Judges face consequences related to undocumented immigration
New Mexico and Wisconsin judges face consequences that have allegedly been linked to supporting undocumented immigrants.
A Wisconsin judge was suspended for a week by the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 27th, after a civil servant tried to arrest a defendant who was hospitalized in December 2021.
Dane County Judge Ellen Bertz was suspended following a recommendation from the Judicial Action Review Examiner.
“We believe that the recommended seven-day suspension is long enough to impress Judge Belz with the need for patience, fairness and restraint.
The Belz stops come just after another state judge who is suspended in Wisconsin.
The same state Supreme Court suspended Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in April after federal officials accused a judge who allegedly avoided arrest by federal immigration authorities.
Both Berz’s attorneys declined to USA’s request for comment today on May 27th.
What did Judge Belz do?
According to a complaint of misconduct filed by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission in October, Belz was accused of treating people unprofessionally in court and failing to carry out his duties without prejudice, and did not promote public confidence in the judge’s impartiality.
More specifically, the complaint refers to an incident that took place in December 2021 more than three years ago. On that occasion, Belz was primarily on toxic cases if the defendant did not appear in court.
When asked why the defendant was a no-show, his lawyer told Belz that his client was in the hospital, the complaint said.
After learning where the defendant was hospitalized, Belz allegedly ordered the court enforcement officer to arrest the defendant, but the enforcer was unable to leave the court as he was “head of the court’s safety.”
Not deterred, Bertz arrested the accused in court and “If anything happens when you go and pick up the accused, you’ll hear about it on the news,” the complaint said.
The complaint continued, saying that Belz had left court for the hospital with the defendant’s lawyer in the passenger seat. However, the judge did not reach the hospital as he spoke of Belz from her decision, “Traveling is a bad idea because the judge is a neutral decision maker in the case.”
According to the complaint, Belz returned to court and issued a warrant for the defendant’s arrest.
But that wasn’t the only thing that Belz was said to have fallen out of the line. According to the same complaint, during a 2019 child sexual assault case, Belz told the defendant he was “playing a game” when he asked him to delay the start of the second case.
“We don’t play that game, so we play it with other people. We go to prison and talk about all the games we can play. It’s finished here,” Berz said according to the complaint.
Fernando Cervante Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA Today. Contact him at fernando.cervantes @gannett.com and follow him at x @fern_cerv_.
