John Diedrich

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Longtime Milwaukee federal judge Rudolph Randa, whose tough sentences and rulings on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy and the John Doe investigation of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign thrust him into the spotlight in recent years, has died.

Randa, 76, died early Monday after a battle with cancer that drove him from the bench in February. The veteran judge had surgery in December, and two months later took senior status, a form of semiretirement for federal judges. At the time, Chief Judge William Griesbach said Randa was expected to recover from the surgery and return to the bench.

It was the second time Randa had taken senior status. In June 2007, Randa announced he would move into senior status but said he would do it only if then-President George W. Bush, a Republican, was able to appoint his successor. Shortly after Democratic President Barack Obama was elected, Randa rescinded his application to go to senior status.

Franklyn Gimbel argued many cases in Randa's court and knew him for many years.

"He was from the point of view of his politeness and his demeanor, he was a lawyers' judge. He was always fair and open minded," Gimbel said Monday. "From time to time our politics didn't coalesce, and while he was a person who might be called a conservative in the way he approached life, he nonetheless had a very dignified and professional appearance on the bench."

William Jennaro knew Randa since they both were sophomores in high school -- Randa at East Division High School, now known as Riverside, and Jennaro at St. John's Cathedral High School, where they sometimes competed against each other in sports. Randa was a star shot-putter in high school. When Jennaro worked in the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, Randa was in the city attorney's office and later they both became judges around the same time.

"He was always a good guy with me and everybody who knew him. I had the highest respect for him even though we didn't always see eye to eye on things," said Jennaro.

Sandra Gegios worked for Randa as a law clerk for 13 years beginning in 2003.

“He was a wonderful man who loved the work he did and put everything into it," Gegios said. "Everyone that worked for him felt like that they couldn’t have had a better boss.”

Randa was appointed to the federal bench in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush, succeeding Judge Robert Warren. He served as chief judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin from 2002 to 2009.

Born in 1940 in Milwaukee, Randa went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin Law School. He served in the Army in Vietnam for two years, earning the Bronze Star.

He served as an assistant city attorney in Milwaukee, circuit court judge and state appeals court judge before moving to the federal bench 24 years ago.

The son of a Democratic sheet metal worker and a Republican mother, Randa steadily rose through the judicial ranks after starting out as an assistant city attorney. In 1975, he ousted an incumbent municipal judge who had been appointed by longtime Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier — a rare defeat for the Maier machine.

From there, Randa became a Milwaukee County circuit judge and then a member of the state Court of Appeals until his nomination to the federal bench.

"Anyone who knew Rudolph Randa expected him to do great things no matter what he chose," former Gov. Tommy Thompson once said. The men were law school classmates at UW.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman recalled Randa as an "even-handed" judge.

"He was always an affable person, very easygoing in demeanor," said Adelman, who fell on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Randa.

Shortly after his appointment, Randa told the Milwaukee Journal his job was not to use the law "to implement my ideas of what society should be." Even so, he did not hide his political leanings on one issue: abortion.

Randa once said that "as a member of the Catholic Church, if you abide by the rules of the Catholic Church, abortion is wrong."

In the mid-'90s, Randa threw out a federal law authored by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat, that protected access to abortion clinics. Randa's decision was reversed on appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the law.

In 2010, he threw out a lawsuit over lead poisoning, on the grounds that the "risk contribution theory" violated the due process rights of companies who might be held liable without proof their specific product caused the injury. That decision was also reversed on appeal in 2014.

In September 2014, a federal appeals court overturned Randa's ruling that blocked a secret probe into Gov. Scott Walker's campaign, sending the issue back to the Wisconsin courts. That spared prosecutors the prospect of paying damages to targets of the investigation, which was ultimately shut down by Wisconsin courts.

In Randa's view, the restrictions on coordination between candidates and other political groups could violate the First Amendment. But the 7th Circuit called Randa's earlier decision "an abuse of discretion" and an intrusion into the affairs of Wisconsin's legal system.

On occasion, Randa brought up issues with defendants that had little to do with their cases -- and sometimes got in hot water for it.

In 2007, he referred repeatedly to a drug dealer's Mexican heritage, saying "you people" and "those people," during sentencing. The judge also discounted the defendant's claim of being a good family man, saying "even Adolf Hitler was admired by his family. Adolf Hitler loved his dog. Yet he killed six million Jews."

The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the defendant a new sentencing before a different judge.

Also in 2007, Randa ordered convicted state purchasing official Georgia Thompson to be jailed while she appealed her conviction for steering a travel contract to a company linked to supporters of then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. The 7th Circuit tossed Thompson's conviction and ordered her immediate release, calling the evidence used to convict her "beyond thin."

In 2014, Randa was overturned for forcing a defendant to wear prison garb in front of the jury during his civil rights case against Langlade County jail guards. Forcing someone to wear prisoner clothing in front of a jury was "highly prejudicial," 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner wrote.

Randa could also generate a laugh in court. While sentencing a pimp in 2012, he noted the defendant's child support debt for 12 children by 10 women. "How do you satisfy 10 women?" Randa asked the man. "I can't even satisfy my wife," before clarifying that it takes constant personal attention to build strong relationships that help prevent criminal behavior.

High-profile cases

Randa was criticized during the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy for failing to divulge a potential conflict of interest before deciding a key issue in the church's favor.

In July 2013, he ruled that forcing the archdiocese to tap into a $60 million cemetery fund to pay sex abuse claims would substantially burden the church’s free exercise of religion. Lawyers for the creditors' committee argued that Randa had a conflict because he had numerous relatives in the church’s cemeteries and had purchased crypts for his parents.

The 7th Circuit reversed on the First Amendment issue, saying Randa should have disclosed the fact his parents and other relatives are buried in an archdiocese cemetery, and returned the case to a different judge.

The John Doe investigation was launched in 2012 by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat, and looked into whether Walker's campaign had illegally worked with independent groups in recall elections in 2011 and 2012. At the time, John Doe investigations allowed prosecutors to compel people to turn over documents and give testimony, while barring them from publicly disclosing the probe.

The state judge overseeing the investigation sided with the targets of the subpoenas that the activity in question was not illegal. That effectively halted the probe, and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz was unsuccessful in seeking a reversal of that order.

A slew of legal actions followed. In the case heard by Randa, he ordered an end to the probe and the destruction of material that prosecutors had gathered while pursuing it. The appeals court overruled Randa's orders, finding the future of the case was to be decided by state courts.

Services are pending.

Meg Jones, Cary Spivak, Jason Stein, Patrick Marley andAnnysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.