WHBL News interviewed candidates for the two open positions for Circuit Court Judge in Sheboygan County. Branch 2 Incumbent Judge Kent Hoffmann is retiring at the end of his term, and his successor will be either Attorney James Haasch or Municipal Court Judge Natasha Torry. Branch 5 Judge Daniel Borowski is not seeking reelection, and so his seat is contested between Attorney George Limbeck and Attorney Cassandra Van Gompel.
Today we are featuring interviews with the two candidates for Sheboygan County Circuit Court Branch 2, Natasha Torry and James Haasch. Our first interview was with Natasha Torry.
Natasha Torry – “As your judge in Branch 2, I will continue to follow the letter of the law and will not legislate from the bench.”
Natasha Torry has spent 22 years practicing law, 20 of those in Sheboygan and Sheboygan County. Torry came to Sheboygan in 2003 to work as Assistant Corporation Counsel for Sheboygan County, focusing on parental child support enforcement, mental commitment and guardianship. After 11 years she opened her own law firm as a solo practitioner, and has also served as a municipal court judge for Sheboygan and the Village of Kohler since 2015.
We asked Torry what of her background as a Municipal Court Judge prepared her to become a Circuit Court Judge. Torry said that the Municipal Court, which is defined as a “Community-Based Alternative to the Criminal Justice System”, involves cases of many different natures. The Civil Court Process, she said, is different that that of the Criminal Court, and she said that her expertise is not in criminal law. However she said that her work with the Corporation Counsel’s Office for 11 years gave her enough exposure to the Criminal Courts to understand that system.
We asked Torry what distinguished her from her opponent in the Circuit Court Branch 2 race and her immediate response was that “I think the primary thing that I would have to say is that I’m still in the race.” Only after we interviewed her opponent did we learned of James Haasch’s temporary campaign suspension in late January, a campaign that has since resumed. At the time of our interview she did point to Attorney Haasch as having focused his entire career with Sheboygan County in criminal law, while her experience has led her through government, private practice, non-profit experience and more that have given her a broader perspective.
Natasha Torry said in her campaign statement that she will “continue to follow the letter of the law, and will not legislate from the bench.” That’s a statement that often resonates with conservatives, but Torry said that from her perspective, it’s not about Conservative vs. Liberal. Torry said that she believes that judges must be non-partisan, because people should never feel that they’re going to receive a different experience in the justice system based upon the beliefs of a judge, and she said she has worked hard to not be perceived as aligned either one way or the other. As a result, she said, she’s seen as a very fair judge, pointing to several experiences in which Municipal Court defendants who’d she’d found guilty asked if they could give her a hug, because they felt that she had “heard them, listened to them”, and so that’s always her goal. And in Torry’s opinion, if she wanted to do something to affect the law, then she would run for the legislature.
We asked Natasha Torry to project ahead and, given the fact that the State Supreme Court appoints a Circuit Court Judge to serve as Chief Judge for the Administrative District, does she have any ambitions towards this position. She answered that “My first goal is to get elected”, but that she’s always been a “person of service”, coming from a multi-generational background of military service and, should she be asked to serve as Chief Judge, she would be honored.
If a Circuit Court judgement is appealed, it’s sent to the State Court of Appeals for consideration, and we asked Torry if it was important that her decisions be regarded as consistently beyond appeal. She said that as a Circuit Court Judge, nobody wants to be appealed, and you want to be sure that everybody gets justice. And as the Court of Appeals gives deference to the Circuit Court, a solid judgement is important.
As our conversation drew to a close and Torry was asked if there was any important points being missed, she offered that “One thing I would like known about me is just my commitment to children and families in our County, and that’s something that has come through with everything that I have done.” She said it connects with her service to non-profits, working with those who have been abused or neglected, and to be able to help families in crisis due to mental health or drug issues…factors that become apparent when dealing with frequent truancy and other cases that land young people in the courts.
She related several Municipal Court cases in the past month where young offenders were caught using drugs while in attendance at Sheboygan schools, and feels that we’re at a “crisis point” with these issues and need to keep these subjects from “falling through the cracks”. Cases like these, she said, are what occupy the majority of her time in the Municipal Court system, and if she could do something about these factors as a Circuit Court Judge, then she would have a chance to effect a real change.
Torry said she believes that creative sentencing, such as directing people to “diversion programs”, and making resources available to the offender, can help positive outcomes that ultimately provide a solution, and not simply a “correction”.
