Brian Mueller for Washington County Sheriff Interview

 Here are questions and answers from Brian Mueller for Sheriff. He will be on the ballot in November this year. The picture is off his Facebook page and is with current Washington County Sheriff Dan Starry. 

To view the response to each candidate for Washington County Sheriff see:
Jeremy Bolen Interview

Brian Mueller Interview

Henry Mathia Interview

1.) Tell us about yourself and your background.

I am Brian Mueller, and I've dedicated nearly three decades of my life to serving the people of Washington County. I'm a lifelong Washington County resident, a husband, a father of five, and someone who cares deeply about this community because it's where my family has built our lives.

Professionally, I've spent my entire law enforcement career serving this county. I served more than 23 years with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, working my way from Patrol Deputy through leadership roles including Sergeant, Commander, Chief Deputy, and serving 17 years on the SWAT Team, ultimately as Team Commander.  I have also served as Commander of the Washington County Drug Task Force. For the past several years, I've had the privilege of serving as Chief of Police in Stillwater.

Throughout my career, I've focused on building strong partnerships, supporting the men and women who serve, and finding practical solutions to challenges like violent crime, mental health, and substance use. I believe public safety is strongest when law enforcement works collaboratively with schools, businesses, community organizations, and other public safety partners.

2.) Why are you running? 

I'm running for Sheriff because I believe Washington County deserves experienced, proven leadership that is ready to lead on day one. I want to build on the Sheriff's Office's strong foundation while preparing it for the future. This includes supporting our deputies, embracing responsible innovation, and continuing to earn the trust of the communities we serve.  I believe we need to protect our most vulnerable while providing safe communities to raise a family.

3.) What are areas of improvement in the sheriff department that you will address?

The Washington County Sheriff's Office has a long history of outstanding service, and I believe it has a strong foundation to build on. My focus isn't on fixing a broken organization, but making a great organization even better. If elected, there are several areas where I believe we can continue to improve. These areas include continuing to reduce violent crime through proactive policing and regional partnerships; recruiting, retaining, and developing exceptional employees while prioritizing their wellness; strengthening our response to mental health and substance use challenges through collaboration with community providers; embracing modern technology that enhances public safety, transparency, and efficiency; expanding partnerships with our local police departments and other public safety agencies; investing in jail programs that reduce recidivism and improve successful reentry; and continuing to build trust through meaningful community engagement and responsive service.

4.) What sets you apart from the other candidates? 

Several things set me apart from the other candidates:

1. First is proven leadership. I've spent nearly three decades serving Washington County, including more than 23 years with the Sheriff's Office and now as the Stillwater Chief of Police.  I've led at every level of law enforcement, managed large organizations, built strong partnerships, and delivered results. I know this county, I know this office, and I'm ready to lead on day one. 
2. I am the only candidate that has led both a major sheriff's office at the executive level and a municipal police department.  This gives me a unique perspective into the relationship between the two.  
3. I am the only candidate that has ever worked in Washington County.  Knowing the community, providing public safety services and patrolling in every city and township in this county has helped me build partnerships to understand what the community wants and need in public safety from north to south.
4. Finally, as a lifelong Washington County resident, I have a deep personal investment in the safety and future of this community. This is where I was raised, where my wife and I chose to raise our family, and where I've dedicated nearly three decades to public service. My commitment to Washington County isn't just professional, it's personal. Every decision I make is guided by what's best for the community that my family and I proudly call home.

5.) What is your website for people to get involved? 

 https://www.muellerforsheriff.com/

Brian Mueller

Stillwater Chief of Police

Candidate for Washington County Sheriff

PO Box 25331

Woodbury, MN 55125

651-755-4702

Democrat Ethan Cha Responds Saying Weak Child Rape Laws Are Fine

 Democrat Ethan Cha of district 47B (Woodbury) responded to our email proposing 8 bill ideas to improve child rape laws. You can read his full response below, but basically he says current weak punishments for child rape are adequate. We have dozens of stories of child rapist getting away with just probation without prison time on our page. He goes on to say the non-public list of child rapists is okay. Even though MN is just one of three states that don't list all convicted sex offenders. This response of weak on child rape laws is par the course. Democrats in Minnesota think child rapists can be reformed. Despite the fact child rapists have one of the highest rates of recommitting the crime. If you value stronger child rape laws, heavily consider who you vote for.

 

Thank you for writing and for your advocacy on behalf of children and families. I sincerely appreciate the work that the Washington County Watchdog has done to bring attention to serious crimes and to support meaningful legislative change.

 

With respect to sentencing, courts have broad discretion, and the Sentencing Guidelines Commission generally approaches sentence increases cautiously. Furthermore, many studies suggest that longer sentences don’t necessarily deter these crimes, which is why there is ongoing debate about whether raising statutory maximums or doubling sentences would meaningfully improve public safety. While a person might think, “this used to be legal and now is a crime, so I won’t do it,” potential criminals do not actually think, “this used to carry a penalty of five years and now it is ten, so I won’t do it.”

