Maine’s top court has suspended Hancock County’s elected probate judge for four months over violations of judicial conduct rules.
For now, that decision appears to cap off months of official scrutiny for William B. Blaisdell IV, 55, after he was found in contempt of court last spring for not paying child support to his ex-wife. As part of the fallout, he has also been sanctioned in recent months in his role as a private attorney.
Last spring, as part of the court hearings related to Blaisdell’s messy divorce from his ex-wife, it was divulged that he had refused to pay nearly $50,000 in child support and had not filed tax returns from at least 2020 through 2022.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday publicly censured and suspended Blaisdell from his part-time role as a probate judge for a full year but will only require him to serve four months of that suspension. The court also ordered Blaisdell, who lives in Ellsworth, to forfeit 10 percent of his judge’s salary.
The decision stems from the inquiries and public reprimands that Blaisdell has faced from other judges and state officials in recent months, including a judge in Waldo County who threatened him with a 90-day jail sentence if he didn’t come up with the money he owed his ex-wife — which he did by a March 25 deadline.
Blaisdell, who still could be removed from office by the Legislature, has said he does not plan to resign as the county’s probate judge — a position that handles family-related matters such as estates, guardianships and name changes. But it’s possible he could find himself removed from office by voters when his current term ends in 2026.
The state’s top court on Tuesday found that, in addition to not paying court-ordered child support or filing tax returns, Blaisdell also violated rules by failing to respond to a state committee that was investigating his judicial conduct and by falsely claiming he had never received letters from that committee.
“We view Judge Blaisdell’s misconduct as egregious and deserving of significant sanction,” the court wrote in the suspension order. “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.”
Blaisdell has served as Hancock County’s probate judge for the past decade. After first being elected to the post in 2014, he narrowly won re-election in 2018 and then was re-elected without opposition in 2022.
Blaisdell, who also works as a private practice lawyer in addition to serving as a part-time judge, has already faced discipline from other officials over his conduct.
He was sanctioned last month by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which monitors the professional conduct of licensed lawyers, for the same set of facts regarding his child support and tax returns, as well as for neglecting a criminal defense client who sat in jail for 11 months trying to get his bail reduced.
In that sanction, which was approved by a Superior Court judge, Blaisdell’s law license was suspended for a year. But the suspension will not go into effect as long as Blaisdell abides by the terms of an agreement he reached with the overseers.
Blaisdell agreed to have his law practice monitored by former district attorney Matthew Foster, who in 2022 lost re-election as a county prosecutor after it was revealed that he had been investigated by the state attorney general’s office on allegations of child sexual abuse.
Foster, who passed two lie detector tests when police questioned him about the allegations, denied during a 2022 candidate’s forum that he ever had been investigated by the attorney general’s office.
As the monitor of Blaisdell’s practice, Foster cannot function as an intermediary between Blaisdell and his clients and will not act as Blaisdell’s attorney, according to Jeff Toothaker, an Ellsworth lawyer who represented Blaisdell before the overseers.
Blaisdell also has to pay the costs of his supervision by Foster, file all his overdue tax returns within 90 days, and continue receiving mental health counseling after he started doing so in March, Toothaker has said.
In July, the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, which oversees the list of attorneys eligible for such appointments, suspended Blaisdell from being able to take on new clients in criminal court, according to a commission official.
Hancock County officials have said that, if Blaisdell were to be suspended or removed as from his elected position, the county has reciprocal agreements with neighboring counties that would allow a probate judge from another county to preside.
