More information has emerged about the recent decision by state officials to sanction Hancock County’s elected probate judge, who also has a private law practice.
Not only did William Blaisdell IV refuse to pay child support to his ex-wife and fail to file several years worth of tax returns, as has been previously reported, but he also was reprimanded because he was largely unresponsive to a criminal defense client who sat in jail for 11 months trying to get his bail reduced.
Blaisdell, 54, reached an agreement Friday with the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which monitors the conduct of licensed attorneys in the state. The agreement calls for Blaisdell’s law license to be suspended for a year, but that suspension will not be imposed unless Blaisdell violates conditions detailed in the agreement.
The agreement and resulting order, which was approved by Justice James Martemucci, does not affect Blaisdell’s role as a part-time judge. The state Committee on Judicial Conduct, which oversees the conduct of judges, has conducted its own inquiry and has recommended to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that Blaisdell be removed from his elected office.
The Overseers of the Bar cited Blaisdell’s handling of the criminal case — as well as his being found in contempt of court for failing to pay child support, and not filing tax returns from 2020 through 2022 — for the discipline. The order only refers to the client with the initials “M.J.” and says he was a defendant in a “serious criminal matter.”
According to court records, the client was Mark Jordan, 33, of Milbridge, who was arrested Sept. 1, 2022, in Ellsworth when police stopped a car he was riding in on Route 1A and found 220 grams of fentanyl in the vehicle.
Jordan was arrested on a felony aggravated drug trafficking charge, and his bail was set at $30,000. For the next 11 months, until he was appointed a new defense attorney in August 2023, Jordan sat in jail as he tried to get Blaisdell to get copies of police recordings of his arrest and to petition the court to reduce his bail. But Blaisdell never filed any motions with the court.
“M.J. began to write the court himself, asking on multiple occasions for a bail hearing, and writing on June 12, 2023, to ask the court to help with an appointment with Attorney Blaisdell because he could not reach him,” overseers wrote in their sanction. “He wrote letters to the court on May 10, May 16, May 22, June 1, June 5, June 12, June 26, June 27, and July 18, 2023.”
Blaisdell did not respond to any of the letters, provide Jordan with copies of the police recordings, or move to withdraw or amend his bail until August 2023, the overseers wrote. Jordan eventually conducted his own bail hearing and, after being appointed a new attorney, was provided with copies of the police recordings, they said.
Jordan also wrote letters directly to Blaisdell, copies of which are included in his case court file.
“Dear Blaisdell, you are fired, please withdraw yourself from my case,” Jordan wrote in July 2023 in a handwritten note. “I feel I can do a better job, not because I am smart but because I will actually try.”
Jordan, with a new attorney, ended up spending another year in jail before his case was resolved. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to the aggravated drug trafficking charge and was sentenced to 8 years in prison with all but three and a half years suspended. He was given credit for the two years he spent in jail while waiting for a resolution.
Jeffrey Toothaker, a lawyer who has been representing Blaisdell in the complaints to the board, declined to comment Tuesday.
Separate from the sanction by the Overseers of the Bar, Blaisdell now has been suspended from representing court-appointed clients.
The Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, which oversees the list of attorneys eligible for such appointments, last month suspended Blaisdell from being able to take on new clients in criminal court, according to a commission official.
As part of his agreement with the overseers, Blaisdell’s law practice will be monitored by Matthew Foster, the former district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties. Foster lost re-election in 2022 after the BDN broke the news that he’d previously been investigated on allegations of child sexual abuse, though Foster passed two lie detector tests and was never charged.
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. His current term ends in 2026.
