Just months after the family of slain University of Wisconsin student Brittany Zimmermann decided to drop their wrongful death lawsuit against Dane County, a group of media outlets have settled their open records lawsuit against the county related to the case.

George Stanley, managing editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said the case between Dane County and Wisconsin media outlets has now come to a close with the settlement, totaling $180,000.

A group of major Wisconsin newspapers and television stations, including the Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal, filed the lawsuit after the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center refused to release the 911 tapes recorded immediately before Zimmermann’s still unsolved murder.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the settlement funds will cover the total legal costs of all of the media outlets involved in the lawsuit.

Stanley said the press throughout the state will likely continue to pursue leads in the Zimmermann case. He added the lawsuit is particularly important to the state of open records laws in Wisconsin.

“We’re always having to defend the state open records law,” Stanley said. “When something like this happens, we believe the records belong to the public. We always have and always will continue to follow the state open records law.”

Zimmermann’s murder brought attention to possible problems in communication between Dane County and Madison, prompting the media outlets to file their open records requests.

Stanley said although the lawsuit has ended, the case brought several improvements to open records-related accountability in Wisconsin.

Zimmermann was murdered at her Doty Street home in 2008 after she called 911 on her cellphone. The delayed response time to the call led to a series of changes and controversies in the 911 system.

The media outlets which filed the audiotape lawsuit also won a lawsuit to release documents related to the case last year.

Verveer said Madison cops are still actively investigating the murder to find the person who stabbed Zimmermann.

“The real horrific tragedy of Brittany’s death is something that I don’t think will be forgotten ever by police officials,” Verveer said.