Todd County Auditor/Treasurer charged with felony forgery and misconduct
Todd County’s Auditor/Treasurer, Denise Gaida, is facing two two counts of felony forgery and gross misdemeanor misconduct of a public officer.
Charges were filed against Gaida in Todd County District Court July 23, 2026.
COUNT I
Charge: Aggravated Forgery-Legal Rights Created/Terminated
Minnesota Statute: 609.625.1(1)
Maximum Sentence: 10 years or $20,000 or both Offense Level: Felony
Offense Date (on or about): 10/23/2024 to 10/29/2024 Control #(ICR#): 25000816
Charge Description: On or between October 23, 2024 and October 29, 2024, in the County of Todd, Minnesota, Denise Gaida did and with intent to defraud, falsely make or alter a writing or object so that it purports to have been made by another or by the maker or alterer under an assumed or fictitious name, or at another time, or with different provisions, or by authority of one who did not give such authority, which writing or object whereby, when genuine, legal rights, privileges, or obligations are created, terminated, transferred, or evidenced, or a writing normally relied upon as evidence of debt or property rights,
COUNT II
Charge: Forgery-Destroy/Mutilate-Record/Doc-No Authority
Minnesota Statute: 609.63.1(6)
Maximum Sentence: 3 years or $5,000 or both Offense Level: Felony
Offense Date (on or about): 10/23/2024 to 10/29/2024 Control #(ICR#): 25000816
Charge Description: On or between October 23, 2024 and October 29, 2024, in the County of Todd, Minnesota, Denise Gaida did and with intent to defraud, destroyed, mutilated, or by alteration, false entry, or omission, falsified any record, account, or other document relating to a person, corporation, or business, or filed in the office of, or deposited with, any public office or officer.
COUNT III
Charge: Misconduct Public Officer/Employee-Exceed Authority
Minnesota Statute: 609.43(2)
Maximum Sentence: 364 days or $3,000 or both Offense Level: Gross Misdemeanor
Offense Date (on or about): 10/23/2024 to 10/29/2024 Control #(ICR#): 25000816
Charge Description: On or between October 23, 2024 and October 29, 2024, in the County of Todd, Minnesota, Denise Gaida did, in her capacity as a public officer or employee, an act knowing it is in excess of lawful authority or knowing it is forbidden by law to be done in that capacity.
The following is a copy of the Statement of Probable Cause filed in Todd County District Court.
Introduction:
Denise Gaida, Defendant herein, is the Auditor/Treasurer of Todd County. She is an elected official. Defendant is also a longtime notary.
Defendant had a brother, DS, who passed away on September 16, 2024. On October 29, 2024, Defendant filed a Quit Claim Deed (The Deed) with the Todd County Recorder. The Deed was purportedly dated July 30, 2024, before the death of DS. The Deed transferred two parcels of land owned by DS to Defendant and their mother, LS, as joint tenants. One parcel was a residential property in Browerville, and the other was 21.25 acres on the edge of Browerville. The Deed was supposedly signed by DS. Defendant notarized the Deed in spite of the fact that the Deed benefited her as it made her a grantee of DS’ property.
Criminal Investigation:
The Todd County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation around February, 2025. The investigator began by looking at The Deed, and DS’ purported signature within The Deed. The investigator pulled DS’ driving record, and noticed a couple discrepancies in the letters of DS’ signature on his driver’s license compared to the signature on The Deed. The investigator decided to collect more of DS’ signatures to send to an expert to compare as he suspected DS might not have actually signed the document. He subpoenaed financial institutions, and pulled other documents with DS’ signature on it.
Then, the investigator contacted Midwest Questioned Documents, LLC, sending them some documents with signatures, and The Deed. Hanson, from Midwest noted discrepancies as well, and believed they could investigate more. The investigator wanted to gather more documentation of DS’ signatures. Hanson from Midwest also wanted to see Defendant’s writing, and wanted the investigator to obtain medical records regarding DS to look for signature-affecting injuries.
On March 3, 2025, the investigator served a search warrant on American Heritage Bank. The investigator learned DS had a checking account that he shared with LS, which was still open, and a safety deposit box that was just closed on October 2, just a couple weeks after DS died.
The investigator obtained a search warrant to Defendant’s Todd County laptop computer. On March 4, 2025, the investigator along with the Chief Deputy from Todd County went to Defendant’s’ office, provided her with a temporary laptop set up by Todd County MIS (akin to the county’s IT department), and took possession of Defendant’s laptop.
