Court records released on public Web site

MILWAUKEE, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Milwaukee County, Wis., officials have acknowledged that they mistakenly released numerous confidential court records for a citizens group's Web site.

The records include payments for tests and other costs linked to mental competency, paternity and guardianship cases and appeared on the Citizens for Responsible Government Network Web site, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday.

There were numerous entries for psychiatric examinations and guardianship fees in which the clients' names were still listed, sometimes along with the court case number. Most of those listings were for 2006.

Clerk of Circuit Court John Barrett said he was thunderstruck when he found out about the release.

"I was dumbfounded by the breadth of information they gave out that was confidential," he said. "This is just not right."

The exact number of cases in which confidential information was released was unclear.