This is where you will find any of the recent postings related to Werner and the case he is pursuing.
Restless Again
By
Cat West
1, 2, 3, is now 5, 6,7
September 23, 2025
The AG has found a State Prosecutor to pursue their gone-to-trash case against Werner Kunkel: Tiffany Sorgen.
She lost her case against Nichole Rice in the Roommate Murder of Knutson. I think she brought it too soon, but at least she brought it. I think because she cared about the victim and the victim’s family. But skimpy evidence wasn’t going to fly.
She won her case against Krall despite having complaints filed against her office that threw out some of the biggest evidence, like the body, and therefore the autopsy showing cause of death—but she managed to win that one anyway. We’ll see if it gets appealed.
My guess is that the Krall case will likely go to appeal (most guilty verdicts do) and it will be sustained, but it will still tarnish her career in some aspects, not entirely her doing.
I don’t think she is dishonest, just sometimes a little eager. I also think that the prosecutor’s office, the Attorney General, is using her as a sacrificial offering to the courts in the Werner Kunkel case because they see her as ‘expendable’ and her reputation as less in value than their winning at all costs. If they get caught breaking the rules, cheating and in 200 ways framing an innocent man, well, let her take the fall. (See: Petition). It’s a textbook case of railroading and innocent man. I suspect the great motive on the part of Lonnie Olson was political gain by favor or false publicity.
The Prosecution’s response to having over 200 points of their deceptions and violations revealed was to delay until that last possible moment and instead of responding or countering any of the bullets in that petition, was to claim that the victim of their fraud upon the court ‘should have known’ or ‘figured out’ over the past 30+ years of incarceration, that they had essentially lied, concealed witnesses that disproved their framing of the crime (thus disproving their entire case against Werner). How sweet.
Essentially, a “nanner-nanner-boo-boo” thumbing their nose at the court, the presiding judge, and the established rules and laws.
That already was not sitting well with the Bench, and neither were the antics of the Three Stooges (apologies to the real 3 Stooges, Larry, Mo & Curly Jo) act that showed up to the hearing a couple of weeks ago, unprepared to do anything but lie and evade and stall, showing as much disrespect for the law and contempt for the presiding judge and the court itself, as they possibly could. (Well, they could’ve mooned the bench, but this was close enough).
My Summary: (No, I wasn’t present. Play along, will ya?)
Prosecutor Bench: Eye-poking, head-thumping (sound effects as you remember them)
Judge: Trial will be October 1, 2, & 3.
PB: Can’t do it. *Shrugs* We’re vewy busy, Calendar full *fingers crossed behind their backs*
Judge: *Makes a call, gets the facts* Apparently you’re not busy. Assign a prosecutor. See you October 1, 2, 3.
So, the prosecution’s habit of lying, defying facts didn’t fly this time? Whoaaa!
It took another week of drawing straws, rolling dice, cutting cards, (Best 2 out of 3) (Best 3 out of 5) for them to drop this rancid porkchop on Tiffany Sorgen’s plate. She’s the expendable one in their club.
Her record is less than stellar, but how much of that can be placed on poor police procedures? I am not impressed by what I have seen from law enforcement in North Dakota. Not at Local, County, State or Federal.
PB: Judge! Judge! We have assigned a Prosecutor! But we need more time for her to sort and get up to date on this case!
Judge: Okay, January 5, 6 & 7.
Seems to me their office has already had 30+ years and several months to sort out this case. But give them a few extra months. What’s that to a guy who has been wrongfully imprisoned for over thirty years? Make him miss the opportunity to be released in time to have a Thanksgiving dinner with what remains of his family, and maybe spend this Christmas outside of prison walls? Sure, extend his torment. It’s what Lonnie Olson would want to do. He’s bullied this man since grade school, and this was his biggest torment yet. Why take that away from Lonnie? He’s a big bad Federal Judge now. Let him enjoy it.
There were plenty of prosecutors and staff to take care of this case 1, 2, 3—but they chose instead to play it off like some school yard hijinks. They’ve already and prematurely destroyed material evidence, the bloody shirt that would have nothing on it to link it to Werner but plenty on it to tie it directly to his real killer.
*Sidetrack*
WHY was that shirt destroyed? Where’s the chain of evidence showing who gave the order, who dispatched it, where it went and how it was destroyed?
Back to Now
The Prosecution’s office needs to answer for what Lonnie Olson did to Werner, by framing him and railroading him. They need to answer to the community for giving them a false sense of security while he knew the real killers were still out there. He KNEW Werner was innocent, and so it follows that the real killers were allowed to slide home free because of what Lonnie did.
