No complaint was officially filed against Casey Bradley, Stutsman County auditor/chief operating officer, according to an investigation done by Mercer County Sheriff Dean Danzeisen.
The Stutsman County Commission unanimously accepted Danzeisen’s report and took no further action.
Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser asked Danzeisen in December to conduct an investigation into allegations by a former county employee who resigned that Bradley had created a hostile work environment.
In his three-page report, Danzeisen said Kaiser presented him with a box sealed with tape containing files the county received from the Village Business Institute, which is part of Family Village Service Center, the organization that conducted the initial investigation into the allegations against Bradley. After looking through the contents of the box, Danzeisen didn’t find a complaint formally filed by the former county employee against Bradley, according to the report.
The commission approved a request from Stutsman County State’s Attorney Fritz Fremgen in January to hire the Village Business Institute to conduct the investigation after he said he received a complaint from the former county employee. In February, the County Commission reversed that decision after a review of the county’s personnel policy showed the county sheriff should be investigating violations of the policy. The sheriff has the discretion to bring in an outside investigator if he or she chooses.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bradley said after the meeting that he was glad the truth came out in Danzeisen’s report.
“There was never any valid complaint,” he said.
