Hancock County’s elected probate judge has again been found in contempt of court for not paying child support that he owes his ex-wife.
William B. Blaisdell IV, a licensed lawyer who also holds a part-time position as probate judge of Hancock County, has been ordered by Judge Kate Dufour to pay $17,000 to his former spouse for overdue child support and to cover her attorney’s fees. The judge also ordered Blaisdell to continue paying the $848 that he already had to pay his ex-wife each week in child support.
In the order, signed two weeks ago, the judge also ordered Blaisdell to spend 30 days in jail but delayed that sentence indefinitely to give Blaisdell time to pay the overdue expenses.
“The court finds that the defendant has had the ability to satisfy his child support obligation and the interest owed in full, but has chosen not to,” the judge wrote in the order.
Blaisdell, who lives in Ellsworth, declined to comment Monday about the latest contempt order.
Blaisdell, 55, came under scrutiny a year ago after court documents filed in Waldo County revealed that he had refused to pay nearly $50,000 in court-ordered child support and attorney’s fees to his former spouse, who divorced him in 2019. Court hearings and subsequent inquiries also revealed he had not filed federal or state income tax returns for several years, and that he neglected a criminal defense client who sat in jail for 11 months trying to get his bail reduced.
The latest order, signed two weeks ago, is the most recent in a string of legal decisions against Blaisdell that judges and state officials have pursued since last March to try to get him to abide by court orders and meet his obligations.
Other sanctions against Blaisdell in the past year include a prior contempt order in Waldo County in March 2024, and being suspended last summer from taking on new criminal defense clients by the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services. In a separate action, he also was suspended from practicing law by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which monitors the professional conduct of licensed lawyers.
In September, he was publicly censured and suspended by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from his duties as a probate judge. Among its reasons, the state’s top court cited the previous contempt order, Blaisdell’s refusal to pay money he owed his ex-wife, his failures to either file tax returns or respond to a state committee that was investigating his judicial conduct, and his false claim that he had never received letters from that committee.
“We view Judge Blaisdell’s misconduct as egregious and deserving of significant sanction,” the Supreme Judicial Court wrote last fall 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 Board of Overseers of the Bar and the Supreme Judicial Court issued separate orders for Blaisdell to be suspended from his respective roles for one year — but each order gave Blaisdell a way to not have the suspension imposed, either partially or fully, if he met certain conditions,
The Overseers’ order said none of his suspension would go into effect as long as Blaisdell agreed to have his private law practice monitored by an attorney specifically approved by the board. He also had to pay the costs of having his practice monitored, file all his overdue tax returns within 90 days and continue receiving mental health counseling, among other conditions — including that he “promptly and fully comply with all court orders.”
The Supreme Judicial Court order last fall indicated that Blaisdell would only have to serve four months of the year-long suspension from his probate judge position as long as he complied with the conditions imposed by the Overseers.
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 against Lynne Williams, a
lawyer from Bar Harbor who went on to serve in the Maine House of Representatives before her law license was suspended in January for alleged misconduct.
Blaisdell was re-elected as probate judge without opposition in 2022. He will be up for re-election to the position next year.
