(The Center Square) – In the past three years, the state of Wisconsin has paid millions to settle claims that stemmed from car crashes, inmate complaints, discrimination and other allegations against its employees, according to data obtained by The Center Square.
The state made about $3.1 million worth of the claim payments, mostly for traffic incidents. But it also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prison inmates and to one university employee who claimed she was compelled to resign from her diversity-related job because she is white.
The payments had a wide range, from $13 for a torn document to nearly $800,000 for a severe crash.
Those who alleged they were wronged by state employees filed more than 800 claims from July 2022 to October 2025, the data show. Wisconsin has made payments for about a third of them.
Wisconsin, like many other states, is self-insured. That means taxpayer money is used to settle claims.
White employee discrimination
In 2022, the University of Wisconsin launched a merger of two diversity, equity and inclusion programs into one, the Multicultural Student Services office.
Rochelle Hoffman, a white woman, had been an assistant director of one of the merged programs and was selected to be interim director and, later, assistant director of the new office, according to federal court records.
But her appointment drew the ire of students, faculty and staff who questioned her appointment because she is white, she alleged in a lawsuit. A student senate resolution questioned Hoffman’s interim director status without naming her, and “coworkers and staff also opposed Hoffman’s appointment … because she was white,” the lawsuit alleged.
Hoffman alleged she resigned her assistant director position “after eight months of intense hostility.” In a letter to her boss, she said that despite enjoying her work before the controversy, “for my mental health and professional safety I don’t believe I can stay in this department,” according to an excerpt of the letter that was included in court records.
The lawsuit alleged the university did not intervene to assist Hoffman and failed to follow its policy to create a work environment that is “free of discrimination.”
The university responded in court that it was not responsible for creating a hostile work environment for Hoffman, but this year it settled the lawsuit by paying Hoffman $265,000.
The crashes
The most significant payouts were tied to a June 2023 crash on a rural highway in southwest Wisconsin.
State employee Kelli Rose Neitzel, 35, was eastbound on a curve of state Highway 60 when her state-owned pickup truck crossed into the oncoming traffic lane and struck another truck with four people inside, according to a sheriff’s crash report.
The collision tore off the back half of the other truck, but the report did not note any obvious major injuries.
In December 2024, the state agreed to pay the driver and three passengers a total that was just shy of $800,000.
The second-highest payout was for another crash – in November 2024 – that happened when a state patrolman looked away from the roadway and struck the back of a stopped vehicle in the Fox Cities area, according to a police department report.
Trooper Cory Frances Sotka, 29, was southbound on Interstate Highway 41 in Grand Chute when he looked to see if a vehicle parked along the roadway had someone inside. His sport-utility patrol vehicle struck a minivan with four people inside, which then struck a car. The two vehicles were stopped in a turn lane waiting for traffic to flow, the report noted.
No one had apparent major physical injuries, according to the report, but in August 2025 the state paid the driver and a passenger of the minivan a total of about $274,000.
Another crash in 2022 — the details of which were not immediately available — resulted in a $251,000 payout.
The state also paid $250,000 to someone who was struck by a backhoe in a state park in 2022 and suffered unspecified injuries.
Many of the traffic incidents included minor vehicle damage that resulted in payments of several thousands of dollars apiece. They included employees backing into parked vehicles, wind catching a door and swinging it into another vehicle, plows damaging vehicles, parallel parking mistakes and others.
An incident in which a state employee struck a motorcycle while following the vehicle for a driving test resulted in a payout of about $6,500.
Inmate complaints
There were more than 100 complaints from prison inmates who claimed correctional officers ignored their legitimate problems, used excessive force and for other reasons.
Wisconsin made payments that totaled more than $300,000 for about a third of the complaints.
The largest was $65,000 for an inmate who, according to federal court records, suffered frostbite and hypothermia while working as part of a garbage crew at the Jackson Correctional Institution in west-central Wisconsin.
The inmate was outside in temperatures near 0 degrees for more than an hour in December 2022. But despite his complaints about pain in his feet and hands, the inmate wasn’t allowed to go inside until he fell to the ground and was picked up and escorted by other prisoners who were working with him, court records show.
Other inmates who alleged officers ignored their unspecified problems received payouts that ranged from $1,500 to $43,000.
An inmate with physical disabilities who alleged he didn’t receive proper assistance when he was moved to a more-restrictive cell was paid about $26,000.
Claims are wide-ranging
Most claims against the state did not result in a payout in the past three years, according to state data.
Many of them were made by people who slipped or tripped and fell on state property or who were otherwise potentially injured because of their own actions.
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There were multiple claims related to a Labor Day pier collapse at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023, but none resulted in payments, state records show. An investigation determined that the collapse was primarily driven by numerous people jumping on the pier.
However, the state did pay $123.76 to someone who ordered an easter basket to be delivered to a University of Wisconsin location because it was given to the wrong person in 2023.
And the state paid about $790 to the Wrightstown Community School District when a state trooper shattered an oven door with the butt of his shotgun during a tactical response training in 2024.