The race for Dane County sheriff gets litigious with candidate's lawsuit against incumbent, other staff
The campaign for Dane County sheriff has taken a litigious turn.
Anthony Hamilton, a detective running to unseat incumbent Kalvin Barrett, sued his boss, two lieutenants and a sergeant, claiming they removed him from the tactical team for questioning whether the team's 2021 action at a Madison hotel was done legally.
The team responded to the Magnuson Grand Hotel in March last year after calls about an armed standoff between two suspected pimps. According to Hamilton's lawsuit, the team searched several rooms at the hotel without getting a warrant first. Initial information was that one of the men might have taken a hostage and might be in unrented rooms, meaning he'd have no expectation of privacy.
Hamilton said that during the searches, the team learned the manager had been renting a couple of rooms for cash and the suspect had been staying there. That's when Hamilton realized they should get a warrant, but by then, other team members had searched a room and found evidence of crime. The suspect was eventually charged and convicted.
Hamilton, 46, of Waunakee, has worked for the office since 2008. He is running as a Republican against Barrett, a Democrat who was appointed in April 2021 by Gov. Tony Evers to fill the remaining term of David Mahoney, who retired. Hamilton advanced out of the Aug. 9 primary to the general election.
Hamilton announced his run in May after he said months of stalling by Barrett on promises to have an outside agency review some practices revealed in the wake of the hotel incident, including supervisors changing detectives' reports without their knowledge.
About the timing of his suit, Hamilton said, "I've made the determination that I'll do everything to uncover corruption within my own agency and law enforcement in general."
A spokesman for Barrett's campaign, Sachin Chheda, said "we don’t believe the filing has any merit, and demonstrates the desperation of a flailing candidate who will throw any mud he can in order to try and gain some political traction.”
Hamilton's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Madison, says he recorded the incident with his helmet camera and later showed it to supervisors and said Sgt. Mark Schroeder "behaved inappropriately" during the search.
About two weeks later, Hamilton was suspended from the tactical team, in part for sharing the video on social media. Hamilton said it was a 30-second clip of what he calls Schroeder's mistake of entering a room alone and without his weapon drawn. He said he sent the clip to other supervisors on the encrypted messaging application Signal, and suggested Schroeder get more training.
The suit states Schroeder's report of the search falsely indicated Hamilton was supposed to have obtained a search warrant for the operation.
Later, Hamilton was suspended five days without pay. He contested that, and it was later reduced to two days and the discipline letter reworded.
In June, the suit claims, Hamilton was told Barrett was aware of issues surrounding the incident and reports about it and that an outside agency would do a complete investigation — something Hamilton says still hasn't been done.
The lawsuit says Barrett, Schroeder and two lieutenants "acted in concert to retaliate" against Hamilton over the video and concerns about the hotel incident. While other tactical team members' actions were reviewed, only Hamilton was suspended with pay.
The lawsuit seeks back pay and interest, reinstatement to the tactical team (which comes with bonus pay) and any compensatory and punitive damages "for past and future losses."
Hamilton is represented by Hawks Quindel, S.C. of Madison.
Dane County, the sheriff and other named defendants are represented by Mary Nelson, of Crivello Carlson law firm.
"There is no legal or factual basis for Mr. Hamilton's allegations or demands, nor for the unfounded conspiracy theories," Nelson said in a statement.
She noted that tactical team members serve at the sheriff's pleasure, and therefore membership is a privilege and not a right. Hamilton, the statement said, violated the requirement that team members maintain the highest standards of professionalism with his Signal message.
According to Nelson, Hamilton, in reference to Schroeder, wrote, "can someone please take him under your wing, like a retarded baby bird and regurgitate some tactical knowledge into him."
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Dane County sheriff candidate sues incumbent Kalvin Barrett
