State official and former Ronan officer say Facebook messages not improper
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RONAN— A former state official and former Ronan police officer said in an interview last week that their communication via Facebook did not taint the process that bars former Ronan Police Chief Dan Wadsworth from serving as a law enforcement officer for the next 15 years.
The Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council on July 16 voted to suspend Wadsworth’s law enforcement after determining he falsified the law academy application of his son Trevor.
Wadsworth told the Valley Journal and testified at a POST hearing that he believed Trevor’s credentials were stolen by Officer Art Walgren, who had access to the file at the time.
Walgren, who is now the chief of police in New Town, North Dakota, said Wadsworth’s allegations were not true.
“It’s a lie,” Walgren said in an interview.
Wadsworth also said Facebook messages between Walgren, who was a witness for POST in Wadsworth’s trial and Winnie Ore, who was the chair of the council at the time, show his trial was unfair.
Ore, who said she can’t even remember Wadsworth’s case anymore, said there was nothing improper about communicating with Walgren.
“Art joined my Facebook like lots of law enforcement officers have over the years,” Ore said. “He was a student at the law academy. As a result of that he had borrowed some training materials. For sure we communicated about that.”
Ore said she wouldn’t have known anything about Wadsworth’s case because it was only presented to the council for a vote after she left more than a year ago.
“I would not consider Art anything more than a professional acquaintance,” Ore said.