Imagine knowing that someone who literally stabbed a man over 80-100x, but choosing to pursue a man you knew was innocent just so you could claim to have solved this and get all the public accolades? Like when do we applaud the bullies who beat up the kid who did nothing? What glory is there in that?
Or did he know because someone came forward and told him what they had seen, who the real killers were and he knew they had political pull and could help his career?
He hid from the defense the names of witnesses who knew Gilbert Fassett was alive and well for days after the time frame he set up as Date of Death: The only date and time that he could pin it on Werner because any later than that and Werner was nowhere around.
So, did an eyewitness or two come forward and file a report on what they saw the real killers do and did he conceal that as well? Or worse, did he trade it to the real killers for political or financial gain?
Why wouldn’t he?
I knew it wasn’t Werner because for years before I ever even knew the name Gilbert Fassett or Werner Kunkel, I had been receiving stories from people who did business with the Casino on Spirit Lake, in particular the Head of Security, James Yankton, that he had a trophy in a jar, a pickled scrotum that he claimed belonged to Gilbert Fassett.
That’s also how I know that Gilbert was sexually mutilated. Something the autopsy reported neither confirms nor denies. They don’t mention his genitalia at all. Every autopsy report I have ever read (about 30 of them) have always remarked on genitalia as being unremarkable, without injury or injured as part of the basic report. This one says nothing?
I also think that Gilbert was shot. And the ‘stabbing’ was to dig out the bullets (2 or more) and the rest of the stabbing was to disguise that it was a shooting—make it look like a maniac was out knifing people.
Now, who would want to dig out bullets? Someone who had government issued weapons and ammunition. Traceable.
So, yeah, that’s why I’m onboard with Werner being innocent.
Now, look at all the perjury and misrepresentation Lonnie Olson as Prosecutor used to convict him. Biggest one was the ‘expert’ testimony from a guy who looked at bugs as a hobby. At least 3 Universities withing rock throwing distance that could’ve provided a real certified expert, but Lonnie went with the one that would set the time frame to what he needed it to be, not what was true, or even close to it.
The real murderers of Gilbert Fassett are still free. Lonnie Olson used this case to springboard into a Federal Judgeship. He sits there now and you’ve got to wonder how many other cases he played like this one and how much corruption the Federal Bench is perpetrating, just in his actions alone.
An innocent man has suffered and his family has suffered, for more than 30 years because of Lonnie Olson his abuses and ambitions.
If I was Tiffany Sorgen and I could see what had been done and why—I’d take a real hard look at what was being done to me and expected of me and decide if my personal morals and respect for the law outweighed the benefits of further perpetuating the abuses and miscarriage of law. I’d look at the behavior of the prosecution’s office that dropped this on my plate and their antics being an affront to my values and the law itself, everything I say I stand for and believe in.
I’d measure it very carefully and decide if that’s who and what I wanted to protect, or if I wanted to take a miscarriage of justice and set it right.
I’d be drafting an apology to the Courts, The People of North Dakota, and most of all—to Werner Kunkel and his family for the egregious abuse of authority miscarriage of Justice perpetrated and sustained by the Prosecutor’s Office that was done to him. I would then write a separate apology to the Family of Gilbert Fassett and assure them that the case would be re-opened and investigated to pursue the real murderers of Gilbert Fassett.
If I were Tiffany Sorgen, I would stand up and make my mark with integrity, so that the people of North Dakota would see an honest representation of Justice and know the look, the sound and the feel of it.
The balance has been so far off for so long that to set it right takes a person of courage and boldness. The false narrative that has stood the law on its head and ruined the lives of so many, would be vanquished and I could offer The Good People a moral compass that points true.
Can she do it? Will she do it? We’ll see.
We’ll all see. Every eye will be following this story, except for Devils Lake Journal which apparently shows no interest up until this point. I don’t understand it, but Politics runs everything these days. Corporations are running politics so we get what we get, right?
Watching Tiffany Sorgen either represent the ideals of Justice and the Laws, or go along to get along in a club that sees her as expendable,
One of the biggest media outlets in Europe, 55 Million subscribers/viewers, is RTF (I think I got that right) and they will be watching, ringside to see how this goes down. Be nice if every local paper, TV station, could send a reporter. This is kind of a big deal. An innocent man in prison and a crooked prosecutor sitting on the Federal Bench. Or is there a ball game that day?
You know where to find me.
~Cat
September 15, 2025
All Lies
Printer (5)
The preliminary hearing was last week.
