“Eventually she made a complaint that I was involved with students” – Waukesha County Sheriff’s candidate John Gscheidmeier of a female Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputy.
Editor’s note: There’s something important to emphasize: Waukesha County Sheriff’s candidate John Gscheidmeier brought these allegations up, on audio. Gscheidmeier, a former Glendale police officer, made accusations about a female deputy at the agency he wants to run, first to her superior and then when asked about that on the radio. Now she’s speaking out to defend herself, saying Gscheidmeier’s accusations are categorically false and that she’s afraid of retaliation.Â
A female Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputy is speaking out to Wisconsin Right Now about Sheriff candidate John Gscheidmeier’s claims – which he has made at least three times in about 14 years – that she made a complaint at Milwaukee Area Technical College about Gscheidmeier allegedly being “involved with students” when he was an MATC instructor in the law enforcement program. The deputy, who was also Gscheidmeier’s student at the time, alleges that he has engaged in at least three possible retaliatory attempts against her over a complaint that she never made, but that he continues to think she did.
The deputy says she has twice – at MATC and now – been left fearful about the effects on her career. It’s a big deal for law enforcement officers to be accused of being untruthful, potentially career-ending. Now the claims are coming from the man who wants to be sheriff in the agency where she works. She also denies Gscheidmeier’s accusation that she had a “massive crush” on him when he was her teacher.
However, the deputy says she also heard at the time (about 2012) that a complaint WAS MADE at MATC against Gscheidmeier by someone else accusing him of involvement with a student – and the latter student is now allegedly his current wife. “I understood at the time that the student Mr. Gscheidmeier was alleged to have been involved with later became his wife. I had no involvement in making or pursuing any complaint regarding that alleged relationship,” the deputy said.
WRN asked Gscheidmeier whether he dated his current wife while he was her teacher, about age 43, but he didn’t answer that question specifically. She was an adult at the time, about 19. All people involved were adults at the time.
“I did not file a complaint against Mr. Gscheidmeier while attending MATC,” the deputy wrote. “I also categorically deny his characterization that I had a ‘massive crush’ on him. There was a complaint made by another student from a different area of our program.” When he denied the accusations to a Sheriff’s investigator and on the radio, Gscheidmeier did not reveal the alleged angle about his wife, Samantha Hinkel Gscheidmeier. [You can read the deputy’s full letter to WRN at the end of this story.]
“I cannot know his intentions. I can only explain the effect his actions have had on me,” the deputy wrote WRN. “His statements placed false, personal, and damaging allegations about me before my supervisors and later before the public. They caused me to fear that my professional reputation and career could be harmed because of an allegation I did not make more than a decade ago. I am not making this statement because I wanted this matter to become public. I am making it because Mr. Gscheidmeier chose to make it public.”
How It All Started
The entire story emerged in the midst of a heated sheriff’s primary because Gscheidmeier alleged another man took down his campaign sign, and the female deputy was randomly assigned to the call, although she later asked off the investigation because of the prior issue. Gscheidmeier then told Waukesha County Sheriff’s Capt. Michelle Leffler, the sign investigator, on audio that the man became upset because he saw a Gscheidmeier campaign sign in the lawn of the extremely liberal City of Waukesha mayor, Alicia Halvensleben. Gscheidmeier then asked the mayor to take the sign down.
The man allegedly saw that sign, took down another, and went on a disturbing verbal tirade, leaving a voicemail for yet another man referring to Gscheidmeier, a conservative Republican, as a “Communist b*tch,” a claim for which there is no evidence.
Gscheidmeier learned about this situation when people started talking about it at the Waukesha County Fair. Gscheidmeier then complained about the voicemail and sign situation to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
It’s in that context that Gscheidmeier brought up the female deputy and the alleged MATC complaint from years ago, although it’s not clear why he broached those topics in the midst of a heated sheriff’s primary.
Gscheidmeier, who is now a realtor and Waukesha County Board Supervisor, is running against Sheriff’s Capt. Nick Ollinger in the Aug. 11 GOP primary to replace retiring Sheriff Eric Severson, who, complicating matters further, has endorsed Ollinger and is the female deputy’s boss. The deputy stressed that she is speaking in her personal capacity only.
