Allen Media’s WKOW (Madison) is facing a lawsuit.

A retired Milwaukee police sergeant is suing the station 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 an unarmed Black man in February on Madison’s Far East Side.

WKOW 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.

That Mark Wagner was involved in the Feb. 3 shooting of Quadren Wilson. Wilson’s family has said Wilson was shot five times in the back during a traffic stop by DCI agents.

Galli’s story, which appeared on Feb. 21, claimed that Wagner, as a member of the Milwaukee Police Department in 2002, shot and killed a suspect in Milwaukee, and was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

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.

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.

“As a result, Mark D. Wagner Jr. has suffered humiliation, loss of reputation, and physical endangerment to him and his family entitling him to compensatory damages,” the lawsuit states.

WKOW-TV general manager Anna Engelhart and news director Dani Maxwell did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

H/T Madison.com