 

Regarding the predatory offender registry (POR), there has been opposition to expanding public access, including from law enforcement. Concerns include increased harassment or vigilantism directed at registrants which could lead to a diversion of police resources and may also put officers in the uncomfortable position of protecting individuals viewed as dangerous. At present, only offenders who are out of compliance with their registration requirements are publicly viewable, while full registry access is limited to law enforcement for investigative purposes.

 

I deeply appreciate the concerns you have raised, and as both a parent and a lawmaker, I share your desire to ensure Minnesota’s laws protect children as effectively as possible. At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge the practical realities of an evenly divided Legislature, where consensus on major criminal reforms could be challenging. Even so, your input adds a valuable perspective to the broader discussion about how best to improve public safety. Please know that I’ll keep your comments in mind as we head into the upcoming legislative session, which begins on February 17, 2026.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to share your views and for your continued commitment to protecting our children. Please don’t hesitate to stay in touch.

Sincerely,

 

Representative Ethan Cha

MAP Caucus Chair

Member of Commerce Finance and Policy, Legacy Finance,

& Legislative Commission Pension/Retirement Committees

Just One Year in Jail for Oakdale Man Accused of Raping Under 14 Year Old

 In a 2023 Oakdale Police department report an under 14 year old child reported a Lu Htoo DOB 1/1/1988 did sexual conduct to the victim. The heavily redacted report didn't say the exact age of the victim, the gender of the victim, or very good details of the accused crime. Understandably the victim needs to be protected. The police report from the victim stated

Htoo placed his penis inside the blank (redacted) of the victim (rape by penetration by definition) and touched private parts under the clothing and above clothing, and at one time offered the child money for sex. The victim refused the offer and did not consent to the accused touching etc. 

In July of 2025 Lu Htoo was convicted of Criminal Sexual Conduct - 2nd Degree - Contact Under 14 - Actor greater than 36m Older. The judge was Siv Mjanger. He was sentenced to 322 days in jail, 10 years probation, and a $137 fine.

This story is exactly why the child rape laws need to be stronger with better sentencing guidelines for one. 

See some of the many cases in the last several years of those convicted of child sex crimes with weak sentences and plea deals:

Homicidal Rapist in Forest Lake Found With Child Porn Who Self Recorded Rape Now Convicted, Only 4 years  

Only 30 Days in Jail and Probation for Child Molester Who Had Sex with Lake Elmo Child 

Only a Year in Jail for Man who Gang Raped 14 Year Old Child in Woodbury

Man Who Repeatedly Raped a Child in Oakdale, Raped another Child While on Probation and Will be Out in 2 Years 

No Mandated Jail time for Convicted St Paul Park Man who Sexually Assaulted a Child  

Man Who Gang Raped Woodbury Child Only Gets 5 years Probation and 10 Months Prison 

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down & Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her 

In Minnesota, left wing law makers and prosecutors believe child rapists can be "rehabilitated," do not need to be monitored, and can become good members of society. The evidence is the fact only several hundred of the over 20,000 convicted rapists in Minnesota are confined in prison. Most only do a couple years and then are released without further monitoring. More information here:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe  

If you hope to see any law change, continue to contact law makers.

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

See our 8 bill ideas to ask legislators to write

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the Country does. All but MN, DC, and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to over 20,000 in MN. 

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources.     

   

Second Rape Conviction for Man Accused of Rape of 6 Year Old

In 2021 a woman contacted Cottage Grove MN police and filed a report stating she was raped by a Martin Michael Zappa (Marty) DOB 5/14/1959. The victim accused him of several occasions of rape when she was as young as 6 years old in 1999.  The police report said the abuses happened while visiting his home on several different visits. It stated he was a father figure and groomed her to sexual acts. The police did an investigation and after an apparent lengthy court battle was convicted in August 

2025 of Criminal Sexual Conduct-1st Degree-Penetration or Contact with Person Under 13. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison with possibility of parole after 5 years. This wasn't the first conviction, in 2010 he was convicted of Criminal Sexual conduct 4rth degree, victim mentally impaired/ helpless from an incident in 1999. 

This is one of just a few times in all the years of us covering child rape convictions in Washington County where the prosecutors didn't back down and give a plea deal with lesser charges. It's too bad it took a second complaint to throw the book at him.

 This second child rape conviction seems to prove the fact child predators have one of the highest recidivism rates of any other crime. Appearing to show that once a child predator, always a child predator as many say.  

This story is exactly why the child rape laws need to be stronger with better sentencing guidelines for one. 

