Maine’s top court has suspended Hancock County’s elected probate judge for four months over violations of judicial conduct rules.
William B. Blaisdell IV, 55, has been under official and public scrutiny since this past spring after being found in contempt of court for not paying child support to his ex-wife.
As part of court hearings related to his messy divorce, which were held in Waldo County because of his position in Hancock County, it was divulged that Blaisdell refused to pay nearly $50,000 in child support to his ex-wife and had not filed tax returns from 2020 through 2022.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday 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 found that, in addition to not paying court-ordered child support or filing tax returns, Blaisdell also violated judicial conduct rules by failing to respond to a state committee that was investigating his 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.”
The court also ordered Blaisdell to forfeit 10 percent of his judge’s salary.
This story will be updated.
