The Badger Project is suing St. Croix County after it refused to release documents detailing an investigation into one of its sheriff’s deputies.
The lawsuit was covered in an Aug. 6 piece that appeared in the Glenwood City Tribune Press Reporter. According to the story:
In 2021, Deputy Amanda Alberts resigned from the St.Croix internal investigation into her conduct concluded, according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice database that tracks negative separations of law enforcement officers. The Wrightstown Police Department hired her in 2022, where she remains employed. She also works for the Roberts Police Department.
In a partial denial of The Badger Project’s May request, the human resources director, Audri Haycraft, wrote that “Such investigatory or interest and would likely have on Ms. Alberts’ reputation.”
Alberts’ separation agreement, which the human resources department released to The Badger Project in June, notes the county gave her about $40,000 for paid time off, and agreements to give her a positive job reference and not contest her eligibility for unemployment.
Haycraft wrote that Alberts’ was never disciplined as a result of the investigation and that releasing the records could create a chilling effect to attract quality candidates. That does not follow state law, The Badger Project’s attorney Tom Kamenick argues.
Law enforcement should be held to a higher standard, Kamenick argued in The Badger Project’s lawsuit against the county.
Kamenick is the founder and president of the Wisconsin Transparency Project and has represented The Badger Project in multiple open records lawsuits.
“A quote from a 2006 case about a DNR warden’s misconduct records says it all,” Kamenick wrote in an email to The Badger Project. ‘The public interest in being informed both of the potential misconduct by law enforcement officers and of the extent to which such misconduct was properly investigated is particularly compelling.’”
The Badger Project successfully sued the La Crosse and Wausau police departments for similar records and is actively suing the state’s Department of Justice for a comprehensive list of police officers across Wisconsin. Per state law, government agencies must repay the record requester’s legal fees if they are found to have improperly withheld documents.
Kamenick said he expects a court hearing in St. Croix County sometime this month in The Badger Project’s lawsuit.
WisDOT lawsuit filed
In the second case, The Badger Project asked for records regarding Keegan Williams, a Wisconsin State Patrol Officer who was, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s “flagged officer” list, “terminated for cause” by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (which oversees the State Patrol) in 2023.
Williams now works for the Delevan Police Department. WisDOT claimed that it needed to withhold the records to “restrict public access to current disciplinary and employment review proceeding,” despite the fact that Williams has not worked there in over two years.
“There is a disturbing trend of law enforcement agencies issuing blanket denials for internal investigation records,” explained Kamenick, who represents The Badger Project in both suits. “Court after court has said that only minimal amounts of information in these records can be redacted, but law enforcement agencies routinely ignore those cases.”
WisDOT has already agreed to produce Williams’ records, which will occur after the statutorily required notice period given Williams to object to their release.
“Studies have found that ‘wandering officers’ are more likely to commit misconduct again compared to rookies and veteran officers with clean records,” said Peter Cameron, Managing Editor of The Badger Project. “Everyone deserves a second chance, but communities are best served when they know who is policing them. The Badger Project’s work in this area aims to give them that transparency.”
