23 August 2023
ROCHESTER He wanted to be a Rochester Police Department informant. But instead, Jon Michael Ask was arrested last month for allegedly possessing more than 7 pounds of pills suspected of containing fentanyl.
Ask, 46, of Rochester, now faces felony charges of drug sale and drug possession in Olmsted County, as well as charges in one neighboring county, and more charges may yet follow.
The investigation into Ask by RPD covers an alleged drug trafficking operation involving multiple people moving, either by mail or by vehicle, controlled substances from California to Minnesota. Ask is facing three separate court cases related to possessing and selling controlled substances, two in Dodge County and one in Olmsted County.
While Ask attempted to work with RPD, it appears that the department determined he wasn’t a reliable source following a botched drug sting where Ask failed to procure the correct narcotics.
Informants can have major credibility problems stemming from them only turning into informants after police have evidence of their wrongdoing, according to Rachel Moran, associate professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
“Many people want to stay out of jail and will tell the police whatever they want to hear if it helps their own situation,” Moran wrote. “That can create a problematic incentive for informants to lie or even try to manipulate someone else into criminal activity.”
The Post Bulletin is not naming alleged co-conspirators mentioned in court records because they have not been charged in connection with these incidents.
The case is ongoing and more charges may be filed in the future, according to Rochester Police Department Communications Coordinator Amanda Grayson.
Ask’s charges in Olmsted County stem from an April 2023 call to police from an employee at a Kasson Bremer Bank about a suspicious person. Kasson police officers found a woman, later identified as Ask’s girlfriend, passed out in the backseat of a vehicle in the parking lot. An ambulance was called for the woman and a bag containing a white substance fell to the ground prompting an officer to search the vehicle.
In total, police found five baggies that tested positive for cocaine weighing 48.61 grams with packaging.
Paperwork from Budget Car Rental showed Ask rented the vehicle. He was arrested following statements from another male passenger in the vehicle.
His lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the charge due to lack of probable cause. They did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
From this call, a series of events would lead to Ask botching a drug deal for police and selling cocaine to an undercover cop, police allege.
“When it became apparent to detectives that Mr. Ask lied about his scope of involvement in narcotics distribution, detectives cut all ties with him,” Grayson wrote. This interaction between RPD and Ask lasted about four hours and he was never an official informant, according to Grayson.
Ask would later face a second drug charge in Dodge County in June after he admitted to law enforcement that several narcotics found in the bathroom of the lobby area at the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office were his.
As of Aug. 10, Ask is charged with felony counts of first-degree drug sale and first-degree drug possession in Olmsted County. In Dodge County, he’s facing two counts of felony second-degree drug possession.
A search warrant of Ask’s residence following a May 2023 shooting revealed evidence of drug dealing, leading police to believe the residence was an active crack cocaine cooking lab.
RPD found evidence of drug use and possession by Ask and his girlfriend on electronics seized from the search. One photo, dated May 7, 2023, showed Ask holding a stamped kilo of cocaine that was still wrapped and in brick form. No charges were filed against Ask after the May search of his residence and police believe that narcotics were either hidden or disposed of prior to their arrival.
RPD also received information from multiple sources that the male witness initially used to help secure Ask’s arrest in the Kasson bank parking lot was a “ringleader” of a crack cocaine operation that would bring kilos of cocaine from California to Minnesota.
“Narcotics investigations are very complex, and RPD takes great strides to ensure confidential informants are reliable,” Grayson wrote.
RPD policy requires officers to submit a report about the suitability of informants that must be reviewed by a supervisor and a file must be kept on the informant by the department. The policy also requires approval from prosecutors prior to any promises of preferential treatment within the criminal justice system.
A 12-hour exception can be made for people who are arrested and wish to immediately cooperate with police, according to the department’s policy manual, but that process requires a compelling public interest or specific circumstances that could significantly delay any investigation. A supervisor would still need to approve the use of the confidential informant.
The Post Bulletin is not naming the alleged “ringleader” because he has not been charged with a crime. He does have several felony convictions in Minnesota related to the possession of narcotics and is currently incarcerated in the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center.
Around the same time as Ask’s second arrest for drug possession in June, an investigator with RPD met with Ask. He told police that when he helps bring back cocaine from California, it’s cooked down into crack cocaine at his residence. Ask said he and the alleged “ringleader” would travel together and that the man was planning another trip to California to pick up at least three kilograms of cocaine.
“Ask was cooperating with law enforcement in efforts to assist him with consideration from the prosecution of his charges,” part of a search warrant affidavit reads. The Dodge County Attorney’s Office did not respond when asked about whether RPD contacted their office regarding Ask and his cooperation with police.
Ask told a Dodge County Sheriff’s investigator that he was a confidential informant. The investigator contacted several drug task forces but did not locate Ask in any confidential informant systems.
After Ask was arrested in June in Dodge County, he was transported to the Olmsted County Detention Center because Dodge County does not have a jail, according to Grayson.
The Olmsted County Attorney’s Office declined to comment about their involvement in Ask’s informant status, saying that information is not public. RPD declined to provide documentation regarding Ask’s attempt to become an informant.
“Information concerning CIs is strictly controlled and distributed only to officers and other authorities who have a need and a right to such information, as indicated under (the RPD) policy on the establishment of an informant file system,” Grayson wrote.
Ask was tasked by RPD to purchase cocaine from an unnamed suspect following their June meeting, according to an RPD search warrant application. Instead, Ask attempted to secure “blues” from the seller, a slang term for fentanyl pills due to their standard blue color.
“Ask was clearly aware prior to the operation there was to be no diversion from the agreed upon goal of the operation, that was to purchase cocaine from a suspect,” part of a search warrant affidavit reads.
He would later tell an RPD investigator that the money he had slated for the controlled drug buy was stolen from him and he would not be able to set another controlled buy before he cut off contact with police.
Ask gets busted with fentanyl
Prior to Ask’s charges in Dodge County this year, his criminal record consisted of a couple of minor traffic violations two decades apart from each other and the possession of a small amount of marijuana in 2009.
On June 14, while facing charges in Dodge County and after he broke off contact with RPD, police say Ask and his girlfriend sold 3.25 to 3.5 grams of cocaine to an RPD undercover cop. While his girlfriend was the one to sell the cocaine to police, it was clear that the couple were co-conspirators in the sale, according to police.
No charges have been filed against either party for the alleged drug sale.
Later that month, law enforcement would track Ask and multiple associates traveling out of a state for what police believe was the start of a drug run.
A car rented by an associate of his was stopped in July on Interstate 35 near Albert Lea. In addition to controlled substances, police found two receipts for packages shipped through the United States Postal Service, one of which was shipped to Ask’s Rochester residence.
Following that traffic stop, the alleged drug operation “ringleader” was arrested on a probation violation. He told police that Ask stores cocaine at his residence.
Further investigation would lead police to find more than 7 pounds of counterfeit M30 pills suspected of containing fentanyl after stopping Ask and an associate near his home.
No attorney is listed for Ask in that case.
His next court appearance in Olmsted County District Court is scheduled for Sept. 21.
RPD’s prior use of confidential informants led the Minnesota Legislature to create a law in 2021 requiring law enforcement agency’s to create policies on the use of confidential informants.
Matthew Klaus, a 32-year-old father who had a long battle with addiction, was working as a confidential informant for the Rochester Police Department when he died on March 30, 2019, from an accidental overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl.
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