Category: Campus life

Madison Police Officer Angie Dyhr realizes that had she happened upon the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity fire even five minutes later, the result could have been devastating.

Dyhr, 33, a mother of three, was patrolling Langdon Street in her squad car when she noticed what appeared to be a campfire or a grill fire in the back of 237 Langdon St. So she pulled in the driveway and notified dispatch right away.

Two weeks earlier she had gone through an in-service training with the fire department, where she learned how quickly a house can become engulfed in fire. She was taught that any time she witnesses a fire — no matter how small — to get on the radio and alert the Fire Department.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and three other media outlets sued Dane County and Madison Tuesday for withholding public records, including a tape of a 911 call made from a murdered college student’s cell phone.

The media groups are seeking the tape and other public records related to a 911 call made from Brittany Sue Zimmermann’s cell phone around the time she was killed April 2. Officials have acknowledged that the 911 dispatcher did not call Zimmermann’s phone back as is required under county protocol, but they have refused to release a copy of the tape, an uncensored copy of an investigation into how the call was handled and other documents.

More than two dozen Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity members who were forced to flee their burning house in Madison now face finals week without their computers or books.

None of the 28 fraternity members living at the house on Langdon St. near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus were injured in the fire, which was discovered late Monday by a police officer who saw a glow coming from the back of the building.

All that online pressure, all the instant messages on AIM and Gchat, all those YouTube comments and Facebook messages and wall posts added up to something: Two more delegates for Sen. Barack Obama.

In a YouTube video posted shortly before midnight yesterday, Lauren Wolfe and UW-Madison student Awais Khaleel, who as president and vice president of the College Democrats of America are among the youngest Democratic superdelegates, endorsed Obama. In the two-minute video, Wolfe said: “We’ve received over 5,000 e-mails . . . hundreds of YouTube comments. . . . We support Senator Barack Obama.”

Madison fire officials are searching for the cause of a fire late Monday and early Tuesday that destroyed the historic Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house at 237 Langdon St.

Fire Department spokesman Eric Dahl said Tuesday afternoon that evidence from the blaze has been sent to the state Crime Laboratory to test for accelerants to determine whether the fire was arson.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison fire investigators have cleared the scene of a fire at a fraternity house on Langdon Street, but there is still no word on what caused the fire at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house late Monday night.

The Madison Fire Department said the fire caused about $750,000 in damage.

Authorities said that the first fire call came in at about 11:40 p.m. A Madison police officer in the area said she noticed a glow coming from inside the fraternity house and went to investigate. Upon discovering the fire, Officer Angie Dyhr said she pounded on the fraternity’s front door to get the attention of residents. She helped safely evacuate everyone inside.

MADISON, Wis. — Four television and newspaper media organizations filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Dane County, the city of Madison and Madison Police Department as part of an effort to obtain open records information concerning the county’s 911 system and the investigation into a University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s death.

The smoke billowing from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on North Langdon Street was so intense, you could smell it eight blocks away.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no students were hurt.

The fire destroyed the house worth 750 thousand dollars. 28 students must now find alternate places to live.

Within an hour after firefighters came to battle the fraternity house on fire, the UW Dean of Students and her associates were on the scene helping the students who lived inside the house.

Argyle Wade, an associate dean of students, says it’s his office’s job to reach out to the students and help them deal with classes.

Angie Dyhr is a bubbly, but shy, police officer who was on routine patrol Monday night on Langdon Street.

Driving by fraternity houses, something caught her eye inside the 3-story white Sig Ep house.

“I saw what looked like campfire, maybe a grill,” she says.

Officer Angie Dyhr was the officer who noticed the fire. She says she just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Langdon Street isn’t even her assigned patrol area.

Dyhr says once she saw the flames she immediately thought back to the training she just underwent that taught her how to react in this type of emergency. She started banging on the door to get the student’s attention was able to get all of them out of the house. As soon as the door opened she says black smoke came billowing out. From the looks of it she didn’t think any of the students knew what was going on but is just thankful they all made it out alive.

