John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

An online impostor pretending to be Steven Avery's high-profile post-conviction lawyer Kathleen Zellner duped the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Office of Open Government by filing a fake public records request, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has learned.

Zellner said she was shocked on Wednesday to receive a three-page letter on State of Wisconsin letterhead written by Paul Ferguson, assistant attorney general. Ferguson's letter explained in great detail why he was rejecting Zellner's public records request — a request she never made.

"First, your request is insufficient ... and therefore is being denied," Ferguson wrote. He also added, "I concluded that the strong public interest in not disclosing the requested records outweighs any public interest in disclosing the requested records at this time."

The person posing as Zellner used a fake Gmail account — zellner@gmail.com — and submitted the records request by visiting the DOJ's website on Sept. 22. The hoaxster supplied the name of Kathleen Zellner and submitted her law firm's address on Butterfield Road in Downers Grove, Ill. The impostor then asked for "all documents filed or sent regarding the motion for DNA testing."

In late August, Zellner traveled to the Manitowoc County Courthouse to file a roughly 150-page motion asking the court to order advanced scientific testing on a number of items of evidence from the 2005 investigation into the death of photographer Teresa Halbach. Many of the clues Zellner wants to re-examine were downplayed by special prosecutor Ken Kratz during Avery's 2007 murder trial, including at least eight unidentified fingerprints recovered from Halbach's Toyota RAV4 and a broken blinker light found in the cargo area.

Zellner maintains the new round of scientific tests will not only show that Avery had nothing to do with Halbach's death, but will point to somebody else as the killer.

The Department of Justice lawyer who processed the fake request earlier this month took it for granted that Zellner made the request. He drafted a three-page response that included 11 bullet points to justify his reasons for rejecting the records request.

Among the reasons Ferguson referred to was the backlash created by the Netflix docu-series about the Avery case. He made the following arguments:

"DOJ has received reports of false information since the release of the Netflix series, 'Making a Murderer.' Prosecutors are concerned that people, influenced by new information, will come forward as witnesses while presenting false or fabricated information."

"Jurors in the Avery and Brendan Dassey cases have been subjected to badgering and harassment from some members of the public and feel fearful, anxious and nervous as a result. Release of information not already in the public record, or the trial record, could likely perpetuate the harassment."

"Several individuals involved in the Avery and Dassey cases have received threats, particularly following the release of the Netflix series. Former District Attorney Ken Kratz, the judge, key investigators and sheriffs have received threats."



Ferguson also wrote that he would have to gather the three original prosecutors involved in the Avery case, along with various special agents from the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, to convene a meeting to review the state's case file in the Halbach murder probe. "The estimated time for such a review is at least 40 hours per person with no guarantee that the records could be released," Ferguson stated.

Zellner said the fiasco could have been avoided if the Department of Justice had attempted to verify the authenticity of the request. At no point during the six-week interval from the time the request was submitted on the DOJ website did anybody at the state agency contact Zellner's firm to confirm that she submitted the records request.

Furthermore, Zellner said, the nature of the records request should have raised red flags to the DOJ because the impostor was seeking access to DOJ documents that Zellner maintains she already has.

Zellner told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she has about 30,000 files of reports, including the DOJ's files. She called the DOJ on Wednesday morning immediately after receiving the faux public records denial letter.

"No one in my law office including me has ever requested 'documents filed or sent regarding the Motion for DNA testing," Zellner told Ferguson in her letter. "Of course we would not be making such a request for documents that are included and referenced in the motion we filed because we are in possesion of these documents and would have no reason to be requesting duplicate documents. Clearly the request you received via your website was fabricated."

Zellner explained to the DOJ, for example, that her law firm has never used the email address of zellner@gmail.com.

DOJ spokesman Johnny Koremenos said that his agency's office of open government has never encountered another instance of someone providing a false name to obtain DOJ records on a high-profile case. He said it was highly doubtful that the DOJ would try to investigate the hoaxster's true identity.

Attorney General Brad Schimel created the office of government in June 2015, announcing that he wanted to help people obtain government records more quickly and consistently. The Journal Sentinel reported that Schimel reassigned Ferguson to coordinate the office, coordinating the DOJ's open records and open meetings issues.

"Public records are just that, public records," Koremenos told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin when reached for comment Thursday. "Requests are generally fulfilled without consideration for who is making the request and that individual's name."

Still, Zellner said the letter that Ferguson drafted and sent to her firm may have taken as many as five hours of work time.

In notifying the DOJ that it had been duped, Zellner urged the open government lawyer to be more careful moving forward.

"In the future if you receive any additional request identified as coming from our law offices please notify us immediately before expending valuable and unnecessary time responding to such a request," Zellner wrote Ferguson. "Please retain this letter notification letter to avoid any future confusion by your office as to the source of such a request."

Zellner told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she is interested in tracking down the impostor's identity, but said she won't let it create a diversion by taking her away from her mission of trying to clear Avery of Halbach's murder.

"It appears to be an effort, by someone who has no authority, to do an end-around to get these documents," Zellner said.

By bringing publicity to the situation, Zellner said, she wants to make sure it does not happen again.

"I don't want people using my name or the law firm's name in making fraudulent requests," Zellner said. "The question for the DOJ is, 'What kind of screening have they set up?' I was surprised they didn't verify the validity of the request. We would have immediately told them ... that the email was a false email."

John Ferak of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak