Sheriff Discusses Federal Indictment Against Strip Club Operators

(Clyman) The Dodge County Sheriff weighing in on the federal indictments handed down this month against the former owner and a manager accused of sex trafficking at a shuttered Clyman strip club. Hardware Store owner Michael Seigel of Fox Lake and manager Scott Hoeft of Watertown are accused of conspiring to use the club to promote, manage, and carry out prostitution between 2009 and 2018. Sheriff Dale Schmidt discussed the indictment with us Wednesday on WBEV’s Community Comment.

“I’m thrilled that even before this indictment that the Hardware Store closed,” he says, “and I’m thrilled that outside of this investigation and wrapped into another one that the Wild Rose, formerly TNT in Lebanon, is closed and we only have one left. And one of these individuals, Mike Seigel, is also a part-owner of that establishment [in Juneau] as well, we’ll see what happens.

The allegations first came to light last year following the indictment of a Hartford man on prostitution charges. A short time later local, state and federal authorities raided the Hardware Store in what Schmidt calls the larges law enforcement presence Clyman has ever seen. A similar response when a federal warrant was executed in Lebanon at the Wild Rose. Schmidt stopped short of saying there could be more indictments handed down. He says you can infer that there is an additional investigation that is still ongoing because of the warrant that was executed. “Well see where they come out with that,” Schmidt says, “and if they have any additional indictments on other individuals.”

According to the Hardware Store indictment, revenue was generated at the Hardware Store by making the club’s lap dance and champagne rooms available for prostitution. The indictment alleges that as a part of the conspiracy, Hoeft and Siegel hired and employed dancers willing to perform illegal acts, including women that they knew were working for pimps.