I get Google alerts when Jeff Dubay makes the news. It's weird, I know, but I'm always curious to know why his name resurfaces.
I was aware he had been in legal trouble in North Dakota, and I learned today that Dubay was sentenced to 20 years in prison. But it appears that if he minds his business while in the slammer, he will serve five years of that sentence.
Here's what the Grand Forks newspaper had to say:
A Grand Forks man was ordered Tuesday, Jan. 20, to serve five years for Class A felony possession of at least 50 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.
Jeffrey John Dubay, 58, was approached by local law enforcement after exiting the Amtrak train on May 17, according to a declaration of probable cause summary filed in the case. Law enforcement had obtained a search warrant for Dubay and his luggage while he traveled from Minneapolis to Grand Forks.
Inside the backpack, law enforcement located approximately 178 grams, or 6.28 ounces, of methamphetamine, including the weight of the baggie, the summary said.
The story goes on to note he identified a woman as the source of the meth he was carrying. Her legal fate is still pending. Dubay would likely have to testify against her if he wants to get out after five years.
A condition of his probation is that Dubay must testify truthfully in any trial for which he is subpoenaed.
Dubay just turned 58 the other day. A day before he was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, he was blowing out 58 candles.
I was stunned by the timeline when I started reading his Wikipedia page and other info about him. He was fired by KFAN radio in 2008, so he'd have been 40 years old at that time. The guy was prominent and reasonably successful in Minneapolis-St. Paul radio for about a decade at that point. He wasn't getting rich quick, but he wasn't living a meager life, that much I recall. He was doing well enough to afford a boat, cruise Lake Minnetonka occasionally and may have had a lake cabin of some kind during his better days. He was married at one point, as well. He was living a dream.
The story goes that his marriage crumbled, and that his brother might have had something to do with that. I'm not sure if Dubay has said as much, but that's the story I've seen repeated.
In the nearly 18 years since he was fired, he has had recurring run-ins with the law for his drug offenses. I think there are more incidents than have made the news. In 2018 he was convinced in an assault case that stemmed from a 2017 incident in Cottage Grove.
A recap of the case suggested that Dubay may have been having sex with a couple of women, and it was not Three's Company at the Cottage Grove home where the assault allegedly occurred in 2017. The woman he appeared to have assaulted had two prosthetic legs and had trouble fleeing the scene when Dubay allegedly turned violent.
Dubay thinks he was the victim of a trumped up bunko charge, according to a Pioneer Press story.
Dubay told the Pioneer Press in December that he disputed the victim’s account and that he planned to plead not guilty when he showed up in court, but was “never given that chance.”
“I was told that if I pleaded not guilty, then my charge would be changed to first-degree assault, and I’d have to go to a jury trial with a potential for a seven- to eight-year prison term,” Dubay said. “I was not willing to risk seven to eight years of my life and put it in the unpredictable hands of a jury. Anything could happen then.”
He got a mild sentence in that case, two years after his second drug conviction.
I know there were a few arrests between 2018 and his Grand Forks arrest. I didn't easily find documentation, but I've seen it before.
One story you can find is the weird tale of him being stopped by Minnesota State Patrol in March 2024 and ultimately pleading to a simple case of driving while on drugs.
The guilty plea comes after Dubay told the Star Tribune that the allegations against him are "full of misinformation and horrible assumptions."
The Bring Me The News summary of the arrest and guilty plea, for which he served 10 days of a 90-day sentence, also included this popular nugget from stories of the initial arrest.
Dubay was found inside the Jeep "naked by covered by a blanket." He was also covered in vegetable oil.
I never heard the explanation for the vegetable oil.
If you google Dubay a bit further, you find, -- on reddit of all places -- somebody citing detailed info claiming Dubay rear-ended a Metro Transit bus in 2024. He had no license and his vehicle's registration was expired. (Shocking.)
A year later Metro Transit was trying to collect $13,000 for the damage to the bus, but was having a hard time reaching Dubay. Then came the Amtrak train incident and somehow Dubay was able to respond in court from jail in North Dakota, saying he had no money/assets to pay for the damage to the bus.
I've never seen that story anywhere other than on reddit, but it sounds like a Dubay misadventure.
We don't know when Dubay started taking drugs to cope with life as a successful sports talk radio co-host whose personal life wasn't so great, allegedly.
Some people have a hard time controlling their urges. Some harm only themselves. Some harm others. Some seek help and turn their life around. Some repeat the same mistakes.
We all know folks who fit into each of those categories. Dubay fits most of those categories, and all of the wrong ones.
Why did things go south for Dubay? Why has he failed to clean up his act and kick the habit? I think he has claimed in the past to be sober, but it obviously didn't last. And he posted on his social media account that he's sober now as he is about to begin his five-year staycation in a grey bar hotel.
Years ago I predicted it was going to end badly for Dubay. He's still alive, and now he's going to give up five years of his life. And if he gets out after five years, what kind of a future does a 63-year-old felon have after more than two decades of destroying his life?
His social media post had a lot of comments offering words of encouragement. People root for him. I don't know why.
Perhaps there's something to like about him, but he seems to blame the system for at least some of his past situations.
From what I saw on his social media history, he's not simply a political conservative. He's a right wing jackass. I get some people want to believe one party is always on the right side of history, but Dubay is an asshole about it. And isn't shy about being an asshole.
Yet people root for him.
I named this blog after Dubay because he's a pompous jerk. All these years later, and after all his legal troubles, he still is.
If he can do something meaningful and worthwhile with his life going forward, I'll applaud him. Isn't that what we want for everyone?
I created this blog nearly 12 years ago. I haven't used it in a few years, by design. Yet here we are, nearly 12 years later, and I'm still writing about Dubay. He beat the odds thus far, at least in my opinion. I never game a timeline, but I figured it would all end badly for him. And maybe it will.
I'm not rooting for him. But he has survived this long. Perhaps he'll get his life on track before he reaches the final station in his mortal journey.
I do wish that for him.
