Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser will not be charged after a special prosecutor found a lack of evidence to support fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s claim that Prosser put her in a “chokehold” in a confrontation in her chambers. Four other justices were in the room at the time of the incident.
The incident between Bradley and Prosser took place in mid-June after Prosser’s contentious, but successful, reelection bid against JoAnne Kloppenburg. As the collective bargaining legislation initiated by Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., headed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Prosser’s reelection campaign devolved into a referendum on the law. Pro-union groups hope to replace Prosser, known as a conservative justice, with the liberal Kloppenburg and thus shift the court from 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority.
Bradley, one of the liberal justices, said at the time that Prosser engaged in “abusive behavior:”
The special prosecutor disagreed:
Prosser blasted Bradley, who says she is still concerned about “workplace safety,” in his statement on the special prosecutor’s findings:
“I was confident the truth would come out – and it did. I am gratified that the prosecutor founds these scurrilous charges were without merit.”
