Ellen Berz Suspended

Dane County Circuit Judge Ellen Berz left her own courtroom in 2021 to personally retrieve a defendant who'd failed to appear for trial after being hospitalized. She first directed her bailiff to arrest the man off-site, which he refused to do, then attempted to drive to the hospital herself — bringing defense counsel along, without informing the prosecutor at all.

Separately, in a 2019 hearing, Berz made intemperate and sarcastic remarks to a defendant, including accusing him of "playing games" and making references to prison.

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed a formal complaint over both incidents, and Berz stipulated to the misconduct rather than contest it, expressing remorse. The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended her for seven days without pay.

A judge is required to act as a neutral party, not personally involve herself in arresting a defendant while bringing only one side's lawyer along and leaving the prosecutor in the dark — that's not a temperament slip, it's an abandonment of the judicial role itself for something closer to law enforcement, done one-sidedly. Combined with a separate, earlier instance of intemperate remarks from the bench, Wisconsin's Supreme Court found a real pattern, even at a comparatively modest sanction.