4/17/2013:
The steadfast county sheriff was on the front lines of the war against alcohol during the years of Prohibition. A sheriff executed warrants on behalf of the attorney general and performed arrests for violating liquor trafficking laws. As an elected official, the sheriff was often given the duty of arresting the friendly neighbors that voted him into office. The conflict between duty and community wasn't easy for a sheriff, particularly in the case of Rolette county Sheriff Charles Sager.
County commissioners appointed 21-year-old Charles Sager as the new Rolette county sheriff in the spring of 1926 after the previous sheriff resigned. The first big assignment of Sager's new position came on April 6th. State’s Attorney D J McLennan arrived at Sheriff Sager's office with a warrant to search a farmstead for illegal alcohol.
Serving the warrant was difficult for Sheriff Sager for two reasons. First, the warrant was for the farm of the sheriff Sager replaced! Second, that former sheriff was Burt Sager – his father!
Burt Sager had been Rolette county sheriff for two terms when he was caught giving liquor to a prisoner in the Rolette county jail. The elder Sager resigned after the State’s Attorney got a warrant issued for his arrest. The investigation hadn't stopped with Sager's resignation. The State’s Attorney was certain there was more alcohol to be found, and he needed the current Sheriff to serve the warrant.
Young Sheriff Sager followed through with his duties to the letter of the law. He and Attorney McLennan found twenty-two gallons of alcohol stashed on the elder Sager's farm. Burt Sager was arrested by his son and spent a week and a half in jail, awaiting his hearing. On this date, April 17th 1926, the elder Sager plead guilty to trafficking liquor and was sentenced to four months in jail and $200 in fines.
Charles Sager continued to uphold the law as sheriff of Rolette County, and he made the news again later that year after leading a posse to recapture an escaped prisoner … no, it wasn’t his dad!
But the senior Sager, after serving his time, did run for Sheriff again in 1940. He lost by eighteen hundred votes.
Dakota Datebook written by Derek Dahlsad
Sources:
"Son Arrests Father for Liquor Sale," Moorhead Daily News, April 17, 1926
"Youthful Sheriff Arrests Father on a Liquor Charge," Bismarck Tribune, April 19, 1926
"Prisoner's Bolt For Freedom Short-lived", Bismarck Tribune, August 30, 1926
"Burt Sager Breaks Ice In Political Campaign", Turtle Mountain Star, March 28 1940
"Abstract of Votes", Turtle Mountain Star, July 18, 1940