The deputy insists that she was not the person who accused Gscheidmeier of being involved with his adult student in about 2012, although she knew of the alleged complaint, and she thinks it’s bizarre – and somewhat frightening – that Gscheidmeier keeps accusing her of something she says she didn’t do, including now disparaging her to a superior at her current place of employment (Leffler) and on the radio.
In a lengthy letter to Wisconsin Right Now, the deputy accused Gscheidmeier of making what she considers attempts to possibly intimidate her or retaliate, including writing her angry texts about the alleged complaint when she was still his student. She alleges that he also tried to get her disciplined at MATC shortly thereafter (she says he accused her of making a profane gesture toward him during OWI training, but she was not disciplined.) We asked Gscheidmeier whether those actions could be perceived as retaliatory or an attempt to intimidate someone he thought was a complainant, but he didn’t respond to those questions specifically.
“I learned about that complaint (at MATC) when Mr. Gscheidmeier sent me a series of text messages accusing me of being the person who had made it. Receiving those messages from one of my instructors made me feel uncomfortable, intimidated, angry, and afraid. I was a student being accused by an instructor of something I had not done,” she wrote. “I denied his accusations in my responses to him, but I did not believe my denial was accepted. Following that exchange, I limited my communication with him to what was necessary in the classroom.”
So she says she was horrified and surprised when, years later, he made the claim again. She says an MATC official told Gscheidmeier at the time that the now-deputy wasn’t the complainant.
‘It Ends Today’
Gscheidmeier also told the deputy’s superior, Leffler, in the July 22 audio-recorded interview, that if he is elected sheriff, he would sit down with the deputy to tell her, “It ends today.” What is “it?” His apparent belief that she filed the MATC complaint against him years ago, and because he believes the deputy didn’t take the recent sign complaint he made seriously enough, both accusations she denies.
“And maybe I will say after I win this, because that’s my plan anyway, that’s somebody I would probably would sit down with and just say, ‘I don’t know what happened back then, but it ends today. Because we’re not going to do this. Whatever it is.’ Because it was obvious there was something there,'” he told Leffler of the female deputy.
In the 40-minute July 22 audio interview with Leffler, Gscheidmeier brought up the deputy out of the blue. Gscheidmeier volunteered to Leffler: “And I wasn’t real thrilled when I heard that she (the female deputy) was there (at the sign investigation scene) because when I was at MATC, I’m 100% convinced that (the female deputy) had this massive crush on me. It was kind of this – she’s 19 years old, I’m much older type of thing, and I wanted nothing to do with it, but eventually she made a complaint that I was involved with students. Number one, not true. Number two, there’s no policy against it even if I chose to do it; it’s two adults, they can do whatever they want.”
Listen:
Gscheidmeier also told Leffler: “But the guy that was kind of investigating it was an equal. And I said ‘You don’t investigate me. If she has a complaint, you tell her to go to the associate dean and they do it the way they feel they have to. I’ve got nothing to hide.’ I haven’t seen (the female deputy) in years. But it was obvious to me she wanted nothing to do with this (sign) complaint.”
In that July 22 audio, Gscheidmeier disparaged the female deputy a second time to her superior, Leffler, after Leffler asked whether he wanted to file a citizen complaint against her. He said he hadn’t seen her for 25 years. “It was obvious to me she didn’t have too much interest in getting in the middle of this, and that’s fine…I am not interested in filing complaints. That’s not who I am.”
Gscheidmeier continued: “Did it put a little bit of a, you know, kind of a bad taste in my mouth? It’s like, whether you support Nick or you support me, which you clearly don’t, um, you’ve got a job to do, and even when she (the deputy) walked up, it was just kind of like…She didn’t say anything…I was her instructor for like three years, 2.5 years.”
Listen:
Wisconsin Right Now asked Gscheidmeier about the audio on WISN 1130.
Now the deputy says she feels forced to respond to defend her reputation, when she says that she wants nothing to do with any of this, including the increasingly hostile sheriff’s GOP primary. She also denies not taking the sign complaint seriously.
