English teacher from Tremper is in prison for third alcohol and drug offense. She was once accused of serious sexual assault

**Editor’s Note – Graphic Details**

A Tremper teacher serving a six-month prison sentence for OWI (3rd degree) was once accused of a brutal sexual assault. On March 7, 2024, Mark Wisniewski was convicted of OWI (3rd degree) and a charge of resisting/failing to stop was dropped. He did not stop for Kenosha police as they began a mile-long chase with a blood alcohol level of .300, nearly four times the legal limit. Kenosha police requested that he be charged with fleeing and eluding, but the Kenosha District Attorney’s Office declined to charge him, opting instead for the equivalent of a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to six months in county jail but was given work release. From March 2024 through the end of this school year, he commuted between Tremper High School and the jail every day, sleeping in jail at night. He wore an ankle bracelet while teaching our children and grandchildren.

According to a Kenosha Police Department report obtained through a public records request, the complainant reported the following to police:

In 2022, a woman reported to Kenosha police that Wisniewski sexually assaulted her. She said that in May 2014, she met a man named Mark Wisniewski. Mark was introduced to her by a mutual friend who is a co-worker of Mark’s. In 2014, Mark and the woman met at a bar in Kenosha. Starting in late June, early July, she said she would drive Mark home several times a week. She said she would sleep on Mark’s couch.

She told police she was giving Mark a ride home because he was usually too drunk to drive home and she (correctly) believed he had received an OWI ticket and was not allowed to drive. Typically, after she drove Mark home, he would drink more alcoholic beverages.

“Mark used to make sexual advances to me. I had no interest in a sexual relationship with Mark. I repeatedly rejected him. When I said “no,” Mark became angry and verbally aggressive. Mark called me a “whore” and a “cunt.” Mark physically intimidated me by getting too close to me while verbally talking to me. Mark paced the apartment radically, humiliating me.“, the woman wrote in her statement.

One time, she claimed Mark locked her out of his house. She was too drunk to drive home because they drank more alcohol at his house. She said she had to knock on the door and beg him to come back into Mark’s house.

She estimates she slept on Mark’s couch about 10 to 12 times. On most occasions she slept on Mark’s couch, she says he made sexual advances to her and she told Mark she wasn’t interested or said “no.” On August 26, 2014, she went to a local bar. Mark was there, too. She drank about eight drinks at the bar in a matter of hours and said Mark probably had 14 drinks. She drove Mark home, although she said she shouldn’t have. They arrived at Mark’s house and drank more. She doesn’t know how much more they drank, but she says she was so drunk she was barely “mobile.” On August 27, 2014, at about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., she laid down on Mark’s couch to sleep. She says Mark insisted she sleep in his bed.

Mark said it was more comfortable. She went into Mark’s bedroom and laid down on Mark’s bed. Mark took off her clothes. Then she said Mark started aggressively penetrating her vagina with his fingers. When Mark did this, she said it caused her pain. She said she was too drunk to speak or say no. She said the whole incident lasted maybe five minutes. She just wanted it to stop.

After this happened, she said she got dressed and went back to the couch. She doesn’t think she slept. She just laid there until she sobered up enough to leave. She told police she left Mark’s house around 6:15 a.m.

“I never told Mark ‘no’ or told him to stop. I was too drunk to give Mark my consent. I saw Mark the whole time after this happened. I saw Mark at the bar. The people at the bar are like family to me and it was a place of comfort for me. I never went back to Mark’s house. I tried to keep my distance from Mark because I was afraid of him. I did not report this incident when it happened because I had had negative experiences with the police in the past. I remember the date this happened… In March 2021, I processed this event. I started texting Mark. I wanted Mark to be held accountable for what he did to me. I don’t feel like Mark was held accountable. About a month ago, I had breakfast with Mark to explain to him how his actions affected me. I saw no remorse or accountability when I told Mark how this affected me. Mark heard what I had to say, but there was no apology or elaboration, nor was there any accountability.”

According to the police report, the detective investigating the case spoke with the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office and the office declined to charge Wisniewski. Kenosha County District Attorney Graveley could not comment specifically on the case, but said that late reports of sexual assault are “generally” harder to prove because of the availability of witnesses, physical evidence, etc.

Here are the text messages the woman sent to police:

According to the law, Wisniewski is presumed innocent. KCE requested the release of Wisniewski’s personnel file, and Wisniewski hired an expensive law firm to prevent the release of the disciplinary records contained therein.

The 41-year-old English teacher at Tremper High School in Kenosha sued his employer, the Kenosha Unified School District, in Kenosha District Court. In the lawsuit, filed on April 1, 2024, Mark P. Wisniewski lists an address in Kenosha where he lives – but in reality, he lives in the Kenosha County Jail.

For people familiar with KUSD policy, it’s no surprise that all three of Wisniewski’s OWIs were obtained while he was employed by the Kenosha Unified School District. KUSD said in a statement to KCE, “This employee’s conviction is not materially related to his employment and therefore no disciplinary action will be taken.”

However, KCE requested Wisniewski’s disciplinary records on March 11, 2024. We wanted to find out if drunk driving and fleeing from police was his only secret vice. Under Wisconsin law, government employees like Wisniewski have the right to ask a judge to hide their disciplinary records from the public — but this is an extremely unique case. A leading public records attorney, Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, has never seen such a request granted.

After requesting a government employee’s disciplinary record under Wisconsin’s public records law, the government must send the employee a “Woznicki letter.” The term comes from a 1996 Supreme Court decision, Woznicki v. Erickson. The Supreme Court ruled that government employee personnel records are public records. The letter tells the employee that they have 10 days to notify the government that they intend to prohibit or prevent the release of the disciplinary records.

KCE has filed more than 100 disciplinary cases against police officers, teachers, firefighters, government bureaucrats and others. Only once has a Woznicki case been filed. That was by John Steinbrink Jr., the controversial former Pleasant Prairie construction manager. KCE won that case and KCE will win this case too.

Woznicki challenges apply to cases where the health or safety of the government employee is at risk, not to protect against the embarrassment of poor decisions and misconduct.

Wisniewski’s attorney is Christopher R. Vandeventer of Gimbel Reilly Guerin & Brown LLP. He has been practicing law for less than two years – perhaps the reason he agreed to take on what seemed a frivolous and hopeless case. According to Vandeventer, “Wisniewski’s reputational interests outweigh any public interest in inspecting or releasing the contents of the requested records because the requested records contain misleading and inaccurate information.”

While this case was pending, KCE received a police report from the Kenosha Police Department. Attorney Vandeventer filed a motion today asking outgoing Judge Frank Gagliardi to issue a temporary restraining order against KCE prohibiting us from releasing the contents of the police report. Neither Gagliardi nor any other judge has the authority to deprive anyone of their First Amendment rights. This police report is not the subject of the lawsuit, but rather the personnel file.