County Hit With Second Lawsuit

The family of a Madison (Wisc.) murder victim has filed notice with Dane County that it intends to file a lawsuit alleging mishandling of 911 calls reporting the incident last November. Mark Johnson was found dead in a city park after an anonymous 911 call reported a disturbance and a possible confrontation. The original calltaker entered the incident as a “noise complalint,” despite the caller’s description that a physical confrontation was imminent. A second 911 caller reported that the disturbance was intensifying, but the calltaker failed to change the incident type to “disturbance,” the family’s notice says. Police did not arrive for 90 minutes, the lawsuit notice states, and during that time there were police officers available to respond. At the time of the incident, the Dane County comm center was already under fire for mishandling a 911 hang-up call from the apartment of a murder victim in April 2008. Brittany Zimmermann was found dead in her apartment, and no suspect has been identified. Her family filed a lawsuit against the county last January.