The 25 students evacuated from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity are being assisted Tuesday in finding temporary living quarters, and the police officer who pounded on the door of the house to awaken and then evacuate all inside is being nominated for a Madison Police Department life-saving award.

The fire destroyed the fraternity at 237 Langdon St., displacing the 25 students living there during finals week.

UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam said all of the young men fleeing the fire Monday night had housing for last night.

“We are checking on where they can go this week,” Berquam said, “possibly into the short-term dorms, but we’ve also had citizens offer their homes to the students for the duration of finals week.”

In the wake of the Brittany Zimmermann phone call to the Dane County 911 center, staffing of the center has improved, and more equipment is coming, according to the chair of the committee overseeing the center.

“The good news is we are making progress in the strategic plan for the 911 center,” said County Board Supervisor Brett Hulsey. “But questions remain on how we deal with hang-ups and how to educate people to take 911 off their speed dial.”

Joe Norwick, 911 center director, gave an update to the Dane County Board’s Personnel and Finance Committee on Monday.

Since the death of Kelly Nolan, a 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student who disappeared after partying on State Street, Madison residents have seen two more tragic killings of young people in which the questions far outnumber the answers.

Hundreds of students stood in shock as they watched fire consume the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on Langdon Street late Monday and early Tuesday during finals week at UW-Madison.

It appeared the three-story building at 237 Langdon St. would be a total loss. All 25 residents of the house were safe.

The Brittany Zimmerman murder investigation is profoundly troubling on many levels.
Certainly, the fact it’s the third of a string of recent unsolved murders apparently involving strangers is disconcerting as it should be. Let us never be blase about murders in our community. But the Zimmerman case has shed further light on a significant trend in the Madison Police Department — secrecy. And this policy of secrecy is causing the public to lose confidence in a police department that is risking its credibility.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison firefighters battled a fire at a fraternity house on Langdon Street early Tuesday morning.

The blaze started around midnight at a three-story house in the 200 block of Langdon Street, near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Hundreds of students gathered outside and watched as the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity appeared fully engulfed in flames.

The smoke billowing from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on North Langdon Street was so intense, you could smell it eight blocks away.

One firefighter was injured, but no students were hurt.

The fire destroyed the house, according to a fraternity member. 25 students must now find alternate places to live.

Madison police officer Angie Dyhr spotted the fire around 11:40pm. She saw a burning glow from the back window of the white building, and thought it was a BBQ grill.

Fire destroyed the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house at the University of Wisconsin-Madison early today, leaving 25 residents displaced, three firefighters injured and an estimated $750,000 in damage, according to the Madison Fire Department. [With an accompanying video link]

Instead of cramming for finals, 25 members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity sat on a Metro Transit bus early this morning at the corner of Langdon and Frances streets keeping warm as dozens of Madison firefighters battled a massive fire that enveloped their fraternity house.

The fire department got the first call at 11:41 p.m. Monday after a city of Madison police officer noticed a glow that she thought was a grill at the back of the house, said Madison Fire Department spokeswoman Bernadette Galvez. When the officer investigated she found that the back of the house was on fire, Galvez said.

Madison – On April 2, in the light of day, the unthinkable occurred on a quiet street in Madison.

The murder of Brittany Zimmermann, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student, sent a shock through Madison, putting people on guard and on edge.

People like Kate Maternowski.

UW-Madison classes have come to a close for the year and finals week is quickly approaching. While some students diligently plan their study schedules, others already realize it will be a week filled with caffeine, late-night snacks and no sleep for nights at a time.

Four years ago, Mary Nolan of Davenport was young and somewhat winging it.

Weeks ahead of her graduation from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the journalism major knew she would leave the Midwest in June.

She had a dream to chase on the East Coast. She also had a job at a magazine. But that was it. Everything else was up in the air.

Dane County residents should not doubt the community’s 911 services despite a controversial error involving homicide victim Brittany Zimmermann, the 911 center director said Thursday.
“We haven’t stopped operating just because of this call,” county 911 director Joe Norwick told County Board members at a late afternoon meeting Thursday.

