Ex-TRF official faces peeping charge

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. -- A Thief River Falls city council member resigned abruptly last week, days after he was cited for peeping in a men’s restroom in a city park.

Dean Swanson, 54, faces a charge of “interference with privacy,” after police officers said he had been looking into stalls in the men’s bathroom in Tourist Park on the southwest edge of town on Sept. 2.

An investigation concluded Swanson had been in the bathroom, “a considerable amount of time,” Police Chief Kim Murphy said, from roughly 11 p.m., Sept. 1 to about 1:30 a.m., Sept. 2.

He appeared to have been drinking and told the officers he was openly gay and had been looking at other patrons in their bathroom stalls, Murphy said.

Swanson is expected to make an initial appearance on the gross misdemeanor charge, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine, in state district court in Thief River Falls within two weeks, a court official said.

Swanson was convicted of a gross misdemeanor in Ramsey County in 2003 for non-consensual sexual conduct, according to state court records.