Former Sawyer County Deputy Receives Probation for Multiple Domestic Abuse Felony Charges

By Joe Morey News Editor

A former Sawyer County Deputy, Ryan Schick, reached a plea agreement and received two years of probation after being charged with several felonies of stalking, strangulation and suffocation of his girlfriend at the time, also an employee of the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Department.

A full story of the charges and complaint as reported by the Sawyer County Record follows the list of counts and plea agreement below.

During the relationship with the victim, Schick was accused of domestic abuse on several occasions resulting in the felony charges.

Schick will receive no jail time as two of the felonies were dismissed and read in, while the other felony he received a deferred sentence.

Schick appeared in Sawyer County Court on Monday, Dec. 2, before presiding Judge Anthony Stella from Iron County. He pleaded guilty to felony stalking and two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct.

Dismissed but read in were charges of two felony counts of strangulation and suffocation of the woman, one count of false imprisonment, and one count of misdemeanor battery.

As conditions of the agreement, Schick must surrender his law enforcement officer certification, not commit a crime and avoid any contact with the woman. He must submit a DNA sample and pay the DNA fee.

Schick was represented in court by attorney Elizabeth Smith and the state prosecutor was Holly Webster.

According to the Sawyer County Record, “Standing beside Attorney Webster, the woman recited a statement in which she said she is a ‘mother, sister, daughter and granddaughter.’ She remembers the incidents with Schick ‘like it was yesterday,’ she said. ‘He choked me twice to the point it impeded my breathing, lifted me up and threw me to the ground,’ then pointed his handgun at his head.”

The woman asked the judge to please consider the violent nature of the crimes when sentencing. She said she was hurt emotionally, mentally and physically and still suffers emotionally.

According to the Sawyer County Record, Judge Stella said “You don’t seem to be a threat to the general public at large. It sounds like you’ve been punished already. You’re stripped of your job and career. Significant penalties are hanging over your head.”

The plea was as follows:

Count 1: 940.32(2) Stalking Felony I Deferred Prosecution or Sentence. Modifier: 968.075(1)(a) Domestic Abuse. Guilty - 24 Month Deferred Agreement with adopted conditions contained therein. $150 Deferred Agreement Fee to be paid to Polk County DA Office.

Count 4: 947.01(1) Disorderly Conduct Misd. Guilty Due to Guilty Plea. Guilty - Withheld Sentence, 2 Years Probation Ordered. Fine/Costs: $10 Fine + Court Costs. DEF must provide DNA sample and pay applicable surcharge.

Count 7: 947.01(1) Disorderly Conduct Misd. Guilty Due to Guilty Plea. Guilty - Withheld Sentence, 2 Years Probation Ordered. Fine/Costs:  $10 Fine + Court Costs. DEF must provide DNA sample and pay applicable surcharge.

The following counts were dismissed:

Count 2: 940.235(1) Strangulation and Suffocation Felony H Charge Dismissed but Read In. Modifier: 968.075(1)(a) Domestic Abuse

Count 3: 940.235(1) Strangulation and Suffocation Felony H Charge Dismissed but Read In. Modifier: 968.075(1)(a) Domestic Abuse

Count 5: 940.30 False Imprisonment Felony H Charge Dismissed but Read In. Modifier: 968.075(1)(a) Domestic Abuse

Count 6: 940.19(1) Battery Misd. A Charge Dismissed but Read In. Modifier: 968.075(1)(a) Domestic Abuse

His Probation Conditions are as follows:

No Contact with S.R.C.

Complete Domestic Violence Assessment and follow through with any recommendations.

Complete any programming/ conditions deemed appropriate by agent and follow through.

If probation / supervision is revoked or discharged with outstanding financial obligations, a civil judgment shall be entered against the defendant in favor of restitution victims and/or governmental entities for the balance due. All available enforcement actions will be used to collect the debt.

Sawyer County Sheriff's Deputy Charged with Multiple Felonies in Domestic Situation

Sawyer County Record

Frank Zufall

Reprinted with permission

A Sawyer County Sheriff Deputy, Ryan M. Schick, 28 of Hayward has been charged with several offenses against a colleague, a woman whom he had once been a romantic relationship with and who had lived with Schick. Schick was charged with several offenses all modified under domestic abuse:

• Stalking, occurring between March 1-Sept. 22.

• Two counts of strangulation and suffocation occurring between August 2-3.

• Two counts of disorderly conduct: one between Aug. 2-3 and another on Sept. 19.

• False imprisonment occurring between September 7-11.

