In Light Of Recent Violence And Threats, Prosecutors Reconsider Personal Safety

By

The murders of two Texas prosecutors and a bizarre incident in St. Croix are prompting Wisconsin prosecutors to reconsider self-protection measures.

Threats of violence against prosecutors from angry defendants, or their friends or relatives, are nothing new. In 2007, gang members followed through on a threat in Douglas County and fire bombed the house of District Attorney Daniel Blank two days before the murder trial of a gang leader.

Then two weeks ago, the friend of a murder defendant was arrested in St. Croix County after threatening to attack prosecutors there. Police found two knives on the man.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

St. Croix DA Eric Johnson says the incident occurred on the same day prosecutors all over the country were wearing black arm bands to honor the slain Texas prosecutors.

“I just thought the absurdity was remarkable considering this was a day to commemorate the prosecutors that had been killed during the course of their duty down in Texas. And here we had a charge of disorderly conduct because of these threats – because there isn’t a Wisconsin statute that applies.”

Johnson says he would like to be able to charge the man who made the threat with a felony, but he can’t because prosecutors are not a protected class in Wisconsin.

“There’s so many other protected classes in our statutes: There’s revenue agents, social workers, probation officer, law enforcement, judges. Prosecutors aren’t included. It’s obviously something that needs to be corrected and should have been corrected a long time ago.”

He says there have been numerous efforts to add enhanced penalties for threatening prosecutors but all have failed to pass in the legislature. A spokesman for the Department of Justice says plans are underway to provide personal safety training for prosecutors since the Texas slayings and the St. Croix county incident.