Federal Judge in Milwaukee Says No to New Criminal Cases
After a high-profile spat with prosecutors, a federal judge in Milwaukee has apparently decided not to take any more criminal cases.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller hasn’t accepted any new criminal assignments for a month, and has recused himself in some—but not all—of his current criminal cases, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
This spring, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee complained to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Stadtmueller had showed bias in a gun case. This was the latest in a series of skirmishes between the judge and the office, which he himself ran for six years in the 1980s, the newspaper reports.
The judge’s unusual refusal to accept criminal cases may be unprecedented, says former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson, who now teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
“I have never heard of it happening before,” she tells the newspaper, adding “This is what comes with life tenure.”
Stadtmueller’s refusal to take on new criminal assignments is troubling, she tells the newspaper, because it increases the caseload for his colleagues on the federal bench in Wisconsin.
The situation has sparked speculation that court administrators may step in, the Journal-Sentinel reports. U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert, who is to take office as chief judge next month, declines to speculate about what action he might take. However, “I can assure you the court will be managed as necessary,” he says.
