Mercer County Sheriff Dean Danzeisen has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor DUI charges filed against him in January, and some county commissioners are unclear about how it might affect his status as sheriff.
Danzeisen was cited for DUI in Bismarck on Jan. 24, court records show. His blood alcohol content was 0.194%, according to the citation issued to him. The legal limit for driving is 0.08%. Danzeisen pleaded not guilty, waived his initial court appearance and requested the case be moved to district court to be heard by a jury.
Defense attorney Christopher Redmann verified Tuesday that Danzeisen’s misdemeanor jury trial had been canceled and that Danzeisen would plead guilty to non-aggravated first offense DUI. The latest court record entries show only that a pretrial conference was held on Sept. 15 and the jury trial set for Wednesday was canceled.
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Assistant Bismarck City Attorney Ashley Hinds said she anticipated that the plea agreement would be filed in the near future. She did not comment further.
The primary reason for entering the guilty plea was that Danzeisen wanted to avoid involving other law officers in a trial, Redmann said. He would not comment on Danzeisen’s status as sheriff.
Danzeisen did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
Under the agreement, Danzeisen will spend 360 days on unsupervised probation and pay $525 in fines and fees. He also will voluntarily complete a chemical dependency evaluation, Redmann said.
Danzeisen is still the sheriff, County Commission Chairman Marvin Schwehr said, but he added that he wanted more information about the plea and how the outcome of the case might affect the county. Commissioners have been told “nothing” about the DUI case, Schwehr said, and Danzeisen has attended very few meetings since Schwehr was elected nearly two years ago, according to the commissioner.
Danzeisen came to one meeting for budget matters but never approached the commission about the DUI, Schwehr said.
After his arrest, Danzeisen was placed on a county commission meeting agenda and asked to give an update on the case, but he did not attend the meeting, according to Commissioner Dwight Berger.
“We don’t even know if the man’s got a (driver's) license,” Berger said.
The commission has been told by its legal counsel that the matter “is none of our business,” Berger said.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but own up to them,” he said.
County commissions can ask the governor to remove an elected sheriff from office under state law.
Mercer County State’s Attorney Jessica Binder was out of her office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Danzeisen has been the county's sheriff for more than 17 years. Before that he was police chief for Zap, Pick City, Stanton and Golden Valley, and prior to that he was a ranger at Lake Sakakawea State Park for the state Parks and Recreation Department, according to his LinkedIn profile.