Co-workers square off in Dodge County Attorney race

For the first time in three decades  Dodge County will have a new county attorney, after current part-time Dodge County Attorney Paul Kiltinen announced he would not run for re-election. 

The move came following a decision by the County Commissioners to move the position from part-time to full-time. 

But voters won’t have to look far to pick his replacement. Both candidates on the ballot are current Dodge County assistant county attorneys. 

Crysta Parkin, who primarily handles civil matters for the office will be taking on Kailee Thompson who primarily handles criminal matters for the office. 

Despite representing close to half of the workforce in the Dodge County Attorney's Office (DCAO) – both candidates maintain their focus on the job will remain front and center – even while running against each other. 

POSITIVE WORKING RELATIONSHIP 

Parkin said she would leave campaigning for time outside of the courthouse. 

“I leave my campaign outside when I walk through the courthouse doors,” she said. “If elected, I will be responsible for helping our elected officials, department heads, and employees follow the law, including election law, so I intend to set a good example.”

Parkin said she would continue to treat Thompson “with the same level of respect and professionalism I always have.”

“For example, when I was asked to assist with a jury trial in February, I immediately agreed to help,” she said. “When information I obtain is relevant to her cases, I will continue to share that information as we have customarily done. The citizens of Dodge County deserve to receive the best legal services our office can provide, and that happens when we continue to work together.”

Thompson agreed saying while her and Parkin “are in an adversarial position when it comes to

campaigning, that is not the position we are in at the office.”

“We both recognize there is still work to do right now and that takes priority,” she said. “ The job does not stop because I am running a campaign, so I intend to continue giving my all to prosecuting cases and collaborating with Attorney Parkin in situations that require both of our attention.”

DIFFERENT JOURNEYS TO DODGE COUNTY 

Thompson is originally from Forest lake graduating from Hill-Murray High School. 

After a few years out of law school, she moved in April 2023 to be with her significant other and son who is a student at Kasson-Mantorville. 

Parkin’s journey to the area began over four decades ago. 

She said her parents moved to Mantorville  in 1980 when she was three-years-old after her dad accepted a teaching job at Kasson-Mantorville High School. She grew up in Mantorville and graduated from Kasson-Mantorville High School in 1995 – the same year Kiltinen was elected. 

Both candidates had different journeys to become attorneys. 

THE PATH TO THE LAW

Thompson originally attended Belmont University in Nashville for two years before finishing her  undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities receiving a degree in Sociology of Law, Crime, and Deviance.

She then went on to attend law school at  William Mitchell School of Law. 

“It sounds cheesy, but I always knew I wanted to be an attorney,” Thompson said. “ Growing up,

even when I tried other things, I always gravitated back to law.”

Thompson said she had her first legal job when she was an undergraduate student. 

She interned at Johnson Brother’s Liquor Company in their legal department under in-house counsel.

“While at the U of M and working at Johnson Brother’s, I also interned at the Center for Homicide Research,” Thompson said. 

In her first year of law school, Thompson worked part-time as a student attorney  in the Dakota County Attorney’s Office’s child support division and as law clerk for a private criminal defense attorney.

“I eventually transitioned from the child support office to the First Judicial District Public Defender’s Office, where I represented clients eligible for a public defender,” Thompson said. “I  worked for the private attorney’s office and the public defender’s office until I graduated law school in January 2021.”

In 1999 Parkin graduated from Valparaiso University  and then obtained a masters degree in public policy (specifically policy affecting children and families) from the University of Minnesota in 2001.

While getting her masters degree, she worked at the  Hennepin County Attorney’s Office as a planning analyst with their Delinquents Under 10 / Early Intervention Program. 

“This sparked my interest in the law and I had the opportunity to take some classes at the University of Minnesota’s Law School, but ultimately chose not to attend law school at the time,” Parkin said. 

Instead she would go back to Southeast Minnesota where she worked as a program evaluator for Olmsted County from 2001 - 2004 and produced annual reports to present to the Social Services Advisory Board and County Board in collaboration with program managers. 

“I worked with programs serving children and adolescents including youth in foster care, juvenile probation, the former Many Rivers programs (juvenile detention center and juvenile sex offender program), and adolescent behavioral health,” she said. “This experience paired with my work in Hennepin County led me to enroll at Hamline University School of Law.”

Both candidates were able to get experience during law school. 

Parkin said she participated in Hamline’s Child Advocacy Clinic “and then was selected to be the clinic’s student director for my final year of law school, supervising the clinic students as well as carrying a caseload.”

DIFFERENT CAREER PATHS 

Parkin began her career back in Southeast Minnesota where she worked as a family law attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS).

At SMRLS Parkin  represented clients in family law matters across southeastern Minnesota, but said she worked primarily in Dodge, Rice, and Olmsted counties. 

