Rochester police say informant showed no signs of drug use prior to overdose
The Rochester Police Department responded this week to a Star Tribune report that raised questions about the use of a confidential informant in a drug case. The police informant, 32-year-old Matthew Klaus, died of an overdose in March while working for the department.
The Star Tribune reporter, Chao Xiong, penned a lengthy piece last weekend that included interviews with Klaus’s parents, his ex-girlfriend, and Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin. Xiong wrote that “while it is common for police to employ people with criminal records as informants, Klaus' death is reigniting the debate about the highly confidential practice.”
Xiong’s story says Rochester Police violated its own policy by allowing Klaus, who had a history of alcohol and heroin addiction, to work as an informant without first obtaining permission from his probation officer.
During Monday’s meeting of the Rochester Police Policy Oversight Commission, the department was asked to respond to the article and clarify its policy on informants (you can watch video of the meeting here).
Rochester Police Capt. John Sherwin admitted that, “technically, yes, [investigators] should have made contact with the supervising agent, and that didn’t occur.” However, he called the lapse “inadvertent.”
Sherwin, who wrote the department’s policy on working with informants, also said the reporter left out details provided by police. Sherwin was filling in for Chief Franklin, who was absent from the meeting.
“There was additional information that was given to that reporter — a timeline of a chain of events going back to 2015 that was not included in that article,” said Sherwin. “So, there are some — I won’t say it’s entirely inaccurate — but it’s not the full story.”
Klaus began his work as an informant around 2015-16. When he started, Sherwin said, Rochester Police did contact his probation officer (something they, by their own admission, did not do the second time around). Klaus eventually stopped working for law enforcement; that was until earlier this year when he approached police about going undercover as an informant.
During the gap between cases with Rochester Police, Klaus nearly overdosed before going into recovery. Prior to the start of this year, Klaus had completed 14 months of sobriety, the Strib reported.
Chief Franklin told the paper that there were no signs Klaus was intoxicated while working with RPD. In the past, he said, the department has refused to work with informants based on their addictions.
Klaus, the paper said, relapsed in December — three months before beginning his work with local law enforcement. Sarah Peter, an ex-girlfriend and close friend of Klaus, said the department demonstrated a misunderstanding or disregard for how addiction works.
"You're throwing it back in their face, basically, saying, 'Go pick up these drugs and don't use them,'" she said. "It's like you're fighting fire with fire."
Klaus’s parents, John and Denise, said they were "confused and upset" when they first learned of their son’s work with investigators. However, after speaking with the police, the paper reports: “they believe authorities acted reasonably and have no grievances against them.”
RPD had sent Klaus on an undercover drug buy three times in March before his overdose. The dealer, Michelle A. Williams, was later charged with 3rd-degree murder in the case. She had sold Klaus the fatal dose of heroin.
Update: Xiong, the Star Tribune reporter, reached out via Twitter on August 30 and asked to respond to the statements made by police. He believes Rochester police purposely misrepresented his report to cover their tracks.
"In the original reporting of the story, the Star Tribune checked with Travis Gransee, director of community corrections for Dodge, Fillmore and Olmsted counties, and Gransee said any prior arrangement Rochester police had in working with Matthew Klaus did not transfer to his work in 2019,” said Xiong.
Xiong said Gransee confirmed that police were required to seek probation's approval to again work with Klaus in 2019.
You can read the full Star Tribune report below.
Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.
