MADISON (WKOW) -- The Dane County 911 dispatcher who mishandled the emergency call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann will face a 3-day suspension without pay.
Rita Gahagan is no longer working in the 911 call center, but she will serve her suspension sometime in the new year, according to the Dane County Executive's office.
WKOW obtained more than 45 pages of Gahagan's personnel records for the past 20 years after submitting an open records request. Gahagan waived her right to keep the records secret.
The county delivered the documents, including routine performance reviews spanning back to the 1990s, to WKOW on Friday.
This comes nine months after Brittany Zimmermann, a UW student, was found murdered in her downtown apartment in April 2008. Zimmermann called 911 literally seconds before she was murdered.
Gahagan, who was a dispatcher at the time, answered the call. She says she didn't hear the screams and never called police. It was later determined that there were screams on the line.
A Dane County judge ruled in December that the audio recording will not be released in the interest of the ongoing police investigation.
On December 22, 2008, the interim director of the county's 911 center finished a review of Gahagan's employment history including the day she mishandled the Zimmermann call. The review calls Gahagan a "team player," "courteous," and "respected and appreciated by all" coworkers.
Performance reviews spanning more than ten years also show Gahagan only received very good evaluations from her bosses, with the exception of a couple of instances where she was "coached" about improper call handling procedures.
In the matter of the April phone call, 911 director Kathy Krusiec documented previous reports that found, "no evidence that Gahagan heard but chose not to react to sounds possibly indicating an emergency."
The report says Gahagan likely made an "unintentional oversight" because there was no evidence to suggest she wasn't paying attention or was otherwise distracted.
Gahagan is now working in a clerical capacity for another county agency.
County Executive Kathleen Falk and 911 director Krusiec both declined requests for an interview. Gahagan has never granted an interview.
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