Bluestem doesn't usually dive into county-level personality politics, but conflict in the race for a seat on the Crow Wing County Board has captured my attention.
Now reader's tip has provided a colorful side of one candidate's public appearances: dressing as a clown to speak during the public forum component of a county board meeting in 2020.
Saturday in the Brainard Dispatch, Chelsey Perkins reported in Scheffler sues Franzen for defamation, latest in a lengthy lawsuit history:
The story of the District 4 race for Crow Wing County commissioner now includes a defamation lawsuit, alleged campaign law violations and a trespass notice issued by the Baxter Police Department.
Troy Scheffler — a first-time candidate with a lengthy history as a lawsuit plaintiff in state and federal court — started a suit against his opponent, four-term Commissioner Rosemary Franzen, earlier this month. In the suit, Scheffler alleges Franzen made false statements about him to multiple people, causing property owners to remove his campaign signs and undermining hundreds of hours of work.
Scheffler claims Franzen told others he tore down her signs and told people he was endorsed by Crow Wing County sheriff candidate Eric Klang and state Rep. Josh Heintzeman, neither of whom gave Scheffler their endorsements, according to the civil complaint.
Scheffler relays in detail a situation when he said Franzen arrived at a voter’s home — outside of which both of their signs had been displayed at separate times — while Scheffler was there. He said Franzen boxed in his car with her vehicle “in an act of rage” and yelled at the voter that she wanted to speak to him. After Scheffler left, he said Franzen bullied the voter into placing her sign in the yard instead of Scheffler’s sign, according to the complaint. Scheffler said he confirmed this in a conversation with the voter later that day when stopping to pick up his sign, which leaned against a tree.
Beyond citing a conversation Franzen allegedly had with a local attorney making these claims, Scheffler said Franzen called Klang and Heintzeman to push the false endorsement narrative in an attempt to encourage them to denounce Scheffler. . . .
Those at the heart of the endorsement confusion — Klang and Heintzeman — both confirmed they have not endorsed Scheffler. Scheffler said although he supports Klang, he would never claim an endorsement by him. He said he does not agree with Heintzeman’s political strategies and has no interest in an endorsement from the legislator.
Heintzeman, who is seeking reelection, said he’d recently heard from supporters who asked him if he’d endorsed Scheffler. According to Heintzeman, these supporters — including a businessperson with a prominent sign placement area along a major highway — told him they’d gotten this impression from conversations with Scheffler. Although he preferred not to get involved in a nonpartisan race, Heintzeman said the situation forced his hand to openly endorse Franzen, who he’s long supported. He’s since provided Franzen with a handwritten and signed endorsement she posted Monday, Oct. 10, to her Facebook profile. . . .
Read the details in Perkins' piece. It's not often Representative Heintzeman gets my sympathy, but it's happened in this tale of political Faulknerian complexity.
Perkins details years of lawsuits on Scheffler's part:
In voter’s guide listings, Scheffler has described his occupation as “legal.” Scheffler said Oct. 6 he recently began working part-time for a friend, completing legal brief writing and other legal work.
He does not have a law degree, but he spends time crafting an avalanche of legal documents across multiple active lawsuits at any given moment. According to Minnesota and federal court records, Scheffler has at least 109 civil or conciliation actions to his name, with 60 cases in which he is the plaintiff in state court and 49 cases in the federal system.
These cases date back as early as 2000, although Scheffler became more active in 2008 and later. Some of those in federal court began in the state system and several made claims under federal law derived from the same set of facts as state cases.
“I think people should stand up for themselves. I think more people would do that if they weren’t so intimidated by the court system,” Scheffler said. “ … You can’t necessarily file a lawsuit to force them into a particular type of behavior. But unfortunately, when companies are doing something wrong or a government is doing something wrong, when they have to start paying money for it, then, you know, sometimes they can go, ‘Well, you know, this just isn’t cost effective.’”
Defendants in Scheffler’s suits include a number of law enforcement officers, city governments, county governments, state agencies and their commissioners, corporations, debt collection agencies, state judges and a university. Among local targets are Costco, S & R Quisberg Inc. (which owns local Cub Foods stores), The Home Depot, Menard Inc., Brothers Motorsports, Minnesota Auto & Drivers License of Brainerd, Lake Edward Township, city of Nisswa and Crow Wing County.
I admire her diligence in investigating his legal career.
A reader sent news of an earlier newsworthy episode in Scheffler's public career, the 2020 R & J Broadcasting story by Sean Bjerk, Man Dresses in Clown Costume, Threatens Lawsuit Against Crow Wing County in Board Meeting from October 27:
The Crow Wing County Board met for a regular meeting on Tuesday, October 27. The regular business item portion of the meeting was relatively quick, but the main highlight of the meeting took place during the public forum component.