Asked whether the alleged text messages, attempt to get the deputy disciplined when she was a student, and “it ends now” promise could smack of potential retaliation or intimidation, since he believed the deputy made a complaint against him, Gscheidmeier sent WRN a blanket statement, refusing to answer that and other questions, and calling it “tabloid-style politics.”
“I appreciate your coverage of the Waukesha County Sheriff’s race, but my team and me will not involve ourselves in tabloid-style politics,” Gscheidmeier wrote WRN in response to a lengthy list of questions we sent him. “I am happy to speak about increasing crime, the Sheriff’s Department’s 35% turnover in the last few years, and how I will build back a broken department.” (We’ve also asked him about those things both for a forthcoming biographical story and on the radio.)
We have agreed to withhold the deputy’s name at her request because she didn’t initiate this and is concerned about the impact on her career. However, we have her name and verified that she’s a Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputy.
The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission defines retaliation as occurring “when employers treat applicants, employees or former employees, or people closely associated with these individuals, less favorably for:
- reporting discrimination;
- participating in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit (for example, serving as a witness), or;
- opposing discrimination (for example, threatening to file a charge or complaint of discrimination).”
What Did John Gscheidmeier Say About All This on the Radio Last Friday?
The author of this story asked Gscheidmeier about his comments to Leffler on WISN-1130 radio in a lengthy discussion with both candidates: “When you were working at MATC in a teaching capacity, training capacity did a now-Waukesha County sheriff’s deputy file or make a complaint against you alleging inappropriate behavior with students?”
“We also talked about this. Also not true,” he said initially.
“Well, you said that on audio.”
“No, I did,” responded Gscheidmeier.
“You’re the one who brought it up,” this author said.
“The deputy that showed up at that call was somebody who made an allegation that was not true,” he said. “It was never even investigated. I take my reputation very seriously, and I’ve been a stellar instructor for all those years. The bottom line is when that deputy showed up, she didn’t take my complaint seriously, she didn’t take any notes, she didn’t ask any questions, she didn’t take any photos. I knew why because there was a history there.”
He continued: “And I felt that was important because the Sheriff’s Department should unbiasedly, whether she’s a Nick supporter or not, investigate my complaint, and that didn’t happen.” He said the man accused of taking down the sign was a supporter of the “Young Republicans who back Nick.”
He said the man needed help. Gscheidmeier said it didn’t matter to him whether there was a history with the deputy. He wanted the incident investigated. (The Leffler audio indicates that she was launching an investigation; she told Gscheidmeier she was going to speak with the man who allegedly took down the sign and another agency that might have precedence.)
The female deputy wrote us the letter after hearing that radio interview.
John Gscheidmeier’s Current Wife Is Allegedly the Student Mentioned in the Alleged MATC Complaint
Although the deputy says she didn’t make the complaint at MATC against Gscheidmeier, she remembers that someone else allegedly did as it was the talk of the academy class, and here’s the twist. The deputy says Gscheidmeier was accused of being involved with one student, not multiple as he told Leffler – and that the one student was his current wife.
At the time, the female deputy and Samantha Hinkel (now Gscheidmeier) were roughly 19-year-old students in then 43-year-old Gscheidmeier’s law enforcement classes, she said. He married Samantha about three years later, in 2015, and today they have two kids. Gscheidmeier has left this angle out of his public comments.
We also spoke with a second student who didn’t want his name printed because he said he wants nothing to do with the sheriff’s race or any of this.
“I remember there being a lot of talk about it. It was a hot topic in that academy,” the former male student said, of the accusations that the man he called “Mr. Gscheidmeier” was dating a student, Samantha. There were about 20 people studying law enforcement in that class and only about 2-3 women, he said. He doesn’t believe that the female deputy made the complaint, but he doesn’t know who did (she doesn’t know, either). He thinks it all occurred around 2012.
We asked to speak to Gscheidmeier’s current wife, but he did not make her available.
