The wife of Brown County Sheriff Dave Lunzman blasted the county commission and media during the Tuesday, April 23 county meeting.
Mary Jane Lunzman spoke during the open forum portion of the commission meeting at the Brown County Courthouse Annex.
She recently went back to work at the Brown County Jail as a part-time detention officer. That was after an investigation into her conduct related to a drunken driving-related blood draw at the jail last year.
MORE: Brown County sheriff’s wife at center of investigation again working at jail
The county hired outside legal counsel to conduct the investigation.
Lunzman said somebody on the commission leaked information about the investigation to Austin Goss, a reporter with the Sioux Falls-based Dakota Scout. And, she said, she’s being villainized in the media when she’s just trying to help at the jail and has even done past volunteer work.
The Aberdeen Insider used Goss’s story both in print and online.
Lunzman admitted she took the blood draw without a warrant when she was previously an on-call jail worker who handled such instances. But there’s more to the story, she said.
She set the scene for what happens before a blood draw. Usually, Lunzman said, a warrant is procured, then an officer gives the person doing the draw the paperwork and a tube for the blood.
That night, an Aberdeen police officer gave her a tube and told her a warrant had been procured, which is why she drew the blood, Lunzman said.
But no warrant had been procured.
A member of the jail staff — Alondra Caraballo-Sambolin — backed what Lunzman said during the meeting. She said she was working the night of the blood draw.
Further complicating matters was that the person arrested was being combative, Caraballo-Sambolin told the commission.
“I’ve been put through hell when I was accused of drawing blood without a warrant,” an emotional Lunzman said.
She stopped working at the jail during the investigation, but is now back with different duties.
The situation was inflamed because of a lack of communication between the Aberdeen Police Department and the sheriff’s office, Lunzman said.
There is strife between the law agencies. After the blood draw, Aberdeen Police Chief Dave McNeil notified the sheriff’s office that he didn’t want MJ Lunzman doing further blood draws because it could potentially undermine the integrity of law enforcement investigations.
Lunzman said communication within the county — including between commissioners, sheriff’s office/jail and state’s attorney’s office — is also poor.
Is investigation leak politically motivated?
She questioned whether the leak was politically motivated.
“I don’t think it’s coincidental,” she said of there being a news story about the investigation when she and her husband couldn’t even get the results of what the report said.
Commissioners did not respond to her accusations during the meeting.
After the meeting, commission Chairman Duane Sutton said the public forum portion of the meeting is a time for commissioners to listen, not engage in debate. It’s not that no questions can be asked, but it’s not a time for back and forth, he said.
“If they want to engage, they need to get on the agenda so we can have an open and frank discussion so they can ask questions and get answers (to questions),” Sutton said.
MORE: Wife of Brown County sheriff at center of investigation stemming from jail blood draws
He said commissioners did not know Lunzman was going to speak and that he used discretion in allowing her more time than usual.
As far as the investigation goes, Sutton said, commissioners have decided not to release the results to anybody, including the Lunzmans.
Lunzman discusses second blood draw incident
MJ Lunzman discussed a second instance during which she took a blood draw and was accused of being impaired because she was sweating and had “pinpoint eyes.”
That is when a person’s pupils are unusually small.
Her pinpoint eyes, Lunzman said, are the result of an injury she sustained when she was hit in the head. And her sweating was the result of menopause and hot flashes, she said.
“It’s a protected class, and it’s been violated,” Lunzman said.
In other words, a worker cannot be discriminated against or harassed because of a medical condition or characteristic.
She asked commissioners how they would feel if their wives were accused of something improper just because of menopause.
With Dave Lunzman hiring her at the jail becoming such a big issue, MJ Lunzman also took aim at State’s Attorney Karly Winter, who Lunzman said manages her sister or stepsister.
Sutton said commissioners have been told that Winter is not related by blood or marriage to anybody at the state’s attorney’s office. He deferred further questions to Winter.
Winter said she is not related to anybody in the state’s attorney’s office. But, she said, one of her parents is engaged to one of the parents of Deputy State’s Attorney Karla Nelson.
Nelson, Winter said, was hired two state’s attorneys ago.
Brown County sheriff’s wife defends qualifications to work at jail
MJ Lunzman said there are also people claiming she’s not qualified to work at the jail. She said she has a medical technician degree and a bachelor’s degree in health education, plus a master’s degree.
She said her husband has been forced to hire her to do training at the jail.
The jail sees regular turnover and recently has been seeking nurses.
Dave Lunzman previously said that, in her second stint, his wife will be creating and implementing a training program at the jail.
MORE: Brown County sheriff, Aberdeen police chief vow to address strife between agencies
MJ Lunzman said she and her husband have followed all of the rules set forth by the county, so she doesn’t know why she’s being made out to be problematic. She said she has even received harassing texts and phone calls.
Cleared to return to work or cleared of wrongdoing?
Lunzman said that while Goss’s story said she was cleared to return to work at the jail, it should have said she and her husband were cleared of wrongdoing.
Sutton didn’t respond directly to a question about those specifics after the meeting.
What county commissioners want to convey to the public, he said, is that they don’t have broad authority over personnel decisions at the sheriff’s office or jail. As an elected official, the sheriff has that authority, Sutton said.
The commission has some authority over the budget of the sheriff’s office and can make sure that people who are hired are doing work listed in an existing job description, Sutton said. That’s something he said commissioners are looking into.