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Court ruling may mean four trials for Lansing
By: JIM HAMMERAND, Staff Writer
Posted: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 12:55 am
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NORTHFIELD — Former Mayor Lee Lansing could face four separate trials in Steele County on purported state ethics violations.

That’s according to a recent order issued by District Judge Joseph Bueltel, who allowed a trial outside of Rice County but dismissed claims by Lansing’s defense attorney that statements given to investigators were obtained fraudulently.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Lansing said he was not familiar with the order and would not comment further.

Prosecuting the case, the Goodhue County Attorney’s Office said in charges filed in October that Lansing illegally lobbied for a new city liquor store to be built on his family’s property, repeatedly pressuring former City Administrator Al Roder for personal favors and lying about his financial interest in a piece of property believed to be owned by his son.

Lansing’s term expired two months after charges were filed.

His attorney, Tom Dunnwald, argued that at least 30 percent of the Rice County jury pool would have substantial knowledge of the allegations against his client due to intense local interest in the case.

Bueltel agreed, writing that pretrial media publicity could be prejudicial and “creates a reasonable likelihood that a fair trial cannot be had in Rice County.”

But he did not feel that Lansing had been forced to give statements, writing that the former mayor gave “long-winded responses” to a criminal investigator and at one point asked if the recorder was still working.




“There is no evidence of any overpowering coercive activity by the state that warrants suppression of defendant’s statement,” Bueltel wrote.

Lansing faces seven charges of misusing public office: five gross misdemeanor counts of misconduct, one gross misdemeanor count of conflict of interest and a misdemeanor count of accepting a prohibited gift.

The judge also agreed to independently sever three of the charges from the other four, which could lead to four consecutive trials for Lansing on four separate illegal objectives.

The first centered around wrongly acting to put the liquor store at 600 Division St., in which he had an undisclosed interest. The second objective was Lansing’s effort to have Roder reduce the park dedication fee for that property, which Bueltel ruled would result in a financial gain for Lansing or his family.

The third alleged objective was Lansing’s misuse of his governmental power against the tenants of 618 Division St. when he directed Roder to revoke a temporary occupancy permit. The final objective, the result of writing a letter as mayor that contained false information about Roder, could not be tied to the others.

University of Minnesota law professor Steve Simon, who teaches criminal defense and prosecution clinics, said Lansing’s attorney may feel he can beat at least some of the charges.

“The defense may figure we have a good defense on one of the cases and we don’t want the case to be tainted by evidence of all the other bad acts,” Simon said. “They want to have a clean victory.”

Threatening to turn down plea deals before four separate trials could also “wear down” prosecutors, he said, though going through with so many trials would be “greatly expensive.”

“Now (Lansing’s) hand is stronger in terms of bargaining because the prosecutor is going to try four cases,” Simon said. “On the other side, now the defendant has to win four times to walk out of here.”

Neither Goodhue County Attorney Steve Betcher or Dunnwald returned calls seeking comment.

A trial date has yet to be set.



— Jim Hammerand covers the city. He can be reached at jhammerand@northfieldnews.com or 645-1114.
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Member Opinions:
By: curious on 7/1/09
Hey, if I can make this much money defending my client in 1 trial, 4 trials would be even better. If I'm really lucky, I might even get paid. Trial number 5 will be Tom Dunnwald trying to get paid.

Then we have Victor Summa criticizing Al Roder for hiring a lawyer before he got charged with anything. Apparently it's ok for Gary Smith to hire a lawyer with no charges or investigation going on, but it's not ok for Al Roder to hire a lawyer even though Gary Smith, one of Mr Roder's direct reports, was already conducting a questionable investigation of him.

Wait a minute. What if there really was ere an investigation going on regarding Gary Smith and we just don't know about it. How much is Smith paying his lawyer, and for what? Maybe that's why Mr Summa doesn't criticize him for hiring a lawyer, there really was a reason that Gary Smith needed a lawyer? After all Mr Summa is a very smart man with a very smart editor, he wouldn't just miss something like that would he?

Actually, could Al Roder sue the city if one of it's employees, let's hypotheticaly say the police chief, was conducting an illegal investigation of him? Or are there things that a chief of police could have done in conducting such an investigation that would have been illegal? What if somebody went and illegally searched someone's car or office or something?

It's not ok for us to pay Roder to avoid a lawsuit, but it's ok for Gary Smith's lawyer to try to trick the city into a position where they could get money from the city?

By: OnlytheFacts on 7/1/09
Curious,

All you are doing is trying to stir up a bunch of crap. How much Gary is paying his attorney is none of your damn business. At least Gary is paying for it, and not our tax money.

As for as Victor and his editor being smart is your opinion. Not everyone would agree with you, especially the judge in Rice County.

By: curious on 7/1/09
Is it possible that Gary is the reason, or part of the reason that our tax money is paying for Al Roder's lawyer?

As for stirring up crap, I think the biggest smell is coming from what Hvistendahl and Wigley stirred up over at locally grown!

By: fairandbalanced on 7/5/09
Does anybody know if it's true that Griff designed a website for Gary Smith, which would make him one of Griff's past customers? I have been told this is true, but cannot confirm it. Maybe Griff can confirm or deny? Follow the money right?

 
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