Chippewa County Board Says No Confidence in Sheriff Hakes

The Chippewa County Board voted to pass their investigation into Sheriff Travis Hakes to the District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday.

The board voted on two motions to forward their investigation to the District Attorney and to not receive further information in the investigation from Sheriff Hakes. The language of the first motion stated “The Chippewa County Board has no confidence in Chippewa County Sheriff Travis Hakes’ continued leadership of the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department.”

The second motion stated that going forward the County Board would receive all of its information involving the Sheriff’s Office though the Sheriff’s Chief Deputy or their designee. The board will only receive information from Sheriff Hakes if it is specifically requested from him.

Both motions passed with a 19-1 vote.

Sheriff Hakes has been under investigation since September, accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a female dispatcher, not completing training or attending meetings, conducting sales business during work hours, and having a lack of judgement.

Sheriff Hakes has strongly denied the allegations, and criticized the county board for holding a 4 hour closed session to review what he calls a likely biased report from an agenda-driven and Madison-based attorney.

In a statement, he said he had not yet read the new report but suspected it was filled with more hearsay and conjecture. Sheriff Hakes criticized the cost of the investigation for taxpayers, which has allegedly risen over $100,000. He also said he is looking forward to leading the Sheriff’s Office without the investigation sabotaging him.