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Oct. 14, 2025 – A circuit court’s failure to instruct the jury to decide on each period of abandonment denied a mother due process protection of a five-sixths verdict, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals decided in

S. S. v. A. S.-P., No. 2024AP2532 (Sept. 23, 2025) (recommended for publication). The decision clarifies “unsettled law,” justifying reversal of the Brown County Circuit Court verdict for plain error. “When multiple periods of abandonment are alleged, that statute requires the jury

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Separate Abandonment Claims Require Separate Verdicts

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Oct. 14, 2025 – The statute setting requirements for recommitting an individual that the circuit court had conditionally released after a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect the Wisconsin Court of Appeals found unconstitutional in State v. ​Wilhite, No. 2024AP2177-CR (Sept. 25, 2025) (recommended for publication).

Due process requires a finding of dangerousness, explained Presiding Judge JoAnn F. Kloppenburg for the unanimous panel, including Judges Brian W. Blanchard and Jennifer E. Nashold.

The

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Dangerousness Necessary to Support Recommittal

When Your Child’s Bad Decisions Land You in Criminal Trouble
 Posted on October 08, 2025 in Criminal Defense
For many parents, watching a child grow into independence is thrilling and terrifying at the same time. You hope they make good decisions, learn from mistakes, and get through adolescence and early adulthood with care.

But sometimes, even well-intentioned parents find themselves facing legal consequences because of their children’s reckless or illegal actions. In Milwaukee, this can happen in cases as…
Continue Reading When Your Child’s Bad Decisions Land You in Criminal Trouble

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In an effort to intensify their efforts against health care fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced on July 2, 2025, the creation of a DOJ-HHS False Claims Act (“FCA”) Working Group (the “Working Group”). While DOJ and HHS have a long history of collaborative work under the FCA, this initiative signals a heightened and coordinated focus on investigating and prosecuting health care fraud. The Working Group aims…
Continue Reading DOJ and HHS Intensify Health Care Fraud Action with FCA Enforcement Group

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Sept. 22, 2025 – Two state statutes that covered the same criminal act – one that required a mandatory minimum sentence – were not unconstitutional under federal and state precedent, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District I recently held in

State v. Kenyon, No. 2022AP2228-CR (Sept. 16, 2025) (recommended for publication). “[W]e find no case that stands for or even implicitly supports the proposition that a trial penalty is imposed when the State chooses to charge a defendant

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: No ‘Trial Penalty’ for Different Sentences in Similar Statutes

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Sept. 2, 2025 – A police request to enter an apartment to search for a missing child – when they really sought evidence of drug dealing – voided any consent that the defendant may have given, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin decided in U.S.A. v. Jose Angel Hernandez-Pineda, No. 25-CR-64 (Aug. 25, 2025), available at 2025 WL 2438683.

“In this case, the officers told Hernandez-Pineda that they needed to get into his home to

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Continue Reading U.S. District Court Suppresses Evidence: Police Ruse Defeats Voluntary Consent

Posted on August 31, 2025 in White Collar Crimes
White-collar prosecutions in Wisconsin can move quickly from investigation to indictment, and once charges are filed, the consequences can be very serious. Defendants often face not only prison time but also financial ruin and irreparable reputational damage; even the news of a criminal investigation can fuel major speculation and cause professional contacts to distance themselves.

While trials are an option, most local and federal white-collar cases end in negotiated resolutions.
Continue Reading Strategies for Negotiating White-Collar Plea Deals

In family law and divorce cases, it’s not uncommon for one parent to accuse the other of child abuse by filing a report with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). But, if DCFS later finds the allegations “unfounded,” can the accused parent sue for defamation?

The answer in Illinois is no. Reports of child abuse to DCFS are absolutely privileged. That means that even if the report is false—even deliberately false—it cannot be the basis of

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Continue Reading False Child Abuse Allegations and Defamation in Illinois: Can You Sue for aFalse DCFS Report?

