Judge throws out lawsuit vs. sheriff

By Tim Damos / News Republic

A Sauk County supervisor's request for jail records was too broad, and compiling the documents would have been too cumbersome for the sheriff's department, a judge ruled this week.

The 14-page decision filed Thursday threw out a lawsuit against Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen.

The attorney for supervisor Tom Kriegl of Baraboo, who filed the lawsuit a year ago, wouldn't say if he planned to appeal the decision. But he wouldn't rule it out.

"We'll take the next step, then we'll see what happens," said Reedsburg attorney Jim Schernecker.

Kriegl had requested copies and access to more than a year's worth of daily records detailing the operation of a division of the Sauk County jail that houses inmates who have work-release privileges.

Kriegl has been critical of Sheriff's Department spending, especially with regard to jail operations.

Jail Capt. Michael Hafemann responded to Kriegl's request saying he could have the 156,000 pages of documents for $39,000.

Kriegl cut a check for $1,200 as an initial payment and asked that employees start gathering the records.

But Hafemann later said Kriegl's request required the sheriff's department to compile the information into a new document, which officials are not required to do under the state's open records law.

Kriegl has contended the information he is seeking could be compiled in one form through a database program used by the sheriff's department.

Columbia County Circuit Court Judge James Miller wrote that even if that information exists in various formats, Kriegl is "not entitled to unfettered access to the sheriff's department electronic databases to extract information and copy that information."

Kriegl's requests for things like the "number of work release inmates that were working when they began their sentence in jail that gained employment while in the work release program" were too vague, said Mark Hazelbaker, the sheriff's attorney.

"The requests Mr. Kriegl was making may have been clear in his mind but didn't seem to be clear to anyone outside the situation, including the court," Hazelbaker said. "Most of this hasn't been about records at all. It's been about (Kriegl) trying to embarrass the sheriff because they don't agree politically. ... Persistently, Kriegl has chosen to demonize everybody that disagrees with him, and it's just not helpful."

But Schernecker said Kriegl's request was part of a larger attempt to examine the financial performance of the jail.

"We're not trying to get these records because we have nothing else to do," he said. "We're dealing with the largest local tax levy department in Sauk County."

Schernecker said he wanted to congratulate the sheriff on winning "round four," though he declined to explain what that meant.

As part of the ruling, Miller also threw out Kriegl's claim that the sheriff didn't properly post information detailing how the public can make records requests from his department. Miller ruled state law doesn't allow the issue to be litigated in the type of lawsuit filed by Kriegl.