Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month.
“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,” Bradley told the Journal Sentinel.
Sources told the Journal Sentinel two very different stories Saturday about what occurred. Some confirmed Bradley’s version. According to others, Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck.
A joint investigation by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism first reported on the incident early Saturday, stating that Prosser “allegedly grabbed” Bradley around the neck.
Before Bradley spoke to the Journal Sentinel, Prosser issued a statement that said: “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.”
Source: Wisconsin Justice Bradley Drew First Blood
Recent reports that Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David T. Prosser grabbed Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck and choked her during an argument are reportedly untrue. It seems that a report by the ultra-liberal left-wing Center for Investigative Journalism and Wisconsin Public Radio falsely described the incident. So what really happened? Possibly just the opposite.
It would seem that what these so-called news organizations have conveniently hidden from the public is it was Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley who reportedly first attacked Prosser, and it was he who had to defend himself from the violent attack by the pro-union Bradley.
The incident involved the court’s recent 4-3 decision allowing restrictions on organized labor which were part of the new budget signed into law by Governor Scott Walker.
Witnesses have revealed that during a heated conversation, liberal pro-union Justice Bradley “charged [Prosser] with fists raised” and that Prosser acted in self-defense. A claim that the Center for Investigative Journalism and the Wisconsin Public Radio have held back from the public. As a result of the erroneous reports put out, many liberal groups are now calling for Justice Prosser to resign.
If, as these liberal groups claim, attacking another Justice is grounds for removal from the bench, then it is Justice Bradley who must resign. According to witnesses, it was she who first transformed a heated verbal exchange into a violent attack. When Bradley then immediately accused Prosser of choking her, it was reported that another justice scolded the Democratic-leaning Bradley, stating “You were not choked.”
via Wisconsin Justice Bradley Drew First Blood:… | Gather.
AP Still Won’t Acknowledge Both Sides of Wis. Supreme Court Judges’ Altercation | NewsBusters.org
Given a chance to revise and extend its 9:58 a.m. report (covered this afternoon at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) on the June 13 altercation between Wisconsin Supreme Court Judges David Prosser, Jr. and Ann Walsh Bradley, the Associated Press’s 5:29 p.m. version persists in telling its national audience only one side of the story.
Although the fact is that accounts as to who was the aggressor completely differ, the wire service’s oddly unbylined story (a 650-word AP item usually has a byline — it’s almost as if someone doesn’t want their name on it) will cause its readers, including subscribing news outlets around the country, to believe that the only open question is whether and how hard Prosser choked Bradley. One suspects that AP’s “fairness” defense will be the employment of these three words in Paragraph 8: “While accounts differ …” Sorry guys, that doesn’t cut it when the accounts are totally opposite.
Here are excerpts from that AP report (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes):Read more NewsBusters.org.
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