No criminal charges will be filed against a Ramsey County correctional sergeant who had been under investigation for violation of the Minnesota Data Practices Act.
The Minneapolis city attorney’s office announced its decision Monday after having reviewed the case since at least early February.
“There is insufficient evidence … to support criminal charges,” said Casper Hill, a spokesman for the city attorneys office. The case had been referred to Minneapolis to avoid a conflict of interest.
Sgt. Lugene Werner and Sgt. Cory Hendrickson were placed on administrative leave from their positions with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office in January. Around the same time, the sheriff’s office requested a criminal investigation into whether Werner had knowingly violated the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, a misdemeanor offense if proven.
No criminal investigation was requested against Hendrickson.
The Ramsey County sheriff’s office declined in February to comment on the active investigation. But former Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at the time he suspected it stemmed from an email Werner had sent him about her concerns that a man in the Ramsey County jail was a potential terrorist.
Fletcher, who is the director of the Center for Somalia History Studies, said Werner contacted him because she attended one of the classes he teaches about terrorism and combating radicalization. He said he believed she did not send him private information.
Werner forwarded the email sent to Fletcher to Hendrickson, seemingly to notify him of her concerns because he works in the detention division that makes decisions about where to house inmates.
Fletcher said he speculated the sheriff’s office targeted Hendrickson as well because he didn’t report that Werner had sent Fletcher potentially sensitive data.
That said, Fletcher added that he believed the real impetus behind the investigation was an email he had sent to a number of Ramsey County jail employees last December. The email referenced a staffing study commissioned by the sheriff’s office back in 2016.
It found that the jail was understaffed.
In attempting to determine whether a staff member had forwarded Fletcher the study, the sheriff’s office discovered Werner’s email, Fletcher said. Fletcher is currently mayor of Vadnais Heights.
Neither Werner’s attorney nor Hendrickson could immediately be reached for comment Monday.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding Werner and Hendrickson’s current employment status.