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Aug. 18, 2025 – The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s (UW) removal of Madeline Krasno’s comments on its Facebook and Instagram posts violated the First Amendment because its policies were not reasonable or content-neutral, a 2-1 majority on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held in

Madeline Krasno v. Jennifer Mnookin, No. 22-3170 (Aug. 1, 2025).

“In short, [UW’s] inflexible and context-blind keyword filters do not reasonably further its ‘off-topic’ justification when there is no way

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: U.W.’s Blocking ‘Off Topic’ Comments Violated First Amendment

Operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant is a serious offense that can have serious penalties and other consequences. In most states, a first offense is a crime (usually a misdemeanor). In Wisconsin, a first offense is not a crime, but a civil traffic forfeiture. Nonetheless, even a first offense in Wisconsin has penalties and consequences that only make subsequent OWI’s in Wisconsin more harsh. A second offense OWI in Wisconsin is a misdemeanor (if

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Continue Reading Levels of OWI Offenses – From a First Offense to a Felony

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Aug. 12, 2025 – A mistrial based on a misunderstanding of Wisconsin’s
State v. Denny led to unconstitutional double jeopardy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held recently in

Mitchell D. Green v. Milwaukee County Circuit Court, No. 24-2980 (Aug. 1, 2025). The reversal of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin resulted in Green receiving the requested writ of habeas corpus, freeing him from retrial. “By relying on a mistake

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: No ‘Manifest Necessity’ for Mistrial Requires Reversal

Posted on July 31, 2025 in Criminal Defense
Drug diversion — the illegal distribution or misuse of prescription medications — has become a major focus for federal and state prosecutors in Wisconsin. When physicians are accused of diverting controlled substances, the consequences are severe and swift.

In Milwaukee, doctors under investigation for drug diversion often face not only criminal charges but also the potential loss of their medical license, DEA registration, and professional reputation.

At our Milwaukee-based firm, we…
Continue Reading What Are the Charges for Physicians Charged with Drug Diversion?

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July 29, 2025 – The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed that Luis A. Ramirez’s constitutional claim for a speedy trial violation failed, with five justices joining most of the majority opinion in

State v. Ramirez, 2025 WI 28 (June 27, 2025). “At  most, we could assign the State responsibility for 958 days of delay, caused by neutral reasons weighed against the State, but not heavily,” wrote Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley for the 5-2 majority opinion. “Ramirez waited 32 months

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Speedy Trial Not Violated After 46 months

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July 29, 2025 – Flight from domestic violence excused driving with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC) but not long enough as a defense when police stopped the victim, six Wisconsin Supreme Court justices agreed in State v. Stetzer, 2025 WI 34 (July 3, 2025).

“[T]he circuit court correctly required that all elements of the coercion defense be met for the entire duration of [Joan L.] Stetzer’s ongoing, otherwise-criminal act and considered Stetzer’s personal history when evaluating the reasonableness

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Coercion Defense Didn’t Last

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July 29, 2025 – The circuit court’s dismissal of a second conviction, which it reinstated after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed on the remaining guilty verdict, did not violate the defendants’ rights, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed in State v. Carl Lee McAdory, 2025 WI 30.

Five justices had one justification for upholding the conviction reinstatement while two others proposed to reverse precedent they said was inconsistent with the statute’s plain meaning.

“[W]e hold that the circuit

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Continue Reading State Supreme Court Upholds Reinstatement of Conviction in OWI Case

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July 29, 2025 – Although an administrative law judge (ALJ) found sufficient evidence of probation violations, a reversal satisfied the low bar of certiorari review, a 6-1 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded in

State ex rel. Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections (DOC) v. Brian Hayes, 2025 WI 35 (July 3, 2025). “In sum, we conclude that under the certiorari standard of review, the administrator’s decision must be upheld because it is supported by substantial

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Substantial Evidence Supports Reversal of Parole Revocation