FORMER COUNCILMAN ZIEG, CITY CLERK CLAVIER PLEAD NO CONTEST IN SIGN THEFT CASE

Settlement closes three-year legal spat with former councilman Senmartin

ALEX RICKERT alex@keysweekly.com

Aprolonged legal battle spanning more than three years came to a quiet close on Monday as former Marathon city councilman Dan Zieg and his partner, current city clerk Diane Clavier, switched their initial pleas of “not guilty” to “no contest” in the 2019 theft of a sign outside former city councilman and current planning commissioner Mark Senmartin’s business.

According to Monroe County court records, as part of the Jan. 23 settlement, adjudication of guilt will be withheld, and Zieg and Clavier each must pay $223 in court costs, $40 in investigation costs and $250 in prosecution costs, for a total of $513.

Zieg and Senmartin have a contentious history throughout their time on the council, but this particular legal feud began when Senmartin posted a sign reading “Drop Doc Zieg” outside his Cash Flow Jewelry and Pawn shop in Marathon’s Town Square Mall ahead of the November 2019 Marathon City Council election, in which Zieg was reelected to the council to serve with Senmartin.

On Nov. 25, 2019, surveillance camera footage showed Zieg’s car in the shopping center’s parking lot. In the video, Clavier exits the vehicle, takes down the sign and puts it in the open car window before the car drives away.

After initially offering amnesty if the sign – which he valued at $25 –was returned, Senmartin eventually filed a police report two days later when he said he received no response to an email sent to Clavier. Clavier contended that she was on vacation at the time and had eventually sent an email to Senmartin offering a $25 check as compensation for the sign, which had already been collected by garbage services.

Following police questioning, in which Zieg and Clavier admitted to taking the sign, the pair were charged with a second-degree misdemeanor for petit theft and were booked into the Marathon detention center on Dec. 8.