Waukesha County Jail Kitchen Supervisor Charged in Sexual Assaults of Employees

A Waukesha County Jail kitchen supervisor was charged Wednesday with four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault after he was accused of assaulting four women who worked in the jail kitchen.

Michael G. Kunschke, 46, of Fond du Lac, faces up to three years in jail and $40,000 in fines if convicted on all four misdemeanor counts. He is scheduled for an initial appearance in court March 11.

According to the complaint:

The investigation against Kunschke began Dec. 28 after a woman, who reported to him via Aviands Food Service, claimed Kunschke was sexually harassing employees.

The woman told investigators Kunschke would frequently touch female employees on their hair and shoulders. The contact made her uncomfortable, she told a detective, but that feeling worsened when he started placing hands under the backs of their shirts, grab cell phones from their shirts’ front pockets and making inappropriate sexual comments to them.

In the spring 2012, the woman told a detective, Kunschke grabbed her chest while they were in a cooler, laughing and saying,“I have a handful.” She screamed at him and told him to stop.

The unwanted sexual contact continued in the summer, with Kunschke grabbing her in a closet and sticking his hands down her pants. He apologized the next day, the woman said, but she feared reporting the incident because she was afraid she would lose her job.

On Dec. 18, she said, Kunschke grabbed her chest again without her permission. Then the day after Christmas, he kissed her on the cheek saying, “Merry Christmas, sweetie.”

Finally, she reported the incident after she came into work Dec. 27, asked what else needed to be done and Kunschke pointed to his waist and mouthed the word “Me,” she told a detective.

Another woman told a detective Kunschke twice grabbed her vaginal area, in addition to making sexual comments while she worked for him between March 2011 and March 2012.

A third woman said Kunschke would place his hand on her breast when he grabbed her phone and would make sexual comments, saying she was a “hot piece of (expletive)" that he would like to “hit.”

The third woman told investigators Kunschke also touched her vagina about six months before she quit working for him.

A fourth woman told a detective Kunschke grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek in front of jail inmates. She told him to stop invading her space.

Kunschke told a detective on Feb. 4 it was a “he said, she said” issue and that he wanted to “move on,” saying a trial would waste everyone’s money.

Kunschke told the detective the claims were made because of conrtact negotiations and everything was going to change at work, adding “guilty until proven innocent. … I’m screwed.”