Crystal police lieutenant charged with unauthorized searches of ex-girlfriend's driving records

A Crystal police lieutenant who is a recognized expert on the use of force has been charged with using the state driver's license databases to search numerous times for information on a former girlfriend.

Derrick Hacker, 48, is accused of accessing the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) database on 60 separate occasions in 2019 and 2021, according to an investigation by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). He is charged with 12 gross misdemeanor and six misdemeanor counts including misconduct by a public officer, unauthorized penetration of a computer security system and violation of the state data practices act.

Paul Rogosheske, Hacker's attorney, said Friday that Hacker was conducting a "legitimate investigation." He said his client never contacted the alleged victim and that he is innocent of the charges.

Hacker, a member of the Crystal Police Department for 23 years, has testified in several high-profile criminal cases, including the trial of Mohamed Noor, the Minneapolis police officer who was convicted in 2019 of the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Hacker holds a mid-level management position and is typically assigned to criminal investigations.

"Mr. Hacker was placed on paid administrative leave after we received the initial complaint and this is his current employment status," Crystal Police Chief Stephanie Revering said in a statement. "We immediately requested third parties to conduct independent criminal and internal investigations regarding this complaint."

Eckberg Lammers, a Stillwater law firm that usually handles prosecutions for Crystal, first learned of the allegations in 2021. The firm agreed to turn the case over to the St. Paul City Attorney's Office because the databases allegedly breached were there and because of the potential for a conflict of interest, said Joe Van Thomme, an attorney at Eckberg Lammers.

Though Hacker was questioned by a BCA investigator in August, criminal charges were not filed until Tuesday. A source familiar with the case said the investigation was not completed until then.

The gross misdemeanor counts each carry a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $3,000, and the misdemeanor charges each could result in 90 days in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Hacker unexpectedly showed up at the home of a man and asked for the whereabouts of a woman identified in the complaint by the initials S.R.S. The man was the ex-boyfriend of S.R.S.'s daughter.

Hacker allegedly told a resident at the home he was investigating an identity theft case involving S.R.S. The daughter of S.R.S. doubted Hacker's motives because he "had been romantically involved with S.R.S. from 2014 to 2016," and contacted Crystal police.

A Crystal deputy chief checked Hacker's desk at police headquarters and found several handwritten notes pertaining to S.R.S., including phone numbers and a printout of her driver's license and vehicle information that had been obtained from the DVS website.

A BCA investigator learned that Crystal police had no open identity theft cases involving S.R.S. and found that Hacker had made 60 DVS queries on her in 2019 and 2021, seeking information that included her driving record and license plate numbers.

The investigator interviewed S.R.S., who said she had had a relationship with Hacker in the past and that he loved her but she didn't love him. She said she hadn't spoken to him since 2016 and had moved several times since then. She said she hadn't reported an identity theft case to police or given Hacker permission to access her DVS information.

Hacker told the BCA investigator "that he had been following up on a tip-line call to Crystal police about stolen mail and identity theft." The investigator searched Crystal police records for S.R.S. but found no mail theft or identity theft cases linked to her. The investigator also checked recent tip-line calls to Crystal police and found none related to S.R.S. or identity and mail theft.

The complaint says Rogosheske, Hacker's attorney, told the investigator that Hacker had been working on a voter fraud case. However, the investigator found no Crystal police records on voter fraud cases involving S.R.S.

Rogosheske said that because there's an employment hearing on the case scheduled for next month, information in the employment case is private and he couldn't disclose the details, including the reference to voter fraud. He also said that it was improper for the St. Paul City Attorney's Office to file the criminal charges without the information that has been gathered in the employment investigation.

"Any time you want to fire a police officer, you have to have an employment hearing. He has cooperated with the internal investigation," Rogosheske said.

He added that the BCA investigator on the case has "no knowledge about what is going on in the employment complaint." In 23 years on the police force, he said, Hacker has never had a complaint filed against him.

"He has excellent reviews," Rogosheske said. "He will be found not guilty of the criminal charges."