A sheriff must be honest enough to admit his mistakes and strong enough to correct them. Tim Wilz is neither.

Our circuit court found that Sheriff Wilz’s office made a mistake by altering a police report connected to an illegal search.

The judge said “[t]here could be lots of dirty hands here,” and believed that the sheriff on down could be responsible. He ordered the Sheriff’s office to produce all relevant information.

If the Sheriff’s Office did nothing wrong, one would think that Sheriff Wilz would simply comply with the court order. He did not. Instead, expensive, out-of-town lawyers sued the judge in the Court of Appeals, raising three claims, including a request to delay the underlying criminal case, where honest citizens of Waupaca County had been victimized and awaited justice.

Sheriff Wilz described the Court of Appeal’s decision as “vindicating,” which begs the question: is he dishonest or does he just not get it? The Court of Appeals rejected all arguments advanced by the sheriff. And the circuit court made no meaningful clarifications or changes to its factual findings in the criminal case: that the sheriff’s office had violated its own written policy by obscuring the truth.

This much is clear: Sheriff Wilz’s policies are creating a public safety risk in Waupaca County. Pending cases are on hold, delayed further by the sheriff’s refusal to allow his officers to swear to the accuracy of their reports. On one occasion, the District Attorney’s Office dismissed more than 80 cases over concerns about false swearing. On a separate occasion, Sheriff Wilz was subpoenaed to testify regarding the accuracy of police reports.

One would expect that any competent and forthright sheriff would eagerly appear and testify in defense of his officers. Not Sheriff Wilz, who, rather than appear in court to defend his officers, had his lawyers try to get him out of testifying. They failed. When Sheriff Wilz finally testified, 13 additional criminal cases were dismissed.

This has to stop.

Sheriff Wilz lacks the courage and the integrity to run the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office. He
does not deserve your vote on Aug. 9.

David Leder
Scandinavia