Former North Dakota official settles DUI, child threat cases – InForum

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MANDAN, N.D. — A former North Dakota deputy attorney general has settled two separate cases that accused him of driving under the influence and

threatening children in a Mandan hotel pool.

Troy Thomas Seibel, 46, of Mandan pleaded guilty on May 17 in Morton County District Court to the DUI charge stemming from a Nov. 25 crash. He was sentenced to 360 days of unsupervised probation.

He also must do a chemical dependency evaluation and complete any recommended treatment. North Dakota Department of Transportation records noted Seibel’s license was suspended.

Prosecutors also agreed to stop pursuing a disorderly conduct charge filed in connection to a Feb. 18 disturbance at the Comfort Inn. If Seibel does not violate any laws and stays away from the Mandan hotel for 360 days, the case will be dismissed and sealed, according to an agreement filed last week. Prosecutors could resume prosecution if Seibel breaks the conditions of the agreement.

“In both cases, these were appropriate resolutions, ” Seibel’s attorney Justin Vinje told The Forum on Tuesday, declining to comment further.

Seibel was arrested Nov. 25 after a North Dakota state trooper responded to a rollover crash at McKenzie Drive and the West Bismarck Expressway in Mandan. The trooper said he saw Seibel going 125 mph in a 55 mph zone before hitting a snowbank, according to a declaration of probable cause.

Seibel had a blood alcohol content of 0.234%, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08%, the trooper said in the declaration. The trooper noticed numerous alcohol containers in Seibel’s vehicle, according to the court documents.

Medics took Seibel to CHI St. Alexius Hospital by ambulance to be treated for injuries suffered in the crash, court documents said.

Three months later, Mandan police responded to the Comfort Inn for a report of a man in a hot tub “making threatening, rude and sexual comments towards children,” according to an affidavit of probable cause. Seibel initially refused to give an officer information about the incident, including his own name, the affidavit said.

The officer arrested Seibel and put him in a patrol vehicle, court documents said. That’s when Seibel told the officer that a kid threw a football into the hot tub, the affidavit said.

After the kid asked what would happen if the football hit Seibel, the defendant said he would “shove it up your ass,” according to the court documents. The children playing in the pool were 6 or 7 years old, the affidavit said.

Hotel employees tried to remove Seibel from the hot tub, but he refused, the affidavit said.

Police said Seibel was intoxicated but able to speak and comprehend the conversation, according to court documents.

Former North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem appointed Seibel to be his chief deputy in December 2016. Before that, Seibel served as North Dakota’s labor commissioner under Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

Seibel resigned from his deputy attorney general post

in March 2022, about a month after Gov. Doug Burgum tapped Drew Wrigley to be attorney general. Wrigley took over after Stenehjem died from cardiac arrest in late January 2022.

April Baumgarten

April Baumgarten joined The Forum in February 2019 as an investigative reporter. She grew up on a ranch 10 miles southeast of Belfield, N.D., where her family raises Hereford cattle. She double majored in communications and history/political science at the University of Jamestown, N.D.





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