Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office on June 13, 2011, a day before the Court’s decision upholding a bill to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bradley said: “The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold.”
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story is not the alleged assault but the fact that an incident pf workplace violence was shrouded in secrecy for almost two weeks, until Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism published a story based upon anonymous sources. Why was it necessary for anonymous sources to disclose that one of Wisconsin’s high court judges had allegedly assaulted a fellow justice? Where is the transparency?
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism on June 25, 2011 quoted “at least three knowledgeable sources” who declined to be named but said, “other sources have offered a conflicting account. Justice Prosser has declared that the claims, once investigated, will be ‘proven false.’”
There are competing versions of the incident. The Journal also quoted a source who said Prosser made incidental contact with Bradley’s neck as he put up his hands in a defensive posture as Bradley rushed toward him “with fists up.”
The Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct involving judges, was informed of the alleged assault. However, a spokesman for the Commission said he could neither confirm nor deny whether the commission, which was informed of the incident, will investigate.
Judge Prosser’s judicial temperament was called into question earlier this year:
In March, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that, in a disagreement over a case last year, Justice Prosser, 68, had called Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a “total bitch” and threatened to “destroy” her. Prosser, the paper reported, confirmed making the remarks, saying he “probably overreacted” while accusing Justices Abrahamson and Bradley of being “masters at deliberately goading people into perhaps incautious statements.”
Note: On July 7, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Reagan granted Aarons’ motion to reduce the compensatory damages award for Alford’s Title VII sexual harassment claim pursuant to the statutory cap from $4 million to $300,000.00 and the Court vacated the $50 million punitive damages award. Title VII authorizes the award of both compensatory and punitive damages but provides a cap on the total amount of damages recoverable based on employer size. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a. Reagan states in his opinion: “The Court notes that this remittitur results solely from the statutory cap and is not an expression of the Court’s opinion or the reasonableness of the jury verdict as to Count XII.”