UW-Madison authorities are looking into a possible reverse hazing incident at a fraternity in which human excrement and vomit in a bucket were dumped on fraternity members.

No one was hurt in the incident, said Kevin Helmkamp, associate dean of students, and no one complained about it. The university began investigating when officials learned about it.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: There is breaking news, actually shocking news, about that botched 911 call made from the phone of a murdered college coed, Brittany Zimmermann. People in Madison, Wisconsin, are reeling. Did that bungled 911 call cost Zimmermann her life?

When Dane County 911 Center director Joe Norwick said last week that Madison police forced him to keep mum on the emergency call made from UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermanâ??s cell phone shortly before she was murdered, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray countered hours later with a press conference of his own, disavowing this representation.

Wray said he asked county officials to not reveal the contents of the call, not the call itself. But the blame game continues. On Tuesday, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk defended Norwickâ??s reason for initially denying that a 911 call had been placed from Zimmermannâ??s cell phone. Though her finger pointed back to police, Falk also said, â??There is no blame to lay.â?

MADISON, Wis. — A pair of Dane County Board of Supervisors committees held a special meeting Thursday evening to address lingering questions about the area’s 911 call service.

Officials were looking for answers Thursday on the controversy over how the Dane County 911 Center handled a call from the cell phone of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student on the day that she was found dead. Some officials have said the dispatcher mishandled the 911 call.

Questions continue to mount about policies and technological capabilities at Dane County’s 911 Center.

Union steward Laurie Lane told 27 News she listened to a recording of the 911 call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone. Lane’s comments to 27 News on what she heard were the first public comments on the content of the call. Lane said the call lasted approximately ninety seconds, and although Lane said she heard faint sounds of “movements,” Lane believed what she heard would not have been enough to prompt the dispatcher to treat the call as an emergency, and dispatch police officers. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray has disagreed, saying the dispatcher should have recognized what occurred during the call as a potential emergency. Authorities have made no comments on the call’s specifics, citing the need to protect the integrity of the ongoing Zimmermann homicide investigation.

After a week of playing the blame game, the director of Dane County’s 911 Center had no one to point fingers at Thursday night.

Director Joe Norwick was in the hot seat as Dane County Supervisors demanded answers about the handling of Brittany Zimmermann’s call to 911.

During the hour and a half hearing, supervisors asked Norwick about operations, policy and staffing.

A heavily redacted copy of a 40-page report into the alleged mishandling of a 911 call for help from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann sheds little, if any, new light on a number of important questions.

The report was released on Thursday night, minutes after the end of a joint committee of the Dane County Board in which embattled 911 Center director Joe Norwick answered questions from county supervisors about 911 center policies.

Scott McDonell began the meeting by stating that the matters under review could lead to litigation and anything said â??can be used in court.â? It was the public-hearing equivalent of a Miranda warning.

That was not the only admonition: McDonell, the Dane County Board chair, also explained that all questions would have to be screened and some could not be answered. This was followed by a stern lecture from Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, stating that any leaks of information about the details of the 911 call from slain UW student Brittany Zimmermannâ??s cell phone, if released, would seriously jeopardize the task of bringing her killer or killers to justice: “Our odds decrease with every new week.”

Dogs do ease tensions, University of Wisconsin students who walked around the Library Mall on campus Wednesday afternoon agreed.

Some 10 pooches were with their owners on the mall for the annual Pet Therapy event. The idea is that passing students can spend a few minutes with an animal to relieve their end of the semester stress, and maybe even talk with the dog owners, all of whom are members of the UW Health Services Counseling and Consultation Services.

UW-Madison’s SAFEwalk program is back to full strength after seeing 11 students quit last week amid complaints from them that the program has been understaffed.

The 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a call from the cell phone of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann the day of her slaying on Wednesday denied hanging up on the call, union officials said.

