Opinion No. Oag 36-76, (1976)

BRUCE E. SCHROEDER, District Attorney, Kenosha County

You ask whether judges and court commissioners have power, prior to the filing of a criminal complaint, to release on bail persons arrested for commission of a felony.

I have concluded that they do.

In order to act in criminal proceedings judicial officers must have jurisdiction both of the subject matter and of the person of the defendant. Cf. State v. Weidner (1970), 47 Wis.2d 321, 323,324, 177 N.W.2d 69.

Jurisdiction of the subject matter is the power to hear and determine matters of the general class to which the proceedings in question…