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Thursday, February 1, 2007
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Ryan wins respect of peers
Staff Writer Sitting in his third-floor office at the Crow Wing County Judicial Center, Don Ryan is surrounded by mementos of the things important to him.
He can point to the diplomas he's earned on his way to receiving a law degree. A map of Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, through which he once sailed. An artist's rendering of one of his father's trial cases. Mementos from hobbies of hunting and exercise. Plaques and awards received for programs he's helped start and nonprofit work he's been involved with during his 12-year tenure as Crow Wing County attorney.
But most important are the pictures. In frames around the room are pictures of his family, past hunting trips and a photo featuring the legacy he carries as a Brainerd attorney - three generations of Ryans in a law office, holding a picture of the family's law patriarch, Mike Ryan, who started the family law firm in 1903.
"You can tell by looking around, my family is really important to me."
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Crow Wing County Attorney Don Ryan talked about what was important to him in his office at the Crow Wing County Judicial Center. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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A month ago, the 46-year-old Ryan started his fourth term as county attorney. When he first ran for the position in 1994, there were six other candidates, including incumbent Jack Graham. In each subsequent election - 1998, 2002 and 2006 - Ryan has run unopposed.
As to why he has not been challenged for the position in the past three elections, Ryan can't answer - not because he doesn't want to, but because he doesn't know. As to whether he will seek a fifth term in 2010, that decision will be made as it always was before past elections - after consulting with his wife, Marie.
"I do know that when my turn is up, my turn is up, and then it's time for somebody else," Ryan said. "That decision will be made three years from now."
Whatever his choice may be in three years, Ryan has earned the respect of his peers.
"I hold Don in highest of esteem," said David Hermerding, managing attorney of the Crow Wing County public defender's office. "I value his work ethic. He's put together an excellent staff. The prior county attorney had an office filled with turmoil. Don turned that around and put together a well-oiled organization."
Hermerding and Ryan are often on opposite sides of the tables, as defender and prosecutor, but Hermerding said the two have enjoyed a good working relationship.
"He's very honest and I've never questioned his integrity," Hermerding said. "He's a benefit to the county as a whole, when you look at how overworked our criminal justice system is."
Ryan was born in St. Paul while his father, longtime Brainerd attorney Tom Ryan, attended law school. His parents moved back to Brainerd, where Ryan grew up surrounded by a family of lawyers.
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During their weekly staff meeting on "casual" Friday, County Attorney Don Ryan talked to his assistant County attorneys John Sausen (left) Kristine DeMay, Rocky Wells, Ilissa Ramm and Bruce Alderman in the Crow Wing County Judicial Services Building. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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He knew since he was young that he wanted to be a lawyer, too, and he figured it would be a career with the family firm. That proved true, for at least awhile. Upon graduating from William Mitchell College of Law in 1988 he returned to work in the Brainerd family law practice of Ryan, Ruttger and Drake, after his father retired due to illness. In that time, he also began contracting with the Ninth Judicial District and later the state to serve as public defender for Aitkin County.
But in 1994 that career path changed, thanks in part to fellow Trinity Lutheran Church member, the late Ole Howard.
"'I want you to run for county attorney and I want you to know I will support you and do everything I can to get you elected," Ryan recalls Howard saying one day after the church service. "He said, 'You think about it and I'll come back and talk to you next week and you can give me your decision,' which is Ole's way of saying next week you'll tell me you'll do it."
Up until then the thought of running for county attorney hadn't entered his mind, Ryan said, but he discussed the possibility with his wife and both agreed it would be a good move. But there was one more person he wanted to consult before declaring himself as a candidate. So he visited the grandfather for whom he was named, who told him that the family tradition was to go into law not to maintain the family law firm.
"For him to give me his blessing was really a big deal," Ryan said. "If he wouldn't have I don't know that I would be sitting in this chair today."
Since he entered office in 1995, Ryan has watched the county attorney's office grow from three attorneys and two support staff to seven attorneys and eight support staff. He estimated his office handled 4,000 adult criminal cases in 2006, from speeding tickets to homicides. That number doesn't count civil cases, juvenile cases or other county legal needs.