When the investigator returned to his office, he opened the laptop, to photograph the make and model. The investigator notified MIS, and they indicated that they could image the computer, and the investigator gave them the computer.
On March 5, 2025, Todd County Sheriff Michael Allen returned a phone call to Defendant at her request. Defendant told Sheriff Allen that she needed her work computer back, and indicated she was made aware that she broke the law by notarizing a document that made her a beneficiary of her deceased brother’s property. Defendant told Sheriff Allen her mother received a call that DS had a security box at a bank containing a number of items. Defendant told Sheriff Allen that when her mother went to retrieve the security box, she retrieved the quit claim deed from the box. Defendant told Sheriff Allen she signed the deed not knowing it was illegal for her to do so. Defendant told Sheriff Allen she was fined $5,000 by the state, but would only have to pay $2,500.
The investigator received records back from American Heritage National Bank. The bank records showed the safety deposit box was opened on April 18, 2002. The records showed that the last time DS was in the safety deposit box was back on April 20, 2006. The investigator noted how Defendant told Sheriff Allen that their mother got The Deed from the safety deposit box, and for that to be true, based on the bank records, DS would have had to prepare and sign The Deed, which was dated 2024 way back in 2006 since DS did not access the safety deposit box since then and the Deed was supposedly discovered when LS accessed the box following DS’ death in 2024.
Meanwhile, MIS had copied files off of Defendant’s computer, and the investigator was able to take custody of the laptop. The investigator did a brief manual search of a file on the laptop computer labeled “Doug File”. The investigator discovered the same quit claim deed form in the file that he had found on an online search. This quit claim deed was saved as a PDF, and its log indicated it was last modified on October 23, 2024. There was another quit claim deed saved in the file named “Blank Quit Claim Deed PDF”, which was similar to the one the investigator found online, and similar to the other deed saved in the Doug File. This document was modified and put in the Doug File one minute after the other quit claim deed mentioned above.
The investigator also examined the search history, but it only went back to December 2024.
The investigator then formally requested the assistance of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to examine the computer. After a short time, the BCA informed the investigator that they would not assist in the investigation, but they would accept the laptop as evidence and image it for the investigator.
The investigator examined more evidence received from American Heritage Bank. He learned that LS accessed the safety deposit box on September 26, 2024 at 1:37 PM. He also learned that LS accessed the box again on October 2 at 2:11, which is the date the safety deposit box account had been closed. The investigator requested the bank send him video footage dating back to September 26 and October 2 of 2024, and he later received a flash drive of footage from the bank. The footage shows that on September 26, 2024, when LS accessed the safety deposit box, Defendant was present. The footage shows the two pulled out a folded piece of paper from an envelope, and unfolded it. The letter appeared to have a lot of writing on both sides of it, and did not look like how a quit claim deed would look like. The two returned all of the other property to the box, and left. The October 2 footage showed LS in the bank with manila envelopes.
Meanwhile, the investigator had sent 24 documents to Midwest for analysis. One of the documents was the Quit Claim Deed at issue. The investigator examined the Quit Claim Deed again, and noticed the date of 2018 was on the form. The investigator then pulled quit claim deed forms dated 2006, the last time DS or LS were in the safety deposit box prior to DS’ death, and the forms appeared to be in different formats. The investigator therefore determined that the form could not have been in the safety deposit box because it would not have been in existence to have been placed in the box in 2006 and discovered in 2024.
On March 11, 2025, the investigator went to LS’ home to obtain more information regarding The Deed, and he showed her a copy of it. LS told the investigator that she recognized The Deed, and that DS had brought it over to her home in June or July, and showed it to her.
On March 14, 2025, the investigator took a tape-recorded statement from Defendant. Amongst other things, Defendant told the investigator that she took her notary stamp from her office to her mother’s house when this would have occurred, and advised there would be a copy of the quit claim deed on her computer in the Doug File, and that she downloaded the deed after her brother’s death because she was thinking about her and her husband’s assets moving forward.
Defendant advised the investigator that DS had The Deed in question, and that he was staying with their mom. DS wanted her to look through some paperwork, and asked Defendant if she could bring her stamp home because he wanted some paperwork done in case something were to happen to him. Defendant told the investigator that DS signed the deed in front of her, and that is when she notarized it. According to Defendant, that was the first time she had seen the document, and that it would have been with her brother at their mother’s house. After she notarized, she indicated DS kept the document. She said it was either in his truck, home, or in some totes their mother had. Defendant indicated after DS’ death, LS presented the document to her, and it was later recorded in Todd County.
