LawOfficer.com Editor s Note:What they were thinking? Two sheriff's department employees in Wisconsin burned a dummy wearing a department uniform and posted the video on Facebook. Not surprisingly, the sheriff was not impressed. The end result: One resignation; one demotion. In this day and age of Internet awareness and distribution, you have to use common sense something that was clearly absent in this case.
Dale Stockton, Editor in Chief
CHILTON, Wis. – One eastern Wisconsin sheriff's deputy has resigned and another has been demoted after a video on Facebook showed them and others burning a dummy in a department uniform.
The video taken last month shows the deputies burning a uniformed effigy propped against a small cross. A woman at one point says the burning cross has a "KKK aspect to it."
Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel said Tuesday that Deputy Jennifer Bass resigned and Wendy Schmitz has been demoted to dispatcher. Bass had been a jailer and Schmitz had been an investigative sergeant.
The sheriff says both women called the burning a "stress reliever." Notes bearing names of the sheriff and other officers were affixed to the dummy.
Bass' phone number isn't listed. A telephone message left for Schmitz wasn't returned.