No state Supreme Court appeal for Monroe County drunk driver

A Monroe County man who won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court several years ago will not get a hearing from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a different case. 

State justices have chosen not to hear an appeal from Michael Kingsley, who wants a guilty plea dismissed in a drunk-driving case. 

Kingsley argued that police were illegally allowed to bring in a dog to sniff his car for drugs, while the car was parked on his personal property. 

The state appeals court recently ruled that the car was actually on a public street at the time, so the search was legal. 

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kingsley’s favor that Monroe County jail workers used excessive force on him while he was in handcuffs.       

The Wisconsin Supreme Court also has declined this month to hear other area cases.

The justices have decided not to hear the appeal of Harland Swenson Junior of Sparta for post-conviction relief. 

Swenson was sentenced in 2016 for the rape of a 10-year-old girl. 

Swenson failed to convince a state appeals court that his conviction and sentence were unfair, because the trial jury was not required to agree unanimously on all three sexual assault charges against him. 

In the 1990’s, Swenson previously was convicted in Vernon County of sexually assaulting a young boy.   

The Supreme Court also declined to hear a lawsuit filed after the drowning death of a child who was taking a swimming lesson at a public pool.

The court will not take up the suit by the family of a 4-year-old boy who drowned in 2017 at the Prairie du Chien municipal swimming pool.