BISMARCK -- Criminal charges against two Workforce Safety and Insurance officials were dropped Friday afternoon after prosecutors said they had discovered a "mistake in law" when re-interviewing a witness.
WSI Executive Director Charles "Sandy" Blunt and the agency's fraud unit director, Romi Leingang, had been charged in April with unlawful disclosure of confidential information. It had to do with use of state driver's license photos when Blunt wanted to determine who had sent an e-mail to the agency.
The two were to have been arraigned on Wednesday.
"This dismissal establishes that Romi never should have been charged in this matter," said Leingang's attorney, Tim Purdon, who said his client was "pleased by this exoneration."
Other WSI officials, including Blunt, spokesman Mark Armstrong and WSI Board Chairman Robert Indvik, could not be reached immediately for comment.
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Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Cynthia Feland said South Central District Judge Robert Wefald signed the order to dismiss. She asked for the dismissal, she said, after a new interview with the chief lawyer at WSI, Jodi Bjornson.
"I just wish people would have been candid in the beginning," Feland said.
A judge found in August that there was probable cause to send the case to trial after conducting a preliminary hearing. The charge is a class C felony that could have brought a sentence of five years and $5,000 fine.
But, Feland wrote in her request for dismissal, "Since that finding, WSI witnesses have come forward with candor not previously offered. The additional information provided by these witnesses creates a viable affirmative defense of mistake of law."
Feland's motion said Bjornson testified in an April 17 deposition that she had no independent memory of having given Leingang legal advice about using the Department of Transportation's photos on Feb. 17, 2006.
But in a new deposition taken on Monday, Feland wrote, Bjornson said she had given Leingang advice on Feb. 21, 2006, that the photos were not confidential.
"Leingang, acting under mistake of law, specifically reliance on Bjornson's review of the confidentiality law, accessed and used the photos," Feland wrote. "(That) mistake of law can be reasonably imputed to Charles Blunt, thereby excusing him from an independent obligation to ensure the appropriateness and legality of his actions in using DOT photos to investigate" the e-mail.
Janell Cole works for Forum Communication Co., which owns The Dickinson Press.
