Bus Driver Sues WTMJ Reporter For Ambushing Her About Prostitution Past

By Andrew Gauthier 

A Milwaukee school bus driver is suing WTMJ reporter Robert Koebel, as well as the station’s owner, Journal Communications, over an investigative report Koebel did in which he publicly confronted the driver about her prostitution past.

Earlier this year, Koebel did background checks on a bunch of Milwaukee school bus drivers and found that one, Melissa Dumas, was busted by an undercover police office several years ago and convicted on a misdemeanor prostitution charge. Koebel also found that Dumas was arrested over a decade ago on marijuana possession.

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The veteran reporter, who joined WTMJ last year, then confronted Dumas in a parking lot about her past (video after the jump).

In her legal complaint, filed in Milwaukee County Court and reviewed by Courthouse News, Dumas claims that she was a “victim of ‘ambush journalism.'”

“Reasonable investigative journalism does not include ambushing an unofficial individual not guilty of any wrongdoing,” Dumas’s complaint states, adding that the job application for the bus driver position “specifically requested in writing to only reveal past felony convictions and exclude misdemeanors.”

Dumas’s attorney told Courthouse News that his client has been diagnosed “with post-traumatic stress disorder and that she fears going out in public because she is afraid of being recognized.”

Here’ video of Koebel’s report, which ran in April…

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