It was a three-day snowmobile gala at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake involving 11 legislators, the state's foremost snowmobile lobby, new equipment from Polaris Inc., six executives from the Department of Natural Resources and the agency's top cop.
Held annually since Tim Pawlenty was governor, the Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association (MnUSA) Winter Rendezvous gained more attention this year than ever. That's because two senators crashed a pair of factory-fresh sleds in a ditch, requiring one of the lawmakers to be airlifted to the Twin Cities. The injuries to Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, have left him temporarily unable to walk.
DNR's five-day silence about the incident, coupled with early police reports that were shallow and erroneous, led to public cries of special treatment and coverup. Now that the dust has settled, interviews and documents shed new light on what happened and why outsiders suspected a whitewash.
The crash
At 12:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, DNR Enforcement Division Director Rodmen Smith was navigating a roadside ditch near Motley aboard a brand new Polaris snowmobile owned by his agency. The ditch was part of an official state trail south of Lake Shamineau and Smith was a participant — not a leader — in a group ride of "VIPs'' organized by MnUSA. Smith's group — one of four that rode from Cragun's to have lunch at Castaway Club on Lake Alexander — was en route back to the resort. In each group, there were eight to 10 riders.
Smith slowed to make a sharp left turn into the woods. He said the turn was unmarked. Behind him were senators Jasinski and Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. Jasinski failed to make the turn. A ski on his snowmobile hit the rear track on Smith's sled. The impact triggered a chain reaction that left Jasinski on the ground with a broken pelvis. On top of him, according to Smith's report, was the 500-pound snowmobile operated by Johnson.
In an interview last week, Morrison County Sheriff Shawn Larsen said Smith called him right away to say that he was directly involved in the crash and wanted a deputy sheriff to cover the accident. Four DNR conservation officers assisted the group ride and they all went to the scene of the crash. But Smith told Larsen it would be a conflict of interest for DNR to investigate the accident. Larsen agreed.
Errors, omissions and silence
The sheriff said he wasn't going to rush out a report. He planned a press release for Monday morning based on a bare-bones accident report completed by Deputy Mark Dzieweczynski. The report omitted Smith's involvement. It estimated snowmobile speeds of 10 miles per hour. It noted that no one was tested for alcohol. The initial press release wrongly reported that Johnson rear-ended Jasinski, "causing Jasinski to be thrown off the snowmobile.''
Smith said he was floored by the press release. He called the sheriff. "That's not what happened,'' he said he told Larsen. Smith knew the faulty report, omitting his involvement, would add to cries of a coverup from people who already were doubting the 10 mph speed estimates and questioning the lack of alcohol testing.
The sheriff amended the news release. But the new report still did not mention Smith's involvement. Larsen said the initial report was revised to conform with a complaint from Sen. Johnson's office. The amended news release dropped the "rear ending'' narrative and said Jasinski's snowmobile was unoccupied when Johnson ran into it.
DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen told the Star Tribune that Smith called her about 45 minutes after the crash to let her know what happened. But the two leaders made no public acknowledgment of Smith's involvement until Wednesday of the following week. That's when Smith released his own report of the incident, along with four separate incident reports written by the DNR conservation officers who were at the scene. Even then, the chief wasn't made available for interviews.
Strommen explained the silence this way: "Morrison County took the lead in investigating this accident and it is their case. We allowed them to finish and issue their news release and the updates. When DNR saw that the report was inconsistent with what DNR officers were reporting, and when we received a request for our report, we issued our incident report to clarify the information.''
Larsen said reporting mistakes from his sheriff's office were based on human error and misinformation given to his deputy. But he defended the decision not to mention Smith's involvement because the DNR enforcement chief was not injured and his sled was not damaged.
"I don't have any regrets because we don't have anything to hide,'' the sheriff said. "We weren't trying to leave him out intentionally, nor did he say, 'Hey, Sheriff, I want to be left out of the report.' ''
Larsen directed Dzieweczynski to produce a third public report, a "full-blown'' investigative report that — by Wednesday — included Smith's involvement and said "Jasinski might have been traveling a little bit too fast heading into a lefthand turn in the trail.''
