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| Gotwald’s journey to Jefferson County Sheriff a long, successful ride
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 from The Punxsutawney Spirit
Written by Lsrry McGuire
Despite not having aspirations to be in law enforcement, Gotwald switched careers from working as a gas driller to deputy sheriff and was elected sheriff in 2007.
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Though Jefferson County Sheriff Carl Gotwald Sr. didn’t begin life wanting to be a sheriff, or involved with law enforcement, the story of how that came to be is both interesting and funny.
Gotwald was born March 14, 1955, in Punxsutawney. He grew up in Elk Run near the fire hall.
He attended Jenks Hill Elementary School, junior high on North Jefferson Street and then later graduated from Punxsy Area High School in 1973.
“I worked in the old shoe factory in Big Run where Star Iron Works is today. I also worked at Jefferson Grocery, where I worked part time putting the tax stamps on cigarette cartons and took the orders for the markets.”
Gotwald attended the Dean Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and graduated with a two-year degree in electrical technology.
“Everyone told me there was no work around here, and I had to go to south if I wanted to find employment,” he said. “But I never wanted to leave the area, so I went to work at Hetager Drilling and drilled for coal.
“I was married for the first time in 1994, and had two sons, Carl Jr. and Eric. Both are married,” he said.
While Gotwald worked for Hetager Drilling, and when he was laid off in the winter months, he went to work at Fairman Drilling. When the gas business slowed down, he went to work for Kelly Cielo Auto Sales in Punxsy, in the sales and service department.
When the dealership was sold to Henry Dahl, and the name was changed to Punxsy Sales & Service, he became the service manager for a five-franchise garage.
“My wife, the former Nancy Cielo, and I started our own automobile business, where we sold used cars, rental cars, U-Hauls, and we also had a service garage.
“We met in 1982 and were married in 1996,” he said. “We built a house in Oliveberg in 1985.”
Gotwald said in 1992, he took a job in the Jefferson County Sheriff’s department with Sheriff Harry “Ed” Dunkle until he retired. He then worked under Sheriff Tom Demko.
“In 1994, I went to school and became the first K-9 officer in Jefferson County,” Gotwald said. “I learned about working with dogs for drugs and protection work.”
Then, in 2005, when Bea Barr retired as chief deputy, Gotwald took over that position.
In 2007, Gotwald ran for the office and was elected sheriff.
Gotwald said he was voted service manager of the year for the northeast district from Ford while he was at Punxsy Sales & Serivce.
“You can almost relate being a service manager to being a deputy and the sheriff,” Gotwald said. “It taught me a lot on how to deal with people, and how to see their reactions. I learned to tell on a quick glance if somebody is going to be really angry or not.
Gotwald said he has used some of the same philosophies he used during his time working in car sales now as he works in law enforcement.
“If someone calls — whether its a deputy or another sheriff — I’m here to help them,” he said. “I’ll tell a member of the public who comes in with a problem and they say ‘you’re the sheriff.’
“I’ll say ‘I’m your sheriff.The people elected me and they expect me to be here for them whenever they call,’” Gotwald said. “If I can’t help them, I try to lead them in the direction where they will receive help.”
Gotwald went on to explain that law enforcement was not his chosen career.
“I had never thought about law enforcement as a career until I met Ed (Dunkle),” he said. “I took square dancing lessons from him, and he would talk to me about the department. He would tell me stories about the incidents that his deputies were involved in, and I became interested in it.”
Gotwald said when an opening in the department came about, Dunkle asked if he was interested in it.
Gotwald said arresting suspects who have fled the area or missed a court date can be dangerous.
“You never know what a suspect or prisoner is going to do,” he said. “When we remove somebody from the jail, there’s a policy that there must be two deputies on the transport.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, we have two deputies in a car transporting one or more persons.
“You never know what their intentions are — especially a high profile suspect. You don’t know if that person might attempt to escape while being transported,” he said. “You always have to be on the lookout for a possible escape attempt.”
