On Friday, a jury unanimously ruled that Kirk Bangstad, owner of Minocqua Brewing Company, owes Lakeland Times owner Gregg Walker $750,000 for defamation.
After a five-day civil trial in Oneida County Court, the jury agreed that Bangstad had defamed Walker and his family in Minocqua Brewing Company Facebook and blog posts.
Friday morning started off with the defendant, Kirk Bangstad, refusing to take off his hat in Oneida County Court until presiding Forest County Judge Leon Stenz ordered him to.
“Is there grounds for why I should respect the court after what we’ve seen this week?” said Bangstad.
“Yes, take off your hat and put your phone away,” responded Judge Stenz.
Earlier in the week, Bangstad was found in contempt of court and charged $250 for side comments.
Post trial, Bangstad told WXPR, “I was defiant for five days.”
The trial focused on a handful of posts dating back to 2020.
Court documents highlighted posts in which Bangstad called Walker a “crook”, “misogynist”, and accused him of abusing his father with dementia.
He also falsely insinuated that Walker, at age 17, played a role in his 23-year-old brother’s accidental death in order to inherit the family newspaper.
Walker said that since Bangstad’s post, upwards of 200 people have asked him about his brother’s passing, a topic he said he doesn’t want to bring up repeatedly.
Walker’s lawyer honed in on a blog post by Bangstad entitled “Scene from a Misogynist Publisher's Bedroom”.
In the trial, Walker’s ex-wife spoke about the post’s impact on her and her family, explaining that she was left feeling unsafe, something that Walker himself reiterated in his testimony.
“She felt that these people would go after her. That was a very real possibility because of some of the other things that have gone on in the community,” said Gregg Walker.
In closing arguments, Walker’s lawyers framed the case as a reevaluation of online communication.
He argued that social media has corroded the way we talk to one another, and that ordering Bangstad to pay would send a message about how we should post online.
Walker’s lawyer originally asked for total compensation of $800,000.
Bangstad’s lawyer admitted that many of the posts were mean or might have taken it too far, but they did not qualify as defamatory.
He argued that Walker’s reputation wasn’t actually impacted, he still maintained a “sterling” reputation in the Northwoods.
Plus, Bangstad had already apologized and retracted false statements.
For the August 8th Facebook post, jurors awarded Walker $200,000 in compensatory damages.
For the ‘crook’ comments, jurors charged $40,000, and the same went for the ‘misogynist’ comments and his accusation that the Lakeland Times had called an official ‘retarded’.
They determined that Bangstad had displayed express malice, and charged $430,000.
However, they did not agree that Walker experienced severe emotional distress, as he alleged, and awarded no damages there.
WXPR spoke to Bangstad after the verdict.
He was frustrated that while he was ruled a ‘public figure’, Walker, as contributor and publisher of the Lakeland Times wasn’t.
“On appeal, I don't think that the justice system in Wisconsin will allow future precedent to deem the publisher of a newspaper not a public figure. I think that it opens up the world to defamation lawsuits all over the place for huge awards,” said Bangstad.
Bangstad plans to appeal the decision in the next few weeks and hopes that the case could be moved to Dane County.
“A political case tried in such a red area when the defendant is the most notable progressive in the area, I think it's hard. We had an uphill battle,” said Bangstad.
Walker did not want to comment on the verdict.
