Port: Was it applicable for Fargo Mayor Mahoney to intervene in investigation involving his son? –

MINOT, N.D. — Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney mentioned his son was the sufferer in an October 2021 theft incident that’s nonetheless below felony investigation by the Fargo Police Division.

It is not clear what occurred from the publicly obtainable info.

After I made an open data request for details about the incident I obtained a report that was so totally redacted just a few phrases might be learn (the redactions had been made below state regulation exempting info associated to sufferer info, felony investigations, and 911 calls).

What we do know, from different public data, is that Mayor Mahoney took an lively curiosity on this case involving his son, Dylan Mahoney.

Whereas I wasn’t in a position to get a transparent image from the investigation data, I used to be in a position to get hold of Mahoney’s emails with Fargo police investigators, and so they paint an image of a public official strolling a line between the comprehensible actions of a involved father and an elected official exerting undue affect over regulation enforcement.

In an Oct. 19, 2021, electronic mail despatched to Detective Troy Hanson, Mahoney references an in-person assembly he and his spouse had with investigators and instructs Hanson to not pursue the idea that the incident was associated to a drug deal. “Dylan didn’t have any money on him for a purchase of medication and no intent so I might not pursue that angle,” he wrote.

In a Nov. 10, 2021, electronic mail, Mahoney tells investigators he is spoken to the chief of police in Moorhead and secured their cooperation with the investigation.

In a Nov. 11, 2021, electronic mail, Mahoney seems to be directing detectives on who to interview, and writes as if he had been a part of the investigatory workforce. “Have we known as the mom once more for interview with Hailey?” he wrote, referring to a different particular person concerned within the investigation.

For context, do not forget that Mahoney is not only the mayor of Fargo, but additionally the member of the town’s fee who holds the portfolio for the police division.

He wields an unlimited quantity of affect over metropolis authorities and the police division, to the purpose the place it induced some rancor with fellow commissioners earlier this yr when the mayor

was accused of not being forthcoming about issues within the division

.

“You were not doing all of your job,” Commissioner Dave Piepkorn advised Mahoney

throughout a fiery January assembly

.

When reached for remark about his involvement with the investigation of the incident involving his son, Mahoney forged himself as nothing greater than a involved father.

“A girl picked him [Dylan] up and drove to a sure place and a door opened and so they beat the s— out of him,” Mahoney mentioned in a cellphone name Sunday, describing the incident below investigation. “Dylan was robbed,” he added, describing his son because the “sufferer” of the incident.

“I am simply making an attempt to assist them remedy the case,” Mahoney continued. “I am not making an attempt to affect the investigation,” including that he feels “annoyed” that the investigation has been ongoing for months with little progress.

Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski echoed Mahoney’s insistence that Dylan Mahoney was the sufferer, and that the mayor was simply appearing as a involved mum or dad.

“As the daddy of an 18-year-old theft sufferer, the Mayor’s inquiry will not be uncommon. The investigation is being performed in the identical trend as some other, which relies on the information and proof the investigators uncover,” Zibolski advised me in an electronic mail Sunday. “The Mayor’s inquiries are info solely and don’t information our investigative method to the case.”

But Mahoney, not like the dad and mom of any individual concerned in a police investigation, is the mayor and holder of the police division’s portfolio for the town fee.

When he emails a detective and writes “I might not pursue that angle,” do you suppose which may resonate otherwise coming from the mayor and never simply one other member of the general public?

Additionally, all we have now are the emails. There have been clearly different contacts between Mahoney and investigators outdoors of electronic mail.

Simply primarily based on the written correspondence, the detectives had been actually conscious of who they had been speaking to. Mahoney was emailing them from his official metropolis of Fargo electronic mail account, and one in all them, Capt. Chris Helmick of the Legal Investigations Division, used Mahoney’s title when addressing him by electronic mail.

Zibolski even advised me that he was first made conscious of the incident as a consequence of

Fargo Police Division Coverage 327

which requires the notification of division management when there is a “main incident” that will draw “vital media consideration.”

It appears clear that this incident, as a result of it concerned Mayor Mahoney’s household and private life, was thought-about vital by the division, and but no steps appear to have been taken to make sure that the mayor didn’t exert undue affect on the investigation.

One which, for now, stays unsolved.

“I stay assured in our investigators means to resolve it and refer expenses for these concerned to the States Lawyer’s Workplace, at which period extra info will turn out to be public file,” Zibolski wrote.