An Educational Experience for Sheriff Andersohn
All in all, the predictions, in the wake of the passage of the MPPA, that the metro-area sheriffs would spend a lot of time and effort hassling permit holders turned out to have been overblown.At least a little.
In Ramsey, Sheriff Fletcher insisted that applicants make an appointment to drop off their applications. Which is kind of silly; even if an applicant fills in his or her application at the window, it shouldn't take more than five minutes or so. The process is intended to be very straightforward: show up at the sheriff's office with a copy of your training certificate, a copy of your driver's license, and a check; fill out the form; hand it in and get a receipt, and you're done.
But appointments were readily available, and applicants showing up without an appointment weren't hassled.
In Dakota, Sheriff Gudmundsen kept telling his friends that he wasn't going to issue any permits, no matter what the law said. But he did.
In Hennepin, Sheriff McGowan opened up a fully-staffed satellite office, just to handle permit applicants. Granted, that leaves the folks in the office without much work to do, much of the time, but that was his call.
And then there was Sheriff Andersohn of Anoka. A little background:
Under the MPPA, permit applications have to be made in person. Which means, in practice, that applicants have to take at least a fair chunk of the workday off, just to apply.
Well, it's only once every five years, so that's not a big deal.
But Andersohn had another hassle in mind: he insisted that applicants come down in person, and present their drivers license, in order to pick up their permits, too.
He had an interesting argument. He was worried, he said, that if he mailed out the permit—as the law requires—it might be stolen. On the surface, that almost sounds reasonable. After all, the carry permit, like a drivers license, is an important document, and it shouldn't fall into unauthorized hands, right?
Well, no. By itself, a carry permit is useless; the permit holder also has to have a state-issue picture ID—like a drivers license—in order to be able to carry.
And if the sheriff were really worried about identity theft, he'd have been lobbying the state DMV to have drivers licenses picked up in person; they're mailed out.
And, besides, the law is very clear:
Upon issuing a permit to carry, the sheriff must provide a laminated permit card to the applicant by first class mail unless personal delivery has been made.If the sheriff were really concerned about a card falling into the wrong hands, he could have his deputies deliver it.
But that would have been too much trouble; much easier, he thought, to require permit holders to lose another chunk of a workday, and make them come to him.
Most people didn't want to make a fuss over it. Losing another workday was an annoyance, but going to court is another level of hassle entirely. Any easy way for Andersohn to hassle permit holders, after all, who would bother to take him to court over something like that?
James R. Evenson did.
From
As right-to-carry and shall-issue concealed carry laws have been
enacted across many states, high-ranking lawmen have not always
followed the letter of these laws, but now a judge in Minnesota has
ordered at least one county sheriff to toe the line.
Anoka County Sheriff Bruce Andersohn had insisted that residents drive
to the Sheriff's Department office to pick up their newly-issued
concealed pistol licenses (CPL). That came to a halt when Anoka County
resident James R. Evenson and St. Louis Park attorney David Gross went
to court and forced Andersohn to start mailing the CPLs as provided by
the state's new shall-issue law. It was a law Gross helped author, so
he is intimately familiar with its requirements.
According to various court documents obtained by Gun Week, Evenson
applied for his CPL on June 23 through the Anoka County Sheriff's
Department. Dennis Reihe of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office
contacted Evenson on July 14, court documents state, and advised him
that he could pick up his CPL. Evenson declined to make that trip and
instead, on July 29, asked that the CPL be mailed to him, as provided
in the statute.
On July 31, Sheriff's Lt. Ronald Bouley contacted Evenson and told him
that he had to pick up the CPL in person, and provide a driver's
license to verify his identity, under a policy established by
Andersohn.
Evenson contacted Gross and they went to court, where the case first
went before District Court Judge H. Joseph Quinn Aug. 7. He issued a
show cause order to the sheriff's department that, among other things,
stated, "It is apparent that no valid excuse for (the sheriff's)
nonperformance can be given."
The judge, according to court documents, also ordered Andersohn to
"immediately issue (a CPL) to . . . Evenson . . . and deliver the
permit to him by first class mail according to the statute."
A week later, the case went before Judge Roland Faricy. However, in
the interim, on Aug. 11, the sheriff's department changed its policy
to comply with the requirements of the statute, and they are now
mailing CPLs. That was the date on which Evenson's CPL was mailed.
Gross told Gun Week that he is "quite satisfied" that the Anoka County
sheriff has evidently scrapped his policy, but added, "I'm not going
to let down my guard or stop watching" for other problems around the
state. He said the reason that the statute was written to provide for
the mailing of the CPLs, with sanctions included for agencies that do
not follow the law, was to put the various departments on notice that
"you are either going to play or pay."
In response to Evenson's legal action, Bouley argued in an affidavit
that Andersohn had instituted his policy requiring CPL recipients to
pick them up in person so he could ensure that the individual got his
or her permit personally.
"The rationale behind this policy is that theft of mail is a common
occurrence," Bouley stated in his affidavit, "and because there is no
description of physical features or photograph on the permit, there is
a possibility the permit would be taken and used by someone other than
the permitted person."
Also at issue are Gross' attorney's fees, which he says will now have
to be paid by the county. Assistant Anoka County Attorney Anthony
C. Palumbo contested that, even though Quinn noted in his initial
ruling that state law requires "an awarding of costs, disbursements,
and attorney's fees."
In the end, Faricy ruled for Evenson, and Gross was tasked with
writing an order for the judge's approval.
Gross said one of the critical issues of this case was that he brought
the conflict between the sheriff's policy and the state statute to
Andersohn's attention, giving the sheriff an opportunity to comply
with the law. When the sheriff's department failed to do that, Gross
went to court.
Sheriff Andersohn is hardly the only arrogant sheriff in the state of
Minnesota, but his little learning experience will be instructive to
others. It's really very simple: even sheriffs have to obey the
law. A good sheriff, a man or woman who takes the oath and
responsibility seriously, wouldn't need to be told that. Many haven't
needed such an expensive lesson. Sheriff Andersohn did.
Minnesota Sheriff Ordered By Court to Follow CCW Law
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Summing Up
There's a few points worth noting about this: