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Crime, Law and Justice
Kirsti Marohn
Brainerd, Minn.

Man wrongly suspected in Wetterling case to appeal dismissal of lawsuit

Daniel Rassier speaks at a press conference.
Daniel Rassier recounts some of his interactions with the Stearns County Sherriff’s Office during a press conference in November 2016 in Brooklyn Park. A federal judge in March ruled that Rassier’s civil suit against Stearns County should be dismissed because the legal window of time for Rassier to sue had expired.
Sam Harper | MPR News 2016

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The attorney for a man wrongly suspected in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling says his client will challenge a federal judge's decision to dismiss his lawsuit against Stearns County and its former sheriff.

In March, U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank ruled Daniel Rassier’s civil suit should be dismissed because the legal window of time for Rassier to sue had expired. Rassier’s attorney, Mike Padden, has filed notice of his intent to appeal.

In 2010, former Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner named Rassier a “person of interest” in the 1989 abduction of 11-year-old Wetterling near St. Joseph, Minn.

Rassier maintained his innocence but wasn’t cleared until 2016, when Danny Heinrich confessed to kidnapping and killing Wetterling and led authorities to his remains buried on a farm near Paynesville, Minn. Heinrich is serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison for child pornography.

In 2017, Rassier and his mother, Rita, sued Sanner, Stearns County and two investigators, arguing that they defamed him, ignored evidence pointing to Heinrich, retaliated against him for criticizing the sheriff’s office and violated his constitutional rights when they searched his home and family’s property in 2010.

Frank later dismissed Rassier’s claims of unlawful search and seizure, but let stand Rassier’s claims that Sanner defamed him and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

Last month, however, Frank granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment to dismiss the case because Rassier filed his claim after the six-year statute of limitations had expired.

Padden said Rassier didn't have access to all the facts about the case until 2018, when Stearns County released the entire investigative file.

“It’s important to note that this is a dismissal based on a technicality,” Padden said. “It has nothing to do with the merits of what he’s alleged from the beginning with this lawsuit.”

Jason Hiveley, an attorney representing Sanner and Stearns County, said in an email statement that he agrees with Frank’s “very thorough order” dismissing Rassier’s lawsuit. “We believe the 8th Circuit will reject this appeal and affirm the dismissal of his case.”