WAUKESHA, Wis. — Court records show Darrell Brooks, the suspect in the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy, has requested to ask potential jurors whether they have been swayed by political ads about him.
The judge presiding over the case is expected to announce her decision on Wednesday, just a few days before the trial is set to begin.
A defense attorney who’s not affiliated with the case says it’s an important question for Brooks’ defense to ask.
With six weeks until the November election, political ads can be found in just about every commercial break on TV. Several of them feature Brooks and the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack.
Sue Ford of Waukesha says she’s tired of seeing them.
"I think that should be out of the political arena,” she said.
Laura Stehno thinks it’s fair game.
“Crime is really rising in the state and throughout the country and I think he should have been behind bars,” she said.
Recently filed court documents show Brooks wants to ask potential jurors if they’ve seen those commercials, and if so, “whether they can put it aside and decide the case in an unbiased manner.”
"If I was defense counsel, I would be doing the exact same thing,” defense attorney Michael Maistelman said.
Maistelman believes the judge will allow the question to be asked during jury selection. He also thinks it would be pivotal in narrowing a pool of about 300 Waukesha County residents down to 12 jurors and four alternates.
"They don't want jurors who are already predisposed to believe that this gentleman committed this horrific act,” he said. “They want to have people that come to the jury with an open mind, that are not biased and it's hard not to be biased when you're seeing political advertisements."
"It's hard to imagine that they could find a jury of people who haven't seen those ads and particularly the ads that show footage from the parade,” said UW-Milwaukee political science professor emeritus Mordecai Lee.
Lee says Wisconsin Republicans have shifted from inflation to crime as the top issue ahead of the election. Therefore, Lee thinks that means there will be more to come on the crime that shook the state.
"This is a tough issue, everybody deserves fair and impartial jurors,” he said. It will really be up to the judge to decide if people can set aside the impact of the commercials on them as voters and can be impartial jurors nonetheless."
Judge Jennifer Dorow said in previous hearings that jury selection will likely start and end next Monday, making for a long day of questioning ahead of what’s expected to be a lengthy trial.