• Misdemeanor battery occurring between September 7-11.

The charges of stalking, strangulation and suffocation and false imprisonment are felonies. The two counts of disorderly conduct and battery are misdemeanors.

Schick was featured in the Sept. 13 Sawyer County Record story “Three deputies suspended for violating standards of conduct, directive,” that chronicled events that occurred the evening of Aug. 2 from the Moccasin Bar, in the City of Hayward where a report was made to the City of Hayward Police officer that three Sawyer County Deputies — Schick, Shaylena Corbine and Jordan Price — in the bar Wednesday evening, Aug. 2, were possibly “heavily intoxicated,” and then a confrontation ensued between Corbine’s ex boyfriend and Schick resulting in Corbine and Schick leaving the bar and then Corbine later finding Schick walking on Hwy. 63.

A report by Hayward City Police Officer Jake Anderson of the Aug. 2, 3 events, states that Corbine told Anderson “…at no time did any physical violence occur.” However in a follow-up investigation conducted in September by Polk County Sheriff Lt. Andrew Vitalis and Investigator Rob Rorvick that comprises the complaint against Schick, it appears that Corbine, or the victim identified as “SRC” in the complaint, claims that Schick twice put her in a “bear hug,” with one arm around her chest and other around her neck, during the evening of Aug. 2 outside the bar and later in the early morning hours of Aug. 3 outside their homes and in both instances she reports losing her breath for “three-to-five seconds.”

Also in the Sept. 13 article, it was noted that Corbine tested over .08 on a preliminary breath test (PBT) just after stopping her vehicle on Hwy. 63 outside the City of Hayward, but officers did not put Corbine through a field sobriety test, nor was she charged with operating while intoxicated (OWI), but SRC told the Polk County investigators that on the night of Aug. 2 both she and Schick had been drinking and “were intoxicated.”

Complaint

The complaint states that on Sept. 22, Vitalis and Rorvick were notified of a request from the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office to conduct an investigation over allegations against Schick made by an employee. Vitalis and Rorvick meet with the woman identified in the complaint as “SRC” at the Washburn County Sheriff’s Office in Shell Lake to “avoid contact with any Sawyer County employees.” SRC stated that she and Schick began dating in August 2022 and by September/October she had moved in with Schick, and that she had given Schick $3,000 to obtain a residency on McClain Road. SRC noted when Schick began K-9 training she noticed “behavior changes” from him including being angry upon returning from training. In June 2023, Schick moved into a new residency and SRC moved again with him.

In the spring of 2023, an incident cited involving looking at each other’s phone and the woman running away with Schick’s phone and he running into her, possibly on purpose, and escorting her with an “escort” hold, “one hand on her upper arm and the other on her wrist”. She recounted pulling away from Schick and stating she wasn’t a defendant and didn’t want to be treated that way.

The next incident reported in the complaint includes the events of Aug. 2, 3. SRC said she and Schick had been to a K-9 fundraiser in Stone Lake and then arrived back in Hayward at Louie’s Bar and then the Moccasin Bar where SRC’s ex-boyfriend showed up, a man, she said Schick did not like, and the ex and Schick began to “share words.”

SRC said she went for a walk because she was upset and upon returning to the bar, Schick approached her from behind and put her in a bear hug and then she lost her breath.

Outside the Moccasin Bar, SRC reported Schick let her go and then pushed her but she did not fall. Later after SRC found Schick walking on Hwy. 63 and Schick got into SRC’s car — and two City of Hayward officers arrived, followed by Sawyer County Sgt. Kevin Gillis — SRC and Schick were given a ride home by Gillis to their home. Once home, SRC reported she walked outside and Schick again put her in a bear hold and she again lost her breath for 3-5 seconds.

The following morning, SRC told the investigators, she was scared of Schick. After the incident of Aug. 2, 3 the woman noticed bruising on the backside of both arms, triceps area, and upon Schick’s suggestion she wore long-sleeve shirts to hide the bruising. She told the Polk County officers that the Aug. 2. 3 incidents were the only time documented in the complaint where Schick “was not in uniform.”

Two weeks prior to Sept. 22, SRC said, Schick asked her to come to his home while he was on duty. At Schick’s home, she reported they argued over her not taking off her shoes, and as she attempted to leave, she reported that Schick placed a “left hand and left foot on the door making it so she could not open the door,” and then begged her to talk to him. SCR then recounted attempting to exit via a kitchen door with Schick behind her and begging her to talk, and when she got to the door to open it with her right hand then Schick “slammed the door close” catching her arm between the jam and the door, and she said, “Ouch. You hurt my arm,” with Schick claiming he didn’t purposely slam the door on her arm.

