There is a contest for Dodge County Sheriff in next week’s Republican primary election. Waupun resident Mark Colker is challenging Sheriff Dale Schmidt for the office. Schmidt says his opponent should not be in law enforcement. Schmidt says Colker was fired 20 years ago from the Waupun Police Department after using excessive force on a juvenile, banging the juvenile’s head against a wall while he was being taken to a bathroom during an in custody interview. “This person cannot be sheriff. This person should not even be in a law enforcement role at all,” Schmidt said. “This is the type of bad apple that we’ve talked about over the last several years after everything that has happened across our country.” Colker says he never used excessive force on the juvenile, and says that’s not why he was terminated. “They called me into the room and said to me we’re going to let you go in your probationary period. I said I don’t believe I’m still on probation, and they said yes you are,” Colker said. “I contacted the union and they said they didn’t afford you the due process and therefore we filed a grievance with the city of Waupun.” Schmidt says Colker lied during the investigation, and lied about his employment history a couple years ago when he applied for a position as a Dodge County Sheriff’s deputy. “It was found that he lied in the investigation. One of the other officers indicated my opponent actually came to him and told him we have to make sure we keep this story the same,” Schmidt said. Colker says when the juvenile suspect took a lie detector test he showed deception in the things Colker was accused of doing, but no deception in the things another officer did. “I didn’t use excessive force on the juvenile. I laid it out exactly what I did, I was interviewed twice, I didn’t waiver. This other officer that was involved in this situation told three different stories,” Colker said. “In my opinion he was covering up for the things he did and painted it all on to me.”
