Freeborn County District Court files from a 2001 case involving a now-suspended Freeborn County sheriff’s deputy confirm he never touched a child.

Lynne Torgerson, a Minneapolis lawyer running for Congress in the 5th District, on her website calls detective Corey Farris a “convicted child molester.” Various local and metro news reports also have stated Farris touched a 17-year-old.

Farris was convicted in March 2001 for misdemeanor disorderly conduct for inappropriately touching someone staying in his home in November 2000. He was sentenced to a stayed 30-day jail sentence, with one year of supervised probation.

The court files show the results of an investigation in 2001 into Farris by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. That investigation said the person Farris touched was 18 years old — legally a man, not a boy.

The Tribune also acquired the birthdate of the person, and that, too, confirmed he was indeed 18, not 17, at the time of the incident.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the crime, not the Freeborn County Attorney’s Office. The disorderly conduct charge was brought because the person Farris touched was older than 18 — nothing more severe could be brought. A plea bargain resulted in the sentence.

Farris presently is suspended pending the results of Minneapolis Police Department investigation into the detective’s involvement with the South Central Drug Task Force.

Farris said last month the investigation has nothing to do with the misdemeanor from 10 years ago but also said he is unsure what he is being accused of. He has been employed with the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office since November 1997.