Wisconsin regulators file complaint against judge who left court to arrest a hospitalized defendant

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin judicial regulators have filed a misconduct complaint against a Dane County judge who allegedly left court to try to arrest a hospitalized defendant and got into an argument with a defendant in a child sexual assault case.

The state Judicial Commission filed the complaint against Ellen Berz on Thursday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The state Supreme Court on Friday ordered Maxine White, chief judge of the state appellate courts, to set up a judicial panel to review the complaint and make discipline recommendations to the justices.

According to the complaint, Berz was presiding over an operating-while-intoxicated case in December 2021. The defendant did not show up in court on the day the trial was set to begin. His attorney told Berz that the defendant had been admitted to a hospital.

Berz had a staff member investigate and learned that he was in a Sun Prairie emergency room. The judge tried to order her bailiff to leave the courthouse and go arrest him, but she was told the bailiff couldn’t leave, according to the complaint.

She then declared that she would retrieve the defendant herself and if something happened to her people would hear about it on the news, according to the complaint. She then left court and began driving to the emergency room with the defendant’s attorney in the passenger seat, the complaint says. No prosecutor was present in the vehicle.

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She eventually turned around after the defense attorney warned her that traveling to the hospital was a bad idea because she was supposed to be the neutral decision-maker in the case, according to the complaint. She went back into court and issued a warrant for the defendant’s arrest.

The complaint also alleges that she told a defendant in a child sexual assault case who had asked to delay his trial for a second time that he was playing games and he should “go to the prison and talk to them about all the games you can play.”

When the defendant said that her sarcasm was clear, she told him: “Good. I thought it would be. That’s why I’m saying it to you that way, because I thought you would relate with that.”

The complaint accuses Berz of violating state Supreme Court rules that require judges to act in such a way that promotes public confidence in judicial impartiality, treats people they deal with professionally with patience, dignity and courtesy and perform their duties without bias.

It wasn’t clear if Berz has an attorney. The complaint was addressed to attorney Steven Caya, but it does not say who he represents and Caya did not return a phone message that The Associated Press left at his office on Friday afternoon.

Berz’s judicial assistant said Friday that the judge would not comment on pending litigation. The assistant declined to identify herself.