The Oneida County district attorney said last week she is declining to file charges for misconduct in public office against Lake Tomahawk town chairman George DeMet in relation to a recent court finding that DeMet knowingly broke the state’s open meetings law.
The news was covered in the July 25, 2025 issue of The Lakeland Times. According to the story:
Last month, Oneida County circuit judge Mary Sowinski concluded that DeMet knowingly violated the open meetings law when he attended an enhanced wake boat presentation in 2023, aware both that the presence of another town supervisor, Lenore Lopez, constituted a quorum and that the meeting had not been properly noticed to the public, as required by the open meetings law.
After that finding, Lakeland Times publisher Gregg Walker filed a complaint with Oneida County District Attorney Jillian Pfeifer, asserting that knowingly breaking the law constituted a felony breach of DeMet’s duties.
“The law is clear,” Walker wrote. “Misconduct in public office is defined as ‘[a]ny public officer or public employee’ who … ‘intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, non-discretionary, ministerial duty of the officer’s or employee’s office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law.’” Misconduct also occurs when a officer acts in a manner that the officer knows he or she is forbidden by law to do, Walker wrote, citing a second provision of the statute.
However, in a July 15 letter to Walker, Pfeifer said there was insufficient probable cause to establish a violation of either of those provisions. She also observed that under normal circumstances she would not be the one to field the complaint in the first place.
Pfeifer also found that there was insufficient probable cause to establish a violation of the second Walker allegation, namely, misconduct occurs when officials commit acts that the officials know are in excess of their lawful authority or which the officials know they are forbidden by law to do in their official capacity.
