7-29-14 fdl county sheriff’s race

A Fond du lac police detective accuses the Fond du Lac County sheriff of not being truthful when it comes to the issue of deputy cards for police detectives, the sheriff says the comments are apparently part of his opponent’s strategy  to run a smear campaign against him.   Sheriff Mick Fink says he made the decision not to issue deputy cards to three detectives including his opponent Bill Ledger, in part, because of Ledger’s behavior following the District Attorney’s race.  Ledger attacked the sheriff, the newly elected DA and a private citizen on his Facebook page following the election.   Ledger later chalked that up to a “heat of the political moment.”   But Fink says he doesn’t want someone who reacts like that representing the Sheriff’s Office with a deputy card and says he discussed that when he met with detective Pat Primising about the cards.  “What I did discuss in that meeting with Pat  is that I said I know there’s at least three detectives over there that have been very vocal and really said a lot of bad things about me, either on Facebook or whoever would listen to them.  I said I’m not going to deputize those guys because its not in the best reputational interest of the Fond du lac County Sheriff’s Office,”  Fink told WFDL news.   Primising, who is supporting Ledger in the race,  says the detectives need the cards in certain circumstances when they have to go outside the city to investigate a case or to interview a suspect where an arrest may occur and cited a potential example.  “During an investigation we find there is probable cause to place somebody under arrest,  or we come upon something that leads us to make an arrest or the person makes statements that we think could make him a harm to himself or others, the way it stands now we have to contact someone from the Sheriff’s Department,”   Primising said.    Fink says those officers don’t need the cards and can’t recall  the last time when a  deputized police officer made an arrest in the county.  Fink says they can still make an arrest in the county if there is a crime in progress or otherwise can have a sheriff’s deputy accompany them.  Primising accused the sheriff of lying when Fink said in a debate last week that Primising stated the detectives were demanding the cards.  “Obviously regarding this issue the sheriff is not being truthful and he is leaning on a statute that doesn’t even apply and he knows it,”  Primising said.  Fink says Primising apparently has a different  takeaway from that meeting than he does.  ” He (Primising) took something different away from the meeting and constructed his conversation with you to make me look bad, and that’s okay, thats politics,”  Fink said.  “Where I get angry is when I’m not so sure Bill Ledger’s campaign is not more about smearing the sheriff’s office and the good deputy sheriffs and now even the deputy sheriff’s wives, than it is about some good substantive issues about things that are going on in the county,”  Fink said.   Ledger is running against Fink In the August 12^th primary.