Former Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer has been sentenced to serve 18 months behind bars after being convicted of felony misconduct in public office. The sentencing decision, delivered on September 10 by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jorge R. Fragoso, marks a significant downfall for the former top municipal legal official, who was also ordered to pay a $7,000 fine as part of his judicial penalty.
Inside the courtroom, the 69-year-old Spencer visibly reacted to the pronouncement of his sentence. Observers noted that his shoulders dropped slightly and he pinched the bridge of his nose as Judge Fragoso handed down the confinement term. Following the conclusion of the court proceedings, Spencer exited the courtroom alongside his defense attorney, William Sulton.
Under the terms established by the court, Spencer will also be required to complete 100 hours of community service and participate in a cognitive thinking class. The sentence mandates that he serve his 18-month incarceration period at the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, located in the suburb of Franklin. An exact date and timeline for when Spencer must officially report to the Franklin correctional facility was not immediately made clear following the hearing.
The formal sentencing follows a July 31 verdict in which a Milwaukee County jury found Spencer guilty of felony misconduct in public office. During that same legal proceeding, jurors acquitted the former municipal attorney on a separate misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer, delivering a mixed outcome on the specific counts leveled against him.
Prior to the judge’s ruling, Spencer had faced the potential of a stiffer statutory penalty under state guidelines. For the single felony misconduct conviction, the former city attorney could have received up to two years of incarceration followed by 18 months of extended supervision, along with a maximum monetary penalty of $10,000.
Throughout the four-day trial in July, state prosecutors laid out detailed evidence demonstrating that Spencer leveraged his high-ranking municipal office for personal benefit. Prosecutors argued that Spencer misused the authority of his position to intimidate staff members from the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services who were attempting to carry out routine inspections on a property that Spencer had previously owned.
Central to the state's criminal case was proof that Spencer ordered his subordinate legal staff to draft a formal legal memorandum. This document was utilized to halt municipal property inspections, enabling Spencer to avoid paying thousands of dollars in required repairs and municipal fees associated with a building where he kept and stored his personal automobiles.
The state’s legal team argued that Spencer’s actions represented a profound betrayal of the public interest. Assistant Attorney General Nicolas Heitman, who recommended that Spencer receive a jail sentence ranging between six and nine months, emphasized in court that the former official had exploited the trust placed in him by city voters while demonstrating an utter lack of remorse for his conduct.
Heitman stressed that the property dispute was not an isolated misstep in Spencer's administrative career, telling the court that Spencer's actions had escalated beyond an extraordinary occurrence. The prosecutor argued that at a certain point, the defendant's improper maneuvers began to reflect an established pattern of self-serving governance.
Spencer’s legal troubles developed alongside the end of his tenure in municipal politics. First elected as Milwaukee City Attorney in April 2020, Spencer served a single term before being voted out of office during the municipal elections in 2024, when he was defeated at the ballot box by the current city attorney, Evan Goyke.
Despite the conclusion of his trial in Milwaukee County, the former official’s legal battles are far from resolved. Spencer faces additional criminal exposure stemming from a separate prosecution initiated in October 2025, when authorities charged him with four felony counts connected to controversial real estate transactions.
In that ongoing matter, prosecutors allege that Spencer teamed up with a partner, real estate agent Kennard Wragg, to improperly obtain a local Milwaukee residential property with the ultimate aim of flipping the parcel for a substantial monetary profit.
According to filings submitted to the court, Wragg is accused of convincing a Milwaukee man to circumvent standard probate court procedures. Through this maneuver, the partners allegedly acquired the family estate property for only $8,000, despite the real estate holding an actual valuation far exceeding that purchase price.
The pending real estate case, which has been relocated from Milwaukee to Waukesha County, is set for its next scheduled court hearing on September 11. As Spencer prepares for his upcoming prison term at the county reintegration center, the subsequent proceedings will determine the ultimate scope of his broader legal liabilities.
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