Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
The investigation that led to a search warrant executed at a county supervisor’s home last week apparently did not follow a longstanding policy of the Shawano-Menominee County district attorney’s office.
The search also seems to have disregarded a protocol of informing other law enforcement jurisdictions about the action beforehand.
Shawano County sheriff’s detectives executed a search warrant at the home of District 1 Supervisor Deb Noffke in Shawano on April 15. The search for any controlled substances or drug-related activity turned up nothing.
The request for a warrant was reviewed by an assistant district attorney in the Langlade County District Attorney’s Office, who gave it a “verbal OK,” according to Sheriff Randy Wright.
The warrant was signed by Langlade County Judge Fred Kawalski.
The request was not brought to the district attorney’s office here, and no one from the Shawano-Menominee office reviewed the document.
“We went to Langlade because we knew we were dealing with a County Board member and we wanted to have it to be as impartial as can be, so we didn’t involve our D.A. here in Shawano County and we also didn’t involve the city Police Department,” Wright said.
A woman who answered the phone at the Langlade County district attorney’s office on Friday afternoon said there was no one available to take questions on the matter and she had been “instructed not to discuss it.”
The warrant request shows that sheriff’s detectives acted on anonymous information they received in February claiming that Noffke and her daughter were growing and smoking marijuana at the Shawano residence and at Noffke’s business, Radio Shack, at 221 E. Green Bay St. in Shawano.
Detectives collected garbage from the Noffke residence April 9 and performed a field test that allegedly turned up marijuana residue.
The detective’s report states the garbage pick was done on April 4, but that would appear to be in error. The field test results state April 9, which would have been a garbage collection day.
Also, the complaint number for the report would have had to have been generated on April 9, based on a review of other complaint numbers from that date.
The results of the field test were used as probable cause for a search in the warrant request.
However, the Shawano-Menominee County district attorney’s office has a policy requiring at least three garbage picks and three positive test results for controlled substances before moving ahead with a search warrant.
The district attorney’s office would not comment on the Noffke search warrant or the investigation, but sources there did confirm that the policy has been in place for many years and was in place when former District Attorney Gary Bruno was in office. Bruno left in 2007.
Shawano Police Capt. Jeff Heffernon also confirmed that three garbage picks and positive results were also required by the district attorney’s office for Shawano police.
Wright, however, said that was “not necessarily” the policy.
“It depends on the circumstances,” he said. “I think it’s just something that would be an additional verifier.”
The circumstances in this case, he said, included garbage not being put curbside on a regular basis and the approaching growing season when it was likely that marijuana plants were being transplanted and moved elsewhere.
Wright said the decision to seek a search warrant after only one garbage pick was a joint decision made in discussions with the detective on the case.
Not notifying Shawano police would seem to violate a jurisdictional protocol.
Heffernon, without commenting on the Noffke incident, said local law enforcement is supposed to be notified.
“They inform us. That’s the protocol,” he said.
Wright said any calls to local police would have gone through dispatch, which was aware of the search warrant being executed.
Wright said the main consideration was keeping the operation impartial, which was why, he said, Shawano County authorities were assisted by Stockbridge-Munsee police and Langlade County deputies.
“We wanted an impartial agency to help us out,” he said.