The state Department of Administration “broke the law” – Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project
Wisconsin Right Now and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have jointly sued the Tony Evers’ Department of Administration over its unlawful redactions in the police reports against state Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee).
“DOA’s denials were not legally sufficient because the constitutional and statutory provisions cited do not exempt the information redacted by DOA and the public interest in disclosure of the information redacted by DOA outweighs the public interest in nondisclosure of that information,” the lawsuit says. “Wisconsin Right Now and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have a clear legal right to receive the records they requested and DOA has a plain legal duty to produce them.”
The lawsuit was filed on July 8 by respected open records lawyer Tom Kamenick of Kamenick Law Office, LLC. Wisconsin Right Now is Wisconsin’s highest read, award-winning conservative news outlet. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is the state’s largest daily newspaper and a Pulitzer Prize winner. They are seeking a writ of mandamus to require DOA to release unredacted records.
Both news outlets independently filed open records requests (journalist Molly Beck for MJS) after Ortiz-Velez was charged with a crime for allegedly threatening to tell the news media about alleged blacked-out misconduct by other Democrat legislators. The case ended with a plea and a fine. The DOA blacked out huge sections of the police reports claiming a myriad of reasons, from “unsubstantiated rumors and hearsay” to “mental health information.”
“Open government is not a political issue. The open records laws are one of the most powerful safeguards of democracy that the citizenry has,” said Jessica McBride, the owner of WRN and a journalist for more than 25 years. “I applaud the Journal Sentinel for taking this stand for the public’s right to know. The fact we are banding together will go a long way toward protecting the free press and transparency for the public. WRN’s goal is also to educate the public about what really happened in the Ortiz-Velez case, which government has tried to shroud in secrecy despite its unprecedented nature.”
She added: “It struck me as very unfair that the system released unproven accusations against Ortiz-Velez while redacting allegations she made about her accusers, and which formed the basis of a criminal complaint called unconstitutional by a top independent lawyer.”
“A sitting legislator was criminally convicted based on an investigation that was kept entirely secret until the criminal complaint was filed,” said Kamenick. “The criminal complaint itself was vague and obscured not only who had made the accusations against Ortiz-Velez, but what misconduct Ortiz-Velez had accused the other legislators of committing. The records DOA finally released redact the same information. This whole case is a travesty of transparency.”
“DOA broke the law when it refused to release the investigation reports. There is no blanket exemption for either ongoing criminal investigations or criminal prosecutions. Government agencies must release records unless they can prove that releasing them would actually interfere with the investigation or prosecution. There was no risk here that suspects would not know they had been identified or that they might destroy relevant evidence.”
“The public – and especially her constituents – deserve to judge for themselves whether what Ortiz-Velez said is worthy of criminal punishment or other consequences. Redacting the statements she made that allegedly formed the basis for her criminal charge makes that impossible.”
