Sacked Lincoln Hills guards get cash
State pays staffers found to have used excessive force
MADISON – For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported that officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn’t document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.
State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said he wants the Walker administration to explain why it is cutting deals after disciplining employees.
“Either they had a weak case going in or they had a strong case but they suddenly lost their backbone,” he said. “Neither one is good.”
The two most recent payments follow a $6,000 settlement reached in October with former guard Scott McKenna, who was fired after other guards said they saw him push a 15-year-old girl against a wall with his hand on her neck.
Newly released video from a hallway surveillance camera shows McKenna storming into the girl’s room and hurling blankets and a mattress into the hall as his coworkers look on. The video does not show McKenna’s interactions with the inmate or what happens in the cell.
At the time of the incident, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department recommended that prosecutors charge McKenna with child abuse and strangulation. More than
two years later, they have not decided whether to do that.
The most recent settlement, for $9,000, went to Travis Taves, a former guard with the nickname Iceman who was fired in January 2016 for using unjustified force on two juvenile inmates.
Taves said he had planned to work at Lincoln Hills for another 20 years but agreed to the settlement so he could move on with his life after being put on paid leave for a year and then fired.
“I believe it should have been a lot more than that ($9,000) because of the pain and suffering it caused in my family life,” Taves said. “It was wrongful termination and I was a scapegoat.”
Under the other recent settlement, supervisor Kyle Hoff had a five-day suspension reversed and was given about $1,100 in back pay. Hoff had been disciplined for three incidents, including one where he walked on a lowlying bed frame while a teen inmate was under it.
Hoff, who continues to work at Lincoln Hills, did not return a phone call for this article.
Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said he could not discuss specific settlement agreements, but noted they are often designed to prevent costly litigation and ensure fired employees do not return to work at the department.
“DOC will hold staff accountable for their actions and will continue to hold staff to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility,” Cook said in a written statement.
State Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) scoffed at the notion that Lincoln Hills employees were being held responsible for their actions.
The payoffs could worsen morale at an institution that has struggled with staff shortages, he said.
“How would you respond if you were the worker next to that guy (who got a settlement)? What kind of deterrent is that sending to everyone else at that institution?” Goyke asked.
The settlements come a year after Walker signed a law aimed at making it easier to discipline public employees and protect taxpayers. But the new civil service system did not go into full effect until September — after the three Lincoln Hills employees were fired or suspended.
“They were still playing under the old rules,” said Sen. Roger Roth (RAppleton), one of the sponsors of the law rewriting employment policies.
Firing reversed
Taves said inmates gave him the nickname Iceman because he resembles mixed martial arts fighter Chuck Liddell , who goes by that moniker. But former Lincoln Hills supervisor Nicholas Nelmark told investigators Taves earned the nickname “because he puts kids on ice.”
Nelmark’s wife, Kayleena, a former Lincoln Hills psychologist, told investigators she heard Taves bragging at a bar about breaking an inmate’s arm. Taves denied that.
Taves was fired last year for two incidents — one in 2012, one in 2014.
In the 2012 incident, Taves and others responded to a fight between two juvenile inmates, one of whom had a broomstick or mop handle.
One inmate’s wrist was broken, which investigators concluded was caused by a hold that another guard used.
Investigators found Taves used unjustified force by applying a “compliance hold” on the teen’s neck.
In the 2014 incident, Taves brought an inmate to the ground after the inmate turned toward staff in a threatening manner, records show. Investigators found Taves used excessive force and provided false information to them by saying the inmate had clenched his fists before Taves took him to the ground.
Taves stood by his version of events in his interview with the Journal Sentinel.
The Department of Corrections’ internal investigation came after a criminal review by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department of the 2014 incident. In that investigation, Sgt. Thomas Barker concluded there was “not evidence that any of the staff, including Taves, used excessive force.”
In his interview with the newspaper, Taves said fights and other dangerous situations often developed at Lincoln Hills, sometimes involving inmates who were built like men, not young teenagers. He responded to the training he received from the Department of Corrections, he said.
“In that (department) training you’re trained to be nice until it’s not time to be nice anymore,” he said. “And then you’re nice again.”
That training was ultimately found to be faulty. The prison’s top trainer, Dusty Meunier, was fired last year after investigators concluded he taught staff abusive tactics.
In the past year, the Walker administration has overhauled its training program and equipped guards with body cameras.
Taves challenged his termination before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, and the Department of Corrections agreed to settle the dispute.
Under the deal reached last month, the state paid Taves $9,000 and recorded him as quitting instead of being fired. Taves is barred from working for the Department of Corrections again, but the state must give him neutral job references when contacted by other employers.
Suspension eased
Hoff was suspended for five days without pay in July for three incidents, including the November 2015 one in which he walked on a bed frame while an inmate was under it. The girl said Hoff’s actions put pressure on her head.
Three days later, Hoff dragged the same inmate across the floor to restrain her when she became disruptive, records show. Investigators found his use of force was unjustified.
Investigators also concluded Hoff used a level of force that was “not desirable” in June 2015 when he responded to an aggressive inmate. The two slipped and the inmate was injured when he hit a bed frame.
Hoff, who did not return a call for this article, appealed his suspension to the employment commission. The Department of Corrections reached a settlement with him in November.
Under that deal, the department rescinded the suspension and reimbursed him about $1,100 in pay.
The agency reduced his discipline to a written reprimand and removed a finding that his actions amounted to “serious misconduct.”