News Response Patriot Circle Discussions

Chippewa County Board -vs- Sheriff Hakes

October 10, 2023 salty

It is very difficult to get a straight answer in today’s weaponized media. With billionaires throwing money by the truck load into every local position they can it makes the waters even muddier. This post is to help give us some stepping stones as we walk through

Sept 21, 2023 The Chronotype news article starts us off with the Chippewa County’s press release. It was released the 19th but printed the 21st.

“CHIPPEWA FALLS — The Chippewa County Board announced late Tuesday it plans to discipline Sheriff Travis Hakes, and may move to have him removed from office.”

The article starts off with the County Board telling the community that Sheriff Hakes did something bad enough that he has to be removed from office. But what is it?

The County Administrator says he’s disappointed with Shariff Hakes’ alleged behavior. When you are disappointed in someone’s alleged behavior isn’t that belief of guilt and no longer alleged? We still don’t know what the charges are.

“After meeting in closed session for more than four hours, County Administrator Randy Scholz released a statement on behalf of him and the board “expressing the county board’s extreme disapproval of his alleged behavior.”

“Furthermore, this matter is going to be referred to the Chippewa County District Attorney’s Office. Finally, this matter will be addressed by the Board on the Oct. 17, 2023, meeting for discussion and action involving authorizing charges and charging parties to pursue statutory removal of the sheriff via Chapter 17, Wis. Stats. removal process before the governor.”

Here is some helpful information. They want to remove the sheriff according to the Chapter 17 rules. If you don’t know what that is, its alright I didn’t either until I looked them up. By the way, we still don’t have any charges and the news media has almost a month to trash Sheriff Hakes name. Luckily for Sheriff Hakes the meeting was changed to the 10th.

Late Tuesday night, September 19, 2023, like many of the residents and constituents of Chippewa County I was shocked and dismayed to learn from media reports that it appears that the power structure of Chippewa County in the form of at least some commissioners and administration, are apparently unhappy with the fact that I have a constitutional duty to independently act in the best interests of Chippewa County residents, rather than to cater to their whims and caprices, have voted to initiate action against me as the duly elected county sheriff.

This cabal of those that wish to thwart the decision of Chippewa County voters in electing who they want as sheriff, as reported in the media, have sunk so low as they will be considering to take action in an attempt to remove me from office. I intent to resist that effort with every ounce of my being and I assure the voters I will not let these few autocrats deny you the right to select your chief county law enforcement officer.

The action of the county board, apparently in conjunction with county administration, was with taken without even the pretense of due process or fundamental fairness to me or the Office of Sheriff. It was taken in a Star Chamber setting in which not only the public, but I was excluded from participation in any meeting and denied even the chance to be informed about what allegations the Board considered or to present my side of whatever false narrative they acted upon. To my knowledge no formal complaint has ever been filed against me, nor presented to me and the Board took this action without even inviting or asking me to appear before it. In America we believe in due process and that includes the right to be advised of charges against us and the right to confront and examine the evidence used against us. That is apparently an American value that this Board does not share, and for that fact the voters of this county should be especially disappointed.
Sheriff Hakes Facebook

Sheriff Hakes saw that the County and old media were assuming his guilt, so he went to the social media court to plead his case.

This is the first clue the public gets to the charges. I’ve found out later that this is a part of the issue, but there is more. There is a misconduct complaint from an employee and other office issues. However these didn’t come out until later

Do you remember the Chapter 17 rules mentioned above? 17.16(3) is below and my opinion in the list below that. I’m not a lawyer, just someone trying to use common sense with what was written. This is a discussion starter, feel free to disagree.

(3) Removals from office for cause under this chapter, except as provided in s. 17.14, shall be made as provided in this section, and may be made only upon written verified charges brought by a resident taxpayer of the governmental unit of which the person against whom the charges are filed is an officer, and after a speedy public hearing at which the officer shall have full opportunity to be heard to present a defense against the charges, personally and by counsel. A copy of the charges and written notice of the time and place for the hearing shall be given the officer by the removing power by delivery to the officer in person or by mailing the same to the officer at the officer’s last and usual post-office address not less than 10 days prior to the hearing. The officer may within 10 days from service of the charges file with the removing power a verified answer thereto. The hearing shall be conducted and investigation made by the removing power with due dispatch, but in case of charges brought before the governor, the governor may appoint a commissioner to conduct the hearing, make the investigation and report the testimony and proceedings to the governor, and the council of any city having a membership of more than 20, in case of charges brought before it, may appoint a committee of not less than 5 of its members, to conduct the hearing, make investigation and report the testimony and proceedings to it. The commissioner or committee shall have the same power and authority as the governor or the council, as the case may be, in the conduct of the hearing on and investigation of the charges.

The Sheriff can only be tried on written formal charges from a tax payer of Chippewa County. I don’t think the County Board has standing, their complaints can not be heard.
The officer has the right to have the amount of time to fully present his case, also the lawyer needs time as well. The 10 minute limit looks illegal.
The County must deliver in writing the charges to the Sheriff within 10 days of the hearing. To my knowledge, according to Hakes, that hasn’t happened yet. They released a 80 page document to the press, which I have a link below.
The Sheriff has the right to release his rebuttal. I have that document below as well.
This one is harder I read it as: since our county has more than 20 members on the board, it can conduct the hearing. However, they have to do all the work themselves, even the investigation. So when they hired the investigator, they did not have the authority to appropriate the funds in that way? If you can hire out one part, can they hire out all parts? I don’t know, interesting discussion. The investigator was hired out of Milwaukee is what was reported to me.

Since this was thrown in the court of the press, you have become the jury and judge of both parties. Both parties are your employees and you need to find the truth in the mater. I don’t know this investigator, but in general the prosecutor wants to find guilt and not the truth, they get paid better that way. The defendant wants to be cleared more than to find truth. Finding the truth is listening to both and using God’s wisdom and discernment to wade through the swamp to find solid rock. Here is the information from both sides, have fun.