Shannon Maier, president of AFSCME Local 720, which represents Dane County courthouse and 911 center employees, said the dispatcher, who hasn’t been named, contradicts center director Joe Norwick, who last week said the dispatcher ended the call from the slain student’s cell phone.

“Oh I’m obviously disgusted,” says Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity member, Justin Banach. “This portrays the Greek community in a poor manor.”

The news has sent a shock wave through fraternity and sorority houses on campus at the UW Madison. One of the universities own fraternities, Sigma Phi Epsilon, or Sig Ep, is under investigation for hazing allegations.

Dane County board members will hear from 911 Center Director Joe Norwick Thursday evening about what went wrong with Brittany Zimmermann’s 911 call shortly before her murder on April 2.

Members of Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Madison chapter are being investigated in connection with a fraternity stunt last week in front of their house on Langdon Street.
University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders said the investigating surrounds what some are calling a hazing.
But the fraternity argued that what happened was purely a stunt and not hazing.

As summer approaches and students prepare for a three-month break from classes, police remain hard at work in the homicide investigation of UW-Madison junior Brittany Zimmermann.

UW-Madisonâ??s SAFE program coordinators said they are fully staffed and ready to provide students safe late-night transportation amid employee resignations and reports of employee dissatisfaction.

University of Wisconsin-Madison official said that all school programs that provide late-night transportation for students and staff will be fully staffed for finals week.

The Offices of the Dean of Students is conducting an official investigation into the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, university officials announced Tuesday.

Two University of Wisconsin alumni have been chosen to give graduating UW students advice to carry into the future at spring commencement the weekend of May 17 and 18.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said Tuesday a better response to a call made from slain University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermannâ??s cell phone the day she was murdered could not have saved her life.

The University of Wisconsinâ??s dean of students office and the Interfraternity Council are investigating allegations of hazing by members of a campus fraternity.

Madison police spent two weeks pursuing a bogus lead in the investigation into Brittany Zimmermann’s slaying because of bad information from the Dane County 911 center, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said Tuesday.
Falk also said the 911 center can’t determine whether a dispatcher hung up on a call from Zimmermann’s cell phone on April 2, the day she was killed, or the caller disconnected it. Center director Joe Norwick last week said the dispatcher hung up the phone after hearing nothing on the line, though Madison police say there were sounds that should have led the operator to dispatch police.

A former dispatcher who answered a 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone before she was allegedly stabbed to death in her West Doty Street apartment committed two different procedural errors in handling the call, according to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

The dispatcher — who has 20-years of experience and is described by Falk as “a seasoned veteran with a good work record” — did not alert law enforcement of Zimmermann’s call nor did she call back to Zimmerman’s phone after being disconnected. Both inactions violate 911 Center policy.

However, even if protocol had been followed, Falk said she doesn’t believe police could have responded in time to save the 21-year-old UW-Madison student.

Dane County residents should continue to have confidence in the 911 communications system, but should also understand the limitations of using cell phones when making an emergency call, said Scott McDonell, chairman of the Dane County Board, in statements Tuesday regarding the botched 911 call in the Brittany Zimmermann murder case.

“Our citizens rely on the fact that when they call 911 for help, the call will result in emergency assistance being dispatched within minutes,” McDonell said. “They should continue to have confidence in the public safety communication system.”

A 911 call from a murdered college student’s cell phone featured sounds that should have been significant to a 911 operator, but they were not heard by the dispatcher during the call, Dane County’s top official said Tuesday.

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk admitted that mistakes were made with regards to the Zimmerman 911 call in April.

UW Student Brittany Zimmerman was found slain in her campus apartment in early April. Recent records show Zimmerman made a call from her cell phone on the day she was killed.

“She (911 dispatcher) didn’t do everything right,” said Falk. “There are two errors of procedure.”

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County’s top official said that a better response to a 911 call from a college student before she was slain still couldn’t have saved her life.

County Executive Kathleen Falk apologized Tuesday at a news conference for errors employees made responding to the April 2 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone.

Falk said one of the errors wasn’t discovered until as late as two weeks after the slaying.