Months before he was killed in the line of duty last year, shot while conducting a traffic stop, Patrick filed a whistleblower suit against the city and its police chief alleging retaliation for reporting two officers he thought stole a picnic bench.

Michelle Patrick will now take her husband’s place in that lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial days before the anniversary of his death. In an order earlier this month, Dakota County District Judge Martha Simonett granted Michelle Patrick’s motion to substitute for her husband in a July 27 jury trial.

“We lost Scott even before he was actually killed,” Michelle Patrick said Thursday, describing the way her husband often brought his displeasure with the department home at night.

Scott Patrick’s original complaint, filed in February 2014 in Dakota County District Court, accused Mendota Heights Police Chief Michael Aschenbrener of retaliating against him for reporting a theft by two other officers in 2008. Patrick also alleged that the department failed to provide adequate written notice regarding the nature of an internal affairs investigation before a 2012 disciplinary hearing.

"I have come across some paperwork stuff and learned he was bullied at work,” Michelle said. "And it's really hard because I didn't understand beforehand. He kept a lot he didn't want us to know. I knew things weren't right at work, but I left it up to him to tell us."

According to the lawsuit, the trouble began 7 years ago, when Officer Patrick saw 2 fellow officers moving a picnic table to city hall from the old Lilydale Tennis Club, which was being demolished. Patrick reported what he considered to be a property theft by city employees to Mendota Heights Police Chief Michael Aschenbrener, who, according to the lawsuit, thought it wasn't theft but a "mistake in judgment." Patrick filed a complaint against the chief alleging "a pattern of questionable ethics and criminal violations."

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Patrick documented the retaliation -- what he interpreted as payback. One day, his squad car was moved by a sergeant who parked it just inches away from another squad, keeping Patrick, who was admittedly overweight, from getting into his squad. There was also the time a label of rat poisoning was allegedly slipped into Patrick's locker. The officer didn't tell his wife about either incident. Same story with an email he received from the city shortly before he was killed. The city was offering him a settlement, early retirement, to leave the department.

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And just days before he was killed, Patrick was suspended once more, for a day, for failing to turn over the audio recordings he'd made documenting his conversations with the chief.

ST. CLOUD – Brian G. Fitch Sr. was convicted late Monday for the murder of Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick, a verdict that condemns him to life in prison without parole.

A Stearns County jury of seven men and five women also convicted Fitch of attempted first-degree murder for shooting at three St. Paul police officers who captured him after a shootout.

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In his closing arguments prosecutor Phillip Prokopowicz, standing at a lectern facing the jury, said “the time has come” for justice.

He acknowledged the weakest point in the state’s case: No one saw Fitch at the scene of Patrick’s shooting, and witnesses to the crime gave conflicting testimony about who was driving the Pontiac Grand Am that Patrick had pulled over.