Retired farmer who confronted thief won't face jail

By Robert Franklin, Star Tribune
Feb. 21, 2007

Retired farmer who confronted thief won't face jail Charges were dropped after the gas thief told prosecutors that Kenneth England hadn't pointed a gun at him after all.

Charges were dismissed Tuesday against Kenneth Englund, the retired Isanti County farmer who was accused of felony assault after wielding an unloaded shotgun while trying to stop a gasoline thief.

Isanti County Attorney Jeffrey Edblad said that his office "no longer believes that this case can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

The case received national attention after Englund, 74, a Town Board member and longtime road maintenance worker, received a more serious charge than the misdemeanor theft charge against the thief, Christian Harris Smith, 28.

Since then, Edblad's office reduced the second-degree assault charge against Englund to two misdemeanors, pointing a gun at another person and disorderly conduct.

The county attorney said he asked for more investigation after Smith pleaded guilty and told a judge that Englund shouldn't be held responsible for the incident.

A deputy sheriff interviewed Smith last week at the St. Cloud state prison, where he is serving time for an unrelated meth possession offense. According to a transcript, Smith reversed himself and said Englund did not point a gun at him, at a woman who was driving him away from the theft site Oct. 15 or at her 3-year-old child.

Edblad said he has "an ethical obligation" both to prosecute and "to dismiss those cases for which I believe I can no longer obtain a conviction."

Was it 'reasonable force?'

Englund's attorney, Brian Toder, had moved last week for dismissal on the basis that Englund was on his cell phone with the sheriff's office and legally believed he was using reasonable force to aid officers.

Edblad said he doesn't subscribe to that interpretation and hopes the case will educate the public that "an individual cannot threaten to use a firearm to protect personal possessions."

Edblad said he, Sheriff Mike Ammend, their staffs and families had been subjected to "very personal" threats, but they played no part in his decision to dismiss the case.

Meanwhile, Englund said he is thankful for support from as far away as Canada, California, Ohio and Florida and is "very happy" with the outcome.

He and his Pomeranian dog were watching out for a neighbor's vacant farm when he came upon Smith, he said, and the neighborhood has become more peaceful since the court case.

"I will still be a vigilant person," he added. "But I'll leave my dog and shotgun at home."