HOW WE REPORTED THIS STORY
In reporting this story, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Ashley Luthern and Gina Barton conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed numerous records, including police reports and videos and court files.
The Milwaukee Police Department declined to release the case file on the sexual assault investigation, citing an exemption to the state’s public records law for open cases. From an anonymous source, Luthern and Barton received nine pages of a 44-page incident report dated July 23, 2019. The report summarizes statements made to Investigator Zachary Thoms by a woman, identified publicly only as Jane Doe, who accused Kalan Haywood Sr. of sexual assault. The source also provided reporters with a DVD containing a video recording of Haywood being questioned by Detective Steve Wells on Aug. 13, 2019.
The reporters reviewed the full report of Mel Johnson, a retired assistant U.S. attorney hired by the Fire and Police Commission after the Journal Sentinel’s initial coverage of the allegations against Haywood. Johnson was tasked with investigating the source of the leak and determining whether it was appropriate that Haywood was interviewed at Sojourner Family Peace Center, which houses a shelter and the Police Department’s Sensitive Crimes Division. Johnson also looked into the actions of Steven DeVougas, an attorney who was serving as chair of the commission when he accompanied Haywood to the interview. Johnson’s report largely consists of summaries of his interviews with those involved in the case. It also includes a letter from DeVougas’ attorney citing his reasons for refusing to meet with Johnson, police emails and emails between Johnson and Jack Enea, attorney for the Milwaukee Police Foundation.
Luthern, Barton and other Journal Sentinel reporters attended numerous meetings of the Fire and Police Commission and the Common Council where the Haywood investigation was discussed. The reporters attended some of the meetings in person and others via livestream due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also reviewed archival footage of past meetings.
Haywood and DeVougas answered reporters’ questions during an on-the-record interview that lasted nearly three hours in December 2019. Haywood repeatedly denied sexually assaulting anyone. DeVougas contended he had done nothing wrong in accompanying Haywood, who employed him as a real estate lawyer, to the police interview.
Doe declined to speak with reporters. Descriptions of her experiences and feelings, including her description of a reported sexual assault, come from police reports, a civil suit she filed and a summary of her interview with Johnson. Reporters also spoke with her attorneys.
Details and quotes in scenes were obtained through interviews with those present or from police reports, court records, transcripts, archived news reports, video recordings or audio recordings.
Barton served as the Journal Sentinel’s criminal justice investigative reporter for 15 years, beginning in 2006. Luthern was the news organization’s public safety reporter during the second half of Edward Flynn’s tenure as police chief and the process to select Morales as his replacement in 2018.
Luthern and Barton first reported the findings of a long-stalled U.S. Department of Justice review of the Milwaukee Police Department in 2017 after receiving a leaked copy of a draft report. Both reporters covered the arrest of Bucks player Sterling Brown in January 2018 and its aftermath. Brown sat down with Barton for an interview about the incident in May 2018.
Barton was first to report on the death of Derek Williams in police custody. She and colleagues also covered the investigation into strip and cavity searches by police, which began in 2012. Luthern broke the story about now-retired officer James Collins missing a child in a towed van.