MADISON, Wis. — A federal lawsuit filed by the Republican candidate for sheriff against the Dane County Sheriff’s Office has no legal or factual basis, an attorney representing the county said in a press release Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Anthony Hamilton filed a federal lawsuit saying the DCSO made him part of an illegal search last spring, retaliated against him when he tried to raise internal alarms, changed records about the case after the fact, and failed to pursue a third-party investigation of the incident.
Hamilton, who is a detective with the department and has worked there since 2008, was on the tactical response team in 2021 when he believes a call he was responding to veered into an illegal search by the team. He was later removed from the TRT, and months later served a 2-day unpaid suspension for his conduct, including sharing helmet video of the search on Signal with other deputies.
In a statement, the county elaborated on the reasons for his discipline last year but did not directly address other allegations in the lawsuit related to whether the search was illegal, while saying Hamilton’s demands in the lawsuit had “no legal or factual basis.”
“Mr. Hamilton made an unauthorized video recording with a non-department issued helmet camera,” the statement from attorney Mary Nelson said. “Without permission, he disseminated portions of the video (a 31-second clip) on the Signal messaging platform to other Sheriff’s employees.”
The statement cited the policy requirements that deputies on the tactical response team maintain the “highest standards” of on and off-duty professionalism.
“On that same messaging platform, Mr. Hamilton, referring to another member of the Sheriff’s Department who he named, stated, ‘can someone please take him under your wing, like a r******* baby bird and regurgitate some tactical knowledge into him,’” the county’s statement read.*
The county’s attorney added that further responses from Dane County will be presented in future pleadings.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Justice confirmed to News 3 Now that they have not received any requests from the DCSO to conduct an outside investigation of the March 25 incident. Hamilton had said DCSO officials told him they would need a third-party investigation, which are typically conducted by the DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
*News 3 Now has added asterisks to the slur that were not present in the original release.
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