In another incident on Monday, Sept. 19 at her home with her children, around 1:30 a.m., SRC said she heard a sound at a window and her phone began to ring and she answered. It was Schick asking to talk with her. SRC reported she let Schick in not to wake up her children, and she reports that Schick was in uniform. She reported that Schick began to argue with her and make accusation and he promised never to “lay hands on her again,” but he also made accusations that she was seeing another man.

The woman, SRC, said she came forward about the incidents because she feared Schick’s abuse and she had concerns for her mental health. She admitted to at one point lying or not telling the truth about Schick out of fear of not wanting to get Schick in trouble, but then out of concern for herself and her children, she reported the incidents to her lieutenant, citing Schick coming to her home in uniform in the “middle of the night while on duty” that “scared her and made her change her mind,” and she also expressed concern over losing her career.

The complaint states: “To summarize what was discussed during the interview, [SRC] talked about how the relationship started with small arguments. They got progressively worse till Ryan became physical. She realized now that it is most likely going to get worse if it continued. She is fearful of Ryan coming to her home and confronting her with her children there. She communicated how Ryan is manipulative, jealous, and insecure about other men in or around her life.”

Vitalis said he completed a Domestic Violence Lethality Assessment of SRC and based on SRC’s answers she is rated as being in “high danger” of future abuse.

Internal report

The Polk County Sheriff Officers meet with Sawyer County Sheriff Doug Mrotek and members of his staff and learned there had been an internal investigation conducted after the August 2, 3 incident starting at the Moccasin Bar.

For the Aug. 2, 3 internal investigation, Sheriff Mrotek noted to the Polk County officers that both Schick and SRC were interviewed together by choice. A Deputy Woller told the Polk County Officers that SCR wasn’t acting like she normally does but was “confrontational” and “not overly cooperative,” and it was noted that “looking back on things, now knowing that according to SRC, Schick was telling her what to say and/or to coach her on how to act, that behavior now made sense to him.”

It was revealed to the Polk County officers that Mrotek ordered a review of Schick’s squad car’s Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) after the allegation that Schick had contacted SRC while on duty. The AVL data revealed several occasions that Schick’s squad car was near SCR’s home including after a directive had been given by Schick to “avoid her residence and to also avoid contacting her.”

The internal report of Sept. 19 reveals that Sheriff Mrotek met with a Lt. Ripczinski and Lt. Woller because SRC was receiving “unwanted contact from Deputy Ryan Schick,” and the three officers learned of attempts by SRC to block Schick from communicating with her and the report notes that “much of Schick’s behavior had taken place while he was working in his official capacity a deputy.”

The complaint says that both Mrotek and Woller came to Schick’s residence and spoke to Schick about the allegations, and Schick said the contact with SRC was over a dog SRC was trying to give to Schick.

In response, SRC said, she had unblocked Schick to talk about the dog but then he sent other messages that were pleas to “try again” and “to make it work.”

On Sept. 18, Schick reportedly made a home contact with SRC saying he needed to speak with SRC “The report stated that according to SRC, Schick was looking in her windows and knocking on the door until she eventually answered,” reads the complaint. SRC gave Sheriff Mrotek an estimated time of 2 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. when the Sept. 18 incident occurred that included Schick making “… several statements about trying to rekindle their relationship” and SRC telling Schick he needed to leave, which he did, and according to SRC, “…Schick was on-duty at the time.” SRC also said Schick was “watching her while off-duty” and would message her about whom she was with.

The AVL Data from Aug. 21-Sept. 20 showed Schick’s squad car in SRC’s driveway or vicinity and the vehicle had traveled in the area the very same day the directive to stay away from SRC was given.

On Sept. 21, the complaint says that Mrotek, Schick and Sgt. Gillis met in person and Schick was confronted over the AVL data, and Schick reported on Sept. 20 he was attempting to assist Sgt. Gillis in the Dry Town area. The report notes that Schick cleared from the area at 2:24 a.m. but the AVL data showed his vehicle was near SRC’s residence at 2:34 a.m.

“The report concluded, stating that during the meeting with Sheriff Mrotek, Schick said that he was ‘done, deleted and blocked,’ suggesting that he did not want any further contact with SRC. At the end of the meeting, Schick then made a request to be allowed to speak with her for ‘closure.’ That request was denied,” notes the complaint.