MADISON – The state Department of Justice and the UW Board of Regents have withdrawn a motion seeking to bar a former UW-Oshkosh Advance-Titan reporter from publishing information from documents they argued were released by mistake.
The motion sought to force Alex Nemec, who now works for the Oconomowoc Enterprise, to destroy personnel records he received from the school and to prohibit him from publishing any information gleaned from the files. According to the Student Press Law Center, Nemec destroyed the documents but contested the rest of the order.
Nemec requested the records, which were related to a complaint against UW-Oshkosh business school professor Willis W. Hagen III, last year. In June, an appellate court judge ordered the records released but with some material redacted. The custodian, however, mistakenly provided unredacted copies, which prompted DOJ and UW to seek a restraining order against Nemec.
Last month, The Advance-Titan published a story about the case after receiving redacted documents from the university.
