Former Manitowoc County Detective Dave Remiker accused of misconduct

David Remiker was also among a handful of sheriff’s office detectives scrutinized by Steven Avery’s attorneys.

MANITOWOC-A former Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant An investigation is underway into suspicion that he misused department funds.

The Brown County District Attorney’s Office has filed a criminal complaint against David Remiker, a retired lieutenant with the Manitowoc County Metro Drug Unit, accusing him of misconduct in office, according to a release from the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office. Reiker retired on January 31, 2024.

The charges stem from an internal audit conducted in February that found several thousand dollars in forfeited assets had not been deposited into the appropriate accounts, the news release said.

Following the audit, the sheriff’s office immediately requested the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate.

Manitowoc County Sheriff Dan Hartwig thanked the DOJ and the Brown County District Attorney for their assistance in the investigation. He noted that the indictment only addresses the actions of one person and not the 113 other members of the sheriff’s office.

The criminal case remains active and no other information was immediately released by the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office.

Remiker played a role in the investigation and arrest of Steven Avery in the murder of Teresa Halbach nearly twenty years ago.

Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer from Calumet County, was last seen on October 31, 2005. She had come to Avery’s Auto Salvage Yard in rural Mishicot to take photos of a car Avery was trying to sell through Auto Trader magazine . Her vehicle was found several days later, partially hidden, on the property.

A few hours after Halbach’s car was found, Remiker and a Calumet County deputy searched Avery’s trailer and garage. He was one of the few Manitowoc County sheriff’s detectives whose actions came under heavy scrutiny by Avery’s attorneys Dean Strang and Jerome Buting, who had based their defense on the premise that Avery was innocent of Halbach’s murder and that sheriff’s office investigators had planted blood and other evidence against him.

Remiker was also reprimanded in the 2007 trial of Avery’s cousin, Branden Dassey, for failing to register a visitor in the sequestered jury room. He told his supervisors that he had no prior knowledge that the husband of his fellow Manitowoc County Sheriff, Melia Prange, had entered the secure jury room, but a report indicated that he “was aware of the presence of the husband’.

Both Avery and Dassey are serving life sentences in state prison for their roles in Halbach’s death.

Contact reporter Patti Zarling at [email protected] or call 920-606-2575. Follow her on X @PGPattiZarling and on Instagram @PGPatti.