Maine’s highest court has ruled that an elected probate judge in Ellsworth will be suspended for four months for failing to file three years’ worth of taxes and pay tens of thousands of dollars in child support.

William Blaisdell answers questions from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland in July. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

In a decision handed down Tuesday by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, justices said that the behavior of William Blaisdell warranted public censure and imposed a one-year suspension from judicial office, with all but four months suspended.

“We view Judge Blaisdell’s misconduct as egregious and deserving of significant sanction. Disobedience of a court order by anyone is serious, but contempt of a court order by a sitting judge cannot be tolerated. We cannot expect the public to have respect and confidence in our courts when a judge himself flouts court orders,” justices said in their ruling.

Blaisdell, 54, was found in contempt of court in Waldo County in March because he was behind on more than $33,000 in child support payments to his ex-wife. He had to pay her $50,000, including attorney fees and interest, to avoid a 90-day jail sentence, according to court records. He also has not filed at least three years of tax returns from 2020 to 2022, records state.

The judicial committee began its investigation into Blaisdell after a district judge in Belfast reported him to the committee and the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. Blaisdell also runs his own law firm in Ellsworth.

Blaisdell, who has said he has no plans to resign, told the court he would like to keep his judgeship. He said he’s been in office for a little more than nine years, holding court for at least one day a week and earning $30,000 yearly. His term ends in 2026.

Blaisdell appeared before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland in July as the court’s Committee on Judicial Conduct recommended he be removed from office in light of these failures. Because he’s an elected official, only legislative authorities can remove him, not the court.

The justices said in their opinion that they understand suspending the only probate judge in Hancock County imposes a hardship for the county and other probate courts.

“A partially suspended suspension would ameliorate that harm and provide a means of monitoring Judge Blaisdell’s conduct. For those reasons, we suspend all but four months of the one-year suspension, provided that Judge Blaisdell complies with the conditions imposed in his bar disciplinary matter,” they wrote.

It’s not clear what will happen at the court while Blaisdell is on suspension. Barbara Cardone, spokesperson for the Maine judicial branch, said that decision was up to the individual court and said she was not sure how Hancock County would decide to move forward.

Juliette Wilbur, registrar of probate in Hancock County, did not respond by 7 p.m. to emailed questions about whether cases would be paused or whether an interim probate judge would be appointed.

To “emphasize the gravity of the misconduct,” the court ordered Blaisdell to forfeit $10,000 from his salary, an amount equivalent to months of his judicial pay.

Last month, the state Board of Overseers sanctioned Blaisdell, and while he remains eligible to practice law, he must be monitored by another lawyer – former district attorney Matthew Foster – under an agreement with the board.

That agreement also outlines allegations by a former client that he spent months in jail while Blaisdell failed to act upon the client’s requests for a motion to adjust his bail. That former client said he struggled to contact Blaisdell, who had been appointed to the case.

Blaisdell could not be reached for comment Tuesday. One phone number listed for him in an online database had been disconnected; another rang several times before reaching a voicemail inbox that was full.

From 2016 to 2022, the years for which data is readily available, the Judicial Conduct Committee sent only eight complaints – lodged against a total of six judges – to the Supreme Judicial Court. Among those disciplined judges was former York County Probate Judge Robert Nadeau, who was suspended from the bench for 30 days in 2016. In 2017, Nadeau was suspended from practicing law for two years.

In that same time, the committee dismissed nearly 650 such complaints, according to an analysis of the committee’s annual reports.

Staff Writer Daniel Kool contributed.