Investigating Wisconsin ‘Brady Lists’ of police officers deemed unreliable for court testimony

Reporters from three Wisconsin news outlets are teaming up to investigate police accountability in the state.

Journalists from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WTMJ and Wisconsin Watch all want to uncover more about the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s list of police officers it views as unreliable witnesses for testimony in court cases.

These are known as Brady Lists, after the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland that bars prosecutors from withholding evidence from the defense.

The Journal Sentinel’s deputy investigations editor Ashley Luthern told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the news outlets filed records requests in Milwaukee County to start compiling the list.

“Our goal is to verify this information and provide a level of accountability and transparency so that the public can see this,” Luthern said.

After some pushing, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office provided reporters a list, but told them it could not guarantee the accuracy of the records.

Luthern and her colleagues are now going through every name, trying to verify the misconduct officers are alleged to have committed.

“Some on this list have a person’s name and then it just says ‘integrity violation,’” Luthern said. “It doesn’t tell us exactly what happened, what consequences that person faced, or if they’re even still employed in that same department or another law enforcement agency.”

Part of the issue for reporters is a lack of uniform criteria for why the DA’s office puts an officer on the list. Possible reasons can range from breaking the law, to lying or just acting in ways that erode integrity.

University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran researches Brady Lists and told WPR these disparities are common for prosecutors’ lists across the country.

“There’s really very little law telling prosecutors exactly what information they need to keep track of or exactly how they must keep track of it,” Moran said. “We see a ton of inconsistency in terms of not just what prosecutors collect but whether they proactively give the information to defense attorneys.”

Moran said prosecutors argue that an officer’s misconduct investigation shouldn’t be a public record if they haven’t been charged with a crime or prosecuted.

But she noted, at the very least, defense attorneys need more consistent access to this information in court cases where these officers are called to testify.

“If we have officers who are lacking in credibility, I think a legitimate question is, why are they still on the force? Or at least, why are they in positions where they’re involved in criminal cases?” Moran said. “This whole Brady List discussion speaks to a bigger issue in police accountability.”

The reporters working on the Milwaukee County list are still combing through a mountain of records, but Luthern said they’re aiming for early 2025 to publish an online database for the public to explore.

Wisconsin Watch reporters previously filed record requests for Brady Lists in all 72 counties of the state, with mixed results from each district attorney’s office.