NEENAH, WI (WTAQ) – The complaint seeking to remove Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson from his job has been withdrawn.
It was just last month when Neenah’s Police Commission accepted the complaint filed by two Florida-based investigative consultants on behalf of several citizens including Michael Funk, Ryan Moderson, Michael Petersen and Eagle Nation Cycles owner Steven Erato.
“We had been expected to hire an attorney,” Erato said by phone on Tuesday. “We talked to 2 different law firms and both of those law firms advised us that we were wasting our time and money.”
Erato says the law firms, which were located in Milwaukee and the Fox Valley, expressed the same concerns about their ability to get a fair hearing. So he says they took the advice.
“For us to take a loan out to hire an attorney when two of them are telling us what’s going to happen would not make any sense,” said Erato.
Erato, however, vowed that this doesn’t mean their fight for justice for their slain friend Michael Funk is, “nowhere near done.”
CITY OFFICIALS “SHOCKED”
On Tuesday morning, Neenah Mayor Dean Kaufert says he went into work like it was any other day. He came across city attorney Jim Godlewski who informed him about the withdrawing of the complaint.
“They’ve wanted this hearing and then at the last minute, after making all these allegations, just say oh we were just kidding, I think is unfair to the city’s residents,” Kaufert said. “To put it mildly, I was shocked and a little disappointed.”
The issue of fairness which caused the Eagle Nation Cycles group concern were cited in their filing. This document specifically highlighted Kaufert and the city’s Police Commission.
“Mayor Kaufert and the Police Commission have a well-documented history of allowing the Chief and various police officers to get away with all sorts of misconduct including, but not limited to, murder,” the filing stated.
Then, in an attached affidavit, Erato, Kayellen Reetz and Daniel Dringoli individually signed a recounting of a meeting with Kaufert on May 10.
“During that same meeting Mayor Kaufert also stated, ‘We have been advised by Jim Godlewski (Neenah City Attorney), as well as the City’s Insurance Carrier’s Attorney’s to take no action against the officers due to pending litigation.’“
Kaufert believes these allegations cross the line.
“That’s a pretty strong accusation. The fact that I’ve only been here 2 years, and this is the first time that a hearing has come up with the Police Commission during my tenure really lends itself to the credibility to the people making these accusations,” said Kaufert. “I just take umbrage with that statement (about May 10 meeting) and not being truthful.”
EVE OF COMMISSION MEETING
The filing with the City Clerk’s office on Tuesday also comes just a day before the Police Commission is scheduled to meet to discuss the complaint.
Now, the commission will have a whole new reason to meet. President Jim Prosser was surprised at the move by the group seeking to oust Chief Wilkinson.
“I was somewhat, they’ve done a number of different filings,” Prosser says. “The one to withdraw on the eve of another meeting to discuss their complaint.”
Prosser did not indicate how the five-member commission would decide, but believed moving forward in spite of their motion would be problematic.
“With no one to pursue the complaint, I don’t know how we would continue the proceedings,” says Prosser. “We need two parties to proceed and I don’t know how we do that if the complainants want to withdraw the complaint at this time.”
As to the allegations made in Tuesday’s filing about commission members having, “very little knowledge about Police Commission procedures and how to perform your official duties,” Prosser said he had not reviewed it closely enough to respond, if he were to comment at all.
The Neenah Police Commission will meet at noon Wednesday at city hall inside the council chambers.
