Dec. 27—WALSH COUNTY — A Park River man is suing the Walsh County Sheriff after he was allegedly blocked from viewing or leaving comments on the sheriff’s department’s Facebook page.

Mitchell S. Sanderson, 58, filed a federal complaint against Sheriff Ron Jurgens on Friday, Dec. 22. The complaint alleges that Sanderson was blocked from the Facebook page, which is used to share information about Walsh County as well as the department’s activities.

Sanderson believes that by allegedly blocking him and therefore censoring his comments, the sheriff’s department is discriminating against him due to his views and violated his First and 14th Amendment rights.

The complaint requests that Jurgens be required to restore previously deleted Facebook comments and prohibit deleting or hiding public comments based on their viewpoints.

The complaint additionally requests that Sanderson be paid for the costs accrued during the case, including the time he’s spent researching and filing the complaint, since he is representing himself.

No response has been filed as of Wednesday morning, Dec. 27.