Judges face consequences related to undocumented immigrants
Judges in New Mexico and Wisconsin are facing consequences allegedly tied to assisting undocumented immigrants.
A Wisconsin judge was suspended for one week by the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 27, after the public official tried to arrest a hospitalized defendant herself back in December 2021.
Dane County Judge Ellen Berz was suspended following a judicial conduct review panel’s suspension recommendation that said that Berz acted impulsively and without objectivity.
“We believe that the recommended seven-day suspension is of sufficient length to impress upon Judge Berz the necessity of patience, impartiality, and restraint in her work, and to demonstrate to the public the judiciary’s dedication to promoting professionalism among its members,” according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling obtained by USA TODAY.
Berz’s suspension comes on the heels of another state judge being suspended in Wisconsin.
The same state Supreme Court suspended Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan back in April after federal officials accused the judge of allegedly helping an immigrant avoid arrest by federal immigration authorities.
Both of Berz’s attorneys declined USA TODAY’s request for comment on May 27.
What did Judge Berz do?
According to a misconduct complaint filed by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission back in October, Berz was accused of treating people unprofessionally in the courtroom, failing to perform her duties without bias and failing to promote public confidence in a judge’s impartiality.
More specifically, the complaint references an incident that happened more than three years ago, back in December 2021. On that occasion, Berz was presiding over an operating-while-intoxicated case where the defendant did not show up to court.
When asked why the defendant was a no-show, his attorney told Berz that his client was in the hospital, the complaint said.
After learning where the defendant was hospitalized, Berz is said to have ordered her courtroom bailiff to arrest the defendant, but the bailiff could not leave the courtroom as they were “responsible for the security of the courtroom.”
Undeterred, Berz told those in the courtroom that she would go arrest the defendant herself and “if something happened to her when she went to pick up the defendant, that they would hear about it on the news,” the complaint said.
The complaint continued, saying that Berz left the courtroom for the hospital with the defendant’s attorney in the passenger seat. But the judge never made it to the hospital as the attorney talked Berz down from her decision by telling her “the trip was a bad idea, as the judge is to be the neutral decision maker in the case.”
According to the complaint, Berz returned to the courtroom and issued a warrant for the defendant’s arrest.
But that was not the only time Berz is alleged to have acted out of line. The same complaint said that during a child sexual assault case in 2019, Berz told the defendant that he was “playing games” as he asked to delay the start of his case for a second time.
“We’re not playing that game. So play the game with other people you’re with. Go to the prison and talk to them about all the games you can play. We’re done here,” Berz said, according to the complaint.
Fernando Cervante Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.