Susan Crawford gave a weak sentence to a Madison man who was accused of biting a woman and breaking her nose and jaw in terrifying incidents.

Town of Madison police officers found the woman with serious injuries to her face, including a black eye, bleeding laceration to her upper nose, cuts and scrapes to her forehead and cheeks, and a fat lip. She told police that Jesse Morales beat her so severely that she thought she was going to die, and it wasn’t the first time, court records show.

When Jesse J. Morales was hauled into court, he caught a break, even though he has an extremely long felony record. He ended up in the courtroom of Dane County Judge Susan Crawford. Crawford refused to send Morales to prison.

That’s even though the victim told police of another incident where she tried to exit a moving car. Morales bit her hands in that incident, and she still had the marks, according to a criminal complaint. The woman told police Morales started to strangle her, and she was not able to breathe.

Her nose was broken in two places and she had a broken maxilla (jaw). The woman told the police that she was so afraid of Morales that she “attempted to leap from a moving car.” Morales told an officer to “f*ck off” when he tried to read him his Miranda rights, the complaint says.

Yet despite all of that, Crawford agreed to dismiss five charges, accepting a plea deal. Morales was convicted of substantial battery intending bodily harm, a felony, and misdemeanor criminal damage to property.

But her leniency didn’t stop there. Crawford gave Morales probation with 90 days in the Huber jail and stayed a prison sentence, court records show. She ran another shorter jail sentence concurrently. She could have given him 3.5 years in prison on the substantial battery charge alone.

That’s even though he has an extremely long criminal history that includes battery and domestic abuse related disorderly conduct, felony drug dealing, felony battery by prisoners, reckless physical abuse of a child, bail jumping – it goes on and on, dating back to 1991.

A court commissioner had given him a $500 signature bond; Crawford continued the bond even after his guilty plea.

Not surprisingly, he’s already reoffended. Morales was accused in 2023 of battery and disorderly conduct, although the former charge was tossed.

The Accusations Against Jesse Morales

In the case before Crawford, Morales was initially accused of seven charges including felony strangulation, substantial battery, battery, three counts of disorderly conduct, and criminal damage to property after the frightening 2018 incident. He faced more than 9.5 years in prison and jail time.

Read the criminal complaint here.

The criminal complaint alleged:

Morales is the woman’s children’s father.

Police found her with “significant facial injuries.” She told police that Morales accused her of getting a call from a man. She tried to leave but he called her a whore and followed her.

He said, “I’m going to beat your as*” and began punching her and “hitting me over and over,” she told police. The complaint says he hit her 10-13 times with a closed fist while she lay on the ground.

“I thought he was going to kill me. He wouldn’t stop punching me and it hurt so bad,” she told police. A neighbor walked up, which stopped the abuse, the complaint says.

She convinced Morales to take her to her friend’s house. But once the friend took her inside, Morales broke the window and kicked and pounded on the door, the complaint says.

Morales was released on 5/17/2018 on a signature bond by a court commissioner. Crawford got the case on Aug. 1, 2018.