Byline: Steven Walters
Mar. 16--Madison -- Stanley Kutler, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor and Richard Nixon presidential scholar, was fined $50 and ordered to pay $149 in court costs Wednesday for a phone threat to 'blow up' his Madison health care provider over an unpaid claim to treat a sunburn he got in Hawaii.
'Either you've learned from this, or you haven't,' Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fielder told Kutler, who entered a no contest plea to a charge of disorderly conduct for the threat he made during a call to Dean Health System on April 26, 2005.
Fiedler could have fined the 71-year-old Kutler up to $1,000, but said he kept the penalty low because being convicted of a crime 'is punishment enough' for the prominent scholar.
'You know right from wrong,' Fiedler told Kutler, who did not have any criminal record. 'We do not have to make an example of you.'
Assistant District Attorney Lana Mades said there was no reason to jail Kutler on the misdemeanor, for which a conviction can carry a sentence of up to 90 days in jail.
Maximum fine sought
But Mades asked for a fine closer to the maximum of $1,000 because threatening to blow up a building is now a serious threat in America after national and international terrorism attacks.
'Bombs are no longer an abstract event,' she said. 'Bombs in this day and age are real and, frankly, they scare people.'
Mades said Kutler swore at and harassed a Dean Health clerk before finally telling her, 'If this doesn't get taken care of, I'm coming over and blowing up the Dean Health plan building.'
The tone of Kutler's voice, and fear for the 350 employees who worked in the building, forced Dean Health officials to take it seriously and call police, the prosecutor added.
Before he was sentenced, Kutler said, he specialized in constitutional law during his 36 years as a UW history professor -- a career that included suing to force release of White House tapes from Richard Nixon's presidency.
'That's why I know this stuff (the law),' he told reporters after the hearing.
Kutler, who has written 12 books, told the judge he was frustrated that Dean Health officials first denied his $120 claim for two treatments he received in Hawaii for sunburn, but sent that decision to a wrong address.
Calls to provider
That forced him to call Hawaii and have new bills sent to the health care provider, so he was calling to check on the status of his claim when he made the threat.
Two days after the incident for which he was charged, Kutler said a Dean Health official called, apologized and said his $120 reimbursement was being mailed to him.
'My claim proved legitimate,' Kutler told the judge. 'I think I've been a good citizen of this community for more than four decades.'
He told reporters he had 'no recollection' of threatening violence.
Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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