Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson S.C.

08/20/2026

A Wisconsin police officer typed one word into a text box and got back everywhere his ex-girlfriend's car had been.

No warrant. No case number. No supervisor. Thousands of cameras answered it.

The word was "welfare."

He ran it from home. Off duty, in a different city, more than once. Last week a judge sent him to jail for six months and refused the lighter sentence his own prosecutor had agreed to.

Here is the part almost everyone gets backwards.

He was caught because the system records everything. That same completeness is exactly why it stopped nothing.

The network keeps an audit trail: who searched, when, and the reason they typed. That log is the only reason there was ever a case against him. It is also the only control there was. No case number required. No supervisor approval. No warrant. A text box, and the text box did what text boxes do.

Those same cameras photographed your car this week. Probably more than once.

These cameras are called automated license plate readers, and they are probably photographing your car several times a week. They read the plate, and they also build what the industry calls a vehicle fingerprint: make, color, body type, roof rack, the dent in your bumper. One search from one terminal can run against cameras owned by hundreds of other departments in other states.

This is not an abstract privacy debate for us. It is in our files. Plate reader data now shows up in OWI cases to build the timeline, in drug cases to build a pattern of travel, in domestic cases to establish presence, and in property crimes it is frequently the entire identification.

Two things worth knowing if it ever touches your case.

It cuts both ways. The same network that puts your car near a scene can prove it was eleven miles away. Wisconsin law requires the State to hand over exculpatory evidence, Wis. Stat. 971.23(1)(h). But nobody runs the search that helps you unless someone asks, and retention is measured in weeks, not years. If it might help you, the clock is already running.

Not every camera is a police camera. Flock sells to homeowners associations and business parks too, and the Fourth Amendment restrains the government, not your neighborhood association. Who owns the pole changes the analysis. From the road they look identical.

We wrote the long version: what these systems record, what the Supreme Court has and has not decided, how to request your own city's policy and retention period under Wisconsin's public records law, and what a defense lawyer actually does with this evidence 👇

https://racinelaw.com/flock-license-plate-readers-wisconsin-criminal-defense/

Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C., criminal defense in Racine and Kenosha since 1994. (262) 632-5000, answered 24/7.

08/18/2026

Can police go through your phone after they arrest you?

Generally, no. Not without a warrant. That is Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014).

Here is the part that actually decides these cases, and almost everyone gets it backwards.

Almost nobody makes them get the warrant.

The most common way a phone gets searched in Wisconsin is not a judge signing anything. It is someone unlocking it at the roadside, because they were asked politely and it felt rude to say no. Consent is its own lawful basis for a search under Wis. Stat. 968.10. Hand the phone over and you have supplied the authority that was otherwise missing, and Riley has nothing left to do.

So the sentence that matters is not the case name. It is this one:

"I do not consent to a search of my phone."

That is a complete sentence. It is not obstruction, and it is not evidence of anything. Wisconsin publishes that second point itself: the Legislature's own annotation to article I, section 11 of the state constitution says it violates due process for a prosecutor to comment on a defendant's refusal to consent to a warrantless search.

What Riley actually held, for the record: the search-incident-to-arrest rule, the one that lets officers empty your pockets, does not extend to the digital contents of a phone. The Court's answer to what police must do first is three words: "get a warrant."

Two things Riley does not do.

It does not stop them taking the phone. Seizing and searching are separate acts. They can hold the device while they apply. Getting the handset back is a different fight, with its own deadline.

It does not make a warrant unlimited. A warrant has a scope. Whether the extraction stayed inside it is one of the most productive questions a defense lawyer can ask in a case built on phone data.

Your phone is not a pocket. It is your messages, your photos, your location for the last two years, and every app you ever logged into. The law mostly agrees. It just expects you to know it.

The full version, with the statutes and the 120 day deadline for getting a seized phone back 👇

https://racinelaw.com/can-police-search-your-phone-wisconsin/

Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C., criminal defense in Racine and Kenosha since 1994. (262) 632-5000, answered 24/7.

