Former Ramsey County sheriff files police complaint against current sheriff

Former Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has asked for a criminal investigation of the current occupant of his former office.

Fletcher has submitted a complaint to the St. Paul police department, alleging that Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier illegally assumed the sheriff's post in 2017, because he was living in Stillwater and outside Ramsey County.

"You can look at his social media posts, you can look at electrical bills. You can look at a wide variety of items that courts have used to determine residency, and none of them are there to establish residency in Ramsey County," Fletcher said in an interview.

He wants Serier removed from office, and all the staff appointments Serier has made and internal discipline he's meted out to be negated. "That's the remedy," Fletcher said.

Serier, who won the DFL endorsement last weekend for the sheriff's race later this year, says he's responded repeatedly to the questions raised about his residency.

"I was a resident of Ramsey County prior to my appointment to sheriff, and I continue to live in the City of St. Paul," Serier said in a statement. "There is nothing additional to add."

St. Paul police say they've received Fletcher's paperwork and are deciding how to handle the matter, although it may be referred to an agency outside Ramsey County for investigation.

Fletcher and Serier have offered contending documentation, purporting to prove and disprove Serier's eligibility to initially be appointed to fill the vacancy left by then-sheriff Matt Bostrom, and now to run for the office outright. Bostrom left to take a position with Oxford University in England.

Fletcher is the mayor of Vadnais Heights and has said he won't run for that office again. The former Ramsey County sheriff says he's considering running against Serier in the November election.

"I loved the job when I was there, and I loved law enforcement for the 40 years I've been involved with it," Fletcher said. "I think people should work in the area where they can do the most good, and I'd be excited to work in law enforcement."

The other candidate in the race, former Minneapolis police officer Mike Martin, says uncertainty about Serier's residency does raise questions about the transparency surrounding the appointment of an interim sheriff.

"I think this is just another symptom of the problems that arise when you don't have an open process," Martin said. But Martin added that he didn't think it was necessarily a criminal matter, and that he hopes that voters will simply find him a better prospect to serve as sheriff.