Hennepin prosecutor to run for Washington County attorney

Updated: November 10, 2009 - 11:28 PM

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Peter J. Orput, an assistant Hennepin County attorney, announced his candidacy Tuesday to succeed retiring Washington County Attorney Doug Johnson.

Johnson, the county's chief prosecutor, plans to retire after his current term ends in 2010. He was elected Washington County attorney in 1998.

Orput said that he has successfully prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases over the course of his 20-year career. In the past three years, he said, he has served as lead prosecutor in 41 trials, including four first-degree murder prosecutions in Hennepin County. He also has worked as a deputy Minnesota attorney general, legal services director for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, and as a prosecutor in Carver, Dakota and Mille Lacs counties.

If elected Washington County attorney, Orput said he would create a domestic abuse service center, work to reduce truancy in schools, establish drug-intervention programs and start a veterans' court for nonviolent offenders who served in war zones.

Orput, 54, of Stillwater, has served in the Marine Corps. He is a graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul and currently is an adjunct professor in the police science department of St. Mary's University of Minnesota.

Orput is the second declared candidate running to succeed Johnson. Clayton Robinson Jr., an assistant Ramsey County attorney who lives in Woodbury, announced in July that he would run.

KEVIN GILES