The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has agreed to settle an open records lawsuit less than two weeks after The Badger Project sued the department in Dane County Circuit Court for documents pertaining to an investigation of a State Patrol officer who was fired in 2023.
The settlement was covered by the Badger Project in the Aug. 17, 2025 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal. According to the story:
The Badger Project twice requested records from the Department of Transportation, the State Patrol’s parent organization, for documents relating to the investigation of former state trooper Keegan Williams. Williams was “terminated for cause” in 2023, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and now works for the Delavan Police Department.
The department initially denied both requests, saying “that the general public interest in access to records in this case is outweighed by the public policy” outlined in Wisconsin open records law. The Badger Project then filed a lawsuit Aug. 1.
“There is a disturbing trend of law enforcement agencies issuing blanket denials for internal investigation records,” said Tom Kamenick, the president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, the law firm that represented The Badger Project. “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.”
The department will move to release Williams’ records after giving him the required time to challenge the decision in court. As is stipulated in state law, the department also agreed to repay The Badger Project’s nearly $1,300 in legal fees. The department signed the settlement Aug. 12.
