Judge running for state supreme court gives man 2 days to report to jail for ​domestic violence. During that time man shoots at, stabs in-laws, cops say.

 A judge running for Wisconsin's supreme court gave a man two days to report to jail after she sentenced him to four months behind bars for domestic violence. But during those two days, the man allegedlyl traveled to his in-laws' home in Illinois, where he shot at and stabbed them as an act of revenge, police said.

What are the details?

Readers of TheBlaze may remember Jennifer Dorow as the judge who presided over the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre trial. Dorow made headlines in October, saying that defendant Darrell Brooks was staring her down, pounding his fist, and making her afraid in the courtroom, after which Dorow called for a break:

Darrell Brooks trial: He 'makes me scared,' judge says after another outburst, stare downyoutu.be

Later that month Brooks was found guilty of six counts of intentional first-degree murder.

Then it was reported Nov. 29 that Dorow — the chief judge of the Waukesha County Circuit Court — was running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Associated Press characterized Dorow as a conservative in a race that "will determine the ideological balance of the court."

What happened next?

One day after that report — Nov. 30 — Dorow sentenced 36-year-old Michael Liu to four months in jail on domestic violence charges from the summer, WTMJ-TV reported. Liu was convicted of punching his wife in the shoulder and smashing his children's iPad, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said.

Dorow allowed Liu two days to report to jail, WTMJ noted.

However, the station said Liu on Dec. 1 traveled from Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to Crete, Illinois, to "exact revenge on his soon-to-be ex-wife’s parents." WTMJ — citing the Will County (Illinois) Sheriff's Department — said Liu fired shots into his in-laws' home, broke in, and stabbed them. Authorities said Liu himself was stabbed 17 times by his father-in-law, who fought back. All three are expected to survive, the station said.

Liu is now being held in an Illinois jail on 16 counts, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, the Journal-Sentinel said.

What did the judge have to say?

The Wisconsin Democratic Party criticized Dorow, saying she exercised "poor judgment" that "put a victim of domestic violence and their family in direct danger," the Journal-Sentinel said.

But Dorow's campaign dismissed criticism for giving Liu two days to report to jail, the paper reported. The campaign noted in a statement that Dorow gave Liu double the sentence prosecutors requested and that the two days she gave him to report to jail were less than typically given, the Journal-Sentinel added.

Waukesha County District Attorney Sue Opper told WTMJ that the state and the victim did not object to Dorow giving Liu the two days.

"It's always in the court's discretion, and we have the ability to object," Opper added to the station. "But with the record we had at the time of sentencing, [Liu] was doing quite well on bail and in counseling. So there wasn't anything for us to think he'd abscond or create a risk."

Janine Geske — a retired state supreme court justice and current professor at Marquette University Law School — told WTMJ, "I don't think it reflects negatively on [Dorow's] character. These are decisions tough judges have to make."

"If it's a felony, even if they've been out on bail, you're sentencing them to prison," Geske added to the station. "Ordinarily, most judges will take them into custody immediately because the shock of suddenly getting prison time creates a bigger risk that they may abscond and take off and not show up. Misdemeanors are a little harder, which is what domestic violence is. It's a balancing between, is there something that might happen, that they may not appear? Or worse yet, go out and commit some crimes?"