BISMARCK – The head of North Dakota’s largest state agency is accused of conspiring to block an investigation into a child care provider whose license was expired when a 5-year-old girl under its care drowned last summer.

Department of Human Services Executive Director Marget “Maggie” Anderson, 48, was charged Friday in McHenry County District Court with conspiracy to obstruct a government function and with public servant refusing to perform a duty for allegedly allowing the facility to operate without a license and not notifying authorities.

Both are Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and $3,000 fine.

The same charges were filed against DHS attorneys Julie Leer, 52, and Jonathan Alm, 39, and Laurie Gotvaslee, 54, director of the North Central Human Service Center in Minot.

Former DHS Early Childhood Services Administrator Jennifer Barry, 42, also is charged with felony conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence for allegedly directing an employee to delete email conversations about the case. Barry denied giving that directive, according to an affidavit filed with the charges.

The 43-page affidavit by state Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Craig Zachmeier outlines alleged actions by DHS officials to backdate a license for the KidQuarters child care center in Velva after the drowning incident and to impede his investigation.

According to the affidavit:

The operating license for KidQuarters had expired one week before 5-year-old Gracelyn Aschenbrenner was found unresponsive in the Velva city pool June 8. The girl died July 1 at a Fargo hospital.

Heather Tudor, the operator of the child care center, was charged with negligent homicide, felony child neglect or abuse and operating a child care facility without a license. A jury trial is set for April 4.

The day after the pool incident, Human Services employee Alysha Berg sent an email to multiple DHS employees – including Anderson and Leer – notifying them that KidQuarters’ license had expired June 1 and DHS was waiting on relicensing documents.

“Supervisory staff and command staff at DHS knew the day care was not licensed, yet allowed it to operate unlicensed until issuing new licenses after June 22,” Zachmeier wrote.

When Zachmeier served a search warrant Aug. 19 at the facility, he saw a license on the wall certifying that it was licensed from June 2, 2015, through June 1, 2016.

However, when he questioned Berg by phone the next day about whether KidQuarters was legally licensed on the day of the pool incident, she said it wasn’t and that she had backdated the license to June 2.

McHenry County social worker Cheryl Johnson, who allegedly submitted an application to DHS on June 16 asking that the license be backdated to June 2, was charged in September with felony criminal conspiracy, felony tampering with public records and two misdemeanors. Her preliminary hearing was postponed last week at the prosecution’s request, and her attorney, Lloyd Suhr, said he expects she will enter not guilty pleas next month.

When Zachmeier went to the Minot human service center on Aug. 24 to interview Berg in person, Gotvaslee, the human service center’s director, told him they had received legal advice not to allow him to talk to Berg. Gotvaslee later told Zachmeier that she had been on the phone with Leer and Anderson “and they didn’t want Alysha (Berg) talking,” the affidavit states.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Gotvaslee said her attorney had advised her not to comment.

When Zachmeier later asked Berg why KidQuarters was allowed to operate without a license and was going to be allowed to reopen Aug. 25, she said, “it was such a mess people wanted to cover it up,” the affidavit states.

Bismarck attorney Michael Hoffman, who was retained by Anderson on Tuesday, said she did not know the license was backdated and she plans to plead not guilty. Initial court appearances are set for March 23.

“She didn’t act with knowledge of wrongdoing, if there was any wrongdoing,” Hoffman said.

As for the charge of impeding the investigation, Hoffman said DHS officials “were simply trying to figure out what they should be doing” as they dealt with the BCI, which is overseen by the attorney general’s office, and received advice from their own attorneys, who have special assistant attorney general status.

“It’s a catch-22 kind of thing,” he said.