Admit to Crime & Be Ready to do The Time

By Barry Zalma on May 7, 2026

Attempt to Withdraw Plea After Sentencing Fails

Post number 5346

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Stealing from Insurers and Employer Gets Defendant Five Years in Prison

In State of Wisconsin v. Jacquelyn R. Harris, No. 2025AP489-CR, Court of Appeals of Wisconsin (April 22, 2026) Harris pled no contest and was found guilty. She was sentenced to five years of initial confinement and three years of extended supervision, with restitution ordered in the amounts of $31,086 to Kaliber and $25,000 to Erie Insurance Company.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In late 2022, Jacquelyn R. Harris was charged with theft in a business setting under WIS. STAT. § 943.20(1)(b) (2023-24). Harris, while employed as the office manager for Kaliber Collision Repair in Port Washington, allegedly wrote fraudulent checks totaling over $37,000 and made unauthorized purchases with the company credit card. After a plea colloquy she was found guilty by pleading no contest to the charges.

LAW

The case centers on Harris’s post conviction motion, which challenged the validity of her plea. She argued her plea was not entered knowingly, intelligently, or voluntarily, claiming her trial counsel failed to inform her of several constitutional rights waived by pleading no contest — specifically, the rights to testify, to call defense witnesses, to confront the State’s witnesses, and against self-incrimination.

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

Harris contended that had she been properly informed, she would have proceeded to trial and called a witness regarding the validity of some of the disputed checks. She also claimed these deficiencies justified her statements at the plea hearing. The circuit court denied Harris’s post conviction motion without holding an evidentiary hearing.

Contrary to Harris’s assertions, the Record conclusively demonstrated she is not entitled to relief, and the circuit court therefore did not err when it denied her post conviction motion. At the plea hearing, the court conducted a thorough plea colloquy in which Harris affirmatively waived her trial rights. When the court asked Harris if she and her attorney discussed the rights she was giving up by entering a no-contest plea and whether she understood them, Harris confirmed they had discussed them and she understood them. Harris also agreed she signed the plea questionnaire after having discussed it with counsel, and when asked if she had checked the box by each of those rights after having gone “through those rights with [her] attorney, discussed them, and understood them[,]” she responded affirmatively. Harris then denied having any questions about these rights, and she again confirmed she was entering her plea voluntarily and “had enough time to discuss” not only her “decision to enter the no contest plea with [her] attorney” but also “the case as a whole and possible defenses[.]”

CONCLUSION

Harris repeatedly informed the court she understood the rights she was waiving and that she had discussed those rights with counsel. The Court of Appeals was satisfied the Record conclusively established she was not entitled to relief, and the post conviction court therefore did not err in denying her motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of conviction and the order denying Harris’s post conviction motion.

ZALMA OPINION

Harris took advantage of her employer and the insurers who paid the invoices submitted by the employer for repair of the cars belonging to those insured by the insurers like one of her victims, Erie Insurance Company. Shocked that her admitted thievery resulted in a five year sentence she attempted – with spurious and unfounded arguments – withdraw her plea in hopes of avoiding jail. Her try failed because the trial judge was careful before accepting her plea.

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