Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz issued another get-out-of-jail-free card to a man who sexually assaulted a child.
It’s a recurring theme in the case files of the Milwaukee County judge who says she proudly wears the progressive label.
Protasiewicz is running against former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, a conservative, for Justice Patience Roggensack’s seat on the state’s high court. Roggensack, a conservative, is retiring later this year after two decades as a justice. The critical statewide election, set for April 4, will determine whether conservatives or liberals control the court.
In March 2021, Protasiewicz gave Patrick L. McCaskill, 29, probation after he was charged with sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl, according to court documents.
McCaskill, according to the criminal complaint, assaulted his girlfriend’s daughter in November 2019 while the child was sleeping and while her mother was working the night shift.
The mother told police that she was not able to keep her phone with her, “but when she saw the phone toward the end of her shift she saw a text message from [her daughter] that told her the … defendant had touched [her] breast while she was asleep.”
According to the criminal complaint, the teen said she was sleeping on a couch in the living room when she woke up to the “feeling of something touching her left breast over the clothes.” When she opened her eyes she saw McCaskill.
He told her, ‘Come on,’ and motioned the girl to an air mattress on the floor, the complaint states. She went into the bathroom for a while, and then went into a bedroom with her sisters to sleep, police said.
In a “character” letter to the court. McCaskill wrote that he would strive to be “more than a stereotype.”
“I am a 27-year-old black male and that makes me aware that I must be more cautious, more careful but because the odds are stacked against me; however, I do not buy into the theory that I cannot be successful and have things that I want in life because of this but it does make me strive to be more than a stereotype,” he wrote. He noted that he would like to be an entrepreneur, to have a family. He says nothing about the victim in his letter to the court. He does not apologize for is conduct, noting only that he had “not been as diligent especially with all that has been going on.”
In a plea deal, McCaskill pled guilty to Fourth Degree Sexual Assault, a Class A Misdemeanor in Wisconsin. He could have been sentenced to a maximum nine months in jail, a $10,000 fine, or both under that reduced charge.
Protasiewicz stayed his sentence, instead giving him probation for one year. Under state law, McCaskill did not have to to register as a sex offender.
He could have faced felony charges and penalties for sexual contact with a person under the age of 16. The complaint originally charged him with second degree sexual assault of a child, which includes a maximum 40 years behind bars.
Protasiewicz, accused of being a soft-on-crime liberal by her critics, has a history of issuing lighter sentences, including no prison time, to violent offenders.
In one case, Anton Veasley, 34, faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged in 2020 with kidnapping, trafficking of a child and second-degree sexual assault of a child.
As Wisconsin Right Now first reported, Veasley, a career violent criminal, picked up a girl who had fled from her Milwaukee group home. He took her to a hotel, where he had oral and vaginal sex with her. The teen escaped the room, returned to her group home, where she called law enforcement officials.
A Milwaukee County prosecutor sought prison time for Veasley. Protasiewicz, using her discretion, gave the convict four years of probation and credit for 417 days in jail. She stayed an original sentence of four years in prison with four years of extended supervision.
Last year, Veasley was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, while on probation. He remains on the sex offender list, but is not in compliance.
Protasiewicz told Channel 27 News that she did the best she could do at the time.
“You don’t have a crystal ball. I knew the facts that I knew at the time,” the judge said.
Her campaign did not return a request for comment from The Wisconsin Daily Star. Her campaign has not returned several requests for comment over the last several weeks.
“Politician Protasiewicz is more worried about finding excuses for criminals than seeking justice for victims,” said Kelly campaign adviser Ben Voelkel. “If victims can’t trust her to be fair, Wisconsin can’t either.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Janet Protasiewicz” by Janet for Justice. Background Photo “Courtroom” by Library of Congress.
Janet Protasiewicz campaign is the most disgusting one I have ever seen. Filled with unsupported innuendo and outright lies. She has no idea what a judge should be. She accuses Kelly of defending bad people. That is exactly a lawyers job! Our constitution guarantees every person a fair trial and LEGAL REPRESENTATION! It is not up to a judge to decide guilt or innocence. If myself or a family member where wrongly accused of a heinous I would hope and attorney like Dan Kelly would take the case. I would hate a judge like Protasiewicz who decides guilt or innocence in her own mind before hearing the case.
Protasiewicz also lie saying she would decide cases before the court fairly based on Wisconsin law, yet she uses the code words “protect women’s reproductive rights’ which shows she already has a well formed opinion and would not look at the acual law. This woman does not belong on the bench.