REGIONAL- Former Cook Housing and Rehabilitation Authority Executive Director Reed Erickson is facing possible additional charges in his court fight over allegations that he improperly bilked the CHRA out of nearly $19,000 for improperly claimed vacation and sick time compensation.
Erickson was originally charged in February 2024 with felony embezzlement of public funds after an internal investigation and external audit revealed evidence that he had paid himself for 515 hours of vacation and sick time to which he was not entitled when he left the agency, a monetary amount of $18,982.90. CHRA policy allowed only for reimbursement of a maximum of 240 hours of accrued vacation time to be reimbursed. According to the original complaint, in a written response to the agency Erickson indicated that his total accrued vacation time was 456 hours, with a total payout of $16,808.15. Erickson denied being paid for any sick time on his final check.
On Dec. 27, Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Aaron Welch filed a motion in district court seeking to add two additional counts against Erickson – felony theft and misdemeanor public employee misconduct for filing false documents. If the extra charges are approved by a judge and Erickson is convicted of all three charges, he would face possible maximum sentences of 10 years imprisonment and $20,000 in fines for both the embezzlement and theft charges, and one year and $3,000 for the misdemeanor misconduct charge.
The county attorney’s office also sought to bolster its prosecution of Erickson by petitioning the court for permission to bring a past complaint against Erickson into the record for trial. According to a 2013 ruling in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, Erickson had been dismissed from a job with the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) over allegations that he had filed falsified expense reports claiming he had worked when he had not, claimed expenses that were not legitimately due to him, used a state rental car for personal purposes, caused the state to pay green fees at a golf course while he was attending conferences on state business, and obtained per diem meal reimbursement for meals that were included in the cost of lodging packages. DEED denied Erickson’s claim for unemployment compensation after being fired, and he was appealing an unemployment law judge’s decision upholding DEED’s denial.
The appellate court found that the unemployment law judge had sufficient cause to rule in DEED’s favor and affirmed that decision. While Minnesota law prohibits the introduction of the case in order to prove any assertions about Erickson’s character, a judge has the discretion to allow it if the evidence can help to establish “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.” Prosecutors assert that the appellate case provides evidence that Erickson has previously made false claims to inflate his pay, as is alleged in the current case.
It is anticipated that rulings on the addition of additional charges and the admission of additional evidence will be ruled upon at the outset of Erickson’s jury trial, which begins next week.