A document was submitted Monday on behalf of some Wisconsin media outlets demanding the city, county and state pay fees and punitive damages for refusing to release some information regarding the murder of University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann.
Zimmermann was found slain on the floor of her 517 W. Doty St. apartment after a call placed from her cell phone was mishandled by the Dane County 911 Center the day of her death last April.
Attorneys April Rockstead Barker and Gregory Conway filed the detailed complaint on behalf of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Journal Broadcast Group, the Wisconsin State Journal and Television Wisconsin Inc. to seek damages against the defendants for not releasing public records regarding Zimmermann’s murder.
The case has been pending since May 13, 2008.
This motion seeks to obtain the fees and punitive damages that are decided by the court, Barker added.
However, Marcia MacKenzie, the attorney representing Dane County and the city of Madison, said though she has not read the document yet, she is confident the court will rule in favor of the county when the case is reviewed for the final time.
MacKenzie added she was very surprised the plaintiffs are suing for punitive damages.
“Punitive damage is something that is not common,” MacKenzie said. “It is given only in cases in which someone should be punished; when someone has done something deliberately more out of line than specific mistake. This should not be that kind of issue.”
The punitive damages request, according to Barker, is authorized in any case under statute where an authority denies access to a record.
Even though the records could be released, Dane County believed they didn’t have to be released at the time of the crime, Barker said, adding the county’s actions were not proper practice of law.
In the document, the plaintiffs said they are seeking an award of reasonable fees and the actual cost they incurred in persecuting this action.
Additionally they demand the county “shall award reasonable attorney fees, damages of less than $100 and other actual costs to the requester if the requester prevails in whole or [substantially].”
However, MacKenzie said the county met the legal standards that govern what municipal bodies are supposed to regarding the evaluation of open records requests.
Although the county was forced to release the public records regarding the Zimmermann case, Judge Richard Niess ruled that the recording of the call placed form Zimmermann’s cell phone should be denied as public record due to the pending investigation.
In January, an edited version of the call made by Zimmermann’s fianc?, Jordan Gonnering, placed to the 911 Center after finding her dead on the ground of their apartment was edited and released to the public. The dispatcher’s response was also released with the audio.
