Prison warden, deputy suspended for 3 days
Two weren’t paid for period after breaking Ohio fishing laws
MADISON – Two high-ranking Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials were suspended for three days without pay in late July for knowingly breaking fishing laws in Ohio.
Receiving the three-day suspensions for catching more walleye than legally allowed were Michael Dittmann, warden at Columbia Correctional Institution, and Steven Schueler, deputy warden at Green Bay Correctional Institution.
A third employee who was caught illegally fishing, Paul Neevel Jr., was dismissed by the department. Neevel is a retired prison sergeant who had been working for the Department of Corrections as a temporary employee.
“As a public servant who took an oath of office, and warden at a maximum security correctional facility, you are not only expected to follow your state and federal laws, but you are held to a high standard of ethical expectations both on and off duty,” internal investigators wrote of Dittman in a report released this week under Wisconsin’s open records law.
The men, along with three former DOC employees, were on a week-long Lake Erie fishing trip in Ottawa County, Ohio,in Maywhen they were caught by authorities for overfishing.
In a morning fishing trip, the men caught their legal limit of walleye of six fish per person and returned to shore. Then, later in the day, Dittmann, Schueler, and one other person went back out and caught 11 more — pushing them over the limit. The illegal practice is known as “double-tripping.”
Dittmann and Schueler both caught four walleyes over the limit and were convicted of misdemeanors. Dittmann had to pay $458 in fines and fees and Schueler had to pay $408.
They also had their fishing privileges revoked in Ohio and Wisconsin for a year.
The Department of Corrections typically conducts internal investigations of its employees when they have run-ins with law enforcement.
The DOC does not investigate temporary employees and let Neevel go.
Records from the internal investigation show the men admitted they knew there was a legal limit on how many fish they can catch and exceeded it anyway. Dittmann was apologetic, saying he let his “passion for fishing cloud his judgment.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2010 on an internal investigation of Dittmann by the Department of Corrections that found evidence he used slurs against gays, hurled fruit at subordinates who disagreed with him and may have even approved overtime pay for some staffers so others could go to cookouts. He was not demoted as a result of that investigation.