For the Prosecution it did not go well.
Review:
Werner’s attorneys found a treasure trove of documents the AG’s office had concealed.
Great Northern Innocence Project (GNIP) Jim Mayer wrote an 80-page Request for a New Hearing listing over 200+ violations, among them Brady Rule Violations where actual witnesses who did not know Werner but knew Gilbert Fassett had come forward in good faith and given statements to police/prosecutors that they had seen/spoken to Gilbert 3 days (or more) after he was supposed to have been murdered.
This threw the prosecutor, Lonnie Olson, into a conundrum because only his very tight timeline of when Gilbert was murdered would make it possible for it to be Werner who did it. Any later, even a day later, would make it impossible because Werner wasn’t around to have done it.
In order to make it suit the necessary timeline, Lonnie relied on perjury, fraud and concealment. He knew Werner was innocent. Werner was his chosen Fall Guy. Lonnie had bullied Werner all through school and this was the frosting on that cake for him. He couldn’t let him go. He should have.
They would, as they had done so many times before, and as that office had done so many times before, use fraud, lies, deception and perjury to construct a case, with a compliant judge sitting. It had worked for decades.
It started with Lynn Crooks office framing Leonard Peltier using junk science to tie him to the murders of two FBI Agents using junk science (which was later debunked their own labs and forensics).
He was kept in prison by racism. The FBI KNEW who had killed their agents but that would’ve exposed several illegal practices ongoing in South Dakota and Indian Country in general.
To be clear, the FBI used the incident to bring down one of the leading activists of that time. They really didn’t mind using two of their own dead to do it. They lied to the families, the courts and the nation. (They still do.) And it worked.
It worked because they had Judge Paul Benson, crooked and incompetent, on the bench. A man who prided himself as a descendant of Indian Fighters. A man who was also a Lodge Brother of Lynn Crooks.
It worked again, that team of Crooks & Benson, in convicting 11 innocent men of Eddie Peltier’s murder. Even when their “witnesses” were dragged into court, with broken limbs, ribs, blackened eyes and broken noses from being ‘interrogated’, Judge Benson went along, happily.
One could say that the Attorney General’s Office was not used to having to obey the rules, respect the rights, and found enduring successes in using lies, perjury, fake experts, and junk science to get convictions. Complicit judges (or the incompetent) always seemed to be around. That’s how it was done. That’s how it worked.
Until Werner’s case. Sure, they got the conviction the way they always did… but it’s not surviving scrutiny.
Fast Forward to Last Week:
Werner’s Request for a new hearing through the diligent work of GNIP and Jim Mayer as point man, based on the discovery of (prosecutorial misconduct) over 200+ violations of law and The Brady Rule.
The AG’s office had responded in a way that was childish, insulting (to the Court as much as to Werner’s Attorneys) and was above all, arrogant in blaming their victim, Werner, for not uncovering their office’s misconduct sooner, while he was in prison, did not serve the AG’s office very well.
Typically, in the past with a complicit/incompetent (or both) Judge, it was smooth sailing for them.
Not. This. Time.
This time the judge was not their ally, lodge brother and was not impressed by the thumbing their nose at both the rule of law and the court.
A hearing was scheduled and took place last week. The AG’s office had plenty of staff and a full wing of attorneys to address this hearing, but they couldn’t seem to find anyone to assign the case to. No one wanted to ‘be the guy’ who stood up and defended the indefensible in court. It’s a reputation slayer. Especially now that Lonnie Olson had used this case to springboard into his winning a seat as a Federal Judge and these same attorneys would have cases come before him. We know Lonnie holds grudges and we know he’s a bully. Anyone trying to defend the crap he did would lose and that would piss off Lonnie. (No Federal Judgeship for you!)
Jim Mayer was prepared, but he still had no idea whom his opponent would be right up until court day.
The gist of how it all went down, from what I have gleaned is this:
The AG’s office sent in Larry, Mo & Curly Joe to sit at their table. (Short straws? Black Ball? Expendable? I don’t know how they got so unlucky)
The judge was not buying the snarky response to the 80-page, 200+ points of infraction: ‘Nanner, nanner booboo! It’s on you!’ and set a court date for October 1, 2, & 3rd for them to defend/explain their office, all the infractions, in a trial.
The three stooges (seriously, I’m assuming 3 showed up, I don’t really know) jumped up and after some eye-poking, face slapping, head tapping, and a few “nyah nyah nyah”s declared that they couldn’t possibly appear on those dates because they were very busy with other cases….
The judge took a moment, looked at their schedule (because he’s a judge and he can do that) and saw they were ‘mistaken’ and that they were in fact NOT busy on those dates. The Docket was set.
I dunno, but your office being accused of lying, perjury and worse is a bad start for any Attorney General’s office. Lying to the judge in order to stall the case even longer, while a man who was wrongly accused and convicted has been languishing for over 30 years while you play silly, childish games, not really a good look, is it? *Silence* (The sounds of eye-poking and face slapping in the distance)
Not having a complicit or incompetent judge in court is apparently something of a handicap for the AG’s office. After decades of being aided and abetted, they were entirely unprepared for this turn of events.
I think the Judge sees this for what it is and is giving the AG’s office a shot at rectifying a serious wrong, or of burying themselves in the stink of it to the point where all credibility is forever lost when cases come before the bench.
They now have an opportunity to get right-side-up and admit the prosecutorial misconduct of Lonnie Olson and let HIM deal with the fall out that follows. It’s not like it doesn’t show. It’s not like no one knows. It’s out there.
Lonnie, being a Federal Judge, has a lot of power and influence over careers and cases of other attorneys. It’s likely they fear retaliation or even exposure if they drop this pork chop on his plate. But if they do it right, he will be stripped of all power to retaliate. They can force him to recuse off of every case. Any judge that steps in an attempts to retaliate for him, would do so at great personal and professional risk. He’s not worth it.
It's 2025. Things are different now. People can see what’s going on and moreover, what has gone on before. They will welcome a clean up, regardless of whose ox is gored, which pillars of their communities are exposed and taken down.
The people will hold increasing suspicion of anyone blocking the clean-up.
October First, Second and Third is the last best chance for the AG’s office to clean house and begin to rebuild earned respect.
This case has jumped from a ‘nobody gives a flying poop about a nobody languishing in prison for a crime he didn’t commit’ into a case where the world is watching. Publications from Europe will be in that courtroom, attending that hearing. The world will be watching. We are being monitored for the outcome which, either way, will have wider, more far-reaching implications that are connected.
The AG’s office will either further humiliate itself by more lying, or it can grow a moral spine and represent the best in American Justice to the world: The Truth. Anything less is just more stink.
We live in a time when we sorely need to show the world that we are not a collection of mobsters, felons and dishonesty these days.
We need to show that we don’t protect bullies and criminals who profit from bad acts. We need to show that we value Justice and that we will stand against injustice even when it has gone on for decades.
We need a moral spine to stand up to those who have misused and abused their power and position, regardless of their wealth, social standing or celebrity.
Or we are a joke.
The world will be watching.
No one expects much out of North Dakota. But if it starts there it spreads like wildfire.
The one who speaks the Truth Out loud will be the one heard, around the world.
You know where to find me.
~Cat
September 8, 2025
All Rise
You’ve got to listen to this Radio Interview with Jim Mayer, who is one of Werner Kunkel’s attorneys from the Great Northern Innocence Project.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N-I3IqPOuc8&si=GRigb32Sy9Qscwh9
Jim Mayer talks about the upcoming hearing where the AG’s office is supposed to defend or explain both how they violated Werner’s rights more than 200 times as laid out in GNIP’s 80 page address to the courts for a new hearing, and perhaps they could also explain their flippant response, which was the equivalent of ‘nanner nanner boo boo, you had 30 years locked up in prison to figure out we lied to the courts, concealed witnesses who proved you were not the killer’… all of which was discovered in the documents the GNIP pried loose from the Attorney General’s office recently.
The problem Jim Mayer is facing is—No Opponent, as he put it. They haven’t named who from their office is/are willing to defend such egregious and illegal behaviors from the prosecutor who originally tried and convicted Werner: Lonnie Olson.
Lonnie was also a childhood bully, a nemesis to Werner throughout his school years. Prosecuting him by violating Brady Rule, misrepresenting a casual hobbyist as a “Bug Expert”, hiding documents, etc., was in many ways, a perpetuation of cruelty he’d inflicted on Werner in childhood. Lonnie pretty proud of himself.
He made himself look really good for convicting someone of one of the most heinous murders in the region—a man he knew was innocent. And he knew he had no evidence against him—so he manufactured it.
He looked real good, took a bow, and was appointed to a Federal Judgeship. He’s now a sitting Federal Judge.
And the problem being corruption, which I have seen is widespread throughout the justice system out there in sweet ol’ North Dakota, none of these righteous, law loving, pillars of their communities, want to touch this one because it looks really bad on a man who now sits as a judge in the very courtrooms where they have to bring their cases before him. THEY DON’T WANT TO MAKE A CORRUPT JUDGE ANGRY.
You see the problem out there? You see how deep it runs? This is how corruption poisons communities. The very people with the power to call it out find themselves conflicted enough that they would rather do nothing in order to protect themselves.
They would rather nothing be done. An indefensible abuse of authority and a horrendous miscarriage of Justice… a man suffering for 30 years plus because of judicial abuse, they would allow to continue so they could shield a corrupt judge with their own cowardice.
That’s the way I see it. Tell me another name for what I see as the ultimate cowardice by the only people with the power to both address the abuse, clear Werner’s name, and at the very least, throw Lonnie off the bench.
But Lonnie is “important” and Werner is… well, just like you and I. We aren’t held in the same esteem as a childhood bully who grew up with all the privileges and who enjoyed indulging in cruelty both as a child and as an adult in a position of trust. No, they want to keep Lonnie’s name “clean” but how will they manage that?
We need to believe that our Judges are infallible, like Popes who are also infallible.
Tell me which would you trust more: a Judicial System with Judges who can’t be stained with their own corruption? Or a judicial system where when corruption is found, they are removed? Are there any standards other than being a member of the club, one of the elite, that the Justice System is capable of holding itself to?
Ever wonder when you learn what Lonnie had his office do to Werner, how many other people he falsely convicted?
Here’s the thing, aside the suffering that Werner and his family have gone through—Lonnie knew he had the wrong guy. That means he knew he was giving cover to the real killers. He may have even known who the real killers were and received favors from them. Or, let’s assume he didn’t know, and he just didn’t care that people who would viciously murder Gilber Fassett, could do it again. How does the legal system protect the community and why should we trust it?
Once you become a judge, you are untouchable. No one wants to cross you by standing up in court and saying the case you brought against an innocent man was wrong. They will shield you with their cowardice.
The system is corrupted by allowing the corruption to go unaddressed and unrectified.
So, the AG’s office still hasn’t picked or named or maybe even found anyone that is willing to clean up this mess. The only way to clean it up is to stop shielding the corruption. Stand up and say: “THIS WAS A WRONG DONE TO AN INNOCENT MAN BY OUR OFFICE.” And to free him, and to compensate him.
But the more you fight to keep him in prison in order to not have to cross the judge who is protected by politics and cowardice, the more you become a part of the ongoing corruption, the wrongs committed, and the more you are the reason that people lose faith in the courts, mistrust the police.
You cannot claim the noble high ground if you don’t fight for Justice, but instead try to protect the very corruption and the corrupt. You just become a part of deterioration. You will always know that your life’s work is a lie. What are you? What do you believe in? Does it even matter? How much of a fraud are you? How does that feel?
This is what we are up against: The Illusion of Justice. The substance of Justice doesn’t exist. But these are the people we refer to as Your Honor, when clearly, some have none, and others do nothing about it but we are expected to obey it.
We’ve seen police abuse, outright brutality but only a small tip of the iceberg. We want to believe that the police, FBI are good guys and that we can trust them and they are there to protect us. But they aren’t. They are there to protect the system. Media, especially through shows that glorify police, keep reinforcing the myth, recasting the illusion so we think we are safe. Slowly it is revealed that they are not infallible, that they protect each other either outright by lying or by silence.
Now we see more close up how the judges … well, you see how this works in North Dakota, and I can tell you, it’s no different anywhere else. Werner’s case is revealing the flaws and the flawed.
Perpetuating the injustice against Werner serves only one purpose and it’s not Justice, it’s the club.
It’s time to hold the people in positions of authority to a higher standard and remove those who lack the integrity and character we expect.
Cops don’t turn in bad cops so we get more bad cops. More police brutality. No one is safe.
Judges not taking action to rectify prosecutorial abuse because the corrupt prosecutor has become a judge, will lead only to more corruption being acceptable in courts.
The center will not hold. The disintegration of trust lies not in people like me pointing it out, but in those who allow corruption as the cost of holding their position. Those who have power, authority and refuse to use it to protect society, are failures.
Those who deliberately and falsely convict a person they know is innocent are in fact, aiding and abetting the real killers, in this case, vicious killers.
We can’t look at this case and the corruption woven through it as just single threads unrelated to one another. They are the fabric of violence that blankets communities. Those strands are connected to one another, and it is not unreasonable to think that they remain in concert with one another on down the road. Why wouldn’t they?
If you knew that someone was a party to an act of corruption, that they were one of the connecting threads, it would be very easy to shoulder tap them on down the road and say, “You’re going to help me out again. If I go down, I take you with me.” It’s never a one-time deal.