We’ve confirmed through her Rocket Reach resume that Gscheidmeier’s now 33-year-old second wife was indeed a student at MATC’s law enforcement program from 2010-2012 when Gscheidmeier, now 57, taught there (his first wife was the former Fox 6 television reporter Yanick Dalhouse). As an aside, the marriage between the well-known Dalhouse and Gscheidmeier was over by 2009 before this incident; through an open records request for calls to service at Gscheidmeier’s home, a CAD report emerged showing Dalhouse once called the Sheriff’s Department to come to the couple’s residence to “maintain peace.” Dalhouse did not return a call for comment.
The CAD report says she was 5-10 minutes away in a U-Haul; the report doesn’t mention Gscheidmeier.
On LinkedIn, Gscheidmeier touts his time as an MATC adjunct instructor, which he says ran from 1997 through 2021. He wrote, “For over 20 years, I had the privilege of educating and mentoring thousands of students at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC).”
He added: “Beyond delivering curriculum, my focus was on empowering students with practical knowledge, critical thinking skills, and real-world applications that prepared them for success in their careers. I took pride in being a trusted mentor and collaborative team member, always striving to enhance student learning inside and outside the classroom.”
The Waukesha and Washington County Sheriff’s Departments and Germantown police say they have no calls for service to his opponent Nick Ollinger’s current and former homes. A request to Menomonee Falls PD is pending.
We wrote to MATC and asked whether Gscheidmeier was ever the subject of any complaints, verbal or in writing, who made them, what the outcome was, whether they were investigated, whether he was ever disciplined, why he left MATC, and what the policy was at the time, among other questions. We will update this story if a response is received.
The Sheriff’s Deputy Letter
The Sheriff’s race has been very hostile, much of it revolving around perceptions of Severson’s leadership, turnover, another commander, the lack of body cams, and more. Gscheidmeier and Ollinger have won prominent endorsements; Gscheidmeier was endorsed by the Waukesha County Deputy Sheriff’s association, former Milwaukee Police Department Chief Alfonso Morales and former Waukesha County DA Sue Opper, among others. He says Turning Point is behind him.
Ollinger was endorsed by the Waukesha County Chiefs of Police Association, and Young Republicans, among prominent area sheriffs like Marty Schulteis and Chris Schmaling. We previously posted a lengthy list of commendations received by Gscheidmeier when he was a Glendale police officer, as well as his employment history there. We did the same for Ollinger.
Here are Gscheidmeier’s Glendale police commendations:
Here is his disciplinary history:
Here’s Ollinger’s disciplinary history at the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department:
Here are Ollinger’s commendations:
In fact, it was the YR’s Waukesha County Chairman Benjamin Garbedian who first alerted WRN to the Leffler-Gscheidmeier audio, sending us an email. We were able to verify its authenticity. We are not running the full audio because it contains the deputy’s name and mental health concerns about the man who is accused of taking down the sign. In the audio, Gscheidmeier alleges that that man is the father of a different sheriff’s deputy.
The Second Student
The second student said that Gscheidmeier was a “fine” and “good” teacher, but added, “He married the woman. They have kids together. I think the allegations are gross. Would it be legal? Yeah. It’s not illegal, he can’t be criminally charged or anything. But we all thought it was weird. People got a hint of something and said, ‘This is f*cking weird,” and it snowballed from there.”
He wasn’t sure what evidence people were basing the claim on at the time, and it’s not clear when exactly Gscheidmeier and Samantha became romantically involved, although, as noted, they married three years later. Asked if Sam was Gscheidmeier’s student, the second student said, “She would have had his class.”
“Whoever made the official complaint, I don’t know,” he said, but he heard there was one at the time. “I didn’t know how far it went,” he stressed, of John and Samantha. “I remember there was a complaint. I don’t think it was (the female deputy).”
The second student stressed, “It’s a morals and ethics, not a criminal, thing.” He said that he wasn’t following the sheriff race at all; the man has nothing to do with it. “Why is he re-bringing that up?” he asked. He said that the female deputy is one of his good friend’s cousins, but they lost touch for years. “She was great,” added the second student, referring to the female deputy.
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