ND prosecutor: No key info withheld in Blunt case

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Former North Dakota workers' compensation director Sandy Blunt should not get a new trial on his felony conviction for misspending public funds because prosecutors did not withhold any relevant information, his prosecutor says.

Cynthia Feland, an assistant Burleigh County state's attorney, said in a court filing Thursday that her office may not have turned over a state auditor's memo to Blunt's attorney, Mike Hoffman, before Blunt's December 2008 trial. However, Feland wrote, the memo, by senior auditor Jason Wahl, was a summary of information that prosecutors did disclose, and Blunt got a copy anyway from a supporter who requested records from the state auditor's office, .

Blunt was Workforce Safety and Insurance's chief executive from April 2004 until December 2007. A year after his departure, Blunt was convicted of misspending $26,000 in public funds on meals, gifts and trinkets for agency employees and on benefits for Dave Spencer, a senior Workforce Safety and Insurance executive.

The prosecution's case against Blunt drew upon the results of an earlier state audit, directed by Wahl, that questioned spending and management practices at the state agency.

In an earlier filing, Hoffman argued that Blunt deserved a new trial because of Feland's alleged failures to disclose information to the defense. He said Thursday the Wahl memo would have helped to acquit Blunt "and no other (materials) provided by the state gave me that information."

Feland said Blunt himself had a copy of the Wahl memo that Feland said was provided by Steve Cates, a Blunt supporter who has written extensively about the case in the Dakota Beacon, a newspaper and website he publishes.

Wahl, in the memo, said material about questionable benefits provided to Spencer was left out of his final audit report because Blunt gave conflicting answers about whether Spencer resigned or was fired. Spencer testified at Blunt's trial that he was forced out of his job.

In a separate Bureau of Criminal Investigation report, an agent quoted Wahl as saying the Spencer matter was "a non-issue" with the auditor's office because it was not clear whether Spencer resigned or was dismissed. Spencer would have been obliged to repay about $8,000 in benefits only if he resigned.

Hoffman, in an earlier filing, said Feland did not disclose bureau reports of interviews with Wahl and four Workforce Safety and Insurance executives even though he had requested them. Feland agreed Thursday that the reports were not disclosed, because she said prosecutors mistakenly believed they had already been turned over.

Even so, the bureau's report of Wahl's interview only repeated what Wahl said in an audit working paper that was turned over to Hoffman, Feland said. Information in the bureau's reports of interviews with the four Workforce Safety and Insurance executives was either irrelevant or was disclosed in other materials, she said.

"There is nothing in the ... reports that in any way harms the state's case. Therefore, we had no motive or reason to not provide the defendant with the reports in question," Feland said. "Given the number of requests for records on this case, it appears that half the Capitol had the information, so the state would be foolish to try and hide it."

The Wahl information is considered important because testimony about the allegedly improper benefits provided to Spencer were part of the evidence jurors considered in convicting Blunt of misspending state funds.

Hoffman said he could have used the memo to challenge Wahl's testimony at Blunt's trial detailing his concerns about the benefits paid to Spencer. Hoffman called the bureau's reports "basic discovery" and said the report that quoted Wahl helps make the case for Blunt's innocence.

"As this particular BCI report is exculpatory, the state has a constitutional obligation to provide the discovery, with or without a request by the defense," Hoffman said in an e-mail message Thursday. "There is no misunderstanding aspect to it."Feland, in her court filing, said she would have welcomed Hoffman's use of the memo at trial. It would have given her an opportunity to ask about what she said was Blunt's obstructionism during the state audit, and his differing statements about whether Spencer resigned or was fired.

Feland is running for a Bismarck state district judgeship this fall. The state's disciplinary board for attorneys has begun an inquiry into whether Feland violated disclosure rules in Blunt's case, and Feland has asked South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick to rule on whether she did.

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