Gotwald said when a prisoner is in the courtroom, there are usually family members in attendance, which creates even more problems.
“Everywhere we go, a prisoner has girlfriends, wives and other family members who are scared and worried about them while they’re in jail,” he said. “We are always on watch to make sure a prisoner isn’t slipped anything from a family member that might help them escape.
“We tell people that visitation is at the jail. We can’t allow them to have contact at the courthouse,” he said. “That is more of an officer safety issue than anything.”
Gotwald said his department has received grant funding that will be used to purchase tasers.
“We’ve ordered four tasers with video lasers,” Gotwald said “When someone in custody is acting up, and you turn the laser on, it begins to record their actions.
“If a deputy ends up tasing a prisoner, and they say they weren’t doing anything, the deputy has proof from the video.”
Gotwald said with the addition of tasers, the courtroom will become less lethal.
“With a taser, the suspect can’t grab somebody’s hand gun that has ten or fifteen rounds in it and start blasting away.”
Gotwald said a taser sounds like a bad thing, but it is much safer than mace.
“If I spray you with mace, for hours afterwards your face burns, your skin burns, your eyes are irritated and your mucous glands are swollen shut,” he said. “When you’re shot with a taser, a standard shot lasts five seconds. Once the five seconds is up, I can get the prisoner back on his feet. The prisoner may feel bad for a little bit, but then it’s over.
“I attended the taser class, and several guards and officers volunteered to be shot with a taser,” Gotwald said. “Once the five seconds was up, and the dart was removed, they were able to stand up.”
Gotwald said bench warrants and protection from abuse (PFA) orders are dangerous and there is always more than one officer to serve an order because one can never know what he or she may be running in to.
“One night, when I was a deputy, I was serving a PFA order on someone,” he said. “I called a Brookville Borough Police officer on the radio to ask him to assist me with serving the papers. He was tied up on a traffic stop and said he would help me when he was done.
“I told the officer to meet across from the Brookville car dealer on East Main Street when he was done. I was sitting in a police car waiting when this big Ford Bronco pulled up beside me and this guy jumps out and asked me if I had something for him.
“I asked him who he was and he told me he was listening to the scanner and thought he would come over and get the PFA from me,” he said. “That was an instance of someone listening on the scanner who could have been standing there waiting for us with a gun.”
Gotwald said working with Brett, the drug sniffing dog, has been quite an experience.
“He’s trained in sniffing drugs and he’s trained to protect me,” Gotwald said. “I mostly use him for drugs, and now that he’s seven-years-old, he has developed some hip problems.
“I don’t do the aggression work anymore because I want to keep his health problems to a minimum. Now, I just train him to find drugs,” he said. “Brett is trained to search for heroin, meth, marijuana and cocaine.
“We work a lot with county probation, Brookville Borough Police and just about every police department in the county.”
Gotwald said state police have their own dogs that they use.
“Dog training is very intense. It usually consists of 10 to 12 hour days for six weeks,” he said. “I’m 54 years old now, and I don’t think I could go through that again.
“When we were training, we’d be up at 3 a.m. to go work in a park before anyone was there,” Gotwald said. “At midnight, we’d be in an abandoned motel searching for people.
“We worked all different hours,” he said. “When we weren’t working with the trainers, I would be out working with Brett on my own.”
Gotwald said he has a DEA license and his permitted to carry a certain amount of drugs to be used for training dogs.
“Sometimes, when I’m at home, I’ll hide something and have him locate it.”
Gotwald said he and Brett go to the schools for the kids to meet the dog and learn about the dangers of drug abuse.
“I explain to them about drugs and how Brett can find them even if they are hidden,” he said. “The one thing I’m looking forward to is moving back into the courthouse within the next few months.”
Even though Gotwald enjoyed working outdoors, he says he has enjoyed his work in law enforcement even more so. |
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