Yesterday's blockbuster headline that rightwing WI Supreme Court justice David Prosser may have committed battery against fellow justice Ann Walsh Bradley continues to make news, as both Prosser and Bradley have now released on the record statements giving their differing accounts of the incident.

Initially, both justices were circumspect in their reaction. When first contacted, Prosser reportedly said: "I have nothing to say about it" and Bradley also said "I have nothing to say."

Later in the day yesterday, however, as the media storm in Wisconsin gathered force, Prosser issued a statement:

Once there's a proper review of the matter and the facts surrounding it are made clear, the anonymous claim made to the media will be proven false. Until then I will refrain from further public comment.

Sources close to him then approached the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel anonymously, which reported his version like this:

According to [these sources], Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck.

Those comments led to a full on the record statement by Bradley, as quoted in the Journal-Sentinel:

The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold. Those are the facts and you can try to spin those facts and try to make it sound like I ran up to him and threw my neck into his hands, but that's only spin. Matters of abusive behavior in the workplace aren't resolved by competing press releases. I'm confident the appropriate authorities will conduct a thorough investigation of this incident involving abusive behavior in the workplace.

While Bradley did an excellent job of calling out Prosser's "blame the victim" tactic, it's unfortunate she's choosing to describe the incident as abusive behavior in the workplace, rather than the felonious battery on a justice that Prosser appears to have committed.

Over the next day or two it will be interesting to see if the Wisconsin Judicial Commission confirms that an investigation is underway. Its initial statement on the matter was to neither confirm nor deny, but now that both parties involved are on the record that something happened the Commission may in fact have to acknowledge that it has received a formal complaint. Its rules state:

Should a complaint or investigation become known to the public, the Commission may issue a brief statement to confirm its pendency, clarify the procedural aspects of the proceedings, state that the judge denies the allegations, [etc.]



Walker's boys sure do keep the popcorn manufacturers in business! Never a dull day in Wisconsin...