Sandra Beth (D), and Sharon Pomaville (D)
A special Kenosha County Board meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday night, February 1, 2022 at 7:00pm. The only item on the agenda reads: Report of Outside Counsel on Ethics Question Related to Country Thunder. After six months, a lawyer with an expensive law firm, von Briesen & Roper, s.c. is finally ready to report his findings.
This summer, Kenosha Sheriff David Beth (D) was at Country Thunder when he was accused of being intoxicated and using excessive force while arresting a young woman. He also ran over a man in a vehicle with a front-end loader. He told the officer who took the crash report to alter her police report. Beth refuses to talk about these very serious allegations. The Kenosha News refused to touch the subject. Sheriff Beth is friends with the Country Thunder Owners and was given many thousands of dollars in free stuff. He was given all-access, VIP back-stage passes and wristbands for unlimited food and drink (including all alcohol) for every day of the festival. His son and other family members received these priceless passes also. He invited all of the county board members to come and “take a tour” of the Sheriff’s operation center. Four board members – his mother Sandra Beth, Boyd Frederick, Sharon Pomaville, and Daniel Gaschke were all given the free food/drink wristbands and all-access backstage VIP passes. Supervisor Rodriguez took a tour and watched a performer while waiting for a ride, but wasn’t offered and didn’t accept VIP passes. Other supervisors were present, but insisted on paying their own way.
Incredibly, on July 20, 2021 during the county board meeting, the Sheriff’s mother told her colleagues about all of this free stuff she and the others received.
She said in part:
“I would like to have your permission to report on country thunder. Several of the supervisors did attend – Supervisor Gaschke and his wife, youth and governance, Brook Smith. Supervisor Boyd Frederick, Supervisor Zach Rodriguez, Supervisor Sharon Pomaville and myself. We had a lovely tour.
The country thunder went very well this year. There were only, I believe seven arrests – there were many violations but none as serious in the previous. We had a tour of the medical area, the fire department area. We went backstage where the entertainers were. We were given whole weekend passes to everything on the grounds free of charge including our food and liquid and we went to the camping areas we went to the rental tent areas and we got to meet the owners of country thunder and everyone was extremely gracious to us. We went to the sheriff’s command center and they explained how 911 worked and all the officers and then we got to see the heavy steel fencing that protected the different areas of country thunder and we’re told that this is the fencing that was used in downtown Kenosha during the riots and so it was very educational and very beneficial to us.”
Board Member Daniel Gaschke’s wife posted on her Facebook account and tagged her husband saying “I got to tag along as well, and we were given backstage and all-access passes to go anywhere today, tomorrow, and Sunday.” Below is a photo of the post.
Democratic Supervisor Daniel Gaschke even posted on Facebook about the “VIP All Access” passes. These passes are not for sale. The lesser access passes are multiple thousands of dollars. He lied to the Kenosha News about his actions despite the self-admission on social media.
Immediately after Sandra Beth told the board and the public about the obvious ethical violations, long-time board member Erin Decker spoke up. “Just to clarify, supervisors were given passes/tickets to the Country Thunder?” To which, there was a very long silence in the room. No one answered or spoke for a long pause. She continued, “I would like corporation counsel (county lawyer) to look into that to that to to see if it’s a violation of our ethics ordinance.” Country Thunder depends on the county board’s approval every year in order to obtain the proper permits to operate. This can certainly be seen as a bribe to taxpayers.
The County’s ethics ordinance 19.06-1(2), requires the county to refer a request for an investigation to an outside counsel when an alleged act has occurred. With that, the County retained an expensive law firm, von Briesen & Roper, s.c. We spoke to Attorney Jacob Curtis who confirmed he was the investigator in this case. Curtis is a former Policy Director for Republican State Senator Duey Strobel. After that he worked as associate counsel for the conservative group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, and was later appointed to the Wisconsin DNR to be its Chief legal Counsel. The law firm he now works for is charging many hundreds of dollars per hour to the Kenosha County taxpayers. Has has interviewed the involved parties and reviewed the video of Beth’s speech and the Facebook posts. Two of the board members, Pomaville and Beth have decided against running again – we’re told because of this scandal. Two others, Gaschke and Frederick have decided to run for reelection and have opponents in this April’s election. It would be beneficial to these incumbents to have the results delayed another three months. We reached out to the Attorneys at von Briesen & Roper, s.c. and they refused to talk. We also reached out to Country Thunder multiple times in the last several months. They refused to comment. We reached out to Sheriff Beth, Supervisors Beth, Frederick, Pomaville, and Gaschke and none of them agreed to give an explanation. If not for Beth’s admission on video and Gaschke’s social media post, the public might not be aware of these egregious ethical and moral violations.
Although the five people were alleged to have been involved in the event, only one person spoke with Kenosha County Eye. Rodriguez told us that he didn’t accept a “VIP all access pass” like the others, but took a tour and watched a performance while waiting for a ride. Pomaville, Frederick, Beth (Sheriff), Beth (Supervisor) and Gaschke all ignored our multiple requests for comment. The Kenosha News ran cover for the elected supervisors and Sheriff. Sandra Beth, Daniel Gaschke Sharon Pomaville and Boyd Frederick all did interviews with the Kenosha News. The Kenosha News kowtows to elected officials and doesn’t ask tough questions. That’s why these four democrats spoke to them and not us – we ask tough questions and hold elected officials accountable, unlike the Kenosha News. The Kenosha News even wrote an opinion piece that says the actions of the four should be “a lesson learned” and didn’t recommend any accountability. The reporter that wrote an opinion piece is reportedly close with the Sheriff. She didn’t write about him, neither did the opinion piece, ostensibly written by democrat editor Pete Wicklund.
Tuesday night we will learn what the outside investigation has concluded. In this case, the evidence is overwhelming. One supervisor posted the free stuff on Facebook, and the other spoke publicly during a meeting.
5 Responses
This is a very good article. It shows the importance of the KCE. I hope it continues to do the good work of calling out the systemic corruption in Kenosha government.
The best and honest source of journalism in S.E. WI bar none.
Once again I do believe a Federal investigation is in order for the City of Kenosha and The County of Kenosha. We need to drain the mighty old swamp people.
Careful who you vote for citizens. Good chance in this town it’s some political crooks relative.
Well written KCE.
I moved to Wisconsin 11 years ago escaping from Illinois. As a newcomer, I obtained my subscription to the Kenosha News. One year later, I dropped my subscription due to their blatant Democrat’s biases. I’m impressed with how KCE reports. Thanks for being a real journalist.
Holy smokes, even Led Zeppelin had to spice up their back stage rep with the “shark story”. Kenosha officials prove once again they are naturals for seedy, illicit, and unprincipled behavior.
I concur.