I think this happened for two big reasons. I think this happened because I plan on running for Sheriff in the next election and because I had reported some pretty serious sexual harassment that has been occurring frequently at the Sheriff’s Office. Now, I’ll explain each of these a little more in detail:

1.    Running for Sheriff:

I am very big on leadership and have been vocal in the recent months with how I feel things have been handled at our department.. or how things have been mishandled I should say. This had started in 2022 when three Detective Sergeants were wrongfully disciplined over holding a Detective Captain responsible for altering a police report. I have personally seen and heard things come from the Sheriff and his administration that will make you scratch your head. If there isn’t a political benefit to something that the Sheriff or his staff are doing, then they won’t do it. Plain and simple. The sheriff doesn’t like doing anything extra for the community, unless it makes him look good. That is NOT what it is about!

I had also been witness to several things that the Sheriff had stated out loud in front of me, including being upset that I had talked with several community members who voted against him or was against him during his campaign. I was also in the Sheriff’s office when he made me feel very uncomfortable by getting upset and stating how he wished the ex-Chief Deputy, Al Kraeger, “would just die”. Sgt. Clint Thobaben was a witness, as he was in Tim’s office when he said it to him. Al Kraeger was coming into for some kind of gathering reference the cold case that was solved.

I have built such an outstanding reputation in the community and have been asked by several people if I would ever run for sheriff. After being asked several times, I finally made a statement that I was seriously looking into running in the next Fall election, which would be November of 2026. Within weeks of making these statements, I had Corrections Captain Adam Wogsland ask me if I was planning on running for sheriff. This individual just so happens to have the intention of running for Sheriff as well in the future. He has told me that himself, and he also has told me that the Sheriff has hand picked him and has prepped him to be the next sheriff. Well, I didn’t lie. I told him that I would be interested in becoming the leader that we need in our department and in our line of work. I told him that I didn’t know when I would run, but that I did plan on running someday.

Approximately 2-3 weeks later, it’s quite ironic that this all had happened. I also have an email from DA Kat where she admits that she believes that this whole thing may have happened because of me stating I wanted to run for sheriff based on information she had gathered.

2.    Sexual Harassment  

There has been a deputy over the past couple of years I have worked with who had continued to harass me on a quite regular basis. I have made comments to him on how I didn’t respect that and have also asked him to stop, in which it continued. He has made fun of the way that I dress, being friends with another deputy who is homosexual, and has accused me of having sex with my cousins from the town where I am from. He has made other comments about me going down to Florida to see my gay friend and his fiancé and insinuated that I was going down there for sexual reasons. He has made fun of me for being in a photograph with my gay friend when we had our dress shirts partially unbuttoned while at a wedding. The list goes on and on.

Well, this same deputy back in January of 2024 had attended an ARIDE (Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement) class that I had taught at the Sheriff’s Office. I had taught this class with Detective Sergeant Stefanie Pedersen. (Sound familiar?) She was the lead instructor and I was the second instructor. Well during this two day class, this deputy had made several inappropriate comments toward me again. This time, it was in front of the class AND in front of Stef. He made fun of the clothes I was wearing again by stating, “Where did you get those jeans from, baby gap?” He made a derogatory comment about me having sexual relations with my family members. While I was teaching a section of the class, I had a picture of a female up on the screen. I had pointed up at the screen at one point in the presentation and he had made a comment about why I was touching her breast. When I would mention things that were sexual in nature during my presentation, he would snicker and make comments about what was being said. Most times, this would interrupt the class because everyone would begin paying attention to just him. Stef was in the room when all of these comments were being made and of course, she didn’t do anything to stop it.

At the end of this 2 day class, we had handed out instructor evaluations that the attendees could complete. This specific deputy, along with a friend of his who was sitting next to him, had written a very negative review about me. All of the other attendees had written very well reviews about me. A few days later, Stef had asked me to join her in her office to talk about these reviews. She expressed some concerns that she had with me, that stemmed from these 2 deputies reviews on their evaluations. I had asked her if she had seen or heard any of the inappropriate things that this deputy was saying during class. She admitted to me that she remembered hearing when he made a comment about me touching the woman’s breast up on the screen. She said something to the effect of “I just try to ignore things that he does.” I explained to her that it is difficult to do when he is interrupting the entire class to make those inappropriate comments. They made me feel uncomfortable.

More importantly, I also explained to her that this specific deputy has made several inappropriate comments in the past, including things that were sexual in nature. I informed her that it has been going on for years now and that he should be held responsible for such comments. She again explained that she usually just lets “Brockman be Brockman”. Brockman is the name of this deputy in question. I literally asked her if he could be held responsible for making sexual comments that made me feel uncomfortable and she ignored them and laughed them off.

Almost 3 weeks later, it is Det. Sgt. Stef Pedersen who starts this whole issue, that ultimately leads to me being forced to resign. I firmly believe that this had something to do with it, as Deputy Brockman is favored by administration and can never do anything wrong. He continuously says inappropriate stuff at work, while out in public, and in front of administration, but administration never does anything to stop his behavior. To my knowledge, he has never faced any type of discipline for these behaviors.