But the biggest change during his tenure has been the county's building project, he said, which included the construction of the Judicial Center, which houses courtrooms, court administration and his offices.
"We finally have enough space to function," Ryan said. "I can only credit the county boards for understanding the importance and needs for the office to grow and for understanding the needs for the facilities."
As far as handling the heavy workload, Ryan gives credit to his staff, which he described as "second to none" in regard to amount of cases they manage. However, Ryan acknowledges his office will always have more cases than it can take to trial. Some of that is alleviated through plea negotiations.
In the past year, several plea negotiations have been worked out between the county and defense attorneys. The cases involved included murder, vehicular homicide, attempted murder. In some cases, such as a murder charge against a man accused of smothering his baby daughter, the negotiation resulted in a plea to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter.
Ryan said when approached by defense attorneys for a plea negotiation, he takes several factors into consideration - the defendant's criminal history, the victim's input, the strength or weakness of the case, what the evidence will show and what his prosecution can show beyond a reasonable doubt to procure a verdict.
"What we start with is not always what we can have when he get to trial," he said.
While leery about discussing specific cases because it may harm the victims of the crimes, Ryan said in the murder case of the man who killed his child, a jury could have found that it was never the intent of the father to smother his child - a requisite if a jury were to convict for murder. The man still was sentenced to 102 months in prison, Ryan noted.
Ryan also noted that a recent attempted murder case was reduced because the victims were agreeable to the plea agreement and the first-degree assault carried a sentence of 103 months. If the case would have gone to trial and if the jury found him guilty, the suspect would have faced a possible sentence as low as 43 months or as high as 153 months in prison.
"The short answer to both cases is we take all those factors, which are unique in every case as they apply to the facts, and we make a determination," Ryan said. "One of the things a prosecutor can provide a victim is aggressive prosecution, but that doesn't bring back a victim of murder, or undo a rape, but it allows a victim to continue on the path of healing. Closure's a big piece of that healing."
And with the high volume of cases coming through his office, Ryan said there also is a question of the time and effort his staffers can spend working on a case. In 2006, his office had 700 felony cases, which he said was more than his attorneys could take to trial.
"This is the part people really don't like to hear, that we only have so many resources," Ryan said. "So we have to prioritize. Some of that is easy. We're going to prioritize a murder over someone stealing $50 worth of gas. That's easy. When you get more into the middle, comparing crimes, where do you draw the line on how much and what kind of resource allocation we're going to have to get that disposition?
"Is it a bad decision or a good decision? It depends on the circumstances of that particular case. It's complicated making that decision and we make those decisions every day."
And criminal cases are just one aspect of what the county attorney covers. The county attorney is the general counsel for every department in the county. That includes reviewing contracts; reviewing ordinances; working with committees, public health, social services, child protection, nonprofits; attending county board meetings; working on eminent domain procedures; and working with the highway department on road development, to name a few of the tasks.
"Just about any civil law need that any of the departments has, with exception of labor negotiations, we oversee or assist in getting done through outside counsel," Ryan said. "Other than the county administrator, we're the only portion of the county structure that deals in every aspect of the county - if not each and every day at least each and every week."
Along with the work of his staff, Ryan credits past county boards for being realistic, understanding and supportive of his office. He also said he looks forward to developing that same working relationship with the current county board through 2010.
At that point, Ryan and his wife will decide what's best for the family's future. Until then, he said he will continue to fulfill the promise he made since he was first elected: that he will work hard to be as efficient, effective and consistent as he can performing the duties and responsibilities of his office. He said it's the only promise he's ever made in office and if he, or the public, decides it's time for him to move on, he will accept that.
"You're able to do what you do, at least for me, because I have a strong faith in God. I have to rely on that so I don't get too jaded in this particular position," Ryan said. "That's probably why I'm here, because he thinks I need to be here. When he doesn't think I need to be here anymore, or that I'm supposed to do something else, I'll probably do something else."
Regardless of future choices, Brainerd will remain his home, he said.
"This is where I want my daughter to grow up, this is where my sons grew up, we love this community," Ryan said. "This is where my wife and I want to grow old together."
MATT ERICKSON can be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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