Sheriff rips department investigations

Shawano County Sheriff Randy Wright on Wednesday called for a halt to investigations of his department by a private attorney hired by the county’s Administrative Committee.

Wright said the attorney is investigating money that went missing from the jail in 2013 and an incident that took place at a Republican Party picnic between three detectives and Shawano police officer Adam Bieber, who is running against Wright in the Nov. 4 election.

“I think it’s a shame that a private attorney is being used in what I kind of term as a witch hunt only to discredit my office and staff during an election cycle and on taxpayers’ dollars,” Wright said.

Wright made his comments during a meeting of the Public Safety Committee, which oversees the Sheriff’s Department.

Supervisor Bert Huntington, committee chairman, said he only recently found out about the investigations.

“I was very surprised when I heard it,” he said. “It was like getting hit in the back of the head by a two-by-four. I knew nothing about it.”

Huntington said he should have been told of the investigations and that disciplinary actions should not be handled solely by the Administrative Committee.

“I think that that committee has a little more power than it should have,” he said.

However, Huntington backed away from Wright’s request to ask that the investigations be dismissed.

“I don’t think we have the right to step in,” he said, “because there’s an investigation in progress.”

Wright said the Administrative Committee’s actions did not follow procedures set down by statute for investigations of alleged improper activity in the Sheriff’s Department.

He said there needs to be a complainant who brings a complaint and signs it under oath.

False allegations can lead to a charge of perjury, Wright said.

“Do we even have a complainant with these investigations?” he said.

Wright also asked under what authority the investigations were approved and how much it’s costing the taxpayers. He said the attorney was granted permission to access the department’s electronic files.

“It troubles me that someone is going through files of this office, many of which are law enforcement-sensitive,” he said.

Wright said three of his detectives and Jail Administrator Steve Borroughs have been questioned.

“The stress and strain being placed on my employees and their families is uncalled for and it should be stopped,” Wright said.

Wright said the missing jail money had been thoroughly investigated, though the investigation did not turn up what happened to the money or who might have been responsible.

The other incident, he said, involved detectives who were off-duty at the Republican Party picnic.

“They have the right to do political things on their time off,” he said.

There have been conflicting accounts of what happened at the picnic, with some witnesses saying the detectives attempted to ask follow-up questions of Bieber after his campaign speech and others who say their questions crossed the line into harassment.

Supervisor Bonnie Olson, a member of the Administrative Committee who attended Wednesday’s Public Safety meeting on another agenda item, told Wright she could not address any of his questions given the closed session nature of those discussions.

Wright tried to pursue those questions, anyway, but was cut off by Huntington.

“I’m going to stop this right here because I don’t want to get involved in no legal stuff,” Huntington said. “I don’t want to jeopardize anything over this.”