The probate judge for Hancock County was hospitalized Saturday, less than 24 hours after news broke that he might have to spend 90 days in jail for not paying child support.
Ellsworth police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians rushed to the office of William Blaisdell IV on Main Street around 4 p.m. on Saturday after someone called to report an emergency.
Minutes later, Blaisdell, 54, was wheeled out the front door on a stretcher, loaded into a Northern Light Health ambulance and taken to the hospital. Several passersby, including a Bangor Daily News reporter, witnessed the scene.
Police at Blaisdell’s office declined to comment, and information about the nature of the medical emergency has not been disclosed.
Blaisdell was in good condition at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor on Monday morning, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Blaisdell’s hospitalization occurred hours after news organizations reported that he had been found in contempt of court in Waldo County for not paying $43,000 in child support to his ex-wife.
In a contempt order issued Friday, Judge Patricia Worth sharply criticized Blaisdell for missing court dates and ignoring judicial orders. She gave Blaisdell until March 25 to come up with the overdue funds — plus $6,000 to pay his wife’s legal costs, for a total of nearly $50,000 — or face 90 days in jail.
Worth wrote that since Blaisdell and his ex-wife divorced in 2019, he has failed to comply with previous child support orders. She wrote that at a prior hearing, Blaisdell testified “that despite being a practicing Maine attorney and being the current sitting Hancock County Probate Judge, [he] has not filed his federal or state income taxes for 2022, 2021, 2020 and possibly for 2019.”
Blaisdell appears to have the financial resources to pay the court-ordered child support, but his refusal to do so has put a strain on his ex-wife and harmed his children’s best interests, Worth wrote. Blaisdell works part-time as an elected probate judge, but earns income through his private law practice.
“Defendant is fully aware of his legal obligations and has chosen to ignore those obligations,” Worth wrote in the order.
Blaisdell did not respond on Friday to a phone message inquiring about the contempt of court order.
Blaisdell has served as Hancock County’s probate judge for the past decade. After first being elected to the post in 2014, he narrowly won re-election in 2018 and then was re-elected without opposition in 2022.
