Staff photo by Fritz Busch Chuck Hanson filed for re-election to the office of Brown County Attorney last month. No other candidates filed before the May 31 deadline.

NEW ULM — As the Brown County Attorney’s Office climbs out of case backlog due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Brown County Attorney Chuck Hanson filed for re-election last month.

Nobody else filed to run for Brown County attorney.

“For the past few months, the County Attorney’s Office has been busy working on cases that were not handled earlier, due largely to the pandemic lockdown,” he said. “For about six months, we had to hold on to police reports. People didn’t stop committing crimes (during the lockdown), we just had to hold onto them.

“Now we’re catching up, but it’ll take us a while.”

In January, a five-day jury trial was stopped when two jurors got COVID-19. That meant starting the trial over again. It was rescheduled for March.

Hanson said the legal process was streamlined last October when the Victim Witness Coordinator program was moved from Probation to the County Attorney’s Office last October.

Hanson said Brown County Victim Witness Coordinator Bernie Epper moved to the County Attorney’s Office to contact all victims, help them put together victim impact statements and restitution requests, coordinates County Attorney’s Office meetings and set hearing and trial dates.

The County Attorney’s Office has several dozen jury cases scheduled for the summer.

The life of a county attorney can be challenging in other ways for the attorney himself and his family.

Hanson said transitioning the office from a part-time to full-time operation several years ago improved services for everyone involved.

“It’s been a great transition, one of the best things we did,” Hanson said. “Now there is 24-hour service for law enforcement to call me. My wife, Kim, never complained about things like police calling me at 3 a.m., which happens quite often.”

“Those calls happen when law enforcement is at the scene and want to know if they have enough probable cause for an arrest or just write up a report and want a complaint summons issued,” Hanson explained.

“I’m really happy. It’s an honor to be the Brown County attorney. We have a great office, winning the Brown County Board Commissioner’s Award (for exemplary performance),” said Hanson. “I’ve got a great staff to work with. These are some of the best attorneys and legal staff I’ve ever worked with.”

Hanson and his wife enjoy golfing when they can and spending time with family. Their son, Jacob, is studying for the medical school admission test at the University of Minnesota. Their daughter Brooke will be a senior at New Ulm High School this fall.

Chuck and Kim met at Mankato State University when he was studying law enforcement, and she studying in the paralegal program. She works at New Ulm Real Estate.

The mission of the Brown County Attorney’s Office is to provide for public safety by aggressively, yet fairly, prosecute individuals who violate the law, and to protect the rights of crime victims; advocate for the cause of justice; and provide the highest quality legal representation to county government, to best serve Brown County taxpayers.

The Brown county attorney’s goal is to ensure the county remains a safe and secure place to live, work, and not only build a family, but grow the community.

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.)