N.D. sheriff says he meant no offense to Osbourne

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

FARGO, N.D. — Ozzy Osbourne is famous for biting the head off a bat during a concert and starring in a reality show about his dysfunctional family. Now he's claiming that the sheriff of this Great Plains town is hurting his reputation.

Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, elected a year ago, is a former Marine with the buzz cut to prove it — hardly a typical Osbourne fan. But when he found out the shock rocker would be bringing his show to the Fargodome, Laney decided to arrange a pre-concert bash at a local nightclub.

The lucky recipients of the exclusive invites: Several hundred of the 3,000 fugitives with warrants outstanding against them. Their special "back stage pass" got them a free ride to the county jail.

The sting netted 44 fugitives, including two people with felony charges pending against them and several parents who had failed to make child-support payments, Laney said. "They can't make a court date, but they can make a pre-concert party."

Osbourne, a former frontman for Black Sabbath, is complaining that the sheriff's tactic casts him in a bad light.

"This sheriff should be ashamed of himself for using my celebrity to arrest these criminals," Osbourne said in a statement. "Surely with some good police work and a little bit of time he could have accomplished this without bringing my name into it. It's insulting to me and to my audience, and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job."

No offense intended, Laney insisted in an interview Tuesday. In fact, after the sting was completed, one of its chief architects, a sheriff's deputy, "was in row 8 at the concert," Laney said. "He's a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan."

An 18-year veteran of the Fargo police force who was elected last year on a promise to shake up the status quo, Laney, 41, said he has "always challenged my staff to be creative."

The invitations, printed on purple stationery with appropriately Goth decorations — a spider web and a skull — went out in the name of PDL Productions (the initials are Laney's) and promised an "unforgettable extravaganza."

Sheriff's deputies and probation officers manned the doors, dressed in purple T-shirts with a colorful PDL logo and an "I crashed the bash" slogan on back. They checked IDs at the front door — but unbeknownst to the partygoers, their names were being checked against a list of outstanding warrants.

Once the officers were sure they had their man — or woman — they escorted the person to the back. "That's where the jig was up," Laney said. Reactions ranged from "stunned silence" to verbal abuse to amused resignation, he said.

"We had one lady, she said, 'I've got to hand it to you: You guys are good,' " the sheriff reported. When word of the sheriff's aggressive tactics got out, two more fugitives turned themselves in, Laney said.

The sting has brought the sheriff, who maintains the law in a community of 130,000, attention from the media worldwide.

But he said there's just one problem: "A concert sting like that probably won't work again."

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