By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

ASHWAUBENON – The defamation lawsuit brought against the Ashwaubenon Public Safety Officers’ Association (APSOA) and two of the union’s officers by former Village Manager Allison Swanson has been dismissed in Brown County Circuit Court.

Judge Thomas Walsh dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the suit may not be reintroduced, and without costs.

Swanson – identified in court records as Allison Buckley, the wife of Ashwaubenon public safety officer Kevin Buckley – accused the APSOA, President Eric Paulowski and Secretary Melanie Lovato of making false statements when the union announced its no-confidence vote in her on Feb. 6, 2020.

The suit stated those statements were made “in an attempt to smear, defame and otherwise damage Swanson’s reputation.”

Those statements, the suit alleged, were also made in an “attempt to influence the Village Board to terminate Swanson,” as well as “make it difficult, if not impossible, for Swanson to find employment in other municipalities as a village manager” and as “an attempt to influence the general public to react negatively towards Swanson and treat her negatively.”

The union released a list of complaints Feb. 6, 2020, with 22 bullet points containing what it called a “partial list of just some of the egregious behaviors the association has witnessed.”

Some of them resulted in state and federal lawsuits, along with labor grievances being filed on behalf of past and present union members.

Swanson, who sought an unspecified amount of damages in the lawsuit she filed in May 2020, resigned as village manager July 8, 2020.

Out-of-court settlement

Attorneys for both sides acknowledged an out-of-court settlement was reached, but did not disclose the settlement terms and limited their comments to a prepared statement.

Swanson’s attorney, John Claypool, said the parties came to a mutually-agreed settlement to resolve the suit to the satisfaction of both parties.

Claypool said the parties would not be commenting any further on the case, because of the settlement’s confidentiality clause.

The APSOA’s attorney, Aaron Halstead of the Hawks Quindel law firm, provided The Press Times with copies of the stipulation and order for dismissing the case, but deferred to Claypool to release the statement the parties agreed to provide the media about the settlement.