Green Bay police investigated Wicklund for pot ---------------------------------------------- by Doug Schneider, Press-Gazette Media 4:44 p.m. CDT July 12, 2014 The Green Bay police officer whose aggressive arrest of a man in April went viral on YouTube was investigated by the department after marijuana, and a shotgun not owned by the department, were found in his locker in 2012. Officer Derek Wicklund also was investigated for breaking into the department's locked evidence room in 2012, according to records obtained by Press-Gazette Media through an Open Records Law request. Wicklund, 37, joined the department in 2002. The supervisor who filed the complaint about the marijuana in Wicklund's locker in 2012 called its discovery "very suspicious," according to documents from the case. Former Green Bay Police chief Jim Arts, who ruled on the evidence complaint, said such a violation normally would have prompted "severe discipline." In the marijuana incident, officials rated his handling of the incident as substandard but he was not otherwise disciplined. He was not disciplined for the evidence room incident. Wicklund is at the center of a controversy over a YouTube video that shows him in a physical confrontation with a man outside a downtown bar in April. The video shows the officer taking 29-year-old Joshua Wenzel to the ground outside Stir-Ups Parlor & Saloon and apparently striking him before ticketing him for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Charges against Wenzel are pending. The police department looked into the incident and sent its investigatory report to the state Department of Justice for its review. Sources have told Press-Gazette Media that the internal investigation concluded Wicklund did not violate guidelines for using force. City officials said they could announce the results of their probe and the DOJ review in the coming days. Wicklund has been moved to administrative duty during the investigation. While department officials have publicly said little during the latest probe, one of Wicklund's supervisors recently expressed support for the embattled patrolman. "If something was happening to my family, (Wicklund is) the kind of guy I want out there," Capt. William Galvin told Press-Gazette Media. Green Bay's police union also has defended the officer, but a group of people called for Wicklund's firing during a protest downtown in the weeks following the incident. Since joining the police department, Wicklund has generated 14 complaints while earning 22 commendations, according to documents provided by the city in response to Press-Gazette Media's Open Records Law request. Most complaints were from people who felt he was unfair, overly aggressive or unnecessarily rough. The department found no cause to discipline Wicklund in any of the incidents that sparked a citizen complaint. Capt. Bill Galvin of the Green Bay Police Department discusses the investigation into an arrest in downtown Green Bay that spawned a viral video. (April 22, 2014) Internal complaints accuse Wicklund of unbecoming conduct or failing to follow rules governing property and evidence. Lt. Kevin Warych, part of the department's Internal Affairs division two years ago, expected to find a padlock when he opened Wicklund's locker on April 30, 2012. Contractors were working in the room, and department officials had ordered officers lock up their possessions. Instead, Warych said he found "a medium size bag" of marijuana in Wicklund's locker. He also found a shotgun that did not belong to the department in the locker. The bag of marijuana, which had an evidence tag from a 5-year-old case, was labeled "Dog Training." Wicklund was not part of the department's canine program. "It was very suspicious for us to find marijuana in an officer's locker," Warych later wrote. He indicated that the drugs should have been maintained in evidence. Green Bay resident Rick Lentz, whose brother is a police office, but also says he has also been arrested by Green Bay police multiple times, walks on Adams Street in front of the Green Bay Police Department wearing signs supporting them. In an interview with Warych, Wicklund said Officer Matt Lynch gave him the drugs to help train Lynch's police dog. Wicklund acknowledged that people might think it was suspicious that he had marijuana in his locker if he was not working as a canine-handler. Wicklund "emphasized that he did not have any intent of breaking any policy ... and that his actions were in good faith," Warych wrote. "He said that he wanted to help Officer Lynch train in the future and that he was very concerned that this might strain his relationship with" Lynch. The department acknowledged that Wicklund, who was not trained as a dog-handler, might not be familiar with policies for drugs used for training, Galvin said. Lynch, who also was interviewed, said he had given the marijuana to Wicklund about a year earlier. Lynch, Warych wrote, "admitted what he did was wrong and against our procedures." Wicklund told investigators he was holding the shotgun found his locker for a former officer. Officers are not prohibited from having guns and can bring personal firearms into the department. Bronson Smith (center) and Brandon Falish, both Green Bay residents, discuss about police behavior with two more protesters (not pictured) in front of the Green Bay police station on Adams Street in protest. (Photo: Kyle Bursaw/Press-Gazette Media) EVIDENCE VIOLATION In January 2009, Wicklund was accused of improperly entering the locked room where the department keeps money, drugs and other evidence gathered in criminal cases. The incident occurred when he tried to recover a "GERP stick" â similar to a thumb drive â which officers used at that time to store information about their cases. He said he accidentally dropped the device into the slot where officers submit evidence, tried to recover it using a coat-hanger, then entered the room by manipulating hinges on a door. Capt. Todd Thomas, who was supervising the night shift when the incident occurrred, said Wicklund immediately reported the incident when it happened in January 2009. Thomas had Wicklund show him what he had done, then wrote a 1 ½-page memo about it to Internal Affairs. "Officer Wicklund told me he had set off the alarm," Thomas wrote. "He was very nervous ... and appeared very upset with himself. He said he knew he had made a mistake when he did ... I was taken by surprise when he was able to open the doors in around 5 seconds." Green Bay Internal Affairs Lt. David Wesely and now-retired Capt. Greg Urban conducted a two-month investigation. They concluded Wicklund "intentionally breached the security" of the room, and termed his actions "unbecoming conduct." "He admitted that his actions were 'stupid' and that he 'knew better,'" the investigators wrote. "He knew or should have known that there were other methods of retrieving his GERP stick ... (Wicklund's) motives might have been well-intended, but (his) methods were questionable and showed very poor judgment." Former Green Bay Police chief Jim Arts, who ruled on the evidence complaint, said such a violation normally would have prompted "severe discipline." Arts, the former chief, agreed that Wicklund violated department policy governing officers' conduct. But Arts imposed no discipline. "While normally this would be a very serious violation resulting in severe discipline," Arts wrote, "the facts suggest there was no intent to compromise the security for illicit purposes."