‘A sincere human being’: law officers, lawyers reflect on Wayne Stenehjem’s legacy | State & Regional

“It’s simply been a beautiful trip,” he stated.

Grossman, head of the Client Safety Division of the Lawyer Common’s Workplace, in 2000 helped the then-newly elected legal professional common unload his shifting truck at a Bismarck house. By the years he watched Stenehjem work for the folks of North Dakota on many ranges. Stenehjem’s loss of life is a loss Grossman stated is “immeasurable.”

“He was a gifted chief,” Grossman stated. “My private {and professional} life won’t ever be the identical.”

Grossman’s view of Stenehjem is echoed by others within the state’s regulation enforcement and authorized neighborhood who knew him and labored with him. Stenehjem’s legacy of professionalism didn’t get in the best way of a friendship, an invite to Christmas dinner, or a listening ear at a peace officer conference.

Stenehjem, 68, died Friday following his hospitalization after being discovered unresponsive that morning at his house. A reason for loss of life has not been made public. In December he had introduced his plans to retire on the finish of this 12 months, when his present time period expires, to spend time together with his spouse, work with charities and pursue hobbies.

Stenehjem’s casket was dropped at the Capitol on Wednesday to lie in state in Memorial Corridor. A public funeral is at 11 a.m. Thursday on the Bismarck Occasion Middle.

Bismarck Police Chief Dave Draovitch labored carefully with Stenehjem when the Legislature tackled a revamping of the state’s asset forfeiture procedures. The police division already met many of the necessities put in place by the brand new legal guidelines, and Stenehjem met with Draovitch to collect info to be handed alongside to different businesses.

“He took loads of time to go to about it,” the chief stated.

The method main as much as the passage of the laws required Stenehejem to testify earlier than legislators. Draovitch at these conferences noticed how a lot weight the Lawyer Common’s Workplace carried and the way properly Stenehjem dealt with such conditions.

“When he got here to testify, all people was on their A sport and paying consideration,” Draovitch stated. “He simply had that form of character about him.”

That character went past his skilled aspect, Draovitch stated. Of their conferences, Stenehjem was “all the time considerate and took time to do the fitting factor.”

“He was only a good man,” the chief stated.

Former Bureau of Prison Investigation Director Dallas Carlson spoke each day with Stenehjem on the company’s funds and laws points. He accompanied the legal professional common on journeys to peace officer and sheriff’s conventions, the place Stenehjem took the chance to collect info from officers in one-on-one conversations.

“He’d decide a city or decide a county and sit down and go to,” Carlson stated. “He needed to make issues higher. He wasn’t all discuss. He was motion. He received issues finished.”

No one within the Lawyer Common’s Workplace spent a vacation alone, Carlson stated. If dangerous climate or poor highway situations stored somebody from touring, “You’d go to Wayne’s home.”

“Wayne and (spouse) Beth took care of you,” he stated.

Stenehjem’s help of regulation enforcement was most evident in his actions, in accordance with Maj. Tom Iverson, head of operations for the North Dakota Freeway Patrol. The company depends on the Lawyer Common’s Workplace for authorized steering, and Stenehjem’s work on DUI legal guidelines and the state’s 24/7 sobriety program confirmed he understood what troopers had been seeing on obligation, the key stated.

Stenehjem additionally supported a system to alert the general public when a regulation enforcement officer had been assaulted and the suspect was at giant. The legal professional common was concerned within the state Peace Officers Affiliation, and he handed out the Herb Eckroth Lone Eagle Award, which yearly is given to at least one retired and one energetic peace officer in recognition of character and ethics. He spoke at annual peace officer memorials “with such readability that it actually sank in with regulation enforcement officers in attendance,” Iverson stated.

“He very a lot supported us within the subject,” Iverson stated. “He’ll be missed by the regulation enforcement neighborhood.”

Stenehjem early in his political profession turned a supporter of open data and open conferences legal guidelines, stated Jack McDonald, legal professional for the North Dakota Newspaper Affiliation. McDonald was beginning out as a lobbyist about the identical time Stenehjem was elected to the Legislature, earlier than his time as legal professional common. McDonald appreciated Stenehjem’s outgoing persona and cordial remedy of lobbyists.

“That isn’t all the time the case,” McDonald stated.

The state’s unique open conferences legal guidelines had been handed in 1957 and revised in 1997. Stenehjem about 20 years later organized a job power to ensure the legal guidelines received tweaked to maneuver together with the evolution of know-how, in accordance with McDonald.

“He made certain they match,” he stated.

Stenehjem shaped friendships years in the past with two males who now maintain federal judicial seats in North Dakota. U.S. District Decide Daniel Traynor as a College of North Dakota freshman met Stenehjem within the late Nineteen Eighties. The 2 as soon as confronted one another earlier than the North Dakota Supreme Courtroom in a poll measure case, and as just lately as final month Stenehjem argued an oil and fuel lease case with Traynor behind the bench.

“It was all the time an important honor to have him argue a case earlier than me,” Traynor stated.

Stenehjem’s demeanor by no means turned stern within the courtroom — he as an alternative used his humorousness to make a degree and had “a capability to converse that was efficient within the courtroom,” the Bismarck choose stated.

The end result of the poll measure case — by which “the AG and his view received the day” — or another circumstances by no means modified their relationship, in accordance with Traynor.

“He was all the time very considerate,” the choose stated. “He was thinking about how my dad and mom had been. He was thinking about how my youngsters had been. He was thinking about me.”

U.S. District Decide Peter Welte stated he noticed comparable traits in Stenehjem when the 2 had been dealing with public defender contracts, and that Stenehjem’s demeanor held true when he turned legal professional common.

“He was a honest human being,” the Fargo choose stated. “He didn’t prefer to see folks harm, however he believed very strongly within the rule of regulation.”

Household and buddies of Stenehjem have established an endowment in his identify to fund pupil scholarships at UND, the place Stenehjem graduated from regulation college in 1977, according to the Grand Forks school’s alumni association.

Stenehjem’s legislative expertise and the relationships shaped in that point helped clean the budgeting course of for the Lawyer Common’s Workplace, boosted laws and appeared to make each legislative session extra profitable than the final, Grossman stated, including that legislators typically weighed “if that is essential to Wayne” or stated “I need to hear Wayne’s ideas on this.”

“A few of that was simply because he was Wayne,” Grossman stated.

As a boss, Stenehjem led with an understanding of points and an easygoing manner of resolving them, in accordance with Grossman.

“He knew what to do in each circumstance, however he trusted me and my employees to work out the small print,” Grossman stated.

The state’s shoppers had been all the time on the legal professional common’s thoughts, as evidenced by Grossman’s receipt of numerous early morning and late-night emails, he stated. Usually these emails had been to say thanks after a optimistic final result on a lawsuit or the decision of a client grievance. If he was ever not happy “you by no means knew it. That wasn’t Wayne Stenehjem,” Grossman stated.

Charitable organizations had been one other precedence for the legal professional common.

Michelle Erickson, government director of the Abused Grownup Useful resource Middle in Bismarck, stated Stenehjem spoke at Take Again the Night time occasions and supported laws to battle home violence, abuse and human trafficking. The middle is among the many charitable organizations listed in Stenehjem’s obituary. Erickson stated that although she is saddened by his loss of life, “it’s good to know he thinks of us in that manner.”

“He’s all the time been in our hearts right here,” she stated.