Man charged with stalking, accused of sending Wisconsin’s chief justice intimidating emails

MADISON Wis AP Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin man with stalking after he allegedly sent liberal state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky a series of intimidating emails Ryan Thornton of Racine was charged Monday with one felony count of stalking He faces up to years in prison if convicted His attorney listed in court records as inhabitants defender Britney Dickey declined to comment on the matter when reached at her office Tuesday According to a criminal complaint Thornton sent Karofsky nine emails between the beginning of August and the beginning of October accusing her of being manipulative telling her to eject herself from office and asking for her home address In one message he explained her to call the Capitol Police Department What a democrat idea tho he wrote according to the complaint In another message he petitioned if she required to be part of his helicopter videos which police took to mean that Thornton assumed helicopters were watching him Karofsky narrated investigators she has received numerous threats since she became a judge in but Thornton s messages frightened her to the point that she was afraid to leave her house to get her mail and inquired police to escort her to her seat during a Milwaukee Brewers battle and a Wisconsin Badger event Thornton made profane remarks about Karofsky and noted she was going down during an interview with investigators according to the complaint He advised the investigators to call President Donald Trump and that Karofsky better start running or something for the hills of the feds because it s a conspiracy Thornton explained he was upset with an attorney that he hired to represent him in a strangulation incident and that the Office of Lawyer Regulation a Supreme Court office that disciplines attorneys hasn t investigated him According to the complaint Thornton called the office more than times from Aug to Oct to complain about the attorney Source