MADISON, Wis. -- Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk on Monday defended the three-day suspension that her interim chief of the county's 911 call center gave the dispatcher who took the emergency call from slain student Brittany Zimmermann's cell phone last spring.

Former 911 dispatcher Rita Gahagan now has another county job, but was suspended last week.

Earlier this year, county officials said after an investigation that the call, apparently made sometime before Zimmermann was killed in her campus-area apartment, was mishandled. After Zimmermann's minute-long call disconnected, Gahagan didn't send police or call the number back.

Falk said the suspension was specifically for failure to return Zimmermann's call. Acting 911 center director Kathy Krusiec said that this was an oversight. She also said Gahagan didn't hear sounds that court warrants describe as screaming and a struggle.

"There was no technical difficulty. There was no distraction in the background. All that has been documented, but people do make errors," Falk said. "From what I understand from reviewing her statements is that she didn’t hear any sounds. That there were soft sounds that she did not hear."

Falk said the district attorney and Madison police have specifically forbidden county officials from talking about the content of the call, including information about its volume.

Gahagan now works in county child support, which is a transfer she requested. She'll get three days off without pay.

Controversy over the call Zimmermann apparently made on April 2 before she was killed has lingered for months. Police weren't sent to the scene until about 40 minutes after the call when Zimmermann's fiancé found her dead and called 911.

Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.