Poor Robert Zellner. After supposedly viewing pornography for a grand total of 67 seconds, the Cedarburg teacher was not only fired, but had his name dragged through the mud at public hearings. Zellner’s photo has run many times in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and his career has been ruined. Now he is suing the school district and its officials for $9 million, claiming his civil rights were violated.
If the complaint is correct, Zellner is the victim of a witch hunt, and the Journal Sentinel was used to spread malicious accusations that are without basis. Last week’s JS story declined to publish many of these details, so I will.
To begin with, the complaint notes the action to fire Zellner was taken without involving Zellner’s supervisor, the high school’s principal. Instead, district Superintendent Daryl Herrick led the action against Zellner, who had long been an antagonist of Herrick.
As teacher union president, Zellner had led 57 staff members as they successfully fought Herrick’s attempt to fire former Cedarburg High School Principal Jay Grieger in 2003. The group published a statement that ran in the Ozaukee County News Graphic that accused Herrick and the school board of creating “an atmosphere of uncertainty, distrust, and intimidation between the district administration and the Cedarburg High School staff.”
In 2004, the complaint states, Zellner fought the attempt of Herrick and the school board to fire a basketball coach. That same year, Zellner opposed the creation of a task force to address school issues that did not include the principal, vice principal or a union representative.
In 2005, Zellner surveyed teachers, and 95 percent voted that they had no confidence in Herrick. The results were published in the local newspaper, and Zellner answered questions at two press conferences regarding the survey.
Meanwhile, the complaint notes, Zellner had informed the school’s information technology department that it was possible to get access to adult Web sites from his computer. He was twice told the school would not install software to prevent inappropriate (pornographic) material from being accessed by students doing Google searches. Teachers were expected to patrol any such usage by students, who could access adult Web sites merely by turning off filters with a couple of clicks.
One day, Zellner was checking to see whether the district had installed software to block access and typed in the word “blonde,” and later typed in “more of these.” The entire amount of time that elapsed was 67 seconds. While images of pornographic Web sites popped up, the complaint states, he did not open any of these Web sites, and the data on his computer proves this.
Meanwhile, the administration had secretly installed software on Zellner’s computer to monitor his usage. The IT department had around this time received complaints of unwanted “pop-up” materials on computers of a number of staff members, including seven involving adult materials, yet only Zellner’s computer was singled out to have monitoring software installed on it.
Armed with the information about the 67-second “blonde” episode, Herrick summoned Zellner to a meeting where Zellner was warned to “resign or we’ll go public with this.” Zellner declined and the school board, though this was a personnel matter, had a public meeting where Zellner was disgraced for supposedly using porno. Zellner’s attorney Michael Erhard says it’s “highly unusual” to have a public hearing in such cases.
District officials, the complaint states, then proceeded to repeatedly accuse Zellner of viewing pornography, though there was no proof of this. The document Herrick presented to the school board accused Zellner of viewing heterosexual and lesbian sex of various kinds, hermaphrodites, simulated intercourse with various objects and spanking. There is no basis for this entire accusation, the complaint states.
The complaint accuses James Korom, attorney for the Cedarburg School Board, of telling the Journal Sentinel that “Zellner accessed ‘hardcore’ porn sites repeatedly” and “had many pictures in female students in bikinis on this computer.” The complaint also accuses Korom of telling JS columnist Mike Nichols that “Zellner was caught accessing hardcore porn sites called ‘pervert pics,’ ‘all-lesbian teens’ and all sexy teens.’ ” All these accusations are false and defamatory, the complaint states.
Zellner is 42, and has had no luck getting any school district to hire him as a teacher. I can scarcely recall a case where someone who is not a public figure has received so much negative publicity on such tenuous grounds. The situation called out for restraint from the media, instead of reinforcing what has all the look of a lynching mob. Here’s the complaint. You be the judge.
DC Madam and Milwaukee
Last week, the so-called “DC Madam,” Deborah Jeanne Palfrey, was found guilty of four felony charges stemming from her Washington, D.C., prostitution ring. As was first reported by WTMJ-TV Channel 4, one of her clients was Wisconsin-based lobbyist Bill Broydrick. A Pressroom column by this magazine back in October noted that the Journal Sentinel had the story on Broydrick but didn’t publish it, probably because Broydrick wasn’t seen as a public figure. Last week, the paper did a brief article on Palfrey’s conviction and again left Broydrick out of the story.
The titillation factor here is that a fat-cat lobbyist was frequenting prostitutes. Broydrick, however, has never commented on this. An alternative explanation is that he was hiring prostitutes for his customers. Broydrick, a former legislator himself, lobbies in Milwaukee, Madison and D.C., and has a long list of elite customers, including both private companies and public entities like the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Some would argue he has more impact on legislation in Madison than most lawmakers, which might make his actions of some interest to citizens.
Reasonable people can disagree as to whether the Broydrick affair should have been reported. (I’d vote yes.) But one might certainly ask this: Why all the compassion for a powerful member of the elite like Broydrick while a nobody like Robert Zellner gets his name dragged through the mud again and again and again?
The Brewers’ Five-Star Franchise
The Milwaukee Brewers franchise, once the sick child of Major League Baseball, has really rebounded. Last week, Forbes magazine did its annual financial rating of MLB franchises and the Brewers scored high in many ways. The value of the team Mark Attanasio paid $223 million for in 2005 is now worth $331 million. The team ranked fourth-best in the increase in franchise value, rising 15 percent since last year.
The Brewers also ranked better than 11 teams in relative debt, with estimated debt at 36 percent of franchise value. The team’s revenue has nearly tripled since 1999, from $55 million to $158 million. The team’s payroll, now $80 million, has doubled since 1999 ($40 million). And the team is spending wisely, getting 115 percent of the league average in victories per dollar of payroll.
Most of this happy news reflects one fact: Miller Park is one of the most subsidized stadiums in MLB history. So all you taxpayers take a bow. But the figures also suggest Attanasio has run the team with savvy efficiency. Finally, the remarkable appreciation in team value proves once again that pro sports owners, however much they cry poor and however small the market, always make money. Given all the public subsidies thrown at them, how could it be any other way?
And the Sports Nut considers whether new Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles is the right choice.