The corrupt hold great value to criminals. They can be used over and over again.
Maybe Lonnie should just resign or “retire” to “spend more time with his family” so that this case can be dispatched without conflict of interest. Would he do that? Would he care about how his presence on the bench stains the courts? How people look at all the judges as accepting him despite knowing what he has done? How much more will come up with regards to Lonnie Olson’s time as AG? How many other cases will have to be reviewed? Do the other judges feel comfortable knowing that people standing before them wonder if they are protecting him and if they are corrupt as well?
What does the word “Justice” even mean?
There will be court hearings soon.
The Bailiff will announce: “All Rise” which is how you show respect for the court, and the judge on the bench. How they show respect for their position is yet to be seen. We’re waiting.
And when the judge does enter, who will be defending the indefensible on the AG’s side? Anyone? Or will no one show up because no one can do the right thing and no one can defend the egregiousness of the wrongs that have been done?
It’s not like the AG’s office doesn’t have enough attorneys on staff.
Will Justice Rise to the occasion? Or, Just Us?
Waiting….
You know where to find me.
~Cat
August 11, 2025
Justice is an Illusion
Justice is Elusive
Justice is Mocked
In order to rectify corruption one must fight the very system that nurtures it, which controls us, and by which we must abide.
What I have learned:
Police – most are ego driven, insecure types who when armed with authority, weapons and Qualified Immunity, readily become abusive and/or complicit with abuse.
Detectives, especially Homicide Detectives (most, not all) are more invested on several levels to solve murders, give a sense of safety to the affected community and ultimately a sense of resolution (there can never be “closure”) to families, friends and loved ones of the victim(s). They are dedicated to the community. Even they will look the other way at corruption within the ranks of their agency.
Prosecutors—have to look at all the evidence and decide: Is this the culprit? B: Can I PROVE this case in court? C: Can the Defense unravel my case with facts, witnesses, evidence or alibis?
If they convict the wrong person, it means that the real criminal(s) remain at large and can inflict more damage on the community psyche.
If a prosecutor KNEW there is evidence facts, alibis and witnesses that if heard, could unravel their case, but chose instead to deliberately conceal those facts, that Truth from the Defense and from the Court, that means they A: Know who the real culprit(s) is free and they are chose to protect them in total disregard for the community, the People that have put their Faith and TRUST in the system.
They are also making The Court their unwitting accomplice in inflicting a miscarriage of justice upon the defendant and leaving the community with a false sense of Justice and Security.
When revealed, such as in the case of Werner Kunkel, a deep penetrating and spreading stain upon the very courts whose integrity is tarnished, the trust is battered and broken in the eyes, hearts and minds of the communities affected as well as the collective impression of Law & Justice, is diminished.
People already leery and weary of abusive enforcement find even more around them are less trusting of, less believing in, the integrity of the system and the courts who preside over it all in the name of “Justice”.
That such a heinous act of murder and mutilation that was committed upon Gilbert Fassett, meant that the community was under threat. Lonnie Olson, who was the prosecutor at the time, took advantage of that crime to further inflict abuse upon a man whom he had bullied all the way through elementary and high school, for sport, is appalling on so many levels.
By ignoring witnesses, evidence and by employing an uncredentialed hobbyist who knew little to nothing about the lifespan of flies, as a ‘recognized expert’ in the field, to set the time frame of the murder so that it would suit his case; concealed the statements given by witnesses who came forward to correct both the timeline and to alibi Lonnie’s target, shows he had utter disregard for Justice, the Laws, and the community that put him in a high and trusted office. Utter contempt.
That Good People came forward, knowingly or unknowingly putting themselves at great personal risk, to give witness statements to the police and prosecutors, meant that despite the flaws of an imperfect system, they trusted those within it to be the Good Guys. They were callously misled.
The information they gave in their statements directly countered the Prosecution’s case narrative and timeline and proved that Werner Kunkel was the Wrong Guy.
But the Prosecutor, Lonnie Olson, had a personal history with Werner. He had bullied him throughout his school years and he had no business conducting this case.
Whatever blinded Lonnie Olson to violate The Brady Ruling, dozens and dozens of times, more than 200 times in all, whether it was the personal glee of a bully overwhelming his prey yet again, or the political ambition of a man making a name for himself on the blood-soaked coat tails of a murdered and mutilated man, knowing it would raise his profile (and it did), getting all the press for convicting a man of a vicious, brutal killing that had shocked the entire region, I can’t even speculate. And I doubt he has either the character or the integrity to disclose what drove him to it.
