Retired WI Sergeant Sues TV Station Over Report Saying He Shot Man

A retired Milwaukee police sergeant is suing WKOW-TV for defamation after the station misidentified him as a similarly named retired Milwaukee officer who, as a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent, was involved in the shooting of a reportedly unarmed suspect in February on Madison’s Far East Side.

WKOW-TV’s story, reported by Tony Galli, concerned Mark P. Wagner, a former detective with the Milwaukee Police Department who retired in 2018 and subsequently went to work at DCI, who was involved in the Feb. 3 shooting of Quadren Wilson.

The lawsuit states, however, that the officer involved in the 2002 shooting was a different Mark Wagner. It was Sgt. Mark D. Wagner Jr., who was not involved in the Quadren Wilson incident.

Mark D. Wagner Jr. retired from the Milwaukee department in 2019. He was never a DCI agent, Madison.com reports.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Dane County Circuit Court by Brookfield attorney William Rettko on behalf of Mark D. Wagner Jr., alleges that even after WKOW became aware of the error, the station “ran the false story at least once,” and had “failed to use ordinary care in checking on the identity of DCI Agent Mark Wagner before running the story,” despite having contact information for state Department of Justice spokesperson Gillian Drummond. DCI is part of DOJ.