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February 14, 2009

Trial set for former sheriff

Joe Dahl is facing felony theft charges

By Dan Nienaber

ST. JAMES — A trial has been set for next month for a former Watonwan County sheriff who has been charged with felony theft for allegedly logging work time while sitting at home.

Joseph Alphonse Dahl, 51, was working as a deputy when the incidents occurred last year. He had previously served as sheriff, but lost the position to the current sheriff, Gary Menssen, after several controversies.

Dahl has been charged with one felony count of theft by false representation, one felony count of theft by swindle and three gross misdemeanor counts of misconduct by a public officer. His trial date has been set for March 19.

After becoming suspicious that Dahl was not fulfilling his deputy duties during his work shifts, Menssen had an investigator from Nicollet County secretly install a global positioning system (GPS) on Dahl’s squad car. A GPS system that was already on the car had allegedly been disconnected several times by Dahl.

The device was installed on Feb. 14, 2008, and used to keep track of Dahl’s whereabouts during 14 days of duty, the criminal complaint said. A deputy from the Scott County Sheriff’s Department also assisted with the investigation.

That deputy discovered that the log created by the GPS device and a written log kept by Dahl didn’t match. He reported Dahl had logged more than 30 hours of work time when his squad car was parked outside of his house instead of being used to patrol the county, as Dahl had claimed on his written reports.

Dahl allegedly reported he had been patrolling areas in and around Ormsby, Odin, South Branch, Lewisville, Darfur and Butterfield while his car was actually parked at his house in St. James.

Dahl’s attorney, William Michael, filed a motion in August requesting that the information gathered by the secretly-installed GPS system be suppressed. District Court Judge Gregory Anderson ruled a jury could hear the evidence if Dahl goes to trial.

Just prior to meeting with Menssen for a union-related employment hearing in April, Dahl announced his retirement after 28 years with the Watonwan County Sheriff’s Department. He had been placed on paid administrative leave after the charges were filed.

Dahl’s retirement did not affect his pension.

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