A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge who last week refused to take away phone privileges from a jail inmate who called his domestic abuse victim 1,500 times while behind bars was named to lead the court’s domestic abuse subdivision, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
Judge Ana Berrios-Schroeder was named Presiding Judge of the Domestic Violence Subdivision and the Misdemeanor Division by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Carl Ashley. The appointments take effect August 3.
Last week, Judge Berrios-Schroeder was widely criticized for her handling of the case against Amier H. Jones, Jr., who is in the Milwaukee County Jail on multiple charges, including felony stalking. While behind bars, he continued to contact his victim and made threats against her as well as a member of the Milwaukee County High Risk Domestic Violence Team who had been working on his case.
According to a motion filed by prosecutors, Jones sent a message to that member from a tablet approved by the jail that read, “If this is the detective from preliminary reading this & on the case, u already on my hit list.” Jail staff immediately moved Jones to a restricted housing unit and took away his access to phones and tablets and allowed him to contact only his attorney.
In a hearing May 7, though, Berrios-Schroeder reversed that move and reinstated Jones’ access to communication devices. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office had also requested that Jones’ bail be increased from $30,000 to $75,000 in light of the danger he posed to his victim and the officer he threatened, but Berrios-Schroeder denied this and kept bail at $30,000.
According to a criminal complaint, Jones stalked his victim for more than six months, attacked her in her home and pointed a gun at her. He will be back in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
Berrios-Schroeder’s decision to give Jones his communication privileges back sparked outrage by the Fraternal Order of Police, which demanded an immediate review of how such privileges are administered at the jail. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on the case brought widespread condemnation of Berrios’ actions.
She defended them in an interview with the Journal Sentinel and decided that she would give Jones another chance to use his communication devices appropriately…even though he had used them to stalk and intimidate multiple people more than a thousand times.
“I decided the onus is on him, that I would give him one opportunity,” Berrios-Schroeder said.
Chief Judge Ashley’s decision just a week after the controversy surfaced to name her presiding judge of the subdivision of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court that handles domestic abuse cases is a puzzling one, as it calls into question whether the court itself is serious about protecting domestic abuse victims from their attackers even while those attackers are in custody.
Presiding judges manage the day-to-day operations of court branches and assign cases to the judges within the branch they oversee. Berrios will assume control of the Domestic Violene Subdivision August 3.
