Hancock County probate court finds temporary help after judge suspended

by Emily Allen

William Blaisdell answers questions from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland on Tuesday. Blaisdell, a probate judge in Hancock County, was accused of not paying child support or filing his taxes and faces sanctions or removal. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The registrar of Hancock County’s probate court says she doesn’t expect any disruptions after the state supreme court suspended its lone judge for four months because she had anticipated his removal.

Registrar Juliette Wilbur said she quickly reached out to the Maine Associations of Registrars of Probate in spring, as a judicial review committee was recommending the Supreme Judicial Court discipline Judge William Blaisdell for misconduct.

Now that the high court has suspended him, probate judges from other counties will step in to cover weekly hearings and the office will continue processing all administrative claims that don’t require a judge’s decision, Wilbur said.

Blaisdell, who has been Hancock County’s elected probate judge since 2015, was suspended on Sept. 17 after the supreme court found that he had not paid at least three years’ worth of taxes and was withholding child support payments from his ex-wife. He was admonished for both in rulings by two Belfast district judges, one of whom reported him to the high court’s Judicial Conduct Committee last September, according to court records.

To “emphasize the gravity of the misconduct,” the court ordered Blaisdell to forfeit $10,000 from his salary, an amount equivalent to four months of his judicial pay. He also faces another eight months of suspension if he commits any new misconduct.

Blaisdell has not resigned and is allowed to return to his position on Jan. 21, 2025. His term runs until 2026.

He did not respond Monday to a voicemail left with a number listed for his private law firm. Blaisdell was sanctioned by the Maine bar in August but is allowed to continue practicing law under supervision.

Probate judges are elected every four years and serve part time in each Maine county, handling petitions for adoptions, guardianships, conservatorships, estates, trusts and other family matters. In Hancock County, court hearings are held once a week, on Tuesdays. So even though the court will be without its own probate judge until next year, she expects it’ll be easy to get those cases covered.

“We had an idea that this was coming, so it was imperative that we didn’t have a backlog of undecided cases that the new interchange judges would not have as much background on,” Wilbur said.

Hancock County is on track to handle roughly 500 new cases this year, including informal cases that are handled administratively without a judge, she said.  She works with three other clerks, one of whom is part time.

Catherine Moore, who is registrar of probate in Lincoln County, says this process for “interchange” judges is rarely invoked but it can also be used when a probate judge is sick or otherwise unavailable.

“It’s just a rare thing and we’re lucky that other judges can step up and help,” Moore said.

PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

It’s highly unusual for a probate judge in Maine to be disciplined.

From 2016-22, the years for which data is readily available, the Judicial Conduct Committee sent only eight complaints – lodged against a total of six judges – to the Supreme Judicial Court. Among those disciplined was former York County Probate Judge Robert Nadeau, who was suspended from the bench for 30 days in 2016 for repeatedly violating the Maine Judicial Code of Conduct. In 2017, Nadeau was suspended from practicing law for two years.

In that same time, the committee dismissed nearly 650 such complaints, according to an analysis of the committee’s annual reports.

The committee’s request to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court earlier this year was also unusually aggressive, compared to previous forms of discipline. They called on the court to do whatever they could to strip Blaisdell of his judgeship.

The court ultimately agreed that there was too much risk in attempting to remove Blaisdell. The most it can do is request the Legislature impeach him, and if lawmakers were to decide otherwise, it “may be viewed as an abdication of our power, and indeed our obligation, to discipline judges where warranted,” the justices wrote in their September ruling.

“We cannot expect the public to have respect and confidence in our courts when a judge himself flouts court orders,” their order states.

Wilbur said that to her knowledge, there are no cases left undecided from before Blaisdell’s suspension. If any come forward, they’ll be prioritized.

But after learning about the allegations, one woman now questions if Blaisdell mismanaged her case.

Michelle Gibson said she didn’t know of Blaisdell’s misconduct at the time he was considering her case over her father’s estate, and only learned of Blaisdell’s unpaid taxes and child support from recent news coverage.

In hindsight, Gibson said, Blaisdell was dismissive and seemed to rush through her case.

The whole process – spending time and money to fix up her father’s house to be sold and navigating the probate system without a lawyer – was exhausting, she said. Sorting through his estate involved a lot of uncomfortable interactions between Gibson and her siblings, all of whom had just lost their father and had significant disagreements regarding his estate.

“It’s been very mentally draining to try and do everything and make sure I’m finding the right paperwork, and making sure I’m doing the right thing,” Gibson said.

Blaisdell held hearings in February in April. Her siblings were notified, she said, but not all of them showed up. So even though he approved her petition to take over the estate, it didn’t address all of the issues she raised, Gibson said.

Now she is left wondering if Blaisdell was distracted by his personal matters, and if he properly oversaw her case, given his misconduct.

“We had a very unique case, and I just feel that when we were in there, I don’t think he was giving it his full 100%,” she said. “I don’t think that he knew the case. I think he had so much other stuff going on, that he was hearing that stuff for the first time.”

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Hancock County probate court finds temporary help after judge suspended