A man, who announced his name was “Troy Scheffler, all capitals,” spoke during the public forum and used his two minutes seemingly for the purposes of satire, as he dressed in a clown suit and frequently made references to memes most commonly associated with white supremacist 4chan forums.
Scheffler referenced a “high prophet Pepe,” in reference to Pepe the Frog, who was designated as a hate symbol by the Anti Defamation League in 2016, in addition to referring to a “cheese pizza” deputy, a term that is frequently linked to pedophilia and child pornography in the same forums.
The substance of Scheffler’s time spent speaking was his accusation that the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s office unlawfully accessed his data, and that in two weeks he would be serving the county with a lawsuit.
This is not the first time Scheffler has either shown up to a Crow Wing County Board meeting threatening a lawsuit or used litigation in general, but this sequence of events dates back to a special meeting from the city of Nisswa on September 4, which was convened following city mayor Fred Heidmann’s arrest due to an altercation with city police. The city’s council unanimously (with the exception of councilmember Jon Ryan, who, as a mayorial candidate for the upcoming election, stated he needed to abstain) called for Heidmann’s resignation, along with 13 other citizens who spoke and called for the same action; Scheffler was the only person who spoke at the meeting who offered a dissenting opinion, calling the ordeal a “dog and pony show.” Scheffler also appeared at the city’s regular meetings on September 16 and October 21, threatening a lawsuit in the latter appearance as well and expressing support for the mayor.
Scheffler appeared in a Crow Wing County meeting for the first time on October 13, when he expressed a desire to file a lawsuit against the county as well, likely referring to his current accusations that Nisswa Police Chief Craig Taylor, captain Joe Meyer of the CWC Sheriff’s office, and the Sheriff himself, Scott Goddard. Goddard did not comment on the specifics of Scheffler’s claims. If Scheffler follows through with his promise, according to public Minnesota Civil, Family, and Probate records, it will be the 57th lawsuit he has been involved in in the state since 2009.
In the regular business portion of the meeting, the board approved a grant contract with the Adult Mental Health Initiative, which the board does every two years.
Should we find additional interesting material about Scheffler's rhetorical flourishes, we'll update this post.
UPDATE: Via Twitter, Perkins replied with an earlier article:
— Chelsey Perkins (@DispatchChelsey) October 17, 2022
From that earlier coverage:
. . .Scheffler has a history of speaking in opposition to Crow Wing County government, along with bringing it to court. In October 2020, Scheffler made his first board appearance in costume, dressed as a clown while threatening to sue the county for alleged violations of his data privacy by Sheriff Scott Goddard and other law enforcement officials. . . .
At the time of Scheffler’s satirical statement while donning a curly rainbow wig, a giant bow tie and clown shoes, he was in the midst of pursuing a case in conciliation court against the county. The complaint sought repayment of a $19.60 late penalty on Scheffler’s property taxes, plus the $75 filing fee to bring the matter to court.
“Land services was closed due to Covid-19 hysteria. Therefore, I was unable to go into the building to pay with cash,” Scheffler’s complaint stated. “All other options required me to pay service fees which were unfair and unreasonable. I paid the entire year immediately upon opening of the building. I was assessed a late penalty of $19.60 and was ultimately extorted that money through the negligence of the defendant.” . . .
From the October 27 DIspatch article, Man dresses as clown to warn county of impending lawsuit:
A man dressed as a clown threatened to sue Crow Wing County during a county board meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27, citing violations of his data privacy by the sheriff and other law enforcement officials.
Donning a curly rainbow wig, a giant bow tie and clown shoes in primary colors, Troy Scheffler of Merrifield began a two-minute satirical statement during the open forum portion of the meeting by honking a horn and telling commissioners he arrived wearing the board’s “traditional garb so as to show respect for your culture in Clown World.” The statement — which included several references to alt-right and white nationalist internet memes born from online forums and concluded with Scheffler flashing the OK hand gesture, sometimes associated with white supremacy — warned county officials of an impending “scroll to be served upon the most high of your tyranny in two weeks’ time.” . . .
Should Scheffler be elected, county board meetings will never be ordinary again.
Photo: Scheffler at the October 27, 2020 Crow Wing County Board meeting. Source: 2020 R & J Broadcasting story by Sean Bjerk, Man Dresses in Clown Costume, Threatens Lawsuit Against Crow Wing County in Board Meeting from October 2.
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