Seven years ago, DCI agent Dave Lunzman helped law enforcement officers gang up on fellow DCI agent Laura Zylstra Kaiser in retaliation for her daring to report the sexual harassment she suffered from a deputy in Brown County Sheriff Mark Milbrandt’s office, harassment against which Milbrandt took no serious action. That retaliation cost our state $1.2 million in the lawsuit. Dave Lunzman served this year as Mark Milbrandt’s re-election campaign treasurer in a bitter primary battle against Zylstra Kaiser’s husband Dan.
Guess who’s got a new job in Sheriff Milbrandt’s office?
Dave Lunzman and Tom Schmitt will once again be working together, albeit briefly.
Schmitt, 62, will be training Lunzman, 51, as the new chief deputy for Brown County. Schmitt retires Dec. 14 after 24 years as chief deputy and, before that, 17 years as an Aberdeen police officer. Lunzman starts his new position Nov. 26.
…Milbrandt said Lunzman’s work for the campaign had nothing to do with his decision to hire him as chief deputy. The decision was based on Lunzman’s law enforcement and office management experience, Milbrandt said [Elisa Sand, “Lunzman Hired as Brown County’s Next Chief Deupty,” Aberdeen American News, 2018.11.08].
And Lunzman was worried about political blowback from the Zylstra Kaiser lawsuit. Come now—good old boys don’t have to worry about that.
No word on whether Zylstra Kaiser applied for that job and offered her law enforcement and office management experience.
Since Ms Noem used Kaiser in a political ad —- sort of kind of trying to send the message about the good ole boys club and supporting Ms Kaiser —- I’m sure the future governor will be speaking out about this, right? (cue the sound of crickets)
What a coincidence! Lunzman just happened to be the sheriff’s campaign finance manager and got hired by the sheriff to replace the former chief deputy. Who would’ve thunk it? Good thing political patronage is not a thing in SD.
“Milbrandt said Lunzman’s work for the campaign had nothing to do with his decision to hire him as chief deputy.”
I call B.S.! 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Dana, Noem used the story to win her campaign. She won’t do anything else until she needs to exploit the story further to get something she and her string-pullers want.
She could appoint Zylstra Kaiser to run the Department of Public Safety….