A Utah man said he wants a written apology from the UW System Board of Regents after a UW Police officer allegedly sent him an unwanted e-mail using a fake name.""
David Nelson, who has no connection with the university, said in a statement he believes a UWPD officer attempted to illegally contact him because of an e-mail Nelson sent to UW-Madison officials in November.
The e-mail addressed an Oct. 11 incident at Camp Randall in which UWPD offiers used a Taser on Margaret Hiebing, 54, when she refused to move out of the aisle.
UWPD Sgt. Jason Whitney said Nelson was not directly involved in the Taser incident.
""He sent an e-mail to everyone in the department about how [UWPD] handled the Tasering incident,"" Whitney said. ""He sent an e-mail about how disgusted he was.""
Nelson said he is concerned about an e-mail he claims he received from UWPD officials after his initial e-mail, which asked him to confirm his identity.
Whitney said an unidentified officer from UWPD sent the e-mail in his free time.
""One of our officers replied to him on his own time trying to figure out who he was,"" Whitney said. ""This was completely legal. He was using his First Amendment rights to do so.""
According to the statement, Nelson also said the messages were not aggressive, but he questioned their legality. He claims he was simply exercising his right to free speech when he sent the e-mail in November and said UWPD officials are investigating only to threaten him for speaking out against the university.
Whitney said UWPD has not directly received any further e-mails from Nelson and are not planning on responding to him in any way.
