Hours after a Woodbury man dropped off heroin to a woman last March in New Brighton, her boyfriend called the dealer to say something was wrong, authorities say.

The man told John Jay Williams that his girlfriend, Nicole Marie Ritchie, stopped breathing sometime after the couple ingested the drugs Williams delivered, and he asked what to do, according to legal documents.

Williams instructed him to pour milk into her mouth, court records say, and that appeared to work. But hours later, after the couple had gone to bed, Ritchie’s boyfriend woke up to find her again not breathing.

Despite paramedics attempts at resuscitation, the 27-year-old woman died from a fatal drug overdose, legal documents say. A mix of opiates, fentanyl and other drugs were found in her system.

Williams, 33, was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder in her death, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Investigators linked him to the case using Ritchie’s cellphone records and information from her boyfriend.

In addition to telling police that Williams sold them the heroin, the man worked with investigators to record conversations he had with Williams after the overdose, the complaint said.

In those interactions, Williams agreed to sell the man more heroin and also expressed concern over Ritchie’s condition.

“I’m just concerned about her, bro,” Williams said to her boyfriend, according to the criminal complaint.

At the time, Williams didn’t know Ritchie had died, legal documents say.

When her boyfriend asked whether Williams could get him the same drugs that he provided the night of the overdose, Williams apparently severed ties with him, telling him to quit calling him and changing his cellphone number, the complaint said.

When initially interviewed about the case, Williams reportedly denied knowing Ritchie and later said he had contacted an attorney.

Williams’ criminal history includes past convictions for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, domestic assault, fifth-degree drug possession and disorderly conduct.

No attorney was listed for him in court records and he could not be immediately reached for comment.

Ritchie’s father declined to comment about her death or the criminal charges filed Tuesday.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 100 days in jail for biting a 3-year-old’s face after getting into a fight with the child’s mother.

Scottie Dale Heckel, 20, was ordered to serve the jail time by a Ramsey County District Court judge Tuesday, about a month after Heckel pleaded guilty of third-degree assault in the case, court records say.

Heckel was also sentenced to a 15-month stayed sentence, meaning he will serve that additional time if he fails to meet the conditions of his probation.

The child was at her mother’s home in the 900 block of Geranium Avenue in St. Paul in June when her mother got into an argument with her boyfriend, the woman told police, court records say.

She put her daughter down for the night on a couch and went to bed while Heckel reportedly stayed up talking to another woman, authorities say.

When the child’s mother woke the next morning, she discovered bite marks on her daughter’s cheek, the complaint said.

Her daughter told her that Heckel bit her during the night.

Heckel’s attorney, public defender Terrance Hendricks, could not be immediately reached for comment.

This is Heckel’s first felony conviction. He was previously convicted of fifth-degree assault and domestic assault.

Minnesotans have been dialing 911 for emergency help since 1968. On Tuesday, the state rolled out a statewide program allowing Minnesotans to text 911 for help as well.

State officials still encourage calling 911 when possible, but texting is a first option for the deaf, deaf-blind, and hard of hearing. And it’s an alternative option for those who might put themselves in jeopardy by calling.

“There are certain emergencies where if you speak, it will actually put you in more harm,” said Bob Hawkins, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Home invasions, kidnapping and domestic violence are a few of those situations.

This also is the first time Minnesotans with limited ability to hear or speak will be able to communicate directly with emergency services.

“You can imagine the fear and overwhelm in trying to explain your emergency situation and trying to get help when there’s a communication barrier,” said Anne Sittner-Anderson, communications coordinator for the Commission of Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.

About 20 percent of Minnesotans — or more than 1 million people — are deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing, according to the commission.

Because texting takes much longer, officials emphasized that it should only be used if calling is not an option.

Dispatchers can communicate with multiple people texting at a time to make up for lost time waiting for responses.

As dispatchers receive emergency texts, they will send confirmation that they received the message and will encourage the people texting to call if possible.

State officials have been working on this since 2014, when all 104 of the state’s Public Safety Answering Points were connected to a network allowing them to accept texts. It wasn’t until this year, however, that the dispatch centers received the capability to view texts.

Previously, texts sent to 911 would have bounced back to the sender with a note saying dispatch centers could not receive texts. The deployment was funded by 911 fees.

“We’ve been anticipating this day for a long time,” said Scott Williams, deputy county manager for the Ramsey County Safety And Justice Service Team.

HOW TO TEXT 911

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s dos and don’ts:

• DO enter the numbers 911 in the “to” field.
• DO text your exact address and type of emergency. (Dispatchers will not automatically have location information.)
• DO send the message.
• DO use simple words.
• DON’T use abbreviations. (Not all dispatchers understand them.)
• DON’T use emojis. (Dispatch centers cannot receive them.)
• DO keep the message to 160 characters or less. (Longer texts may be received out of order or not at all.)
• DO answer questions and follow instructions quickly.
• DON’T send pictures or other multimedia. (Dispatch centers cannot receive them.)
• DON’T text if you’re able to call.
• DON’T text and drive.
• DON’T text 911 just to try it out. (Texting or calling 911 with a false report is a crime.)

Energy-efficient traffic lights on Minnesota 36 in Oak Park Heights caused a major problem for eastbound drivers Tuesday morning after the lenses became encrusted with ice and snow overnight.

“They couldn’t see the red light,” said Police Chief Brian DeRosier. “They kept going through the stoplights because they thought they were green.”

The Minnesota Department of Transportation installed the LEDs as part of the new St. Croix River bridge project. Because the lights don’t emit much — if any — heat, ice and snow can accumulate.