When questioned about the safety deposit box, Defendant responded that she did not know where her mother found The Deed, whether it was the house or the safety deposit box. Defendant stated if her mother told the sheriff’s office it was in the safety deposit box, then that was probably where it was; and that if it was not there, it was probably found in his stuff somewhere. Defendant indicated DS was worried about their mother who also had cancer in the past, and wanted Defendant to be part of it to take care of their mother. Defendant stated she brought The Deed to the recorder to be filed along with a check from their mother.
When asked by the investigator if the document was fabricated, Defendant responded it was not, that it was signed by her brother in front of her, and that she did not fabricate the document. Defendant also mentioned that her brother possibly had a large amount of bills, and not a lot of money, so the investigator began to explore possible medical debt that DS would have been looking at.
The investigator talked to Lisa Rowan at the Department of Commerce about the civil side of Defendant notarizing a document in which she stood to benefit. Ms. Rowan explained since the Defendant is an elected official, she is known as an ex officio, meaning that Defendant is granted a notary from the Secretary of State through the State of Minnesota because she is an elected official. Other notaries must be commissioned by the State of Minnesota. One rule of being an ex officio is that the notary stamp can only be used for job related duties, according to Ms. Rowan.
Ms. Rowan could not recall if Defendant ever told her that DS had signed The Deed in front of her. Ms. Rowan explained possible motivation for why a notary might violate the rules, including when people do not want to lose money to the state, or to satisfy medical expenses, or for family issues. The Minnesota BCA opened their own case involving notary violation, but closed their criminal investigation into the notary violations, finding no crime had been committed. The BCA criminal investigation did not investigate forgery.
The investigator received the results of the handwriting analysis from Midwest. The final opinion of the handwriting analysis was that “it is probable” that the questioned signature of DS on The Deed “was not produced by the same writer” that produced the known DS signatures.
Based on the results of the handwriting analysis, the investigator decided to reinterview LS and the Defendant. The investigator took a second statement from LS and learned, amongst other things, that according to LS, Defendant made The Deed for DS because he had cancer, and DS would have signed it after.
The investigator took a second statement from Defendant. Amongst other things, Defendant told the investigator that neither LS nor DS owned a computer, and when confronted with the fact that her computer was at the BCA, she indicated that there would be a copy of the QCD in the Doug folder, and that after she saw the form DS had, she looked it up, form 10.3.1. Defendant told the investigator she had not seen that form before, and it was different than the forms they use and hand out to the public, so she saved it.
On July 15, 2025, the investigator met with the BCA, who had the computer’s contents available to examine. The investigator began viewing the computer. He noticed a 10.3.1 Quit Claim Deed Form was saved onto the computer on October 23, 2024, at 8:31 AM. This document was last modified October 23 at 8:42 AM. The BCA explained that they believed the document was originally saved at 8:31, then was altered or changed in some way, and re-saved at 8:41. Then, the investigator noticed a document called “Blank Quit Claim Deed.” The created date for this document was October 23, at 8:42 AM. The BCA explained the original 10.3.1 form had been saved to the computer, then re-saved after being altered or changed, then re-saved on the computer because of the name being changed to Blank Quit Claim Deed. Both documents, 10.3.1 and Blank Quit Claim Deed, are the same exact document with Todd County typed and saved in them.
The investigator later reached out again to the BCA, and asked if there were any browser views related to Quit claim Deeds. The BCA indicated they had found a couple searches, on Etsy.com for “Template Quit Claim Deeds” and “DIY Quit Claim Deeds”, on October 21, 2024 between 3:34 and 3:48 PM.
The investigator opened the downloaded 10.3.1 form off of a Google search, and noticed it was a fillable PDF. The investigator filled in portions of the PDF he downloaded, and compared it against The Deed. He noticed The Deed had spaces entered in the portions where the name of the county was typed, and the fillable deed he downloaded did not have spaces preceding where Todd was typed.
The investigator pulled up the Minnesota Government Access Website, and entered DS’ name. He saw there were three Demand Notices related to DS, one from Todd County stating his burial had been paid for by the county, and requested to recover money and assets. There was also a demand from CentraCare for some type of medical bills. Finally, there was a demand from the City of Browerville for an ambulance ride.
The investigator pulled two previously-filed Quit Claim Deeds that also did not have any spacing preceding the county. The investigator also pulled other deeds in which Defendant was a beneficiary, and those deeds were notarized by someone else other than Defendant.
