According to a report on WiscNews Poynette School District officials and the Poynette Police Department are being sued for defamation of character and negligence in the course of an investigation that led to the firing of former Poynette physical education teacher Dennis Bravick ...
... Bravick accuses the 22 Poynette students who accused him of entering the girls' locker room at Poynette High School of defaming his character by acting "with knowledge that their statements were false, and in reckless disregard for the truth, and further acted with malice, ill-will, spite, hatred and revenge" toward Bravick during their interviews with authorities.
Bravick, 46, allegedly entered the girls' locker room multiple times in March 2005, according to criminal charges filed against him last year. Bravick maintained his innocence throughout the case, and most of the charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. One count was dropped prior to the plea agreement because Bravick wasn't in school on the day of an alleged offense ....
... In the civil lawsuit, Bravick and Strother make a number of allegations in five claims. In one, Bravick alleges character defamation at the hands of Poynette Elementary/Middle School principal Jim Carelli, assistant principals Dana Breed and George Kintzner, student services director Allan Chittick and Poynette Officer Gary Napralla, who all "disregarded credible evidence showing that (Bravick) had not engaged in the alleged misconduct, and accepted as true and accurate palpably incredible evidence of the allegations of misconduct against (Bravick), all in reckless disregard for the truth ..."
... "I've been informed that one or more of the students retracted statements that had been made earlier and indicated that they provided false or incorrect information to police officers. And we believe that police officers ignored information that would have suggested or indicated Mr. Bravick's innocence," instead "just looking at information which they somehow thought was consistent with their theory of guilt," Strother said.
Bravick's suit uses similar language in seeking damages from his accusers, who are individually named with their parents as defendants. "This is certainly a somewhat unusual situation. There's no denying that," Strother said when asked about the unorthodox step of suing children accusers. Nonetheless, Strother said the law allows children to be liable for intentional torts or wrongdoing against another. Parents can legally be held liable for up to $5,000 in damages for torts committed by their child, he added.
"I can assure you that we didn't do this lightly. ... But after careful deliberation and recognizing that what happened was certainly injurious to Dennis Bravick's reputation in the community and his ability to practice his chosen profession, teaching, that we really felt we were justified if not compelled to do this," Strother said. .... Full Story