By: Derek Hawkins//May 17, 2017//
WI Court of Appeals – District III
Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. John L. Phillips, Sr.
Case No.: 2015AP2418-CR
Officials: Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.
Focus: Sentencing – Judge Bias
John Phillips, Sr., appeals a judgment of conviction for threatening a judge and identity theft, as well as an order denying his postconviction motion. Phillips argues the judge who presided over his trial and sentencing was objectively biased because that judge worked in the same courthouse as the judge Phillips had threatened. Phillips also argues that law enforcement obtained his confession by virtue of an inadmissible “continuation” of a polygraph examination, to which Phillips had consented. We conclude Phillips has not satisfied his burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the trial judge was objectively biased. We also conclude the circuit court properly denied Phillips’s suppression motion. Accordingly, we affirm.