Wisconsin legislator Ortiz-Velez pleads no contest in disorderly case

Plea and sentence

Wisconsin state Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge tied to a feud with fellow Democrats over resolutions honoring Hispanics, the Associated Press reported.

Prosecutors in Milwaukee County charged Ortiz-Velez in February. The Milwaukee Democrat entered the no-contest plea during a hearing Friday, and Judge Paul Malloy ordered her to pay a $300 fine and submit a DNA sample, AP said. The maximum penalty was up to 90 days in jail.

A no-contest plea, AP said, is not an admission of guilt, but it means the accused will offer no defense. The plea is treated as a conviction in the criminal justice system.

Statement from Ortiz-Velez

In a statement after the sentencing, Ortiz-Velez said she would pay the fine and remained focused on her constituents rather than what she called caucus infighting.

“My voting choices caused a rift that has been ugly and bitter,” she said. “My constituents did not send me to Madison to litigate internal caucus disputes or be distracted by the personal feuds — they sent me there to deliver results.”

The AP reported that a spokesperson for Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

How the dispute started

The feud began in August as Democratic members of the Wisconsin Assembly were planning resolutions honoring Hispanic heritage and Hispanic veterans for Hispanic Heritage Month in September, AP reported.

According to the criminal complaint, Ortiz-Velez became angry because she believed an unnamed lawmaker drafting the heritage resolution had intentionally excluded her from working on it. The complaint said Ortiz-Velez had been invited to work on the heritage resolution in June, but chose not to participate while still wanting to help draft the language.

AP reported that the complaint says Ortiz-Velez contacted media outlets saying she had been intentionally left out of the resolution work, and that she told the author of a separate resolution honoring Hispanic veterans that she felt excluded from working on it. The complaint said she based that grievance on the fact that her late husband was a Hispanic veteran.

Alleged threats to lawmakers

AP said the complaint reported that two more unnamed lawmakers told investigators in separate phone conversations that Ortiz-Velez said she would spread “negative personal information” about the resolutions’ author to the media and that “they are going to do what I want them to do, or I’m going to x, y and z.”

When one of the lawmakers asked what the remarks meant, AP said Ortiz-Velez made comments about the resolutions’ author’s personal life and other legislators. The complaint characterized the remarks as “indecent and tended to disrupt the good public order,” but did not elaborate on them, AP reported.

Caucus statements and later Capitol ban

AP reported that Democratic leaders issued a statement in September saying Ortiz-Velez made a comment about shooting three caucus members. AP said the statement came a day after another statement announcing that Ortiz-Velez was leaving the Democratic caucus.

In interviews with Wisconsin Right Now and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, AP reported, Ortiz-Velez denied that she threatened her colleagues. AP also said the Legislature’s human resources office barred her from entering the state Capitol for a day, and that a spokesperson for Republican Speaker Robin Vos said at the time she shouldn’t have been banned.

Defense account and prior voting disputes

Ortiz-Velez’s attorney, Michael Chernin, told AP that Democrats were already upset with Ortiz-Velez going into September because she voted for the 2025-27 state budget and for new legislative maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2024.

AP reported that Chernin said Democrats opposed the spending plan in part because they felt it did not adequately fund public schools and argued that the state Supreme Court should have drawn the new legislative maps.

AP also reported that Rep. Priscilla Prado, another Milwaukee Democrat, would not allow Ortiz-Velez to participate in the Hispanic resolutions, Chernin said. Chernin additionally said that two unnamed lawmakers told investigators that Ortiz-Velez threatened to expose unsavory elements of Prado’s personal life to the media.

“It’s incredibly petty, and Sylvia didn’t want any part of this,” Chernin said. “Sylvia truly wanted to spare Prado any sort of embarrassment on this.”

Messages left with Prado’s Capitol office seeking comment were not immediately returned Friday afternoon, AP reported.