Former Milwaukee public defender faces prostitution charges

Renowned Public Defender who once ran for judge in Milwaukee County he faces charges of extortion and falsifying documents to represent one of the women he paid for sex.

According to court documents, attorney Travis Schwantes approached a woman whom “he actively represented or represented with the knowledge that she was a victim of human trafficking, suffering from drug abuse or other trauma.”

On Thursday evening, Schwantes was charged with two felonies – solicitation and making false statements to qualify as a party to a public defender – as well as two misdemeanors related to prostitution.

The criminal complaint details a massive investigation that began when Milwaukee police arrested a woman they believed was engaging in prostitution at her apartment on the city’s near west side.

The woman identified Schwantes and several other men, including a retired municipal judge from another county, a funeral home, a public safety worker and another attorney, as her clients, the criminal complaint said.

The complaint does not name the five men, but notes that they were arrested. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to questions early Friday about the status of the cases.

During the investigation, two other women told authorities that Schwantes, 54, repeatedly paid them for sex acts, with one of them saying Schwantes knew she had open warrants and that he falsified information to represent her as public defender in these cases. arrest records show.

Investigators found that Schwantes wrote on an eligibility assessment form that the woman had lost her job cleaning houses, but the woman said that was not true and “she was in fact self-employed as a prostitute with one of her sources of income.” is “Schwantes,” according to arrest records obtained this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Schwantes continued to pay the woman for sex while he represented her, prosecutors said.

The lawyer representing Schwantes, Joseph Bunyi, declined to comment early Friday. Attempts to contact Schwantes directly were unsuccessful.

Schwantes went on leave from the public defender’s office in May. He resigned Sept. 27, said Adam Plotkin, a spokesman for the office.

“These allegations are very troubling to us; Representing our clients in accordance with the rules of professional responsibility is of the utmost importance to SPD,” Plotkin said in a written response to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“While these are serious charges, we must remember that all people accused of crimes are given the presumption of innocence, and attorney Schwantes will be afforded the same guarantee,” he said.

The Journal Sentinel asked whether the State Public Defender’s Office received any complaints about Schwantes’ behavior with female clients while he worked there and whether the office conducted an internal review after learning of the criminal investigation, but received no response.

Schwantes surrendered at the Milwaukee Police Department building shortly after 10:30 a.m. Oct. 17 and was released about 1:30 that day, order logs show.

On Thursday, he was issued a summons to appear in court on December 20.

Investigators believe Schwantes used internal recordings to obtain information about the women, the complaint says.

According to prosecutors, Schwantes did not hide his profession from the women he dated.

The woman who first identified Schwantes as a client said he revealed his work and gave her advice on how to avoid detection by police. He told her she was “doing everything right” by working during the day and walking clients into the house, the complaint states. Prosecutors noted that the woman’s lawyer later described her as a victim of sex trafficking.

Investigators from the Milwaukee Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office also believe Schwantes used records from the public defender’s office to obtain information about women he paid for sex.

The woman, who had open warrants, told authorities she never told Schwantes her real name and was surprised when he called her by name during their first or second face-to-face meeting and mentioned her open cases, according to the complaint.

The third woman also stated that she never told him her real name or told him that she had been a victim of crime in the past. However, during one of their conversations, Schwantes said he “took him away,” apparently referring to the man who raped the woman, the complaint says.

The man was acquitted in court of sexual assault but was later found guilty of sexual assault of a child in an unrelated case. Schwantes represented the man in the latter case, which resulted in him being sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Prosecutors wrote in the complaint that “the only way Schwantes could have linked VICTIM 3 to this offender was through internal records of the State Public Defender’s Office” and suggested he made the comment to try to gain the woman’s trust.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for Schwantes’ phone and found photos and online payments that corroborated the women’s statements, according to court records. In some cases, he wrote “Justice” or “Just Us” in the payment notes.

The review of his phone records had an additional layer of scrutiny from an outside detective to ensure investigators did not violate confidential communications between Schwantes and his clients. The woman he represented waived attorney-client privilege so investigators could review her records.

The criminal complaint was signed by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Heitman, who works in the Public Integrity Unit and dealt with other high-profile cases.

Schwantes has spent his career as a public defender. He was the head of the public defender’s office in Milwaukee and ran for judge in 2020receiving endorsements from more than 250 elected officials, advocates and community members. That same year he painted salary about $104,000according to state data obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

Prior to his time in Milwaukee, Schwantes managed the public defender’s office in Walworth County. January 2012 – July 2016.

Schwantes has represented defendants in high-profile cases, including Jordan Frickewho was convicted of murdering a Milwaukee police officer. Matthew RittnerAnd Stephen Zelicformer West Allis police officer convicted of killing two women during sex acts and dumping their bodies in a suitcase. Schwantes represented Zelic at the original trial in Walworth County.

Schwantes also prevailed in court cases involving caregivers accused of murder, including a nanny in Cudahy. who was acquitted by a jury of causing the death of a 6-month-old girl and a Milwaukee father whose case was dismissed after the cause and manner of death could not be confirmed due to botched autopsy.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Ashley Luthern is a reporter and deputy investigative editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at [email protected].