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Former Freeborn County Administrator Candace Pesch has filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging she suffered damages when an IT employee reportedly recorded a phone call between herself and two others in March 2022 and then disseminated it to a few other employees.

Pesch, who was working as personnel director at the time of the reported incident, said the “surreptitious recording of Freeborn County employees and third parties was tantamount to a wiretap,” according to court documents.

The call was between Pesch and County Auditor-Treasurer Pat Martinson and another employee of the auditor’s office.

The action comes after the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners terminated Pesch in April 2023 as administrator, saying she “had not gained the confidence of a majority of the board during her initial six-month probationary period.” She had been hired for the administrator role in October 2022 following former Administrator Tom Jensen’s departure.

When the recording came to light, the Board of Commissioners in May 2022 voted to terminate the county employee, Alex Hannegrefs-Dahlen, who reportedly recorded the phone call, and then also issued a verbal reprimand against former Freeborn County Assessor Jaci Koeppen, who had been shown the recording and who made a copy of it and took it to her attorney. The call has been described as “gossiping” about people in the assessor’s office.

Pesch argued in the lawsuit that the recording, disclosure and use of her “private and legally protected data” was done in an attempt to embarrass her personally and professionally and was “highly offensive.” She said she had an expectation of privacy on her phone calls because of state and federal legal protections and the county’s personnel manual.

“As a result of defendant’s negligence per se, plaintiff has suffered mental distress, humiliation, embarrassment, physical distress, injury to reputation and damage to future employment opportunities,” the lawsuit states.

Pesch also argued the conduct was foreseeable because the county had purchased and provided the software and failed to exercise care to ensure it would not be used unlawfully.

The suit claims the recording and disclosure of the call was unlawful and a violation of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

Freeborn County, in its response, stated Pesch failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and stated her claims may be barred by the doctrines of unclean hands, estoppel or other defenses, and asked that the case be dismissed with prejudice.

District Court Judges Ross Leuning and Christy Hormann, who serve in Freeborn County, have recused themselves from the case, and the case is presently assigned to Judge Debra Groehler of Dodge County.