There is another, far more evil possible motive that could very well have played out here: Maybe he knew who the real killers were and he was covering for them because they had a level of power and influence that could aid him in his ambitions. They would “owe” him.
I can only think of worse and worse motives for a man entrusted with the collective assumed integrity of the community, who knowingly and deliberately deprived Werner Kunkel of his fundamental rights in order to deceive the jury and the courts, to convict him.
He took away Werner’s freedom. Just as bad, if not worse, he gave the real killer(s) the protection of a wrongfully convicted fall guy, to shield them from further investigation.
Having committed a perverted mutilation in connection with a murder and gotten away with it, do you think they stopped?
What specifically makes me think Lonnie Olson knows who the real killers are? It’s what he did AFTER the conviction: He destroyed the evidence. Gilbert’s bloody shredded clothing was destroyed. Just in case Werner was ever to get a successful appeal, that evidence which could also contain any evidence of the real killers, would put the real killers and Lonnie’s ambitions at risk of crumbling. Destroyed.
He gave cover to his corruption and malfeasance, and prevented future scientific investigations from being able to use that evidence to find the real killers--- who are walking free to this day.
Lonnie has done well for himself. His political star has risen and he is now a judge on the North Dakota Supreme Court. He brings the stain of his corruption with him. If the Supreme Court covers for him, they too are complicit in the scorching of Faith and Trust in the Justice System.
Further, they will have the blood of the victims whom they must now walk over to cover for him, soaking the hems of their robes.
It is in their hands now. Will they restore the integrity of the courts? Or will they abide a corrupt, ambitious man in their midst and at their table? Birds of a Feather? One can either rebuild trust with supreme integrity, or one can just hope the whole thing blows over.
This is in their hands now. A hearing in October will reveal how deep and how badly corrupt the prosecutor’s office is. Their astonishing response to being confronted with over 200 violations laid out in Werner’s legal team’s petition, was childish and insulting to the laws and to the very court that read it. Essentially: “You should’ve known we were lying and cheating and violating the law. Too bad for you.”
We’ll soon learn if their kinship of the robes outweighs any sense of moral decency or not.
Personally, I hope that those who are of better character and integrity will feel a burning sense of outrage over the corrupt behavior and actions of a man who now sits at their table.
Is he one of them? Are they like him? Will they protect him for reasons of their own and that have no earthly connection to Justice or the laws?
Or will they aim righteous ire at him for the damage and disgrace he has brought into their circle?
We’ll find out in October. Werner Kunkel’s attorneys will be heard.
The only real Justice would be to Free Werner, investigate the provably false statements given against him as perjury; investigate the concealing of witnesses and statements and evidence that disproved the Prosecution’s case.
If there was any real Justice, the murder of Gilbert Fassett would be investigated by agents who are not cronies of or compromised by the real killers.
I know that won’t happen. Justice is an Illusion.
But freeing Werner on the spot would bring a sense of resolution to a decades long abuse and miscarriage of Justice.
October.
You know where to find me.
~Cat
June 11, 2025
Revenge Testimony
By the way, I know that Werner changed his last name to Rümmer, but “Kunkel” is the familiar.
Patrick Springer of Fargo Forum fame, has done a bang up job of connecting the dots of not only the lies and deceptions by the prosecution and law enforcement in convicting the wrong man for Gilber Fassett’s murder, but also in tying up the same patterns of lies and deceptions that led to the wrongful convictions of 11 young men who went to prison for the murder of Eddie Peltier, none of whom had anything to do with it, or even knew about it until about a week after his body was identified.
Not too surprising when you also start to realize the similarities between the murders of Gilbert Fassett and of Eddie Peltier a few years earlier. Both bodies were horrifically abused; Eddie was stomped into unrecognizable swelling, bruising and bashing, while Gilbert’s body wasn’t found for a few weeks, and was not only stabbed too many times to count, but was also sexually mutilated, genitalia removed.
Both men were murdered by James Yankton and his accomplices. I know this because I read the files on Eddie’s murder and before I even knew about Gilbert Fassett’s murder I kept getting emails from people who wanted to know what I knew about the pickled penis that James Yankton kept in a jar, in his office when he was head of Security for the Casino. “Was that real?”
“Where did it come from?”
“Why is he keeping it?”
People he was trying to impress, company reps and some former military, were not impressed—they were appalled and disgusted.
So, about a year later, when someone told me about Gilbert Fassett’s murder, and that he had been sexually mutilated, I put 2 & 2 2gether.
