Criminal case against DHS employees 'unraveling'

BISMARCK — The prosecutor who accused the director of North Dakota's largest state agency and four other current or former employees of impeding the investigation into the swimming-related death of a 5-year-old girl last summer asked a judge Friday to dismiss the charges against the three remaining defendants.

Former McHenry County State's Attorney Cassey Breyer filed motions seeking to dismiss the misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to obstruct a government function and refusing to perform a public duty filed in February against Department of Human Services Executive Director Maggie Anderson, DHS attorney Jonathan Alm and Laurie Gotvaslee, director of the agency's regional center in Minot.

Breyer's motions came just three days after Northeast District Judge Donovan Foughty orally dismissed the same charges against former DHS attorney Julie Leer, a special assistant attorney general, during an evidentiary hearing in Devils Lake.

Foughty dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning the state can't bring them back.

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