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A public reprimand — the lightest punishment possible — is appropriate because Justice Annette Ziegler has taken steps to avoid similar mistakes and did not benefit from her actions, the three-judge panel said.
The panel said Ziegler mishandled 11 cases involving a bank where her husband was a paid director when she was a judge in Washington County, north of Milwaukee. Ziegler should have recused herself or disclosed the potential conflict of interest to the parties even though she reached the correct result in each case, it said.
“Given her knowledge of her husband’s relationships with the Bank, red flags of danger were prominently flying,” the panel wrote in a 27-page decision. “Justice Ziegler did not see them.”
Ziegler’s colleagues on the seven-member court will now decide whether to accept the recommendation. If they do, it will mark the first time the court has disciplined a sitting justice.
The panel rejected arguments from some outside groups and individuals that Ziegler be suspended or removed from the bench.
That discipline would be inconsistent with the state’s previous treatment of judges, the panel said, noting one judge was reprimanded after beating his wife. Another judge who repeatedly lied that he was up-to-date on his caseload was suspended for 15 days for misconduct the panel called far more severe.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a watchdog group that filed the complaint against Ziegler, said a reprimand was too weak and called on the court to suspend Ziegler.
“I think it’s an unfortunate recommendation,” executive director Mike McCabe said. “It creates the appearance that judges are taking care of their own and that judges are unwilling to discipline other judges. That sends a terrible message to the public and the legal community.”
The high court created the special panel to hear the allegations against Ziegler and asked Appeals Court Chief Judge Richard Brown to appoint its members. He tapped Appeals Court Judges Ralph Adam Fine, Charles Dykman and Ted Wedemeyer.
The allegations of misconduct came to light during last year’s campaign in which Ziegler defeated Madison lawyer Linda Clifford to win a 10-year seat on the court. After the election, Ziegler acknowledged violating a state ethics law and paid a $5,000 forfeiture plus $12,000 in costs under a settlement with the Ethics Board.
The Judicial Commission launched a separate investigation into whether she committed judicial misconduct and should face discipline. The commission and Ziegler’s attorney each recommended that she be reprimanded during a hearing in front of the panel last fall.
In its decision Thursday, the panel agreed a reprimand is sufficient punishment in large part because Ziegler and her family did not personally benefit from her involvement in the cases.
She also has made arrangements to ensure she never sees case materials involving West Bend Savings Bank as long as her husband, a real estate developer, continues to be paid $20,000 a year to serve on its board of directors, the panel noted.
In addition, Ziegler reached the correct legal result in each case involving the bank, the panel said.
Her actions included ordering a customer to repay the bank $46,425, granting the bank’s requests to repossess vehicles from people who owed money and ordering a foreclosure of an abandoned property. The cases were between 2001, when her husband joined the bank, and last year. She had been a Washington County judge since 1997.
Ziegler, 43, treated the parties fairly and none of them has tried to reopen their cases, the panel said.
“Had Justice Ziegler recused herself from the eleven cases, any judge would have made the same decisions Justice Ziegler made,” the panel wrote.
