Investigation of a Faribault County jailer costing nearly $2,500 may have been completed sooner than previously reported.
In a Tripleanews.com story published Sept. 28, Sheriff Mike Gormley was quoted as saying, “It’s not wrapped up yet, it takes time.”
But, according to County Auditor/treasurer Darren Esser, an investigator hired to look into possible misconduct by jailer Tara Sunken was paid three days later.
Esser says Michelle Soldo of Soldo Consulting Group, P.C., of Woodbury received a payment of $2,451 on Oct. 1.
However, based on Gormley’s comment it appears he had not yet received Soldo’s five-page report that cleared Sunken of any wrongdoing.
“We used her prior and have gone to that because of other agencies being busy. I haven’t seen a bill yet, I don’t think,” Gormley wrote in an e-mail on Dec. 6
It wasn’t until near the end of November that Gormley told Tripleanews.com that Soldo was finished with the investigation and the results would be released by County Attorney Kathryn Karjala at a later date.
At the time Gormley was contacted he refused to give the name of the investigator, who ironically was the same one hired by Blue Earth Area (BEA) School District to determine if officials properly disciplined four teens charged in an assault case.
Soldo billed the school district $1,703 and found that BEA officials had conducted with advice of legal counsel, “timely and thorough preliminary and expanded investigations for more than a month.”