Leonhardt retiring after 34 years with Sheriff's Office

Mike Leonhardt grew up in Byron with three brothers and he played football, basketball, and baseball during this time. He then attended RCTC getting his generals and played football for two years.

He didn’t have any family members that were in police work but was taught by his parents to always respect the police. After that, he enrolled at Winona State and played football for one season, but after an injury, he decided that it was time to end his playing days. During his time at Winona, he interned with the Rochester Police Department.

He needed four more credits to finish his degree in Criminal Justice. He contacted Dodge County Sheriff Ernie Vanderhyde, and he rode with the sheriff department deputies during that time.

Mike wanted to get into the 12 week-Police Skills Training program in Alexandria, but it was not going to be held until the next summer. He worked at three part-time jobs that year before he was able to enroll in the program.

When he was getting close to finishing the Skills Academy program, he got a call from Sheriff Vanderhyde asking him to come down if he was interested in a position. At that time Dodge Center was moving to have the County Sheriff’s Office take over the police duties and they were going to hire three new deputies. He said he told Ernie that he had not completed the program yet and Ernie told him about the job, uniforms, etc. so finally Mike asked Ernie “are you offering me a job?” Ernie said of course I am or I would not have asked you to come and talk to me!