Police Duped by UW Public Records Office

On Wednesday, August 17, I tried to review more records regarding researchers’ use of monkeys at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

One of the UW's legal advisors on matters of open records, attorney Ben Griffiths, contacted us two or so weeks prior and informed us that another set of documents we had requested under the state open records statutes was ready for our review.

So we went to look at them. While waiting for my two associates, one an attorney and the other an ex-lab employee, I ran into Michelle Basso, who was there for some reason. Basso is a primate researcher who bolts nasty devices to monkeys’ skulls and experiments on their brains. She was coming out of the building as I stood waiting for my friends.

We said hello to each other; Basso left. My friends arrived and we went up to the third floor to review the documents, just as we have done previously. Basso was there ahead of us speaking with someone in the office; she had gone back into the building (running? through a side door?) She left the room when we showed up but remained speaking with someone out in the hall.

The receptionist ask us what we wanted, we explained that Mr. Griffiths had contacted us and told us that a set of documents was available for our review, and that we had come to review them. She left the room.

We waited for some time. Suddenly, a campus police officer rushed in, "What's going on?" he asked, clearly out of breath from rushing up the stairs. "Nothing," we replied, "What's up?"

He said that campus police had received a call from Griffith's office about a "disturbance." Apparently, our sitting in the waiting room had totally freaked them out. More cops showed up. At least 6 were in evidence, and it looked like more were stationed at the exits down the hall.

We explained that Mr. Griffiths had contacted us and told us to come review some documents that he had prepared for us at our convenience.

The student worker in the office then piped up that he was the one doing the redacting but that the redacting was not completed after all. Now they tell us we will need to make an appointment with Mr. Griffiths prior to being allowed to review the documents.

It was a total fiasco. I think the cops were wondering why they were called. The UW is giddy with nervousness about such documents, apparently burned by the bad publicity surrounding our discoveries regarding Ei Terasawa.

You should be wondering: why was Michele Basso in the public records attorney's office? Why did she go back in after seeing us? What has Michele been up to or caught doing to the monkeys that motivated her to visit the public records office?

Stay tuned.