Wisconsin Judicial Commission gets a new leader

Source: Milwaukee Journal SentinelAug.迷你倉出租 01--MADISON -- The state agency that investigates judges for ethics violations is getting a new director at a time when a case against one state Supreme Court justice is stalled.Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Jeremiah Van Hecke on Aug. 28 will take over as executive director of the state Judicial Commission, the commission announced Thursday. He will replace Jim Alexander, who has headed the agency since 1990.The appointment comes as the commission waits to see how the Supreme Court responds to the ethics case it filed against Justice David Prosser for putting his hands on the neck of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley during a June 2011 argument. Prosser says he briefly put his hands on Bradley's neck when he put them out in defense when Bradley charged at him and that he did not violate any ethics rules. Bradley denies that she charged Prosser.Bradley and three other justices have recused themselves from the case, and Prosser has said he will not participate in it. That leaves just two members of the court on the case -- Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice N. Patrick Crooks -- but ordinarily at least four justices are needed to take action in a case.Some argue there are ways the case could proceed; others say it is dead.The commission also must decide what to do with a complaint that儲存倉Justice Michael Gableman violated ethics rules by receiving legal services from Michael Best & Friedrich that he did not pay for and then acting on cases the firm worked on. The legal services were provided during a prior ethics investigation of Gableman over a campaign ad. The Supreme Court split 3-3 in that case on whether Gableman violated ethics rules.The commission has not said whether it would pursue the complaint.The commission consists of nine members -- five appointed by the governor and four appointed by the Supreme Court. Gov. Scott Walker's appointees became a majority of the commission last year.Walker made some of the appointments at the behest of John Gard, a voucher schools lobbyist who is a former Assembly speaker and worked for Prosser when Prosser was in the Legislature. Gard told an aide to Walker that he had found people for the commission who were "fiercely conservative" and "will never wimp out."Alexander, 67, said Thursday he was not asked to leave."At some point in your career, you have to say it's time to retire and that's what happened," he said.Alexander makes about $82,000 a year, and Van Hecke will make the same amount.Twitter: twitter.com/patrickdmarleyCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at .jsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉沙田