Madison — The public is not entitled to see training videos that Attorney General Brad Schimel made as a local prosecutor, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In the 5-2 ruling, conservative justices reversed decisions by lower courts that found the Republican attorney general had to make the two videos available under the state’s open records law.

"The denial of public access occurs only in exceptional cases. This case presents one of those exceptional situations," Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority.

In dissent, Justice Shirley Abrahamson contended the majority went too far in keeping the two Department of Justice videos from the public.

"Today, the majority opinion significantly dims the lights on transparency in government and shuts off some lights by concluding that the Department of Justice may withhold both of the videos in their entirety," she wrote.

The legal battle over the videos has been awkward for Schimel, who has championed the open records law as attorney general but argued against releasing the videos featuring him.

Schimel made the videos for the Department of Justice in 2009 and 2013 when he was Waukesha County district attorney. They show him training other prosecutors and feature him talking about a high-profile case in which teens were blackmailed into performing sexual acts by a classmate.

The state Democratic Party sued in 2014 to get the videos. Days before Schimel was elected attorney general, a Dane County judge ruled they must be released under the open records law.

A unanimous appeals court reached the same conclusion in October 2015 but allowed Schimel to keep the videos from the public while he continued his appeal.

The Supreme Court agreed with Schimel's arguments that releasing the videos could help predators learn prosecution strategies. The lower courts had found there was nothing in them that wasn’t otherwise known and the public had a right to see what the government did to protect children from predators.

"This information would in essence serve as a textbook enlightening Wisconsin criminals on how to avoid detection, elude capture and escape conviction," Bradley wrote for the majority.

The Supreme Court also concluded releasing the videos could re-traumatize the victims of crimes mentioned in the videos.

One of the videos is the equivalent of a prosecutor's case file, which is exempt from the records law, the high court ruled.

The Democratic Party sought the videos to find out if they include Schimel making questionable comments. Schimel has denied that they do, and courts that reviewed them found they did not show any misconduct.

Michael Bauer, the attorney for the state Democratic Party, said the ruling would make it hard for the public to monitor the government.

"No amount of platitudes regarding its 'commitment to open government' as found in today's opinion, or self-serving 'open government' seminars conducted by the attorney general should fool Wisconsin citizens about the Republican leadership and Supreme Court of this state's efforts to undermine a fundamental pillar of our democracy — the right to know what our public officials are up to," he said in a written statement.

The majority wrote that there appeared to be a "partisan purpose" behind the Democratic Party's request for the videos.

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said the court should not consider why those using the records law are seeking information.

"You can't take a requester's motive into account," he said.

He called the ruling disappointing but said it was narrow and would likely have limited effect.

"I don't think this throws the doors wide open," he said.

Schimel, who criticized his GOP colleagues in 2014 for their efforts to gut the open records law, has said it would be better for him to have the videos released because they would show he acted appropriately.

"Even though I would have benefited politically from the release of these law enforcement training tapes, I believe the court made the right decision in this case, to protect victims and guard the confidentiality of prosecutorial techniques," Schimel said in a statement.

The 2013 video features Schimel discussing the case of Anthony Stancl, who posed as a female on Facebook to lure teenage boys into sending him naked pictures of themselves. Stancl then threatened to release the photos as a way to blackmail his victims into performing sex acts.

Stancl was convicted of two felonies in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Bradley was joined in Wednesday's decision by the court's four other conservatives — Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Michael Gableman, Daniel Kelly and Annette Ziegler. In dissent were Abrahamson and the court's other liberal, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. (The Bradleys are not related.)

In her dissent, Abrahamson disclosed she had made records requests to J. Denis Moran, the director of state courts, regarding the court's finances. Those requests have been denied, she wrote.

Moran did not respond to a request for comment.

Patrick Marley can be reached at patrick.marley@jrn.com