Sagstuen brings to the bench compassion, competence, and a commitment to hard work. These are all qualities that Gov. Ventura was looking for when he was making his last round of judicial nominations in Hennepin County and focused on Sagstuen to ascend to the bench from the Public Defender’s Office. Sagstuen graduated from the University of Minnesota as an undergrad in 1967. He was accepted to the University of Minnesota Law School and began in the fall of 1967. However, those were perilous years, back in the late 1960s, and he was drafted into the Army after his first year of law school in 1968. He completed basic training in Fort Lewis, Wash., and was assigned as a personnel specialist to Fort Gordon, Ga. In 1969, he was transferred to Vietnam, where he was assigned as the administrative NCO to the adjutant general, U.S. Army Headquarters, Vietnam. He was stationed in Long Binh. His final rank was Specialist 5th Class, and he was awarded a Bronze Star for Achievement for his work in Vietnam. Ten days after returning from Vietnam Sagstuen reentered law school at the University of Minnesota and graduated in 1972 with a J.D.

Sagstuen actually began as a prosecutor, a part-time misdemeanor prosecutor in state court, working for the former LeFevere, Leffler, Hamilton & Pearson law firm from 1973 to 1975. He not only handled the misdemeanor prosecutions but also civil cases as needed.

Then, in 1976, Sagstuen began his career at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office. He began as a staff attorney, initially assigned to the Misdemeanor Division, representing clients in traffic and criminal courts. As is the case for all the dedicated public defenders that work for indigent defendants, Sagstuen quickly received a dose of reality and battlefield training in the criminal courts in Hennepin County. The experience at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office was priceless. He was exposed not only to the traffic and misdemeanor criminal courts, but also, through the course of his career, to numerous juvenile, felony, and even family court cases. He later handled appeals to the Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court. He has tried to verdict the full panoply of public defender matters.

Sagstuen served from 1979 through 1986 as a trial team supervisor. In that capacity he supervised six lawyers practicing in felony, misdemeanor, juvenile and family courts, while carrying a full caseload of his own.

In 1986, Sagstuen went to the Appeals Division and has been the director of the Research and Appeals Division of the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office since that time. He supervised attorneys and law clerks assigned to the division, while carrying a full caseload. Westlaw currently lists over 100 published and unpublished cases for which Sagstuen was counsel.

Sagstuen is a member of numerous boards and commissions, including the Minnesota Client Security Board; Minnesota Supreme Court Evaluation Committee on Open Juvenile Protection Hearings; Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Open Juvenile Protection Hearings; Minnesota Supreme Court Foster Care and Adoption Task Force, Open Hearings Subcommittee; and Hennepin County District Court Gender Fairness Task Force, to name a few.

He has authored numerous articles on notable cases, including serving as co-defense counsel in the U. S. Supreme Court case of Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 124 L.Ed. 2d 334, 113 S.Ct. 2130 (1993). Sagstuen has been a frequent lecturer in Minnesota CLEs relating to criminal justice, juvenile justice, and ethics issues for criminal defense lawyers. Sagstuen has also been very active in the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has been a great resource relative to issues affecting the defense of citizens accused of crimes.

Sagstuen feels that having been a public defender for almost 25 years, he has a sense of why people are appearing in court. He has been both prosecutor and public defender, and can see both sides and understand all roles of the criminal justice participants. He feels that he will not have to make any type of philosophical shift in order to assume the role and responsibility of being a judge. Sagstuen realizes the judge’s discretion and wants to exercise that discretion fairly. Having handled numerous appellate matters, Sagstuen understands the role and the position of power that the judges have within the system. He believes that judges are the last of the general practitioners, because they must handle anything that appears in front of them. They must be open to everything and willing to learn. A trial judge cannot be arrogant, cannot be cloistered, and must be willing to do the work necessary to provide everyone with a fair hearing and to understand the issues brought before the court.

Sagstuen believes that having been a private attorney, a public defender, a prosecutor, and having appeared in juvenile court and adult court, dealing with felonies, misdemeanors, and appeals, as well as trials, he has a broad understanding of the criminal justice system. He has handled only a few civil matters, but will quickly get up to speed on the broad civil practice that will be brought before him. He has had a significant exposure to the civil rules through his appellate work.

Sagstuen has met many members of the civil and criminal bar through his bar association activities. He has not wanted to become too narrowly focused on the criminal practice in his professional activities. He said it is too easy for lawyers and judges to get narrowly focused and not realize what one doesn’t know. His goal always as an appellate lawyer was to focus his position on the law and the facts and craft the appeal based on his perceptions of what they were in the particular case.

Sagstuen’s hobbies are biking, running, skiing, and photography. He is also a licensed private pilot, but has not flown for a number of years. I asked Sagstuen why he threw his hat in the ring for a potential judgeship, and he indicated that after doing public defender work for many many years, he decided that he needed a new challenge. He thought that being a decision maker, i.e., a judge, instead of an advocate would be that new challenge. Sagstuen expects that this challenge will be an interesting, exciting change in his professional life.

Sagstuen’s whole career has been focused on public service law. He felt he knew what the job of being a judge was about and thought he could do a good job and make a positive contribution to the Hennepin County district bench. Being a judge is a natural extension of Sagstuen’s decisions made 30 years ago to focus on public service, and he will continue to serve the citizens of Hennepin County for years to come in a positive way on the Hennepin County district bench.