[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]Jury will decide Sauk Rapids liability for Police Sgt. internet post in defamation lawsuit[/title][fusion_text]Thursday, November 19th 2015
A Benton County judge has ruled that a jury should decide whether a former Sauk Rapids police sergeant was acting as a city employee when he made a posting to an Internet site that is the subject of a defamation lawsuit. Benton County District Court Judge Robert Raupp denied a motion from the city and its insurance carrier that asked Raupp to declare that Tom Roy was not acting as a city employee when he made the post. If Raupp had declared that Roy made the post outside the scope of his official duty, the city and its insurance carrier could deny legal representation to Roy. Roy is being sued by Ryan Larson, the man who was arrested in the hours after Cold Spring-Richmond police officer Tommy Decker was killed. Larson was held in jail but wasn’t charged in Decker’s death. No other suspects were arrested in the Decker investigation. Investigators later identified Eric Thomes as a person of interest in Decker’s killing and said he would have been arrested had he not killed himself. Larson is accusing Roy of defamation for the contents of a letter Roy posted to a website dedicated to officers killed in the line of duty.
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