Former conservative Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman has rebuffed several attempts by the Office of Lawyer Regulation to take his deposition in the discipline case against him, raising concerns some of the allegations could lead to criminal charges.
OLR on Friday filed a motion to compel Gableman to sit for a deposition. The accompanying documents show in addition to concerns about possible criminal charges, Gableman has sought to put off the deposition while he tries to raise funds for his legal defense and to reach a stipulation that could resolve the case.
OLR in November filed a 75-page complaint against Gableman that asked the state Supreme Court to sanction him for 10 alleged violations of the state codes for attorney conduct related to his taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election. That includes disrespecting a Dane County judge and opposing counsel in a hearing over an open records lawsuit against his Office of Special Counsel.
The documents don’t include details of what allegations Gableman believes could lead to criminal charges. They also don’t provide specifics of any proposed stipulations to resolve the case.
Gableman attorney Peyton Engel told WisPolitics OLR as a matter of policy doesn’t drop counts from a complaint as part of any effort to negotiate a settlement and nothing came out of a meeting on a possible deal.
The documents include emails from December and January between Engel and Donald Schott, who OLR retained to handle the complaint.
In a Jan. 8 email, Engel bemoaned the media attention the case has already generated as OLR prosecutes a former Supreme Court justice. He also raised concerns about the “potential lightning rod for attention in context of the upcoming Supreme Court election.” Engel wrote one reason he had reached out to Schott to discuss a resolution was to “minimize, rather than exacerbate, that problem for” Gableman with the public attention on the case.
“All of this is neither here nor there in terms of whether or to what extent Attorney Gableman may have violated the rules of professional conduct, but they are factors I can’t just ignore in the course of representing my client’s interests, because for better or worse, the disciplinary matter won’t play out in a vacuum,” Engel wrote. “And given some of the allegations in the complaint there is the looming possibility of criminal charges, and whenever there is a risk of criminal charges the only advice I can give my client is: keep your mouth shut.”
Schott responded with a suggestion to meet by phone to discuss the possible sanctions OLR believed appropriate for Gableman
According to the documents, Schott sought the deposition because he found Gableman’s response to the complaint failed to address many of the factual allegations in the complaint.
Friday’s motion seeks an order compelling Gableman to appear March 20 and 21 as well as a directive that if he fails to comply, he will be barred from offering any testimony or evidence into the record. Schott also wants the referee overseeing the case to limit Gableman’s assertion of his 5th Amendment rights to questions where he has reasonable cause to believe there’s a risk against self-incriminating statements. And he asked that the former justice pay attorney fees that OLR incurred due to his failure to attend a previously scheduled deposition last month.
In one email to Schott, Engel wrote Gableman would “prefer not to incur the expense of a deposition” while the funding of his defense “remains an open question.”
Schott noted in his response that Gableman received a grievance Law Forward filed against him almost a year ago and was granted two lengthy extensions to respond. Writing he didn’t want to “appear sympathetic,” Schott noted that he’s already had nearly a full year to arrange funding for his legal defense.
WisPolitics previously obtained legal bills that showed taxpayers had covered $49,713 for private attorneys to represent Gableman in the “OLR Matter.”
Engel told WisPolitics he can’t say whether the Assembly is still paying Gableman’s legal bills.
