Madison Radio: WI Settles With WXXM Host

Dominic Salvia being arrested

Wisconsin taxpayers are paying a radio host and his attorney $75,000 for his arrest three years ago at the state Capitol, under a settlement Attorney General Brad Schimel and Gov. Scott Walker's administration have signed off on.

The lawyer who won the case promised to file another lawsuit representing about 100 protesters arrested in 2013 during a crackdown by the Capitol Police of a singing protest that has been going on in and around the Statehouse for more than five years. If successful, that would add to the more than $180,000 the state has already agreed to pay protesters.

Under the agreement, the state Department of Administration will pay Philip Dominic Salvia $75,000 for damages and attorney's fees for violating his free speech rights. Salvia is one of the hosts of the "Devil's Advocates," a radio show on iHeartMedia's WXXM The Mic 92.1 FM.

Salvia will get to keep $27,500 and the remaining $47,500 will go to his attorney, Jeff Scott Olson, according to Salvia's co-host, Mike Crute.

According to his lawsuit, Salvia was taking pictures of the protest in July 2013 when he was arrested and ticketed. He sued in March 2014, arguing his First Amendment rights had been violated, particularly because he was observing a protest, rather than participating in it.

Although a handful of the singing protesters were disruptive and rightfully arrested, the Walker administration "swept too broadly" in ticketing many of the protesters, according to Donald Downs, a professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.