“I partnered with local advocacy organizations to represent survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault in a wide variety of court proceedings,” Parkins said. “I was promoted to Lead Family Law Attorney for the Southeast Region and supervised a team of attorneys and paralegals in addition to carrying a caseload. During my time at SMRLS I had the opportunity to assist in authoring two amicus briefs to the Minnesota Supreme Court, authored several Minnesota Court of Appeals briefs, and argued multiple times before panels of the Minnesota Court of Appeals achieving successful results for our clients.”

She would go back to work for her  hometown county in 2015 when she took her current position with the DCAO. 

“I was recruited by several individuals working for and with Dodge County to apply for the position,” Parkin said. “At that time I was ready to expand the areas I practiced in beyond family law and was particularly interested in child protection work.” 

Thompson’s full-time career began by moving to Duluth, where she clerked for Judge Robert Friday in St. Louis County. 

“As a clerk, I helped draft orders, prepped jury instructions for trials, drafted documents for family mediation and conciliation court, and generally assisted Judge Friday with legal research. During my time with Judge Friday, I assisted with legal research and drafting orders for the first case in Minnesota to use reverse DNA testing to solve a cold case murder,” she said. 

She then would go on to work as an associate attorney at Kans Law Firm in Eden Prairie. 

She worked as a private defense attorney – working primarily on DWI offenses. 

“As a private DWI attorney, I took calls in the middle of the night from those exercising their right to attorney time before taking the breath test, visited clients in jail at all hours, negotiated plea deals, challenged evidence, and had my first jury trial,” Thompson said. “As part of my first trial, I laid foundation for an issue that ultimately made its way to the Minnesota Supreme Court.”

She then took her current job prosecuting criminal cases. 

“I have been with the office for a little over three years and handle all case types, including petty traffic, juvenile delinquency, misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, felonies, expungements, probation violations, and more,” Thompson said. “ I have done a number of jury trials, court trials, and contested hearings on a variety of issues.” 

WHY RUNNING 

Thompson said she decided to run for the county attorney role because she is in “the best position to understand the needs of the office and implement changes to promote continued

growth, trust, and success.”

She pointed to the definition of the County Attorney position on the Minnesota Secretary of State website saying everything in the description is something she has done or currently does “and have been doing successfully since the beginning of my legal career.”

“I started with the Dodge County Attorney’s Office a little over three years ago. That may

not seem like it a lot of time, but since day one, I have pushed to make changes that would better the office, relationships with agency partners, and the community as a whole,” Thompson said. “ In my first year, I fought to restructure victim services, allowing victims of sexual assaults to have access to an advocate who is solely focused on those types of crimes. As part of that restructuring, the victim witness coordinator role was added to the Dodge County Attorney’s Office, creating a contact for victims of property crimes and non-family related assaults. This added to our already-existing domestic assault advocate from the Women’s Shelter.” 

Thompson said last year she began leading the Dodge County Task Force, which meets quarterly with agency partners, including law enforcement, probation, victim services, social services, school leaders, commissioners, the drug court coordinator, and judicial leaders, such as the judge. 

“Through my leadership, the Big Ideas mobile learning lab was successfully implemented in 2025, and conversations have continued to bring the program back next year and years beyond,” she said. “Additionally, conversations have been started regarding housing resources and pretrial services in criminal cases.”

Thompson said in her three years with the DCAO she has been “able to provide a lot of positive impact. Being the first full-time county attorney would allow me to continue making positive

changes and address the growing needs more effectively.”

She also said she has received “a lot of support from agency partners to run.”

“The fact that they have put so much trust and belief in me to lead the office solidified my need to run,” Thompson said. 

When asked to specify, Thomspon said “most of the leadership in the sheriff's office encouraged me to run.”

Thompson specifically referenced Sheriff Scott Rose, Ryer Anderson, Jeff Espinosa, Jeff Brumfield, Dave Crable, and Ben Bohle.

“They have actually been encouraging me since there was talk of the position going full-time and Attorney Kiltinen retiring, but I did not inform them of my decision to run until after I filed,” Thompson said. 

Parkin said she has not asked anyone for formal endorsements yet “because we are in a small workplace and I respect that many people work with both of us and don't want to feel like they are ‘picking sides’.”

“I have the support of the human services partners I work with - both staff and leadership,” she said. “I have the support of local attorneys, other county attorneys, and parent attorneys / public defenders.”

She added, “More importantly, I have support in the community from people who have lived here for many years.”

Shortly after the County Commissioners voted to turn the Dodge County Attorney position into a full-time one, Parkin announced she would run for the position – first reported by the DCI. 

“I am running because I love this community and I want to provide a safe, happy, healthy environment for those who call Dodge home,” she said. 