See some of the many cases in the last several years of those convicted of child sex crimes with weak sentences and plea deals:

Homicidal Rapist in Forest Lake Found With Child Porn Who Self Recorded Rape Now Convicted, Only 4 years  

Only 30 Days in Jail and Probation for Child Molester Who Had Sex with Lake Elmo Child 

Only a Year in Jail for Man who Gang Raped 14 Year Old Child in Woodbury

Man Who Repeatedly Raped a Child in Oakdale, Raped another Child While on Probation and Will be Out in 2 Years 

No Mandated Jail time for Convicted St Paul Park Man who Sexually Assaulted a Child  

Man Who Gang Raped Woodbury Child Only Gets 5 years Probation and 10 Months Prison 

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down & Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her 

In Minnesota, left wing law makers and prosecutors believe child rapists can be "rehabilitated," do not need to be monitored, and can become good members of society. The evidence is the fact only several hundred of the over 20,000 convicted rapists in Minnesota are confined in prison. Most only do a couple years and then are released without further monitoring. More information here:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe  

If you hope to see any law change, continue to contact law makers.

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

See our 8 bill ideas to ask legislators to write

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the Country does. All but MN, DC, and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to over 20,000 in MN. 

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources.     

8 Child Predator Bill Ideas, Only One Legislator Responded

We sent this to the nearly the one dozen legislators who represent us in Washington County. Only Republican Karin Housley from the Forest Lake and Stillwater area responded with interest. Please send this to your legislators if you agree MN child sex offender laws and sentencing guidelines need to change. 

Washington County Watchdog is a free facebook page that primarily posts stories about each convicted child predator in Washington County. It's citizen volunteer run, we make no money, we're not lobbyists, just regular people. It is fb.com/wcwatchdog we have 15,000 readers and 1.5 million views on our page wcwatchdog.blogspot.com. Our top 10 stories (on left sidebar of page) are of local child rapists walking away with weak sentences. This is because MN laws are so broken. Please review our 8 bill ideas and let us know if you can write a bill to address the following issues. We think it'd be amazing for your re-election to do something on this. 

Table of contents:

This is based of our experience from our ongoing articles with dozens of sex offender cases documented for public awareness from public data:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

A.) review of Washington County Watchdog successes since 2015 with legislators on sex offender bills

B.) 26 states require Life Registration of all 3 levels of sex offenders. 47 states post most if not all levels of sex offender data 

C.) Sex offender bill ideas. They break down into the following 3 categories

-Taking child prostitution out of adult prostitution law to make it it's own law to escape weak sentencing guidelines 

-Make the sex offender registry public with exact addresses of sex offenders as it is in 47 other states

-Add specific sex crimes against a minor have to register as a predatory offender (ideally every crime)

-Fix weak Sentencing Guidelines

A.)

Since 2015 we have worked with Democrats and Republicans on this bipartisan effort with the following successes:

1.) Make the punishment for soliciting a child for prostitution (real or at a sting) the same for any age child. (previous law had less severe punishments, up to half, for children of older age). Current punishment is still only a slap on the wrist, $50 fine, and couple years on the sex offender registry (per weak sentencing guidelines).

2.) Make those who are convicted of soliciting a child for prostitution (real or at a sting)  609.352.2a(1) have to register on the predatory sex offender registration by adding it to 243.166 . 

3.) Adding "or agreeing to hire minor to engage in prostitution" to MN 609.324 so that not only those who actually hire a real minor are punished... but also those who attempt to hire one in a police sting or otherwise.

4.) DOUBLING the punishment for Child trafficking from 10years/$20,000 to a max of 20year/$40,000. Sentencing guidelines make this powerless. 

5.) Make "agreeing to hire minor to engage in prostitution MN 609.3241a" have to register as a sex offender if convicted. Added it to  243.166

B.) 

26 States have Life Registration for every level of sex offender. All but 3 States post that data (including exact address) publicly that is MN, DC, and Main.  

C.)

In brief our remaining bill ideas are:

1.) Fix the terribly weak sentencing guidelines for child sex trafficking by separating them from adult prostitution law MN 609.324.

2.) Make sex offender lists that currently only law enforcement can view into public data anyone can find (most other states do this)13.82  Comprehensive Law Enforcement data Subd. 22.Data on registered criminal offenders.and 243.166  Registration of Predatory offenders

3.)Make "engage sexual communication with a minor 609.352.2a(2)" have to register as a sex offender if convicted. (add it to this law:  243.166)

4.) Make "Distribute via Electronic Communication Material that Relates/Describes Sexual Conduct to a Child, Minnesota Statute: 609.352.2a(3)," have to register as a sex offender if convicted. (add it to this law: 243.166)

5.) Make "Interferes with the privacy" of a minor 609.746.1(e)(2)  have to register as a sex offender if convicted by adding it to 243.166. Was a bill in 2017: HF184/ SF636 

6.) Make stalking or pursuing a minor with sexual or aggressive intent 609.749, subdivision 3, paragraph (b) have to register as a sex offender if convicted by adding it to 243.166.

7.) Make engaging in or promoting prostitution of any age child have to register as a sex offender. Currently only those convicted with victims 13 and under are required to register. 

8.) Double the sentence for first time convicted child predators and Quadruple the punishment if it’s their second offense. By updating 609.3453 Criminal Sexual Predatory Conduct.

Contact your legislators. Find out who represents you and copy and share this article with them.