Being accused of domestic violence can be a very frightening experience. Your entire life can be affected, just based on the allegations that you were violent or abusive toward a family member. If you have been charged with domestic violence in Wisconsin, it is important to understand the possible defenses that may be available to you. An experienced defense attorney can help you navigate the criminal justice system and protect your rights.

Wisconsin’s Mandatory Arrest Laws

When the police respond to a domestic violence call in Wisconsin, they are required to make an arrest under certain circumstances. Specifically, an officer shall arrest a person that the officer reasonably believes has committed or is committing domestic abuse, the person’s actions constitute a crime, AND one of the of the following is true:

• The officer believes that continued abuse is likely against the alleged victim.

  ...

In Wisconsin, driving is a privilege, not a right. This means that the state can take away your ability to drive for a number of reasons, including being convicted of traffic violations. With some offenses, you may lose your driving privileges on the first infraction, and with others, you can receive several tickets before you lose your license. Losing your ability to drive often means that your ability to work and attend to personal responsibilities may be compromised. If you determine that your driver’s license may be at risk of suspension, you should contact a skilled attorney so that your rights can be protected.

Appointed Lawyers and the True Cost of Traffic Violations

When the crime you are accused of is punishable by imprisonment, the state will provide you with a public defender. However, many traffic violations are not punishable by imprisonment, so if you want legal counsel, you must retain a lawyer yourself. Also, many people prefer hiring a private defense attorney, as public defenders are often overworked, underpaid, and unable to dedicate the necessary attention to each case they are assigned.

Keep in mind that there are hidden costs beyond the traffic ticket fine. According to some sources, a traffic ticket could increase your insurance premiums for up to five years. Taking that into consideration, the total cost of a Wisconsin traffic ticket is likely to be much higher than you might expect. On average, for example, a Wisconsin driver will pay between about $200 and $800 for a speeding violation.

Few offenses are treated as seriously by police, prosecutors, and judges as sex crimes against children. Even violent crimes, in general, do not result in the same emotional determination to find, prosecute, and punish those who hurt and victimize children. This a lesson that a Wisconsin man is about to learn the hard way—so to speak—as he was recently sentenced to serve 25 years in prison for child sex trafficking.

A Series of Disturbing Events

A 36-year-old man from Rhinelander was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison last week. The man had already pleaded guilty to “sex trafficking of a child under the age of 14 years old.” According to news reports, court documents, and a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the plea deal resulted in similar state-level charges in Marathon and Lincoln Counties being dropped.

Court documents indicate the man relied on social media and public Wi-Fi to communicate with minors, often offering money in exchange for sex acts, between 2018 and 2020. The charge to which he pled guilty, however, involved the solicitation of a 13-year-old girl in Illinois in 2019. The man reportedly drove to Illinois to have sex with the child in exchange for cash. Additional investigation found that the man performed or attempted sex acts with several other minors in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.

During a criminal investigation, it is not uncommon for police officers to mislead or even outright lie to suspects in an effort to get them to confess to the crimes in question. For example, an officer might tell a suspect that the suspect’s friend identified the suspect as the perpetrator of the crime, even if the friend said no such thing. While this practice is highly controversial, courts throughout the country have upheld countless convictions and plea deals in cases that involved such deception.

Another type of deception, however, is now being challenged in a 46-year-old murder case from Marinette County. In this case, the deceit is related to how the suspect’s DNA was obtained, long after the case went cold. Even more unusual is the fact that the man who was convicted of the murder died in prison earlier this year, but the appeals are continuing anyway.

A Quick Recap

The case in question was the 1976 double-murder of a young couple in a park in Marinette County, Wisconsin. After an extensive police investigation, the case went cold and remained unsolved until just a couple of years ago.

If we are being honest, we have all made decisions and done things that we are not proud of, and some might have even led to rather unfortunate results. Relatively few of us, however, have ever done something that might lead to a police chase. Frighteningly enough, this is exactly what happened last week in Milwaukee, when four teenagers allegedly stole a car and led police on a chase that ended in a late-night crash.

A Scary Situation

According to police and new reports, four teenage boys were taken into custody in the early hours of the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. The boys were arrested for allegedly stealing a car and attempting to evade Milwaukee police. The chase ended near 27th and Nash when the car that the boys were in collided with another vehicle.

Representatives from the Milwaukee police say that the driver of the allegedly stolen vehicle was a 15-year-old boy. The other occupants of the car were all males, including another 15-year-old and two 14-year-olds. The police say that vehicle was taken in a robbery and that a firearm was found in the vehicle after the accident. All four were taken into police custody pending a decision on criminal charges from the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office.