Overview
- Michael Coffey filed a whistleblower lawsuit last week seeking reinstatement and damages from Sheriff Bob Fletcher and the State Agricultural Society, which runs the Minnesota State Fair.
- Coffey says he reported unlawful force at the 2025 fair, including a video from Aug. 31 that he says shows Fletcher holding a restrained man down, deploying a chemical canister to his face, and then pointing it toward a nearby crowd.
- The suit alleges Fletcher later demanded Coffey’s firing and set a Dec. 15 deadline, threatening to pull Ramsey County deputies from the fair if Coffey stayed on.
- After those threats, the complaint says the fair’s CEO limited Coffey to daytime shifts, cut overtime that comes with night work, and reassigned scheduling and contract duties he had handled in past years.
- Fletcher denies using chemical munitions and calls Coffey’s claims false and self-serving, the fair says its actions were proper and is not commenting further, and the complaint notes Coffey took his concerns to the State Fair police chief and the FBI.