Lt. Brian Burkhardt put his minivan into a ditch in January and was arrested for operating while intoxicated. His court case is ongoing.
By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT
A detective lieutenant with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department drove his minivan into a ditch in January and was arrested for drunk driving.
Brian Burkhardt, 40, has pleaded not guilty. His next court date is scheduled for August.
He is still working for the sheriff’s department, Chief Deputy Sheriff Tyler Iverson said in an email to The Badger Project.
“The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has no comment concerning the pending civil legal matters of Lt. Brian Burkhardt,” he wrote.
Unlike nearly every state, a first-offense drunk driving charge is not a criminal offense in Wisconsin.
On Jan. 12 at about 11:30 p.m., according to the citation, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Samantha Bartch requested assistance from the police department in Merrill, where the lieutenant’s Dodge Caravan sat in the ditch.
Burkhardt told Merrill Police Officer Zachary Iribarren that he had been drinking at the VFW in Merrill and that he tried to pull his minivan out with another vehicle, according to the citation. He then refused to answer further questions or perform any field sobriety tests. The responding officer wrote that Burkhardt was slurring his words, and arrested him for first offense operating while intoxicated.
As the case involves a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy, the district attorney from Portage County, Cass Cousins, is prosecuting it.
Burkhardt’s position of detective lieutenant is one of the top spots in the sheriff’s department.
He was first hired by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department in 2019 and promoted to detective lieutenant in 2023, according to records The Badger Project received from the county. Burkhardt is making an hourly wage of $40.47.
He is an Army veteran who did two deployments in Iraq, spending time in both Ramadi and Baghdad, according to a Facebook post by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department announcing his hiring.
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