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 its 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 includes summaries of 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.
Details of Haywood’s upbringing and early career come from a 2008 article in the Milwaukee Business Journal. Information about being shot after his release from prison and a mentor turning his life around was contained in news coverage of remarks he made while serving on a 2014 panel about mass incarceration convened by the Helen Bader Foundation.
Additional information in this installment comes from campaign finance reports; from the Haywood Group’s most recent annual report, filed in 2017; and from tax records for the Milwaukee Police Foundation.
Information about the city’s small claims suits against Haywood and his failure to pay taxes on time comes from online court records and state regulatory documents.
The accuser in the dismissed 2006 case against Haywood did not respond to telephone calls or to a certified letter.
The description of the exchange between a detective and DeVougas about the types of law he practices was taken from video of a conversation between DeVougas and Haywood before Wells entered the room to question him.
Luthern was the Journal Sentinel’s public safety reporter during the administrations of both Edward Flynn and Alfonso Morales. Barton served as the Journal Sentinel’s criminal justice investigative reporter for 15 years, beginning in 2006.
Barton was first to report on the death of Derek Williams in police custody. She and colleagues covered the inquest into Williams’ death as well as the investigation into strip and cavity searches by Milwaukee police, which began in 2012. Barton first reported on now-retired Captain John Corbett’s prior conviction as part of a 2011 investigation into police who had been disciplined for violating laws and ordinances. She first reported on sexual harassment allegations against now retired Assistant Chief Raymond Banks in 2018. She interviewed M. Nicol Padway, Haywood’s former attorney who had served on the Fire and Police Commission, in 2019.
Banks, Corbett, Lt. Erik Gulbrandson and Morales’ former chief of staff, Nick DeSiato, did not respond to emails requesting interviews for this story. Thoms referred a reporter to the Police Department’s spokesman, who would not approve an interview with him or with Wells. Information about Banks’ recommendation of Haywood for the foundation board comes from Johnson’s report and from an interview with Morales. Information about Thoms’ cooperation in the strip search investigation comes from deposition transcripts and from Barton’s 2014 interview with attorney Brendan Matthews, who represented him at the time.
Former Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Abbey Marzick, initially assigned to Jane Doe’s case, declined to comment.