No alcohol testing?
In the Minnesota Senate, Jasinski is assistant majority leader. This year, he's pushing a pro-law enforcement bill to entice more people to become police officers. In October 2020, Jasinski was arrested in Rice County and he publicly apologized for drunken driving.
But he told reporters after his snowmobile accident that he hadn't been drinking alcohol on the day of the accident. Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, vouched for Jasinski in an interview with the Star Tribune by saying she sat near his table at Castaway. "There was no drinking,'' she said.
Smith, too, said he didn't observe anyone drinking during lunch. At the accident scene, neither Jasinski nor Johnson showed signs of impairment, the chief said. Without indicators, it would have been illegal to test them.
"I get why there are questions,'' Larsen said. But there was no reasonable suspicion of drinking, he said.
Free rides
In the full-blown sheriff's report, Dzieweczynski said, "It should be noted that both of these snowmobiles [operated by Jasinski and Johnson] are brand new owned by Polaris and were currently demo models with no registration displayed.'' The disclosure fueled scorn on social media from observers unsettled by the industry's hand-in-glove affiliation with the winter rendezvous.
Here, at an event hosted by snowmobile lobbyists, the industry was helping to treat lawmakers to the event's self-described "VIP" treatment of lawmakers and DNR decisionmakers. Not only does Polaris benefit from state-funded snowmobile trail maintenance and expansion, the Medina-based company has a growing stake in public trails being built for ATVs and side-by-sides. This year, there's a bill in the Legislature to increase the legal weight limit for those off-road vehicles, a would-be benefit for Polaris.
Jess Rogers, a spokeswoman for Polaris, said the company has provided snowmobiles to the rendezvous for "a number of years'' to support the snowmobiling community. This year, the company delivered six sleds, she said. The machines were registered, Rogers said, but the company inadvertently missed attaching the licenses and 2022 tags.
Attendees
MnUSA is an umbrella group for local snowmobile clubs around the state. The clubs provide trail maintenance with dollars distributed by DNR. This year's Winter Rendezvous opened Thursday and closed at noon Sunday. The schedule of events included happy hours, hospitality rooms, dinners and two days of trail riding. Meetings were held to share legislative updates, discuss safety training, air grievances and to converse with rank-and-file snowmobile enthusiasts.
Ruud said she attends the gatherings because snowmobiling is so important to the recreational economy of her area. She said it began as the "governor's ride" under Pawlenty but morphed into a VIP ride for legislators and DNR staff.
This year's interactions included a trail stop along the border of Camp Ripley, where snowmobilers have applied for bonding money to carve a trail into the camp's property. It would replace what is now a long stretch of "awful'' ditch riding, Ruud said.
She was one of 10 legislators — eight Republicans and two Democrats — who rode snowmobiles provided by Polaris or Cragun's. The 11th lawmaker who joined the ride, Republican Sen. Jason Rarick of Pine City, used his own sled.
Rep. Rob Ecklund, D-International Falls, said his participation in the ride demonstrated to voters in his district that he supports state funding of snowmobile trails. In addition to using a Polaris snowmobile, organizers equipped him with a snowmobile suit, helmet and boots, he said. Legislators relied on MnUSA to keep the event within ethical guidelines.
The highest-ranking DNR official at the event was Shannon Lotthammer, assistant commissioner. She rode a DNR snowmobile during the ride, one of eight agency employees to do so. Their stays at Cragun's ranged from the three nights spent by Paul Purman, the snowmobile program consultant, to zero nights by Lotthammer, Chief Smith and Ann Pierce, DNR's new parks and trails director.
Strommen, who attended the 2019 Winter Rendezvous, was asked what she would say to people who question DNR's embrace of a hospitality-heavy event held by an interest group that relies on the agency's financial support.
"We need to meet our partners where they are and DNR attends events that highlight collaborative work in outdoor recreation and conservation," the commissioner said.
She said participation is guided by the state's ethics policy. "While the primary purpose isn't social, it's not uncommon for events to include social elements and other opportunities," she said.
