The father and son behind a north metro meat-processing business have been charged with illegally selling wild venison products, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Anoka County District Court.
The charges against Matt and Mark Sand come after more than a year and a half of investigation into operations at Circle Pines Sausage Haus, according to court documents.
Matt Sand, 34, the current owner of the business, was charged with four gross misdemeanor counts for violations of state game and fish laws related to the buying and selling of wild deer.
His father and former Circle Pines Sausage Haus owner, Mark Sand, 62, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of possessing untagged deer, as well as a gross misdemeanor violation of the state’s game and fish laws.
Matt Sands’ attorney, John Price, said the Sands are innocent and called the investigation a “complete farce” that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources spent far too much money pursuing.
“My client is not guilty of any crime whatsoever. I would like to know what the Minnesota DNR spent tracking down this case for the past two years,” Price said, adding that he had heard the agency went so far as to send officers to Naples, Fla., where clients of the processor winter to try to interview them.
An undercover DNR officer reportedly purchased wild venison products from Matt Sand at the Sausage Haus sometime before the fall of 2018. The officer told Matt Sand at that time that while the business was allowed to sell venison products back to customers who processed their wild game at the shop, it was not allowed under state law to sell any excess wild venison products, according to the criminal complaints.
But on Aug. 30, 2019, Matt Sand again sold excess wild venison, this time to other undercover DNR officers, charges say.
The officers brought 12 pounds of wild game deer trimmings to be processed at the shop that day and were told by Matt Sand at the time that for “easy math” he would run the trimmings for up to 15 pounds and throw in an equal amount of pork to the trimmings during processing, meaning the trimmings would be returned as 30 pounds of product, the complaints said.
The officers also ordered other various venison products while they were there, including 10 pounds of Mark’s Original Smoked Summer Sausage, 20 pounds of Mark’s Original Beer Sticks, 25 pounds of Cooked and Smoked Jalapeno Cheese Bratwursts and various other products, charges say.
In total, the extra venison products added more than $500 to the bill.
One of the officers returned to pick up their processed venison on Oct. 16, reportedly adding to his bill at that time another $300 worth of beer sticks.
The sale of excess wild deer meat is illegal in Minnesota. Processors can charge fees for butchering a hunter’s deer, and preparing products like sausage can cost extra. But a hunter shouldn’t be sold more meat than his deer can yield, and hunter-killed deer meat can’t be sold to walk-in customers who tagged no deer themselves.
Authorities had the illegally sold venison products tested at the Wyoming Game and Fish Wildlife Forensic Health Laboratory and found that a few of the samples tested “originated from cattle,” the complaints said.