One is now working for a sheriff’s department. The other two are out of law enforcement, according to the state DOJ.
By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT
Three of the four Milwaukee-area police officers revealed by The Badger Project to have joined the anti-government group the Oath Keepers resigned from their law enforcement positions soon after the stories were published.
Two have left law enforcement. The third took a job with a different law enforcement agency. A fourth remains employed with his department.
The resignations came in December, February and later this spring, after an investigation by The Badger Project using leaked or hacked data from the Oath Keepers website found two police officers from the department in Bayside, just north of Milwaukee, one officer for the Milwaukee Police Department and the chief of the Town of Dover Water Patrol, about 30 miles southwest of the city, had signed up for the right-wing group in the past.
After the first story ran on November 1, Bayside police officer Ryan Bowe resigned about a month later. Cory Fuller, a lieutenant for Bayside, resigned about three months later.
Both officers had been working for the department for more than a decade. The Bayside Police Department hired Bowe in 2006 and Fuller in 2012, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Fuller was promoted to lieutenant in 2018 and was the commander of the day shift, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
Bayside Police Chief Tom Liebenthal did not respond to requests for comment before the first story revealing his officers had signed up for the Oath Keepers. But the chief did speak to the Wisconsin Law Journal in a follow-up story posted Nov. 3.
“There is no indication of a need to be concerned about anything impacting work performance for these officers,” Liebenthal told the Wisconsin Law Journal. “Quite the opposite actually. We looked into it and there was no need to conduct a formal investigation.”
Liebenthal said that his officers’ membership in the group was brief.
Fuller is now working as a deputy for the Door County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Bowe is out of law enforcement.
Neither officer responded to a message, delivered through Liebenthal, seeking comment.
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER AND NEVER MISS A STORY
A third officer, Joshua Martinson, chief of the Town of Dover Water Patrol when The Badger Project revealed in November that he had joined the Oath Keepers, also left that law enforcement position in the spring.
Martinson had been the water patrol chief in Dover, a part-time position, since 2015. He signed up for the Oath Keepers in 2017.
Camille Gerou, the Town of Dover clerk and treasurer, said she believed Martinson resigned because of the responsibilities of his full-time job, which is not in Wisconsin law enforcement.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with the Oath Keepers,” said Sam Stratton, chairman of the Dover Town Board, in an email.
Before the first story ran, Martinson wrote in an email to The Badger Project that the Oath Keepers had been described to him as “a group for veterans of military branches and law enforcement officers because we took oaths.”
“It wasn’t til I found out more about the group and what they stood for and what they were about that I cut ties with them a couple months after signing up,” Martinson wrote. “I never attended an event or displayed any of their materials ever.”
“Haven’t really thought about them since I found out (what) they were really about,” he added.
David Larscheidt, an officer for the Milwaukee Police Department, remains employed there, the department’s public information officer said.
The Milwaukee Police Association did not respond to requests for comment before The Badger Project published its story, but the union’s President Andrew Wagner told the Wisconsin Law Journal that when Larscheidt joined the Oath Keepers in 2010, he received a couple of police supportive stickers in the mail, put them in a drawer, and since then has had nothing to do with the group.
The Badger Project stories on the officers’ membership were posted about a year after Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of Oath Keepers, and Kelly Meggs, leader of its Florida chapter, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other crimes related to the attack.
A trio of other defendants — Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins — all leaders and associates of the Oath Keepers, also were found guilty of related charges in November 2022.
More than 38,000 people across the United States are listed on the Oath Keepers membership roll, which The Badger Project obtained from the organization Distributed Denial of Secrets or DDoSecrets. It calls itself “a publisher and archive for data leaked in the public interest.”
DDoSecrets received the list from an anonymous source, presumably through a hack of Oath Keepers’ records, Editor-in-Chief Lorax Horne said.
A 2022 investigation by the Anti-Defamation League found at least 600 names on the list were elected officials, law enforcement officers, military members and first responders, including six elected officials in Wisconsin.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.
FREE TO READ. EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE.
Creating our in-depth journalism takes a lot of time and money.
A story like this requires at least 8 hours to research, write and edit.
Please consider supporting The Badger Project to help us do more nonpartisan journalism in the future.
Until the end of the year, all donations* will be MATCHED by NewsMatch.
*Up to $1,000 per person
Categories: Investigations, Law enforcement
