Some families say department leadership is at least partly to blame, accusing it of ignoring struggling deputies. The department says it had mental health programs in place and has since increased them.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

Detective Pete Korns – August 2016.

Deputy Chris Ireland – January 2017.

Lt. Chris Button – July 2018.

Deputy Garrett Grulke – August 2022.

At least four former deputies from the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office took their lives in a period of just six years, an investigation by The Badger Project found.

All of them struggled with trauma, from their jobs, personal lives or both, resulting in mental health issues, people close to them have said.

Some family members and other former deputies blame the sheriff’s department leadership for forcing out the deputies when they were struggling rather than helping them get treatment.

The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office said the four officers resigned voluntarily. And it said the department had mental health services in place for its employees when those officers were employed, and has since enhanced those services.

But the numbers are startling, family members and former deputies say.

Amanda Rae Button, widow of Lt. Chris Button, is a volunteer with First H.E.L.P.  (Honor, Educate, Lead, Prevent), an organization that aims to reduce mental health stigma and suicides among police, firefighters and Emergency Medical Services employees. She said she frequently meets with families of other first responders from across the country who also took their lives.

“We’re the only department that has multiple suicides,” she said. “That to me speaks a lot more than anything else,” she said.

The stress of the job

Lt. Button was particularly disturbed by a teenager’s suicide, Amanda Rae Button said. Another deceased deputy, Garrett Grulke, was severely shaken after responding to the crash site of a small plane, which was broken into pieces after striking a tree, leaving passengers’ bodies extremely damaged, his mother Sandi Grulke said. Chris Ireland, also a beloved youth football coach, lost his teenage son. Pete Korns battled an opioid addiction after injuries and failed surgeries.

Apart from conventional struggles in their personal lives, law enforcement officers on the job “routinely confront arduous and psychologically taxing circumstances that can adversely affect their mental and emotional health,” according to a 2024 study on law enforcement suicides by the CNA Corporation, a research nonprofit dedicated to safety, and First H.E.L.P.

Another study, published by the National Institutes of Health, found that law enforcement officers face a 54 percent higher risk of dying by suicide compared to the general population.

And officers are much more likely to kill themselves than be killed by someone in the line of duty, said Meghan Stroshine, an associate professor of criminology at Marquette University.

First H.E.L.P., which tracks and analyzes suicides among law enforcement, reported in the 2024 study that 1,287 deaths by suicide occurred among public safety personnel from 2016 to 2022. The study cited cognitive dissonance toward society, feelings of isolation and diminished self-worth as potential contributing factors.

The distinct, intense pressure of first responders’ work is a compelling reason for their employers to provide robust mental health support, experts say.

Family members of two of the deceased officers say the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office fell short of that expectation when their loved ones battled job-related trauma.

“They’re not proactive. They’re not even reactive,” Amanda Rae Button said of the sheriff’s department leadership, which had promoted her husband to lieutenant. “They knew that Chris’s work was suffering.”

Sandi Grulke said her son rose to become a sniper in the sheriff’s office’s equivalent of a SWAT Team, but he struggled with mental and physical health issues.

“It was this vicious cycle of all these hours,” Sandi Grulke said. “I think they knew he was going to break, but nobody did anything.”

Family members of Korns and Ireland declined to be interviewed for this story, though Danielle Ireland, sister of Chris Ireland, said she did not blame the sheriff’s office for her brother’s death. None of the families of the four deceased officers filed litigation against the sheriff’s department. Amanda Rae Button said she considered it, but missed the deadline.

Leadership says help was available

The suicides are tragedies, said Inspector James Gumm, the second-ranking officer at the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office.

“I feel terrible for them both on a personal level and on a professional level,” he continued. “My heart goes out to them, their loved ones, everyone that cared about them.”

The sheriff’s office had in place several support services during the deceased employees’ tenure, Gumm said. Those included consultations with a chaplain, and programs in mental and physical wellness, peer support and employee assistance mental health therapy.

Also available was up to six months of post-employment mental health therapy, Gumm noted.

And “each one of those people resigned voluntarily from their positions in the department,” he said.

Button and Grulke say their loved ones, previously valued employees who had been promoted, were then seen as a burden on the department when they struggled with mental health and were pushed out.

Waukesha County Board Member Chris Mommaerts, a Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputy for more than 20 years before retiring in 2018, is a frequent critic of the sheriff’s office leadership.

Forcing out struggling employees is particularly bad, she said, because the officers lose their income at a vulnerable time.

Accusations of favoritism

Leadership is the problem in the department, Mommaerts and other former deputies argue.

“I support my guys on the ground,” she said of the rank-and-file deputies. “The guys are actually doing the work. It’s all the front office that’s causing the dissension and toxicity.”

Button and Grulke say their loved ones’ well-being was minimized as a consequence of a larger schism between leadership and employees working in the community.

“There’s a huge lack of respect between who wears brass and who doesn’t,” said Button, referring to department leadership.

Added Grulke: “The upper echelon are not thinking about the guys below them. They’re not concerned about their people that work out in the community. They’re more concerned about money and their pay raises. They’re all getting ready to retire and pad their own pensions.”

Gumm “wholeheartedly” disagreed with that assessment.

“We run an agency that is neutral across the board,” he said. “We do not show favoritism in any aspect. The benefits we offer are offered to all employees irrespective of their rank or reputation in the department.”

Mommaerts and other former deputies say the sheriff’s office has had trouble with turnover and maintaining its workforce, roughly 170 sworn law enforcement officers, 150 jail officers and some other civilian support staff.

State records indicate that the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department employs one of the largest numbers of officers with negative separations – those who were fired or forced out from previous law enforcement jobs for poor performance or misconduct  – of all agencies in Wisconsin.

Enhanced services, new leadership

The suicides have left a trail of devastation. 

Korns worked for the sheriff’s office for 25 years, according to news reports, but struggled with substance abuse and got in trouble with the law. Grulke was managing his trauma with alcohol, his mother said, and showed up to a training with vodka on his breath, leading to his resignation. Chris Button grappled with memory loss, a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, that affected his work, and he took his life two months after his daughter was born, Amanda Rae Button said. The other deceased former officers also have children.

In recent years, Gumm said the sheriff’s department has significantly strengthened mental health support available to employees. All now are required to receive an annual mental health exam known as a “neck up check up.” And since 2023, the sheriff’s office has funded a confidential mental health counseling program available to employees who request it. The counseling is free to employees and provided without having to navigate insurance and other bureaucratic hurdles, Gumm said.

But some critics say the sheriff’s office needs completely new leadership.

“Something needs to change,” Mommaerts said. “Morale and retention are at an all-time low.”

In 2022, the Waukesha Deputy Sheriff’s Labor Union announced it was holding a no-confidence vote for Sheriff Eric Severson, citing complaints that the deputies were stretched too thin and worried about a lack of backup in some parts of the county, according to documents The Badger Project obtained. The sheriff went on to win reelection that year.

In January, Severson announced his retirement, meaning a new sheriff will be elected in November. Severson has endorsed one of his captains, Nick Ollinger. Danny Day, a retired FBI agent, and John Gscheidmeier, a Waukesha County supervisor and former police officer, have also announced their campaigns for sheriff.

The Badger Project is an independent, reader-supported news nonprofit in Wisconsin.