“I believe strongly in public service and particularly in serving the communities where my family and my husband’s family lives,” Parkin said. “ I realized early in my time at Dodge County that I enjoyed the civil caseload tremendously. While covering a wide variety of cases is challenging, as a smaller county we have the ability to address people’s needs in a more comprehensive manner. The more that I engage with other counties across the state at conferences and trainings, the more I have come to value the quality of the work we as a county do and want to lead that work into the future. “

Parkin said she has “been through a lot of changes with our office in the past,” in the past 10 years. “The current county attorney and I have advocated to the county board over many years to increase the attorney pay scale to stabilize our staffing and to create a full-time elected position. What I have learned through these changes will be valuable to guide the office moving the office forward.”

Parkin said once a full-time elected position was created starting in 2027, and Kiltinen said he would not be running “the time was right to step up and run for the position of Dodge County Attorney.” 

CRIMINAL EXPERIENCE VERSUS CIVIL 

Thompson said she believes it's important to have a criminal prosecutor as its next county attorney – something she said she can provide. 

“Just this year, I advocated for adding another criminal attorney to the office. The criminal caseload has continued to grow and until April 2026, I was the only criminal attorney in the Dodge County Attorney’s Office, averaging between 200- 300 cases at a time,” she said. “Understanding the growing needs of the office is important and this is a perfect example of understanding those needs.”

Thompson said with the “criminal caseload being the majority of the cases within the Dodge

County Attorney’s Office and the growing number of cases Dodge County is seeing, it is instrumental that the person who becomes the first full-time county attorney not only has experience in criminal law, but is comfortable with prosecuting cases.”

“My ability to prosecute criminal cases, commitment to create positive change, well-versed knowledge in a variety of areas of law, and relationship with key partners in the community make me best suited to be county attorney,” she said.  

Parkin, said however, she is not a novice when it comes to criminal matters, saying she has helped with criminal coverage throughout her over decade career at the DCAO. 

“Between the time Gary Remine retired in 2017 to Ms. Thompson being hired in 2023, we had three different attorneys on the criminal side who departed for a variety of reasons,” she said. “There were varying gaps of time between those attorneys. During some of those times, we had assistance from staff from the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office.”

She said in 2019 for approximately three months, and in 2023 for approximately two months she handled both her civil caseload and the criminal caseload. 

“I have additionally provided coverage when other attorneys have been out of the office due to illness, vacations, trainings, etc.,” Parkin said. “ I have consulted with law enforcement on cases, drafted and signed complaints, handled bail and sentencing hearings as well as a court trial, negotiated plea agreements, and reviewed Riverside requests (applications for judicial determination of probable cause to detain individuals) on the weekends.”

Parkin said some of her civil “caseload subject matter - such as civil forfeitures - touches on criminal law or individuals on my civil caseload are involved in criminal matters.”

“The Minnesota County Attorney’s Association offers many free training opportunities and resources on criminal law that I access as I am able, and I have developed a network of colleagues over the years who supported me while I was handling criminal matters and are always willing to answer questions when I have them,” Parkin said. 

Parkin also said she attends Dodge County's quarterly community corrections task force meetings “where partners including probation, court administration, drug court, and the sheriff's office provide updates and information.”

“ I have provided truancy updates to the group for many years and have partnered with social services to bring information about topics such as mandated reporting to the group,” she said. 

Thompson said while at Johnson Brother’s Liquor Company,  she “reviewed

contracts, drafted terms and conditions, and looked for trademark infringement.”

“At Kans Law Firm, I handled implied consent hearings and forfeitures. In one of

the forfeiture cases another attorney and I argued, we won because of the

placement of a comma,” she said. “When I was a clerk for Judge Friday, he handled all case types, which I assisted in, including small claims court, initial case management

conferences in divorce proceedings, and a termination of parental rights trial.”

Thompson said she has also been “instrumental in breaking down the new extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws for law enforcement and best practices for our office to handle them.”

“I fill-in when needed on the civil caseload, which has included handling a contested civil commitment,” she said. “As part of criminal proceedings, I handle competency issues. If a defendant is found not competent, it may get ordered for (him/her) to be screened for civil commitment. I specifically fought for an individual to be designated as a sexually dangerous person following a finding that he was not competent in his criminal files, but failed to meet standard criteria for civil commitment. The Attorney General’s Office agreed to take the case and was successful in having him committed as a sexually dangerous person. This type of procedure typically would not occur unless the individual was already in prison.”

ENDORSEMENT FROM THE BOSS?

In January, when Kiltinen announced he would not be running for re-election, he told the DCI he did not know who would be running and didn’t anticipate endorsing anyone. 

Both candidates said they did not ask him for his endorsement. 

“When I decided to run, I spoke with Attorney Kiltinen prior to filing,” Thompson said. “ Attorney Kiltinen has been the Dodge County Attorney for over 30 years and now two of his assistant county attorneys, whom he hired, are running against each other.”

Thompson went a step forward saying she thinks it would be “unfair” for him to be put in the position. 

“Respectfully, I think it would be unfair to put him in a position to endorse one of his employees while he is still head of the office for another six months,” she said. “Attorney Kiltinen has shown me a great deal of respect and trust throughout my time in Dodge County, which has been instrumental in my decision to run.”