Complaint Letter Rife with Grammatical Errors Alerts Officials to Forged Origins
Last month, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the case of a forged letter by a disgruntled citizen, which was sent to the state's Department of Human Services.
The letter, which was overflowing with grammatical errors and inflated rhetoric, immediately alerted officials to its suspicious origins. Moreover, it was addressed to Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno, who left his position in 2006, according to the Star Tribune.
In it, Goodno is accused of of civil rights violations. The letter claimed that "the working poor are being homeless, because of you, this need to come to an end...If you don't obey, I will have the Sheriff's deputy put you in handcuffs and throw you in jail," the news source reported.
The letter is signed as written by a county district judge. According to court administrator Mark Thompson, impersonating a public official can result in felony charges.
There are processes in place for filing a formal complaint against a government official or agency. The letter writer would have done well to contact the Office for Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Civil Rights to file a proper discrimination complaint, as outlined on the website of Minnesota's Department of Human Services.
Moreover, running a grammar and spelling check of official complaint letters may be imperative for those who want to be taken seriously by public authorities.
