MADISON, Wis. — The Republican candidate running to lead the Dane County Sheriff’s Office filed a federal lawsuit against the office on Tuesday, alleging he had been made part of an illegal search last year and then retaliated against by Sheriff Kalvin Barrett and other officials for attempting to expose the search internally.
In the lawsuit, detective Anthony Hamilton said he helped respond to a weapons violation call at the Magnuson Grand Hotel on March 25, 2021 as part of the DCSO’s tactical response team. In the response, Hamilton said the team searched several rooms of the hotel, during which time the lawsuit states Hamilton realized a warrant was probably needed.
Both during and in the aftermath of the search, the lawsuit alleges inappropriate behavior from a sergeant and lieutenant involved, and claims that false statements from them contributed to Hamilton’s removal from the tactical response team as well as an unpaid suspension later in 2021. The lawsuit also alleges that the agency has not completed an outside investigation into the incident as promised, and is seeking back pay and compensation for his removal from the TRT and reinstatement to the team.
“This is a very complex situation, and I’ve been fighting with [DCSO] in an ethical battle for the last year,” Hamilton told News 3 Now when asked about the timing of the lawsuit coming during a contentious political race between him and Sheriff Barrett. “They haven’t moved on this in over a year while telling me they were going to initiate an [outside] investigation.”
“Sheriff Barrett is aware of the new filing and is awaiting guidance from county attorneys,” Barret’s campaign spokesperson Sachin Chheda said in an email Tuesday evening. “For now, I can say that 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 did not provide supporting evidentiary documents cited in the lawsuit when asked, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.
Lawsuit claims illegal search, unpaid suspension
When the DCSO tactical response team responded to a call from the Magnuson Grand Hotel in Madison on March 25, the lawsuit said the team searched several rooms–during which time they did not, to Hamilton’s knowledge, have a warrant. The lawsuit also claims Sergeant Mark Schroeder behaved “inappropriately” during the search, but did not elaborate on what that behavior was.
It’s unclear what the search at the hotel was in relation to; the hotel made headlines two months earlier for a potentially-targeted shots fired call in their parking lot.
After the search, Hamilton talked to a lieutenant that night and then two other lieutenants the following day. He showed them his helmet body camera footage of the search, and told them he believed the search may have been illegal.
“[That lieutenant] agreed with Hamilton that the search had been conducted in good faith based on information from a source,” the lawsuit stated.
In an interview, Hamilton elaborated on why he felt the search was illegal. He claimed the tactical team had been told that hotel management had given deputies permission to search an empty room; however, the room was in fact being rented by people who had a right to privacy and a warrant before their room was searched. The head deputy on the scene knew that before the search, Hamilton claimed, but didn’t tell the SWAT team that when he asked them if he needed a warrant and Hamilton told him he didn’t.
One of the lieutenants asked Hamilton to write a report on the search, and a separate memo on the behavior he felt was inappropriate from the sergeant. Two weeks later on April 10, Lieutenant Ira Simpson suspended Hamilton from the tactical response team, the lawsuit stated. Two days later, Hamilton reviewed a report about the search from the sergeant he claimed behaved inappropriately; the lawsuit alleges “misstated facts” in that report: that Hamilton, in fact, was supposed to obtain a warrant for the search.
Later in April, DCSO asked Hamilton to appear at an administrative hearing for his “conduct” as well as for sharing his helmet video on “a social media platform”. That hearing resulted in a letter in July from one of the lieutenants he had talked to in the aftermath of the search, recommending that Hamilton be suspended without pay for five days. The letter, the lawsuit alleges, included false statements.
More than two months after that letter and six months after the search, the lawsuit states that Hamilton met with Sheriff Kalvin Barrett and chief deputy Chris Nygaard in September to discuss what he saw as an illegal search as well as what Hamilton felt were lies about him by the lieutenant recommending his suspension. After that meeting, the lawsuit said Nygaard met with Hamilton in October to tell him that decision to take him off the tactical response team came from Sheriff Barrett. At that time, the lawsuit says Hamilton asked for an outside investigation.
Ultimately, the lawsuit states that Hamilton was the only member to be removed from the tactical response team or receive an unpaid job suspension after the March 25 search, despite other members being investigated.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims no outside agency has completed an investigation into the incident, even after an additional meeting between DCSO leaders and Hamilton in June of this year discussed the search and said an outside agency would need to get involved.
In political campaign, Hamilton has made previous allegations about Sheriff Barrett
Last week, Hamilton accused Sheriff Kalvin Barret of being photographed with a child sex offender who was actively wanted by law enforcement at the time of the photo for sex registry violations.
The photo, posted on Facebook in June, shows John F. Brown, 56 with Sheriff Barrett at a backyard event. Brown was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child in 2009, and was wanted at the time of the photograph for failing to tell law enforcement about an address change.
Barrett declined to comment on the photograph in an interview with For the Record last Friday, but a campaign spokesperson said “it was clear” that Brown tried to get his photo taken with several county and state officials around the same time.
“It’s clear that this particular individual tries really hard to get his picture taken with politicians all the time,” Barrett’s campaign spokesperson Sachin Chheda said at the time.
Sheriff Barrett was appointed by Governor Tony Evers in early 2021 after longtime Dane County sheriff Dave Mahoney retired. Barrett is running as a Democrat to be elected for a full term this November.
This coverage will be updated.
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