After the Vilas County district attorney took the rare step of issuing an ultimatum, the town of Presque Isle met a Jan. 30 deadline for turning over requested records to The Lakeland Times.
A story in the Feb. 13, 2026 issue of The Lakeland Times said The Times has now begun a comprehensive review of those records. The newspaper had sought all public records and correspondence related to the Presque Isle investigation of its town computers, including all reports prepared by Special Investigations & Forensic Technologies (SIFT), the computer forensics firm hired in 2023; any and all preliminary and final reports; and any and all correspondence between town officials, SIFT, and outside individuals regarding the investigation.
The town turned over the records on Jan. 27, three days before the deadline and just about a week shy of a year since the Times made the original request on Feb. 4, 2025.
On Jan. 9, Vilas County District Attorney Karl Hayes informed Lakeland Timespublisher Gregg Walker via email that he had warned the town he would file a petition for mandamus in circuit court if the matter was not resolved by Jan. 30.
“I made it clear that if this matter is not resolved to my satisfaction on or before Friday, 01/30/26, I will file a petition for mandamus in Vilas County Circuit Court on Monday, 02/02/26,” Hayes wrote in the email.
The ultimatum followed months of delay. After submitting the initial request, the town initially provided only a single SIFT invoice and a two-page summary of findings read aloud at a town board meeting. No additional records were released.
In August, the newspaper filed an open records complaint against the town with the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office, asking the department to investigate why the records hadn’t been turned over. In November, the town’s own attorney, Steven Garbowicz, advised the town to fulfill the request.
“All of what is described in that public records request would be public records and should be turned over to the Lakeland Times,” Garbowicz wrote. “There is really nothing in that request that I would consider exempt from the public records request.”
Garbowicz suggested that the town clerk begin assembling the information and stressed how late the town was in fulfilling — or denying — the request.
“This request is approximately 9 months old,” he wrote. “It is sort of amazing that the Lakeland Timeshas not filed a lawsuit against the town.”
Town chairman Allen Eschenbauch quickly followed up with Walker, promising in an email to make the request a priority.
“[Attorney Garbowicz] makes it quite clear that he sees no reason not to comply with and fulfill this request,” Eschenbauch wrote in an email.
The records
In the Jan. 27 letter signed by Eschenbauch, the chairman stated that David Bogan had drafted the cover letter to explain issues encountered in responding to the request and to provide context for the records released.
“The enclosed USB stick contains all the records the town of Presque Isle was able to locate in response to your open records request,” the letter stated. “We examined all available emails and files located on computers in use by the town during the requested time period.”
In the spring of 2024, the town’s letter continued, the town created a new website and migrated its email system to Microsoft 365 for Business from its prior email system, use of Google Drive, and other applications. While QuickBooks financial records were not impacted, email messages from the prior Thunderbird system were affected.
“All email messages from the prior system (Thunderbird) were to be migrated to the MS 365 system,” the letter states. “For an undocumented reason, this did not occur, so all town emails prior to the 2024 migration were permanently lost.”
According to the chairman, only three computers or images used by the town were examined by SIFT: the treasurer’s laptop, a pre-2023 clerk desktop image, and a post-2023 clerk desktop. The town states that data on two of those computers were lost.
A multi-year investigation by the town into potential misuse of its own computers prompted the open records request. In January 2025, the town board voted to end the investigation after then-chairman John MacLean read the aforementioned two-page summary of findings purportedly drawn from a partial review conducted by SIFT. According to that summary, SIFT reviewed 38,935 deleted files recovered from a town desktop computer out of 1.9 million files recovered.
The summary also stated that “the results conclusively show that the investigation needs to continue to be pursued,” a claim that raised further questions and prompted the Times to seek the full record.
Over the ensuing months, explanations varied as to who had possession of the records and whether they were accessible. At various times, town officials indicated that SIFT had the records or that the town could not access them. SIFT, for its part, maintained that records had been returned and could be accessed.
In August 2025, the Times filed an open records complaint with the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office, requesting that the department investigate the matter.
“These are public records,” Walker said at the time. “The public paid for them. The public has a right to see them.”
