MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – A jury has cleared a circuit judge, after he was sued for an alleged breach involving the ownership of an office building in Appleton.
Tracy Barnett sued Outagamie County Circuit Judge Mark McGinnis, who was acquitted after a two-week civil trial in Milwaukee.
McGinnis was a private attorney when he joined Barnett and another man in a group that borrowed over $1 million to buy the building. Trial testimony indicated that it was a troubled loan.
McGinnis later assumed total ownership, worked out a new arrangement on the loan, and leased the building to the state Corrections Department.
In a 2011 lawsuit, Barnett said McGinnis had a conflict of interest — because he was an investor in the building, while serving as an attorney for the business who encouraged her to give up her share without telling her that he leased it to the state.
Barnett failed to win any of her 3 civil claims.
The case was moved to Milwaukee County after all of Appleton’s other judges refused to get involved to avoid a conflict. McGinnis because a circuit judge in 2005.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
