Inmate Claims Abuse of Power by Webster County Detective Under Investigation

The DCI has been investigating a Webster County Detective since October 2022 and although he has been put on administrative leave, no charges have been filed and additional information has not been disclosed.

Webster County Sheriff’s Detective Tom Steck was put on administrative leave in November. 

When an officer is under investigation there is a mandatory disclosure that must be made to defense attorneys who represent persons whose cases may be affected by an officer’s credibility.

It’s called a Brady Giglio Disclosure and it was sent out to defense attorneys representing 8 people, including Louis Gaudio who is currently in prison in Mount Pleasant.

Gaudio claims it was up until Detective Steck was put on administrative leave that he had been suffering years of harassment from the officer, most recently while in the Webster County Jail.

“Tom Steck would come up there once a week and raid the cell I was in, ” Gaudio said. “I asked the Fort Dodge guards had ever seen Tom Steck up there this much? They said Absolutely 100% not and he would only come in my cell, Raid my cell, go through my commissary, break my stuff. I had pictures of my kid, he would throw them on the floor. The harassment never stopped.”

Following the Brady Giglio Disclosure, Gaudio says his charges were lessened and he is now serving a 20 year sentence.

He says he knows he deserves his time in jail but he says that justice should go both ways.

“He has been on the Fort Dodge Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, for thirteen years,” Gaudio said. “In those thirteen years he has worked hand in hand with the DCI every day for drug investigations, murder investigations, everything. These are people he works with. If you work with someone for 13 years you grow friendships nothing will be done to t s he took an oath he broke that oath and yet he is still working with them hand in hand.”

Alpha Media News reached out to the Webster County Attorney’s Office in regards to an update on the investigation. We were told that as there is an ongoing investigation by the DCI there is no comment at this time.