A Faribault County jailer has been cleared of any wrongdoing or misconduct following an investigation that took more than two months.
“The allegations were not substantiated,” says County Attorney Kathryn Karjala. “There are no criminal charges pending nor planned against correctional officer Tara Sunken.”
An investigation was launched after Chief Deputy Scott Adams learned that Sunken was mentioned in a court document related to the October 2017 assault of a Blue Earth Area football player.
Karjala says that Michelle Soldo of the Soldo Consulting Group, P.C., conducted the employment investigation that ended up being a five-page report.
Dale Hurley, the assault victim’s father, wasn’t caught off-guard when hearing the results of the investigation.
“I wish I could say I was surprised,” says Hurley. “But, after the actions of the parents of the kids, nothing in Blue Earth surprises me.”
The county attorney says because no disciplinary action was taken against Sunken, details of the report are not public data and are protected by state law.
Sunken was named in a court document used by the county attorney’s office during a restitution hearing for a co-defendant convicted in the assault.
A defendant’s mother texted her husband, court papers say, and told him that Sunken warned a co-defendant’s mother that the cops were going to get a warrant for his cell phone that reportedly contained a video of the beating.
According to the court document, the phone was lost when the parents and their son took a weekend trip to Iowa to watch a college football game.
Also, Hurley says his son told authorities that he and another teen charged in the assault went to Sunken’s home to get alcohol to take back to the house party in Winnebago where the beating occurred.