Winnebago County Judge Woldt says he 'accepted responsibility' for 2021 suspension from state Supreme Court as he seeks reelection

OSHKOSH – A Winnebago County Circuit Court judge who received a rare suspension from Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2021 is facing his first contested election since he was appointed to his position.

Scott Woldt, who was appointed to the bench in 2004, ran unopposed in 2011 and 2017 races. But that will change in April, when he faces an election challenge from LaKeisha Haase, a private practice attorney whom Gov. Tony Evers first appointed to the Winnebago County Circuit Court from December 2020 to April 2022.

This is also Woldt's first reelection bid since he received a seven-day suspension without pay by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2021 because of misconduct the court deemed "to be serious and to have a significant detrimental impact on the public's view of the judiciary."

The Wisconsin Supreme Court in July 2021 released a decision suspending Woldt, saying the judge used "undignified, discourteous and disrespectful language unbecoming of a judge" and showed "an open disregard of (his) obligation to observe the public in a fair, reasoned, impartial and courteous way." His suspension started Aug. 2, 2021.

In an email response to the Oshkosh Northwestern, Woldt said he learned a lot from his experience with the suspension, and he was looking to move forward.

"I accepted responsibility for my actions and have continued looking forward to my service to the community and taxpayers of Winnebago County,” Woldt said.

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Judicial suspensions are rare in Wisconsin. According to data from the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, only 15 judges have been suspended in the state from 1978 to 2021.

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission first filed a complaint against Woldt in June 2020. The complaint from the commission was based on six incidents that took place from 2009 to 2016, including showing a gun to a group of high school students during a "Government Day" visit.

Woldt said those high school students asked him about security in the courthouse and if he felt safe. Woldt said at the time, there was "no security and 17 unmonitored entrances" at the courthouse. Woldt said he had a concealed-carry permit and firearm training, and showed the students the gun after safely unloading the gun, telling them he felt he had "no choice but to protect himself."

Woldt said no one "screamed" or "ran for the doors," and it was only brought up again in the complaint five years later.

Additionally, Woldt said the Winnebago County Board has since approved securing the courthouse, and he no longer carries a gun with him to the bench.

The complaint also detailed an incident in which Woldt held up a handgun he was legally carrying at a sentencing hearing for a defendant convicted of a stalking charge. Woldt told the defendant who "suffered from substantial cognitive deficiencies" he was lucky he was not dead because "if you would have come into my house, I keep my gun with me and you'd be dead, plain and simple," according to the complaint.

According to the complaint, when he showed the handgun, Woldt removed it from a holster beneath his robe, ejected a loaded magazine, racked the slide to eject a bullet from the chamber, then showed the gun as a "prop" to the people in his courtroom. Although the gun was not loaded, the court ruling said he did not state that fact to the others in the room.

In a different case, the complaint said Woldt described a 13-year-old victim of sexual assault as the "so-called victim." Woldt said at the time he was investigated he "deeply regret(ted)" those comments.

At the time, Woldt agreed the allegations from the complaint were true, but disagreed with the way the incidents were characterized and questioned why these issues were being raised years after the incidents took place.

Woldt told the Northwestern on March 15 that when these incidents took place eight years ago — three of the six incidents in the complaint came in a one-week span in 2015 — he "had some personal matters going on in my life," which he said led to him being "not a very nice person in that time of my life."

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Woldt said he was wrong for taking his pain out on others at the time, but since then he has "strived to be a better person."

"I do not believe these five cases, out of the more than 30,000 I have handled, are an accurate reflection of who I am," he said.

Haase, who is running against Woldt, became the first Black judge to serve in Winnebago County when she was appointed by Evers. She was later defeated by Mike Gibbs in the April 2022 election.

Haase's campaign did not respond to repeated requests from the Northwestern for an interview prior to publication, but she referenced Woldt's misconduct during a voter forum held by the League of Women's Voters March 1.

After the panel directed a question to both Haase and Woldt about how they would handle child sexual assault cases, Haase ended her response by referencing one incident from the complaint that led to Woldt's suspension, saying she would "never in the history of me being a judge today, tomorrow or moving forward, would I ever refer to a child sex assault victim as a 'so-called victim.'

"Judges have to hold decorum (in the courtroom)," Haase said at the forum. "You cannot expect anyone to come into a court room for decorum if you aren't doing it yourself."

Contact Bremen Keasey at 920-570-5614 or bkeasey@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Keasinho.

This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Winnebago County Judge Woldt has 'learned a lot' from 2021 suspension