Steven Avery Guilters Send Sheboygan Judge Flowers In Murder Case

People who believe that Steven Avery is guilty of murdering Teresa Halbach are huge admirers of Manitowoc County Sheriff's Detective Andy Colborn, Manitowoc County Sheriff Rob Hermann, former special prosecutor Ken Kratz and they've recently made Sheboygan County Circuit Judge Angela Sutkiewicz one of their new heroes. This week, people affiliated with the Steven Avery Is Guilty group on social media went ahead and hired a third-generation florist in Sheboygan to send the local judge a nice arrangement of flowers. They did this as their way to thank the judge for doing her part to keep Steven Avery imprisoned for the Halloween 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. This is the murder case that became world-famous two years ago this month thanks to the acclaimed Netflix series, "Making a Murderer."

In recent months, the Sheboygan judge's rulings made it clear that she, too, believes Steven Avery is guilty, despite the widespread allegations of planted evidence and prosecutorial misconduct outlined in the Halbach case. Those allegations have been raised by Downers Grove, Illinois attorney Kathleen Zellner, the world-famous exoneration lawyer who is highly respected across the country, but not necessarily around Manitowoc and Sheboygan, the area where Avery and his family call home.

This week, Patch reported that Zellner celebrated another momentous legal victory as murder charges against another client, James A. Bates, were dropped. The Arkansas case drew national attention after prosecutors demanded access to audio from Bates' Amazon Echo smart home device, claiming it may contain evidence of a crime.

RELATED: Zellner Successful In Amazon Echo Hot Tub Murder Case

Back to the Avery case.

Several weeks ago, Judge Sutkiewicz, in a brief written ruling, rejected Avery's request for a new murder trial. The judge made her decision without even conducting an evidentiary hearing on Zellner's post-conviction motion that was more than 1,200 pages in length. This week, Judge Sutkiewicz issued a follow-up ruling that informed Zellner that she will not change her mind and rule otherwise. Zellner will now take up Avery's crusade before one of Wisconsin's appeals courts.

Judge Angela Sutkiewicz of Sheboygan

But what happened next stunned everyone, most notably the judge.

On Thursday, Judge Sutkiewicz issued a letter to Zellner as well as Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General Tom Fallon and Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn C. LaBre. She informed the lawyers for both sides about the gift she received as a result of her judicial rulings in the Steven Avery post-conviction process. The person who sent the judge flowers used Hoffman's Flowerland in Sheboygan.

The company's website states that "Harry and Sarah Hoffman opened Hoffman's on October 30, 1929 at the start of the Great Depression ... Today, the third generation is in charge, and ensuring that the Hoffman name is synonymous with quality and service. That is why our slogan remains 'Pleasing you is our pleasure.'"

Obviously, the Sheboygan judge wasn't so pleased about getting the flowers.

"Greetings: I wanted to notify the parties that an individual sent a floral arrangement to the courthouse on November 29, 2017, addressed to me and it was forwarded to my office," Angela Sutkiewicz wrote in the letter. "It contained a piece of paper which stated, 'Best wishes from your admirers at SAIG (Steven Avery Is Guilty).' A copy is enclosed.

"The Sheriff's Department was contacted in an abundance of caution. They determined that the sender is neither a party to the case nor representing a party in this case.

"Since the floral arrangement is a gift, I rejected it by returning it to the flower shop today (Thursday)," the judge wrote.

On Friday afternoon, Patch spoke with Avery's lawyer about the unusual matter.

"It's a disturbing reflection on the culture of the people who believe that Steven Avery is guilty," Zellner told Patch. "It indicates that they believed that the judge is susceptible to being influenced. (Fortunately) She sent a clear signal that it's definitely inappropriate and unethical and she notified us immediately."

Zellner also went on to say that "although we disagree with her rulings, we respect the court and she has every right to rule against us. But a gesture like this really crosses the line. This is something I've never seen before."

In retrospect, the fact Sutkiewicz ruled against Zellner's case was hardly shocking considering the judge's history around Sheboygan.

A 2016 investigative story produced by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin focused on the issue of judges around Sheboygan County and found that Judge James Bolgert had only two defendants file substitution requests in his felony cases. Judge Bolgert was known to go easy on sex offenders. On the other hand, the reporting showed, one other Sheboygan County judge had seven substitution requests, but the rest had 75 or more, led by Judge Angela Sutkiewicz whose tally of 359 felony substitution requests was fourth-most in the state, the story revealed.

RELATED: How An Extreme Judge Skewed The System

Main image via Patch, image of Judge Angela Sutkiewicz via Zellner Law Office, image of Avery trailer via Patch Editor John Ferak