Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice stalking case, Racine man gets probation
Ryan Thornton
MADISON, Wis. - A Racine man who was criminally charged after he allegedly sent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky a series of intimidating emails, reached a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to probation.
37-year-old Ryan Thornton was charged with felony stalking, misdemeanor disorderly conduct, and misdemeanor victim intimidation.
On Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, Thornton pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanor charges. The felony charge was dismissed on the prosecutor's motion.
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He was sentenced to one year in prison. The judge then stayed that sentence and put him on two years' probation.
Thornton is banned from having any contact with Justice Jill Karofsky and is also banned from Dane County unless he gets approval for a legitimate reason only. He also has to wear a GPS monitor for the first 30 days of his probation.
Stalking Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Karofsky, man accused
Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man with stalking after he allegedly sent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky a series of intimidating emails.
Original reporting | October 2025
The backstory:
Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man with stalking after he allegedly sent liberal state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky a series of intimidating emails.
Ryan Thornton of Racine was charged with one felony count of stalking. He faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison if convicted. His attorney, listed in court records as public defender Britney Dickey, declined to comment on the case when reached at her office Tuesday.
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According to a criminal complaint, Thornton sent Karofsky nine emails between the beginning of August and the beginning of October accusing her of being manipulative, telling her to "eject" herself from office and asking for her home address.
In one message, he told her to call the Capitol Police Department. "What a democrat idea, tho," he wrote, according to the complaint. In another message, he asked if she wanted to be part of his helicopter videos, which police took to mean that Thornton believed helicopters were watching him.
Karofsky told investigators she has received numerous threats since she became a judge in 2017, but Thornton's messages frightened her to the point that she was afraid to leave her house to get her mail and asked police to escort her to her seat during a Milwaukee Brewers game and a Wisconsin Badgers game.
Thornton made profane remarks about Karofsky and said she was "going down" during an interview with investigators, according to the complaint. He told the investigators to call President Donald Trump and that Karofsky "better start running or something for the hills of the feds because it's a conspiracy."
Thornton said he was upset with an attorney that he hired to represent him in a 2019 strangulation case and that the Office of Lawyer Regulation, a Supreme Court office that disciplines attorneys, hasn't investigated the lawyer. According to the complaint, Thornton called the office more than 70 times from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1 to complain about the attorney.
The Source: This report includes information from the Associated Press and court records.