STANLEY, ND (North Dakota Monitor) – A prosecutor tasked with reviewing an over-budget building project pursued by former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s office wants the case returned to law enforcement for further investigation.
Wade Enget, the Mountrail County state’s attorney, said he’s received additional information, including the revelation that emails from Stenehjem’s deleted state account had been recovered. But Enget wrote in a letter Wednesday that the new information is outside the scope of his review.
Stenehjem’s administration leased and renovated a building in south Bismarck to use as office space for several divisions under the Attorney General’s Office. The project drew criticism for exceeding projected costs by at least $1.7 million and for its ties to state Rep. Jason Dockter, a Bismarck Republican and close associate of Stenehjem.
Stenehjem died in January 2022. Later that year, his successor, Drew Wrigley, alerted lawmakers to the cost overrun and asked the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation to look into the building project as well as the deletion of Stenehjem’s email account by state employees.
Enget agreed in January 2024 to review a 131-page report on the investigation’s findings after two other prosecutors turned down the case.
While the report did not take a stance on whether any criminal activity occurred, it did raise some financial and ethical concerns about the handling of the building project. The investigator noted his work was hampered by a lack of subpoena power to interview key witnesses.
Enget was recently asked to review additional documents relating to the Bismarck property by the Attorney General’s Office and Monte Rogneby, who represents two companies tied to the building project, Stealth Properties LLC and D & S LLC.
But Enget says it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to review the records since the scope of his appointment only covers the Montana report.
“As such, I have not opened any shared links within emails sent to me, nor have I requested additional supporting documents,” he wrote in a Wednesday letter to Wrigley, Rogneby, and Burleigh County State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer, the prosecutor who referred the case to Enget.
The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation in February successfully recovered some of Stenehjem’s emails through the former attorney general’s cellphone. The Attorney General’s Office offered to provide Enget copies of the emails and other information on Stenehjem’s phone after securing a federal warrant.
The warrant was obtained for an unrelated investigation into former state Sen. Ray Holmberg.
In a Monday interview with the North Dakota Monitor, Wrigley said he wanted Enget to have access to the records in the event they contain information related to Enget’s review.
Wrigley said Wednesday he could not comment on Enget’s letter because a decision on whether to seek additional investigation would fall to Lawyer, not the attorney general.
Lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Rogneby said while his clients understand Enget’s decision, they feel that there’s no basis for a criminal investigation into the building project and that referring the matter to law enforcement would not bring the case any closer to resolution.
“They just want to reconcile the construction project and move on,” Rogneby said. “But the way that this is being handled, that has not yet happened and that is really frustrating for them.”
Rogneby sent Enget additional information about the building project, which he said provided context that was missing from the Montana report.
The attorney said the investigator did not give his clients a fair chance to clear up any of the financial concerns brought up in the investigation.
Rogneby also claimed his clients had attempted to meet with the Attorney General’s Office to reconcile some payment issues with the property, but that the office would not meet with them.
The Montana investigator and the attorney general’s office have previously denied Rogneby’s claims.
Ordinarily, the Montana report would be under the Lawyer’s jurisdiction, but a civil servant involved in the case, Liz Brocker, now works in her office.
On Friday, Enget announced he would not pursue criminal charges for another component of the case, the deletion of Stenehjem’s state email account in 2022 by state employees.
In a separate case, Dockter was charged in December with a misdemeanor for allegedly voting to support funding for the Bismarck property, of which he is a partial owner. Dockter pleaded not guilty to the charge. A jury trial is scheduled for May 3.
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