They took your phone, or they are asking to look at it. What the warrant rule actually says, what consent means, what happens to a phone held as evidence, and what your carrier can be made to hand over.

08/17/2026

Wisconsin police are allowed to lie to you during questioning. Not a loophole. Perfectly legal. They can tell you a co-defendant confessed when nobody did. They can say a camera caught you when there is no camera.

Most people believe the opposite, and that belief is what gets them talking.

What Miranda actually covers, what it does not, and how to ask for a lawyer in a way that legally counts:
https://racinelaw.com/can-police-lie-to-you-wisconsin/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=police-lie-2026-08&utm_content=hook-yes-legally

08/06/2026

The State Fair opens today. Here is the part Racine and Kenosha people do not think about until it is too late.

State Fair Park is in West Allis. That is Milwaukee County.

If you pick up an OWI on the way home, the case does not come back here with you. It gets filed in Milwaukee County. Milwaukee prosecutors, Milwaukee judges, and every single court date is up there, usually in the middle of a work day. An hour each way from Racine, longer from Kenosha, over and over.

Southbound I-94 runs through three counties before the state line. Whichever one the lights come on in is the one you will be driving back to for months. Same drive, same night, different court.

Four things that catch people every August:

"I only had a few" across eleven hours still adds up. Time helps at a fixed rate. A cream puff and some sun is not a reset.

Under 21 is absolute sobriety in Wisconsin. Not 0.08. Zero. Any detectable alcohol. Every year we hear from parents whose 19 year old had one drink and had no idea the standard was zero.

An open container on the ride home is its own citation, and it applies to passengers, not just the driver.

Sleeping it off in the lot is not automatically safe. In Wisconsin "operating" is broader than driving, and people get arrested in parked cars every year.

Park and ride. Or take a rideshare and get the car tomorrow. A parking ticket is not an OWI, and that trade is not close.

Have a great time at the fair. Get home the boring way.

https://racineowi.com/blog/state-fair-owi-milwaukee-county-drive-home/

The Wisconsin State Fair runs August 6-16 in West Allis. An OWI there is a Milwaukee County case, even if you live in Racine or Kenosha, and every court date is up there.

08/04/2026

"Released without bail" does not mean what most people think it means.

A bond decision goes around Racine or Kenosha every few months and the comments fill up within the hour. Here is the part almost nobody in those threads knows, and it is the part that hurts the person who just walked out.

A signature bond is still a bond. It is a signed contract with the court. No contact. No alcohol. Stay in the county. Show up every single time.

Break one line of it and that is not a violation. It is a new crime. Bail jumping, Wis. Stat. 946.49. If your underlying charge is a felony, bail jumping is a Class H felony.

Answering a text from the wrong person can do it.

And they stack. Multiple violations of a single bond can be charged as multiple counts. We regularly meet people facing more bail jumping counts than the charges they started with.

So when people say a signature bond means somebody "got off," the truth is closer to the opposite. They got released into a minefield, and most of them were never handed the map.

If someone in your family was released on a signature bond this week: get the conditions sheet, read every line, and do not assume anything on it is a formality.

We wrote up the whole thing, including what Wisconsin's 2023 bail amendment actually changed. That one is not what people think either.

https://racinelaw.com/signature-bond-wisconsin-what-no-cash-bail-really-means/

A signature bond is still a bond. Breaking one condition is bail jumping, a Class H felony, and the counts stack. What Wisconsin bail law actually says.

08/01/2026

34 year old sentenced to 50 years by a jury for 5th Drunk Driving in Texas. 🚨

https://youtu.be/Q-b2dE0BXBM?is=4RINBNK7XCdKNxYz

07/31/2026

Tony Romo's first court date is September 21.

He was arrested July 23.

Most people look at those two dates and assume nothing has to happen in between. In Wisconsin, that assumption is how drivers lose their licence before a judge ever hears whether they were impaired.

