Doyle addresses CCAP legislation

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Middleton (AP) – Judges should decide whether to erase innocent people's cases from online court records, Gov. Jim Doyle said.

Speaking at the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's annual convention, Doyle said easily accessible electronic records make life a nightmare for people who are charged but later exonerated. The governor's remarks come after an Assembly committee approved a bill that would allow the public to see online records of court cases only where there has been a conviction.

The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, argues that the mere mention of people in the state's online court database carries a connotation of guilt and can ruin their reputations forever, costing them jobs and housing.

Doyle, a Democrat, said Schneider's bill goes too far but “for those really innocent people … we have to figure out a way to protect them.”

Schneider said in a telephone interview he didn't expect the governor to support the bill. People need another avenue aside from judges to protect their records, he said.

Judges already are overworked, Schneider said. People shouldn't have to pay to hire lawyers “to be berated by a judge who thinks he’s God” to get their records erased, he added.

Wisconsin's Circuit Court Access site contains all manner of criminal and civil court records, from speeding tickets to homicides to divorces. Anyone can access the site, which gets as many as 5 million hits per day.

Each criminal case includes a note on whether the defendant was exonerated or convicted or if the case is still ongoing.

Judges currently may order misdemeanor and low-level felony records expunged for offenders under age 25. They also can order juvenile records expunged, although those records are never public.

The Wisconsin Bar Association, citing concerns that WCCA records could enable employers and landlords to discriminate against people, has asked the state Supreme Court to give judges broad expunction powers. The association says judges should be allowed to erase records in an acquittal, if a case is dismissed or if the minimum time for retaining the records has expired.

Schneider has been pushing bills to restrict WCCA access for years.

Under his latest proposal, the public portion of the site would contain only cases with convictions or findings of liability. Court officials, police and reporters would have access to all the records, however. If someone searches for a person on the site and denies that person housing or employment, the searcher must notify that person that he or she searched the site.

The Assembly Committee on State Affairs and Homeland Security approved the bill earlier this month.

Not one trade group has registered in support of the measure, according to state lobbying records, and Schneider drew criticism earlier this week after an Associated Press records request revealed he had gotten far fewer letters from people complaining about the site than the hundreds he claimed.

The newspaper association has registered against the bill. It also opposes the

Doyle told members during a question-and-answer session “there really is a problem” with innocent people's records being posted online. In the days before online court records, people could make new starts for themselves, but those days are over, he said.

Still, he said, “You really need a judicial determination that the person was truly innocent” before a record is erased.

Doyle didn’t mention the bar association's plan for more judicial expunction power. His spokesman, Adam Collins, said Doyle was speaking generally about judges.

George Althoff, publisher for Capital Newspapers' Portage/Baraboo Division, asked Doyle if he thought paper records on the wrongly charged should be expunged along with the electronic versions. Doyle said an electronic record is the same as a paper one.

Dan Flannery, executive editor of the Appleton Post-Crescent newspaper, asked Doyle how the public could evaluate law enforcement's performance without the records.

The governor said his thinking is still “evolving” on the issue, but he believes expunged documents could be kept private.

Doyle won the WNA's first Badger Award in 2004 for his commitment to open records, according to the convention's program.