According to a whistleblower, the Grand Forks Herald possesses an audio recording of Lt. Detective Rodney Hajicek admitting he witnessed Sgt. Curt Ellingson (retired) beating and choking a handcuffed prisoner in the East Grand Forks police station.

On the audio, Hajicek, the ranking police officer at the EGFPD, can be heard declaring that he won’t tell on Ellingson.

The Herald never published the audio or covered the story.

DRUG TRAFFICKING AND PUBLIC CORRUPTION

Write Into Action has alerted the public that drug trafficking in the Grand Forks area is a public corruption issue; information that comes directly from local whistleblowers in contact with the FBI and DEA.

In today’s issue, the Grand Forks Herald reports the Grand Forks Police Department is requesting additional funds to add ten officers in the next three years.

According to GFPD Chief Mark Nelson, the Department needs two more investigators because they are “overwhelmed”.

"They have been so busy with the fentanyl and the other synthetics and heroin ... Who has the time to investigate the low level (drug crime)?" Nelson said.

Nelson’s published excuses for ineffective policing don’t match what insiders say is the real truth.

Whistleblower information, which the Grand Forks Herald has long possessed, suggests the illegal drug trade is a profitable enterprise for local officials and established businessmen on both sides of the Red River.

“This is a major area for running drugs - it has been since I was in there. And what it does it’s a breakout point where it goes to Minneapolis and Winnipeg. It’s a distribution area,” one whistleblower told Write Into Action.

“They got a business in town here that’s been selling drugs twenty some years - at least,” the source said.

Apparently it was very well known at the Herald.

“Mike Jacob that used to run the Herald – he’s a drug user. He uses cocaine,” said one source from a regional television station.

In 2014 the East Grand Forks Police Department spent double the $100,000 budgeted for overtime due to staffing issues. The police department cannot retain employees, which is becoming a colossal financial burden on the taxpayer.

The Herald reported on the financial crisis, but said nothing critical of the EGFPD or why the Department could not keep officers. The issue was presented to the public as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring; all the while the Herald possessed information about EGF police officers beating prisoners.

One event involved the beating of a mentally slow man that was crying “I want my mom. I want my mom”.

“All of a sudden I look and Curt’s (Ellingson) taken his cowboy boot which he wore and ran it right across the side of his face – stomped him with the heel,” the whistleblower said.

Write Into Action will continue to cover this ongoing public safety issue and breach of public trust.

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