Both bodies were dumped in the vicinity of Ski Jump Hill. I see it reported as “Ski Lift Hill” but I don’t think that’s a real place. I could be wrong. I occasionally am.
Convictions in both murders relied upon perjured testimony, the concealment or destruction of evidence proving innocence, the concealment of statements, witnesses who could prove innocence, and most of all, a prosecutor with no scruples and of course, a judge who dined with prosecution.
We are all familiar with the previous blog, “Restless Spirit: The Murder of Eddie Peltier”. 20 years of blogging that should stick with some people.
Now we return to Werner’s case. It unfolds as only a fall guy’s life can unfold:
Werner was not the perfect boyfriend. He had on occasion been violent with his girlfriend, the mother of his two sons.
Her name was Sandra Kjosa. They were together 5 years and it wasn’t pretty. He ended up going to prison for domestic battery.
While serving time for that he met the current BF of his ex: Kevin Austin. (She sure can pick ‘em!).
Werner & Kevin were not friends. Long story short, Werner heard from Kevin how he had gotten away with murdering an elderly couple, the Abernatheys, in 1985. Kevin was a suspect, but they did not have enough to arrest or convict him. Werner reported it to authorities, wore a wire, recorded the discussions and testified against Kevin Austin in court.
Kevin’s ex was continuing her streak of bad decisions by marrying Kevin Austin in 1992. Werner testified against him in 1993. She mad. Big mad.
She made up a story about Werner confessing to her that he murdered Gilbert Fassett. With a lot of help from those involved in the murder and those involved in covering it up, she built a story and they built a case around her story. It required a bug expert who was not an expert and was neither certified nor qualified (Lonnie Olson, prosecutor, had a history with Werner as he bullied Werner all through school. This was just another opportunity to exercise that gleeful pursuit that had given him so much satisfaction back in the day).
Lonnie had to conceal witnesses who came forward and who had seen Gilbert three or more days after he had supposedly been murdered, which threw off the whole timeline they were concocting, so they just didn’t tell the Defense that these people and their statements existed <Brady Violation.
Lonnie the Bully didn’t even try to find the witness who Werner claimed to have given a ride. The man was enlisted in the army and trust me, those personnel are easy to track down every minute of the day. So that man couldn’t give a statement or testify.
Now Werner’s attorneys, past and present, having uncovered concealed files and learned of destroyed evidence (you bet they destroyed the evidence… it would’ve convicted the real killers), send out a petition for a new trial and list over 200 points that were absolute violations of law and Werner’s Rights. Remember: Our Rights are the only protection we have against illegal behaviors by Law Enforcement, and prosecutors are considered Law Enforcement.
How does the prosecution side respond? With utter contempt for the law and the Rights. They say that Werner’s side should have known they had evidence and witnesses they were hiding! (And here we all are told on every TV Propaganda Program that the Prosecution always obeys the law!)
That Werner’s team could have discovered it if they wanted to…. ?? How? Break into the offices and search? Merely requesting it (which is all they were and are allowed to do) wasn’t sufficient? The Brady Rule wasn’t enough?
Let me remind us all how this works:
People who come forward with evidence or statements on a case they hear about, see on tv or read about, typically go to the prosecutor’s office and give their evidence, statements there. They trust that the prosecutor will do the right thing. (We ALL watch too much TV. We think it’s real!)
In the Eddie Peltier case, witnesses who were alibi witnesses for the defense or who had seen the Yanktons with Eddie Peltier the night he was murdered, were threatened, beaten, their families threatened, (one man was beaten, tied up, held down while his wife was raped in front of him) and several were told that if they didn’t change their story, they would become defendants.
I suspect that in this case, the witnesses were assured that they did the right thing and that their information would go where it had to go in order for the trial to be honest. (Into the trash can?) Now it is ‘discovered’ through years of digging, red tape and such… and the prosecution’s side of it is essentially: “Nanner, nanner boo-boo! You should’ve known we were lying and cheating to begin with!”
I don’t know what judge is weighing this case. But the former prosecutor, Lonnie Olson, is now one of them. He’s a judge. I can only imagine the levels of quackery he goes along with in his courtroom. HE SHOULD BE DISBARRED, but judges tend to cover for each other, so we will see.
Meanwhile, I can’t imagine what Werner’s two boys believed about their dad from what lies their mom told them. Imagine going through school being told that your dad is a murderer while your mom is living with a real murderer? What kind of shit show would a therapist have to deal with to untangle that garbage knot? Some people are just sick.
Keep following Pat Springer’s work in Fargo Forum. He’s on it.