A year after a global pandemic thwarted their efforts to reform police practices across Minnesota, Denise and John Klaus were back in front of state legislators Friday fighting to pass a law that would govern the highly secretive use of police informants.
They testified virtually before a House committee about "Matthew's Law," proposed legislation named after their 32-year-old son who died of a drug overdose in 2019 while working as a confidential informant for Rochester police.
It would be the first of its kind in Minnesota and one of few across the country if passed. The Oronoco couple first testified about the bill around this time last year before COVID-19 put an end to it. Renewing their efforts as the second anniversary of Matthew Klaus' death on March 30 approached wasn't easy.
"I would've liked to say it was easier this go around … but when we had to go through rewriting [the bill] and doing this again, it brought a lot of things back up to the surface again — all of our emotions," Denise Klaus said after Friday's hearing.
Matthew Klaus, the third of four siblings, left behind a 14-year-old son.
Denise and John Klaus raised several concerns about their son's case: He was a recovering heroin and alcohol addict who had relapsed when he was hired by Rochester police; he was instructed to buy heroin from a drug dealer who eventually sold him his fatal dose, and police violated their own policy by not asking the county corrections office for approval to hire him while he was on probation in two cases.
Before Matthew Klaus' death, his father had called probation twice to warn that he had relapsed. He had also called Rochester police asking for a welfare check on his son.
"Sadly, if the [probation officer] had been informed by [Rochester police] about using Matt to buy drugs, he may have remembered my calls and worked [out] a plan for Matt," John Klaus told the committee. "Allowing him to buy heroin … seems almost irresponsible now," John Klaus said.
