Sheriff Announces New Employees, PromotionsKosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith announced new additions to his department and promotions.
• Merit Deputy: Dan Buell of Milford will be assigned to the patrol division.
He has eight years of law enforcement experience. He graduated from the 210th Indiana Law Enforcement academy in 2017. Buell is a field training officer and standardized field sobriety test instructor.
• Merit Deputy: Brette Stamper of Warsaw will be assigned to the patrol division.
She graduated from Wawasee High School in 2012. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice and criminology from Ball State University in 2016. She has six years of law enforcement experience and is a graduate of the 211th Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in 2017.
Her husband, Quinten Stamper, is a firefighter at Warsaw-Wayne Township Fire Department.
• Director of Dispatch: Amanda See, of Leesburg, will serve as the director of the Kosciusko County Central Dispatch. She has 12 years of dispatching experience. Prior to her time as a dispatcher, See worked at Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital for 19 years.
She and her husband, Jeff, have two daughters, Kate and Avery.
• Dispatcher: Heather McGuire, of Warsaw, will be assigned to the Dispatch Center as dispatcher.
She was a dispatcher from 1995-1999 before leaving and becoming the owner of Betty’s Cake and Candy Shop in Warsaw. She and her husband, Jeff, have four children and five grandchildren.
• Dispatcher: Samantha “Sammy” McGuigan of Walkerton will be assigned to the Dispatch Center as dispatcher.
She has two years of dispatching experience. She and her husband, Zach, have four children: Anthony 15; Bradley 13; Aubrey 11; and Lily, 7.
• Dispatcher: Jakayla Troyer, of Milford, will be assigned to Central Dispatch as a dispatcher. She and her husband have four children.
• Food Service employee: Kiersten Abbott, of North Manchester, will serve as a cook and food preparation specialist for the jail’s food service program.
A 2022 graduate of North Manchester High School, she loves spending time with her rescue dog Blue, three cats and loves to cook. She also works parttime at Peabody’s Nursing Home in North Manchester.
• Director of Work Release: Jerrad Jones, of Warsaw, will serve as the director of Work Release program.
He has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 16 years with the majority of time spent in corrections. Jones worked his way up to sergeant, holding many certifications such as Indiana Law Enforcement Academy general instructor, less lethal instructor and SERT team leader. Jones has been in the work release since 2021, serving as assistant director.
• Assistant Director Work Release: Josh Gonzalez, of Warsaw, will serve assistant director of Work Release.
A 2000 Warsaw Community High School graduate, Gonzalez began working for the Sheriff’s Office in 2014, all in Work Release.
He and his wife, Marry, have a daughter and two sons.
