Panel: Purge acquittals from online court records
MADISON - Wisconsin’s online system for tracking court cases would purge criminal charges from electronic records if they are dismissed or the defendant is acquitted, under new recommendations by an oversight committee.
The recommendations about the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access site were made this week by a panel that is charged with giving guidance to J. Denis Moran, the director of state courts. The changes would affect what the public can see in online court records but not what records are available for viewing in courthouses — those wouldn’t change.
The oversight panel is made up of court officials from around the state along with lawmakers and representatives of law enforcement and the news media. Fourteen members of the panel voted for the felony recommendations, with the only opposition votes coming from the media representatives and an official from the state Department of Justice headed by GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel.
Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said he was disappointed with the recommendation to drop online records of dismissed felony charges after one to two years.
“Obviously, we would have preferred that it be longer than it was,” Lueders said.
The state database contains records about criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits, from speeding tickets and money judgments to felony murder cases. It’s used by groups ranging from business owners to parents checking on a new child care provider.
Critics of these online courts records say they’re worried that information about dismissed charges could lead to workplace or housing discrimination against innocent defendants.
Defenders of the records like Lueders note that the state’s system includes disclaimers about dismissed charges and acquittals. They say that tracking dismissed charges could be important for tasks such as determining the effectiveness and fairness of prosecutors.
In other cases, unproven allegations can still draw public concern as part of a larger pattern.
This month, for instance, the Journal Sentinel reported on the hiring of a supervisor at a state center for the mentally disabled who has been convicted of two serious offenses over the past 11 years and investigated for two others but not charged or convicted in those cases.
The four committee members voting against the proposed changes to the online system were: Lueders; Beth Bennett, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association; Michelle Vetterkind, president of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association; and Kate Spitz, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice.
A spokesman for the state courts system noted that no final decisions have been made.
“The director of state courts will wait for the committee’s final report and recommendations (at the end of the summer) before deciding on next steps. He has been at each of the meetings and is aware of the advisory votes taken so far by show of hands,” Tom Sheehan said.
This week, the panel recommended that online records of dismissed or acquitted misdemeanor charges should be removed after half the time set for felonies, meaning six months to one year for the less serious charges.
About 9% of the felony cases on the state website ended in dismissals or acquittals, and about 16% of the misdemeanor cases did, according to materials provided to the committee.
Records of dismissed or denied domestic violence, child abuse and harassment injunctions should be purged after two to four years, the committee suggested.
The recommendations also call for after two years scrubbing small claims cases that are dismissed because of an agreement between the parties. The media groups did not object to this change.
The oversight committee met Tuesday, but as of Wednesday the court system still hadn’t posted the agenda for the meeting on its website. Sheehan, the courts spokesman, said that was an oversight and had been corrected.