is based on federal and county public records that were obtained by the newspaper.
First run-in 'a learning experience'
Shelton’s first known run-in with law enforcement occurred in 1991 when she pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
A charge of obstructing an officer was dropped but was read into the record, according to a one-page record of the case.
All other court records have been destroyed.
Shelton said she was arrested after she and her boyfriend got into a what she described as a “heated discussion” on an Oconomowoc sidewalk. She was 26 at the time.
“Two black people standing on the sidewalk, having a discussion (and) being there too long — that’s going to draw attention (in Oconomowoc),” Shelton said of the mostly white Waukesha County city. “I don’t think two white people standing on the sidewalk, having a discussion, would draw attention in Oconomowoc.”
Shelton said when police arrived, she should have “de-escalated the situation” but failed to do so, leading to her arrest. "I wasn't cooperating," she said. Shelton was fined $180 and spent one night in jail.
The first-time candidate says she “wears” the experience.
“You know it’s very easy to be criminalized as a black person in this community, in a lot of communities in America,” Shelton said. “It was definitely a learning experience … that I’m very open with. I tell people about it and, you know, I'm not ashamed of it. My children know about it, my family knows about it … law firms that I’ve worked for know about it.”
Shelton said race was also a factor in the 2011 neighborhood dispute that ended with her being ticketed for disorderly conduct
“It was absolutely bizarre,” said Michael Slawnikowski, the neighbor who went to court asking for a restraining order banning Shelton from calling him a pedophile.
Shelton acknowledged that she called Slawnikowski a pedophile but said she did so only once in 2011. She said in the interview that “it was not the right thing to say.” But she did not totally back off the unsubstantiated allegation, saying she had some “concerns” about Slawnikowski.
She declined to elaborate. Slawnikowski declined to comment.
A check of records by the Journal Sentinel found nothing supporting the claim.
During the court hearing, Milwaukee County Court Commissioner William Honrath dismissed the case because Slawnikowski failed to establish a pattern of behavior. But the commissioner was highly critical of both sides.
"Is it any wonder that our community finds itself in the shape it’s in when people can’t even conduct themselves in a decent manner,” the commissioner said. “Epitaphs, name calling, vituperation, police involvement. Who would want to live in such an environment?”
As for the disorderly conduct case tied to the incident, Shelton took the matter to trial because, she said, she wanted “to be heard.” But she lost and was fined $177, which she paid. No other details are available.
About a month after the incident, Shelton filed her complaint with police detailing what she said were incidents of police harassment. The complaint sparked an internal investigation that has since been resolved, Shorewood Police Chief Peter A. Nimmer said.
In 2013, Katelyn Roach, a one-time friend of one of Shelton’s daughters, also unsuccessfully sought a restraining order against Shelton.
'She got into my face'
Roach, 26, asked for the order after Shelton supposedly confronted Roach at her workplace, a CVS pharmacy.
“She got into my face and started yelling loudly, taunting me and telling everyone in the line that I was racist,” Roach wrote in her request for a restraining order.
In an interview, Roach acknowledged that she had used the racial epitaph about a year earlier in a Facebook fight with Shelton's daughter. Shelton’s campaign later provided the Journal Sentinel with a copy of that Facebook post.
“I let her know: ‘You don’t call people (the n-word),’” Shelton said. She said she didn’t raise her voice and that no one else at the pharmacy heard the exchange.
In a pre-emptive strike this week, Shelton’s campaign sent an email to supporters, saying, “I’m being attacked for being a victim of targeted harassment and racism.”
In her interview with the Journal Sentinel, Shelton said race was a common thread running through all these incidents.
As for those who accuse her of using the race card, she responded, “I’m unapologetically black. When things happen in your life as a black person you want to believe that it’s something else but you sometimes can’t be sure.”