Judge’s ruling gives Bowers’ case a boost
Deputy continues to battle misconduct charges dating from 2017 incident
A Taylor County sheriff’s deputy who is facing a pair of felony misconduct in office charges over the unauthorized release of information to producers of a true crime television show nearly four years ago was back in court last week.
Steve Bowers’ defense got a boost at the December 14 hearing when Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Robert R. Russell granted a request to reconsider the motion to suppress information obtained from a search of Bowers’ DropBox account.
“Much like I’ve been saying this whole time, the judge ruled that the search of my Dropbox was an illegal warrantless search and suppressed the ‘evidence,’” Bowers stated in an email following the hearing.
In February 2017, Bowers a 24-year veteran of the department, was placed on paid leave by then sheriff Bruce Daniels for the unauthorized release of open murder investigations to producers of a cold-case style television program “Cold Justice.” The county had been working with the program on a different unsolved case at this time. While the county pursued administrative punishment against Bowers for violating policy ultimately deciding on a demotion and suspension in November 2017, the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office filed two felony counts for misconduct in office. If convicted Bowers faces prison time and steep fines.
A key part of the case has been the county accessing Bowers’ DropBox, online file storage account without a search warrant. The account was set up using Bowers’ sheriff’s department email address, but he pays the monthly fee to maintain the account.
Under the direction of Daniels, the county’s information technology director accessed the account by requesting a new password for it through Bowers’ email account. A major issue in the case has focused on the county not getting a search warrant before accessing what Bowers says is a private account.
Assistant Attorney General Annie Jay who is prosecuting the case for the state has argued that the county’s Information Technology policies which all employees receive states there is no expectation of privacy on using the county’s computers or devices.
Earlier this fall, Bowers through his civil attorneys R. Rick Resch and John H. Bradley of Strang Bradley law firm in Madison filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Daniels, I.T. Director Melissa Seavers and Taylor County.
A three-day jury trial on the criminal charges against Bowers had been scheduled to take place in October, however it was taken off the calendar after concerns about the ability to hold jury trials due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. No date has been set for when the trial will take place.
