J.B. VAN HOLLEN
ATTORNEY GENERAL

Standing Up For Public Safety in the Wisconsin Supreme Court

As Attorney General, my role is often to assist those on the front lines of crime fighting.  This means support from a number of Department of Justice operations, including investigative support from the Division of Criminal Investigation or State Crime Lab.  It also means support in the courtroom. 

Identifying and arresting offenders is only the first step in the criminal justice system.  Local law enforcement is on the front line in responding to criminal incidences and conducting most criminal investigations in Wisconsin.  The second step is prosecuting offenders.  The majority of criminal prosecutions at the state level are advanced by district attorneys’ offices.  Together, police and prosecutors are critical front-line crime fighters.

The third step in the criminal justice system is making sure charges with legal merit can be tried and that convictions already obtained are upheld.  My office represents the State in felony appeals, whether the matter is a defendant’s appeal from a conviction or our affirmative request to review a circuit court’s dismissal of a charge or the suppression of key evidence.  Our role is not only to preserve convictions, but also to support appropriate law enforcement techniques when those techniques are the subject of a constitutional challenge.

Recently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded its most recent term.  During the term, the Attorney General’s office achieved significant victories in cases that upheld convictions or enabled a criminal prosecution to move forward.  Some of these cases involved the conduct of law enforcement in connection with a criminal investigation.  Others involved a prosecutor’s discretion to charge certain crimes based on a defendant’s conduct.  I believe these decisions properly balanced individual rights with public safety – and the safety of responding officers. 

During this term, my office achieved a number of significant public safety victories.  The following are just some of those successes this Supreme Court term:

• State v. Hambly:  Court rules confession of accused drug trafficker is admissible where defendant initially invoked right to counsel and then reinitiated contact with police. 
• State v. Ronald Schaefer:  Court rejects arguments made by alleged child molester and rules that defendants are not entitled to copies of the police reports prior to a preliminary hearing. This decision should minimize premature discovery burdens on law enforcement agencies.
• State v. Quintana:  Court agrees that striking a victim in the head is conduct covered by criminal mayhem statute and, in a victory for school safety, holds that the school penalty zone enhancer could be constitutionally charged.
• State v. Duchow:  Court rules that audio tape of threatening statements made by a bus driver to a disabled minor passenger could be admitted at trial in case charging the defendant with physical abuse of a child.  The parents, suspecting the abuse, had placed the tape recorder in the child’s backpack.
• State v. Keith Davis:   Court rules that statements made by accused child molester to police shortly after taking a lie detector test could be used at trial where the interrogation does not make reference to the lie detector test and occurs in a different room from where the test was conducted.
• State v. Grunke:  Court rules that Wisconsin’s sexual assault statute, which by its terms applies whether a victim is dead or alive, criminalizes necrophilia.
• State v. Ramon Lopez Arias:  Court rules that dog sniffs performed during a traffic stop are not “searches” within the meaning of the state and federal constitutions.  Drug sniffing dogs have been a tremendous asset in our fight against drug trafficking, and this decision affirms their appropriate use.
• State v. Sumner:  Court rules that a fifteen minute delay between a traffic stop and a protective frisk – during which time the defendant’s behavior increasingly gave rise to a reasonable suspicion he was armed – does not automatically render a frisk invalid.  During the frisk, heroin fell to the ground.  The decision supports law enforcement taking reasonable steps to protect themselves. 

Public safety is the top priority of state and local government.  At the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), we exist to assist law enforcement.  This assistance includes disciplines as diverse as investigators, laboratory scientists, and lawyers.  That’s how we fight crime and support public safety – by helping law enforcement and prosecutors. 

J.B. Van Hollen is Wisconsin’s Attorney General.  Some of the cases referenced in this article involve pretrial appeals where no trial has occurred.  An individual is presumed innocent until such time, if ever, that the government establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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