Because Romo wasn't only cited for OWI. Court records and Milwaukee County body-cam footage show he refused the evidentiary breath test after arrest, and he was cited for that too.

In Wisconsin, refusing is a second, separate case. And it comes with a deadline almost nobody knows about:

⏱️ 10 days. Not 10 days from your court date. 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Revoke, which most people mistake for a receipt.

Miss it and a 12-month licence revocation takes effect automatically, with no right to challenge it. On top of anything the OWI case does.

If you or someone you know refused a test in Racine, Kenosha or Walworth County, find that notice today and count the days from it.

We wrote up exactly how the rule works, what a refusal hearing can actually argue, and why "just refuse it" is worse advice than it sounds 👇

https://racineowi.com/blog/tony-romo-refused-the-test-wisconsin-10-day-rule/

Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C. · Racine & Kenosha · Free consultation, phone answered 24/7 · (262) 632-5000

Tony Romo was cited for OWI and for refusing the test. In Wisconsin those are two separate cases, and the refusal has a 10-day deadline that runs long before any court date.

07/30/2026

When Tony Romo was pulled over in Milwaukee, he asked to call his lawyer, several times. He was told no. 🚗👮

Was that legal? TMJ4 asked our own Jillian Scheidegger to break it down.

Here’s the part most drivers get wrong: during an active OWI investigation, before you’re formally arrested, you generally can’t stop everything to consult an attorney.

Jillian explains why the deputies were following proper protocol, and why what you do and say at the roadside matters so much.

We turned her interview into a plain-English guide on your rights during a Wisconsin OWI stop 👇

📖 https://racineowi.com/blog/call-lawyer-during-owi-stop-wisconsin-tony-romo

Charged with an OWI in Racine, Kenosha, or Milwaukee? Call Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson for a confidential consultation.

Tony Romo asked to call his lawyer during a Milwaukee OWI stop and was told no. Attorney Jillian Scheidegger explains Wisconsin's rules on counsel during a stop.

07/25/2026

The DEA just spent more than two weeks in a federal hearing on moving ma*****na to Schedule III. And here is the part nobody saw coming: the DEA's own lawyers told the judge they SUPPORT the move.

So is w**d finally about to be legal in Wisconsin? No. And the gap between "federal rescheduling" and "legal here" is exactly where Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth County drivers keep getting burned.

What actually happened:

The hearing on rescheduling ALL ma*****na wrapped up July 15. Final briefs are due August 17, then the judge sends a recommendation to DEA leadership for a final rule. No timeline yet. A partial order already took effect April 28, but it only covers FDA-approved products and state-licensed medical ma*****na. Wisconsin has no qualifying medical program, so that order reaches zero Wisconsin conduct.

What stays true no matter what Washington does:

⚠️ Possession is still a crime in Wisconsin. Schedule III is not legalization. It does not touch state law.

⚠️ Wisconsin OWI law is zero tolerance for THC. Any detectable delta-9 THC is an OWI under § 346.63(1)(am), even if you were not impaired, and even if you bought it legally in Illinois, Michigan, or Minnesota.

⚠️ The new roadside saliva swab tests for presence, not impairment. As so many of you pointed out on our saliva-test posts: THC can flag on the swab long after any effect is gone. Legal purchase across the border, plus zero tolerance, plus a presence-only test. That is the trap.

Wisconsin is now surrounded on three sides by legal recreational ma*****na. Until Madison changes state law, federal headlines change nothing at a traffic stop on I-94.

Our full 2026 breakdown of what is legal, what is not, and what the real exposure looks like:
https://racinelaw.com/is-w**d-legal-in-wisconsin/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ma*****na-sched3-2026&utm_content=launch-2026-07-25

📞 (262) 632-5000, answered 24/7

07/03/2026

🎆 250 years of independence, and no place we'd rather celebrate than right here in Racine.

From all of us at Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, have a safe and happy 4th. One tip from people who see the aftermath every year: line up your ride home before the fireworks start.

And if the weekend doesn't go as planned, we're here Monday morning. Know your rights → racinelaw.com