This post originally appeared at https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/janet-protasiewicz-used-the-n-word-referring-to-blacks-in-childrens-court-cases-witness-says/

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Two people who knew Janet Protasiewicz – her former stepson AND a long-time self-described liberal family friend of her ex-husband – told Wisconsin Right Now in recorded interviews that they heard Protasiewicz use racial slurs when she was a prosecutor in Children’s Court. Both men, Jonathan Ehr and Michael Madden, told Wisconsin Right Now that they personally heard Protasiewicz use the “N word” to refer to blacks.

Madden, Protasiewicz’s then stepson, said in a videotaped interview that she used the “N word” to refer to blacks who were involved in court cases while she served as a prosecutor in Milwaukee County Children’s Court, including the parents of black children and blacks accused of crimes.

We asked Protasiewicz’s campaign for comment at 10 p.m. on March 15. She has not responded. She has not denied using racial slurs despite being given an opportunity to do so.

You can listen to and watch the recordings later in this story. Both men said they heard Protasiewicz use the racial slurs in 1997, when she was married to conservative Milwaukee County Judge Patrick Madden. She was 34 years old at the time and an assistant Milwaukee County District Attorney. Michael is Patrick’s son. Ehr and his attorney father knew the judge and his family for decades.

In a separate audio recorded interview without Michael Madden present, Ehr, a former Milwaukee restaurant/bar owner and self-described “liberal,” told Wisconsin Right Now that Protasiewicz used the “N word’ in front of him to refer to blacks and also used a racial slur to refer to Hispanics.

“I think it was the “N word” and then I thought she said, I could have sworn she said, beaner, or something, beaner,” he said.