Cook County News Herald

County attorney threatening county with lawsuit over courthouse shooting




The county may be facing a lawsuit from County Attorney Tim Scannell. On April 9, 2013, the county board spent about an hour and a half with its Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust attorney, Dyan Ebert, to discuss the matter.

Before the meeting was closed, Ebert made the following statement:

“It is my recommendation that the board go into closed session pursuant to Minnesota Statute Section 13D.05, Subdivision 3(b) for attorney/client privileged communications. The purpose of the closed session is to discuss the litigation that has been threatened against Cook County by Tim Scannell relating to the December 2011 shooting.

“The discussion will not be for purposes of general legal advice. The litigation has been threatened and appears imminent based on direct conversations that I, as well as some of the individual commissioners and other county employees have had with Mr. Scannell and his attorney, Baiers Heeren.

“The lawsuit has also been threatened in a demand letter that was sent to me at my request to provide the county with specific details regarding the claim and the basis for the lawsuit.

“It is my belief that a closed session is necessary so that I can consult with the board in a private, confidential setting, and it will also provide the board with the opportunity to discuss the defense strategy and possible reconciliation or settlement options relating to the threatened lawsuit.

“Having the discussion in open session would compromise the board’s ability to protect its rights, and a confidential session is also necessary for me to effectively advocate on the board/county’s behalf.

“The discussions in the closed session will be limited to strategy and settlement options relating to the threatened litigation.”

The Cook County News-Herald has requested a copy of the demand letter from Attorney Ebert. She said she needed some time to more thoroughly consider the request and would contact the paper once she had been able to do that. “At this juncture, however,” she said, “because the demand letter was affirmatively requested by the county I believe it is civil investigate [investigation] data pursuant to Minnesota Statute Section 13.39 and is protected nonpublic or confidential data not subject to disclosure at this time.”

The News-Herald contacted its Minnesota Newspaper Association attorney, Mark Anfinson, who said, “…The main purpose of Section 13.39 is to protect materials collected by a government agency engaged in an investigation from being accessed by potential adverse parties. Here, since the letter is by definition from a potential adverse party, no legitimate interest of the government agency would be advanced by withholding it.”

The News-Herald attempted to contact County Attorney Tim Scannell to ask if he wanted to make a statement, but had not received a response as of press time

Scannell was critically injured in a shooting in the county attorney’s office in December 2011. In a jury trial, the shooter, Dan Schlienz, had just been found guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor female. Scannell was the prosecutor in the case.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.