New chief Hennepin County public defender is named

Michael Berger, a public defender in Anoka County, has been hired to be the new chief of the Hennepin County Public Defender's office.

Berger will take the position for the state's largest county in June, according to an email sent to public defender staff Thursday from the Minnesota Board of Public Defense leadership. The Hennepin County position has been vacant since October, when the last chief resigned amid an IRS tax evasion investigation.

Berger is now the managing attorney at the Public Defender's Office in Anoka County.

"Public defense in Minnesota is a pretty small world, relatively speaking, so it's nice to know there's some familiar faces there that we'll be able to build relationships with," Berger said in a phone interview Thursday.

Berger's current post in the state's Tenth Judicial District is leading the Anoka County felony team. In Hennepin County, he will oversee the state's largest public defender's office, with a budget of about $9 million and more than 200 staffers. The job's salary range is $140,317 to $161,398.

The announcement comes a little more than a week after the state interviewed three finalists that included Berger, Assistant Ramsey County public defender Greg Egan, and Shawn Webb, adjunct professor at Mitchell-Hamline School of Law and managing attorney at the Public Defender's Office in the First Judicial District.

Berger will serve out the remaining 19 months of a four-year term vacated by former chief Kassius Benson, who resigned in October after news surfaced over the summer of an IRS investigation into his private practice, along with a drunken driving charge. He was indicted on 17 counts of federal tax evasion in February and makes a court appearance Tuesday on the DWI charge.

Berger, 41, said that he knows there are "frustrations with the instability" in office leadership. The position has turned over twice in the past three years. But he's hopeful to begin a new chapter.

"They've been doing great work for years and years," Berger said. "Nobody's doubting the talents and dedication of lawyers we have there."

Berger attended Mounds View High School and is a graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law and the Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School. He joined the Tenth Judicial District in 2007 as an assistant public defender. For the past nine years he's served as managing attorney.

He knows this next role comes with big responsibilities and the highest case load in the state. "I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to take it on and I'm really looking forward to doing great things," he said.

Berger was honorably discharged with the rank of captain after serving 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserve-Judge Advocate General Corps. He said he looks forward to bringing some of those skills as a veteran to the office.

He lives in Shoreview and said his two kids attend the same elementary school where his wife teaches.