Forgery:
On August 15, 2025, the investigator received The Laptop and a one terabyte image of the hard drive of the computer. The investigator decided he would examine certain key documents from the laptop in order to see if the word “Todd” is consistent in all three of the documents (Blank Quit Claim Deed.PDF; 10.3.1 Quit Claim Deed Individual(s) to Individual(s).PDF; and Deed of Property to mom and myself from Doug.PDF. The investigator suspected The Deed was created on Defendant’s computer and saved, and previously noted how The Deed had written “Todd” on page one, and “TODD” on page two. The investigator learned the following occurred. On October 8, 2024, at 12:52:48 PM, there was an opendocs.com search for a MN QCD.PNG; meaning Defendant, or someone on Defendant’s work computer, would have been searching for a quit claim deed document. Then, on October 21, 2024, at 3:44:12 PM there was a web search on Etsy for quit claim deed. Moments later, on October 21, at 3:44:35 there was another search for Etsy template, quit claim deed. That same day, at 3:44:01 there is a shopping cart viewing on Etsy. Later on October 21, at 3:45:36 PM, there is a search for a QCD Real Property Transfer Legal Document Deed. Then, that same day, at 3:46:29 an Etsy search was conducted in which a QCD Form, Quit Claim Legal Document Transfer Real Estate Ownership Digital Download was made off of Etsy. At 3:47:30, an Etsy search for QCD Agreement, Property Quit Claim Deed Agreement, Real Estate QCD, QCD Form, QCD Document was done. The investigator documented the above searches with photographs.
The investigator then examined the PDFs that had been saved on the computer. On October 23, 2024, at 8:31:15 AM there was a file system created for a 10.3.1 Quit Claim Deed Individual to Individuals PDF that would have been saved on the computer. Then, the same form was saved to the file system and last modified on October 23, 2024 at 8:41:43 AM.
The investigator then noticed on October 23, at 8:42:12 a Blank Quit Claim Deed had been made, having been created to the file system at that time. It appears that the form that was last modified at 8:41:43 was renamed and saved to the computer as the blank Quit Claim Deed. These two documents both had the same consistence of “Todd” on page one, and “TODD” on page two.
The investigator noticed that on November 5, 2024, at 13:09:11 hours, a document named Deed of Property to Mom and Myself from Doug.PDF was found to have been modified. This is The Deed that was filed that DS allegedly had signed. This document has the same consistencies with “Todd” on page one, and “TODD” on page two as the two other above-described documents found on Defendant’s computer.
The investigator developed a time line based on the evidence. Defendant searched for quit claim deed documents on Etsy on October 21. Two days later, on October 23, she found a 10.3.1 Quit Claim Deed Individual to Individual document, and saved it to her computer at 8:31 AM. Then, there is an 11-minute window in which the document could have been altered, printed, information deleted, and then resaved as the Blank Quit Claim Deed at 8:42 AM.
The Deed was filed with Todd County on October 29, 2024.
This case is being prosecuted by the appointment of a special prosecutor from Ramsey County.
With Gaida being an elected official who is currently up for reelection, there aren’t many options available to the Todd County Board of Commissioners.
According to John Lindemann, Todd County Attorney, Gaida can remain in her current position for as long as she wants, barring the results of the election. Lindemann added that Gaida is also able to remain on the ballot.
Lindemann did tell the Leader that the county board does have the authority to remove Gaida from discretionary duties such as being the clerk of the board along with her assignments on committees.
If Gaida were to resign her post as auditor/treasurer, the board would then have the discretion to appoint a replacement provided they have the qualifications to be the auditor/treasurer.
Along with resignation, Gaida could also opt to have her name removed from November’s ballot provided she provides the county with affirmative consent to have it removed.
Lindemann said if Gaida were to see the election through to completion and win, the pending criminal case against her would not prevent her from assuming the duties of the Todd County Auditor/Treasurer, even if convicted.
However, Minnesota statute does not allow someone to be a notary if convicted of any “felony or a crime involving fraud, dishonesty or deceit,” which falls under MN Statute 358.70 Grounds to Deny, Refuse, Revoke, Suspend, or Condition Commission of Notary Public.
This statute also provides that a notary may be removed from office only by the governor, district court or the commissioner of commerce.
At this time, it is not believed that any financial crimes have been committed.
“The public should rest assured that Todd County financial operations remain accurate and secure, as supported by a recent independent audit, and there has not been, nor will there be, any disruption to Todd County services,” Lindemann said.
A first appearance for Gaida in Todd County District is scheduled for Sept. 22 at 1:15 p.m. with Hon. Heidi L. Hovis presiding over the case.
