BUNGLING GRAMS CASE ERODES PUBLIC TRUST

The Anoka County Sheriff's office has more work to do to restore public
confidence in its integrity and competence.

An outside investigation by the Dakota County sheriff has revealed serious
irregularities during a July traffic stop of Morgan Grams, son of U.S. Sen.
Rod Grams, R-Minn.

The younger Grams was stopped after Sen. Grams asked the Anoka County
sheriff for help finding his son, who has experienced legal and drug
problems in the past. The Dakota County investigation found no evidence
that Sen. Grams asked for any improper special treatment for his child. But
it does seem clear that Morgan Grams received unusual treatment.

Morgan Grams was was not detained for questioning or a sobriety test and
was charged with no crime even though the car contained 10 bags of
marijuana, an open can containing beer and as many as 20 empty beer cans.
He should have been charged with several offenses and investigated for
others, according to the outside review. Instead, evidence was destroyed
and reports were not properly filed.

So comprehensive were the irregularities that Dakota County Sheriff Don
Gudmundson said it was hard to identify anything the Anoka County officers
did right after stopping Grams.

The Washington County attorney's office, which reviewed this report, is
filing two misdemeanor charges against Morgan Grams. Evidence to support
other possible charges has been lost. Prosecutors declined to pursue
criminal charges against anyone else.

On Friday, Chief Deputy Peter Beberg, who conducted the stop of Grams,
resigned in response to this investigation. But Anoka County Sheriff Larry
Podany must take further action to determine whether this was a cover-up or
mere bungling and whether additional discipline is in order.

Dakota County investigators appear to have done a thorough and honest job
of probing this matter. That should help ease, but will not wholly prevent,
erosion of public confidence that law enforcement treats all citizens equally.

Meanwhile, though he may have asked for nothing improper, these events are
unlikely to help Sen. Grams politically. If anyone involved thought they
were doing the senator a favor by bending the rules for his son, they were
wrong.