Milwaukee County voters will find three candidates for Circuit Court Branch 15 on the Feb. 17 primary ballot: Ronald Dague, Daniel Gabler and J.D. Watts. They appeared at a Feb. 4 Milwaukee Bar Association forum to explain why they should succeed Judge Michael Brennan on the court.
Here’s a summary of their backgrounds, as well as their response to the question: Is the $500 fine for failing to show up for jury duty a good thing?
Ronald Dague has worked in the District Attorney’s office for 18 years, where he’s worked as a cold case homicide prosecutor, gang prosecutor and in the gun unit. But Dague also helped to form a restorative justice program for those who have passed bad checks, which helps to prevent the check kiters from clogging up the courthouse while forcing them to pay off their crimes.
Dague is also known as the prosecutor who, after successfully arguing for conviction on a case he’d barely had time to prepare for, later asked the judge to overturn the conviction because the evidence didn’t support it.
Jury duty fine: “I don’t like it,” Dague said, because most of the people who don’t show up for jury duty are the poorest in the city. He said the court and community organizations should do more to explain the importance of showing up “so that people who have given up and don’t feel that they have a voice in our government, our courts, that this is the one place that they will be heard.”
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Daniel Gabler also works in the District Attorney’s office and once clerked for Judge Michael Sullivan on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Gabler said his judicial temperament and judicial philosophy make him the best candidate: “My judicial temperament is to be prepared, to treat all litigants with respect, and not to prejudge cases,” Gabler said. “My judicial philosophy is to apply the law as written and not to interject my own personal thoughts.”
Jury duty fine: “If the rule requires imposing a $500 fine, so be it,” he said. He could not come up with an “alternative that would drive compliance.”
J.D. Watts is a municipal judge in Fox Point, where he said that he’s “looked out for victim's rights and witnesses. I’ve had the opportunity to work with juveniles. A judge’s job is to correct offenders and to protect our community and I’ve done that.”
Watts is the only candidate in this race who has served on the bench, and he’s highlighting that experience. “I’ve had the opportunity to treat all with dignity and respect to run a fair and orderly and dignified courtroom,” Watts said.
Jury duty fine: Watts called jury duty a “precious right.” He said that the fine is a legislative matter and out of the judge's hands, but said that more education and outreach can persuade more people to take jury duty seriously. “Sometimes guidance and suggestions and helping are better than strict punishment,” Watts said. “I’m not sure the fine will be successful.”
