MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County leaders questioned the new district attorney Tuesday about what's called the "Brady list."
What was once a mysterious list of problematic cops with credibility concerns is now being made public after TMJ4 threatened to sue the DA’s office.
Over the past several months, we’ve teamed up with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Watch to determine exactly what each officer did to land on the Brady list, providing important context when we post it online in the coming weeks.
Some county supervisors said they didn’t know the list existed before seeing recent reporting on the issue. They wanted to hear firsthand from the DA why it’s kept and what the full list shows.
"I do feel it is very important for open records such as this to be available to the community,” County Supervisor Patti Logsdon said.
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At a Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors committee meeting, the new Milwaukee County District Attorney, Kent Lovern, explained why the full list became subject to open records requests. Previously, the DA’s office refused to share the names of dozens of officers on the list for non-criminal integrity violations.
"There were requests for this list repeatedly in the last year, and we ultimately sought advice from the state open records office, which advised that we release the list,” he explained.
Several of those requests came from TMJ4.
Lovern told supervisors that his office had previously considered the Brady list "attorney work product" because it was created for the purpose of litigation.
Supervisors proceeded to ask DA Lovern several questions about why his office maintains the list, the process for putting an officer on it, and whether any names might be missing.
"Are we sure that this list has all the names on it that should be on it?" Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez asked.
“We believe it’s a complete list,” Lovern replied. "It's my belief that the law enforcement agencies take this obligation very seriously because they know, frankly, if we fail to turn over this evidence—and even if it's not used in a trial, even if it's not ultimately relevant in a trial—if we fail to turn it over, we have to revisit all the cases in which that officer was potentially a witness."
Brady lists exist because of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case from 60 years ago.
In criminal cases, it requires prosecutors to disclose if an officer called to testify is on a Brady list. It’s a list of officers with a history of past crimes, dishonesty, bias, or other integrity concerns. That information can’t be kept secret from the defense and the court.
Milwaukee County’s list contains about 200 current and former officers. A majority are from the Milwaukee Police Department.
"When you're an officer of the law, if you're a correctional officer, there's a matter of public trust involved,” said County Supervisor Justin Bielinski.
Bielinski says it’s something people who live in Milwaukee County deserve to know.
“What is your hope for our investigation?” Lighthouse reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“Well, I would hope that those officers who have had severe violations of public trust would perhaps consider another line of work,” Bielinski replied. "I think that additional layer of scrutiny might make people in the future think twice before acting in a manner that would maybe violate public trust."
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