Man gets probation after being charged with stalking Wisconsin chief justice

A Racine man has been sentenced to probation after threatening the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Ryan Thornton, 37, entered a plea deal after appearing in Dane County Circuit Court Monday.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of intimidating a victim and disorderly conduct. The court agreed to dismiss a felony charge of stalking that had been filed against him.

Thornton had been in the Dane County Jail since October, after he repeatedly emailed Chief Justice Jill Karofsky, telling her to “eject” herself from office and asking for her home address. Thornton also called Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Regulation more than 70 times to complain about Karofsky and make threats against staff there, according to prosecutors.

Thornton seemed to blame Karofsky for the fact that the OLR had rejected a complaint that Thornton had made against an attorney, according to a criminal complaint. That attorney had represented Thornton in separate domestic abuse case.

This week, Judge Ann Peacock sentenced Thornton to two years of probation. For at least the first 30 days of that time, Thornton will be required to wear a GPS monitor.

Thornton will also be banned from going to Dane County, where Karofsky is based, unless he gets prior approval. If his probation is revoked, Thornton will get credit for 82 days already spent in jail, court records show.

Additionally, Peacock directed Thornton to undergo psychological evaluation and to complete any recommended treatment.

When speaking to police, Thornton repeatedly complained about a “conspiracy” and told officers Karofsky was “going down,” a criminal complaint says. Thornton’s emails and social media posts indicated he believed he was being watched by helicopters, police told prosecutors.

“My client was charged with a felony for sending emails to one of the most powerful public officials in the State,” Thornton’s attorney Anthony Jurek wrote in an an email to WPR on Tuesday morning. “Those emails began regarding a grievance with the office of lawyer regulation, sent to the two people on the letterhead for the office of lawyer regulation.”

Jurek was entered into court records as Thornton’s lawyer in late December after Thornton’s three previous attorneys withdrew from the case, online records show.

Jurek noted that he filed motions arguing that his client’s bail was excessive and that the criminal case against him violated Thornton’s First Amendment rights to free expression. The court set Thornton’s bond at $85,000 in October.

“Rather than argue those motions, the State offered to resolve the case for misdemeanors if we agreed to withdraw the motions without them being heard,” Jurek wrote in an email.

Karofsky also released a statement on Tuesday, thanking the State Capitol Police and the Dane County District Attorney’s Office for their work on the case.

“Those of us in the judiciary face threats that were once unimaginable, including death threats simply for applying the law,” Karofsky said, before referencing retired Juneau County Circuit Court Judge John Roemer, who was shot and killed in his home in 2022. “We carry the devastating memory of Judge Roemer, who was murdered for just doing his job. Court staff, attorneys, jurors, and witnesses have also shouldered the weight of this hostility.”

The statement said Wisconsin courts have reached a “pivotal moment in our history.”

“The courts of Wisconsin belong to the people of Wisconsin,” Karofsky continued. “Judicial independence survives only when the law — not politics, threats, or violence — guides our courts.”