“It was the perfect storm, if you will, because we had the ice and the wind and the snow and the cold,” DeRosier said. “The wind blew it, literally, into the lenses.”

Problems were reported at Washington Avenue/Norell Avenue, Oakgreen Avenue/Greeley Street and Osgood Avenue. Police heard “lots of radio chatter” about possible and near-misses, especially on Oakgreen, but received only one report of an accident with physical damage — at Washington/Norell, DeRosier said.

“Thankfully, there were no serious accidents,” he said. “But it caused problems for people who wanted to go north and south across the highway and couldn’t get across because the traffic wouldn’t stop.”

MnDOT crews responded to the scene and cleared the lenses, DeRosier said.

A MnDOT spokeman said Minnesota and other northern states are looking for solutions.

“This is a common issue anywhere there are LED lights and snow and ice,” said Kevin Gutknecht, the agency’s director of communications.

The new LED stoplights are 90 percent more energy-efficient than older, incandescent lights, but “they emit much less heat,” he said. “Incandescent lights emitted enough heat to help melt off snow and ice.”

Oak Park Heights Mayor Mary McComber said she hopes MnDOT comes up with a plan — and quick.

“This was just the first big (weather) incident of the winter,” she said. “We can’t have this happen all winter.”

Having your vehicle broken into while attending a funeral is bad enough, but it was even worse for Katy Thuleen because the items stolen have special significance.

Thuleen’s father-in-law died in October and at the time people made donations in his name to Opportunity Partners, a nonprofit in Minnetonka that supports adults who have disabilities.

Katy Thuleen had the checks, which totaled $2,000 to $3,000, in her vehicle because she intended to bring them to the organization after she was attending a different funeral on Tuesday. But someone stole those checks, and now the Thuleen family is asking anyone with information to come forward.

“I’m just devastated,” said Katy Thuleen.

Roland Thuleen was previously president of United Cerebral Palsy and his grandson, with whom he had a special relationship, has cerebral palsy. Opportunity Partners is a program that the 28-year-old grandson attends.

The theft happened when Katy Thuleen was attending a co-worker’s mother-in-law’s funeral at St. Thomas More Catholic Community at Summit Avenue and Lexington Parkway on Tuesday. When she returned to her vehicle in the parking lot about 11:15 a.m., she saw the passenger-side window had been smashed and there was glass covering the inside of her vehicle.

A large gray tote bag had been stolen, including the 20 to 25 checks that were inside and a couple of hundred dollars in cash donations to Opportunity Partners, Thuleen said.

A woman attending Tuesday’s funeral told Thuleen that, before the service, she had noticed a red truck with Wisconsin license plates idling in the parking lot and a man walking around the lot; she didn’t have a description of the man and it’s not known whether he is connected to the theft.

Thuleen is asking anyone who comes across the checks or has information about them to contact St. Thomas More church or St. Paul police, with whom she filed a report.

“We’d really like to get these back because they have little to no value to anyone but Opportunity Partners,” said Scott Thuleen, Roland’s son.

Roland Thuleen, who died at age 100, started working as a page at First Bank in Minneapolis — now U.S. Bank — when he was 16 years old. He retired 44 years later as executive vice chairman and was active as a volunteer throughout his life.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The U.S. government is asking a state court judge to order that FBI documents related to the Jacob Wetterling investigation be returned to the federal agency.

Officials in Stearns County had planned to release the investigative case file after Danny Heinrich confessed to the 1989 abduction and killing of 11-year-old Jacob.

But Patty and Jerry Wetterling sued in June to keep 168 pages sealed because they contained personal information. A judge temporarily blocked the file’s release.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office joined the Wetterlings’ litigation Tuesday, saying the FBI wants its records back and the documents must be released under federal, not state, law.

Attorneys say more than half of the thousands of pages in the case file are federal. The federal Freedom of Information Act has more privacy protections for victims.

University of Minnesota police are investigating a death on its Minneapolis campus, officials say.

The death occurred in the Mechanical Engineering Building, according to a tweet posted Tuesday night to the University of Minnesota Police Department’s Twitter account.

We are investigating an incident with the Medical Examiner’s Office that occurred at the Mechanical Engineering Building. Media/information requests should be directed to the M.E.

— U of MN Police Dept (@UMPDGopher) December 6, 2017

A university spokesperson told the Minnesota Daily that no foul play is suspected.

An investigator with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office was still on scene about 9 p.m. No further information was immediately available.

The scene, shot in November 2015, is painfully intimate.

Jerry and Patty Wetterling stand in the middle of their kitchen in St. Joseph, riffling through their notes as they prepare to address the media for the first time since authorities had arrested and named Danny Heinrich as a “person of interest” in their son Jacob’s abduction.

While dozens of news reporters and photographers wait outside, documentary filmmaker Chris Newberry films a friend of the Wetterlings as he enters the kitchen.

“OK, we’ve got about a minute,” the friend says, as he pulls the couple in for a hug. “We’re going to get our heads together here. You guys are going to go out there and knock their socks off — or whatever you’re supposed to say.”

The three chat for a minute, and then the Wetterlings head to the front door.

“All right. This was my big idea,” Patty Wetterling says as they walk outside. “I don’t know if it was a good one or not. …”

Says Patty: “I hate this long driveway.”

Newberry approached the Wetterlings in 2015 to pitch a feature-length documentary that would chronicle the circumstances and impact of their son’s case. He got the idea, he said, after reading and listening to stories on the 25th anniversary of Jacob’s disappearance.

Jacob was 11 when he was abducted by Heinrich on Oct. 22, 1989, while biking with his brother and a friend in St. Joseph.

“There was a push (in 2014) to get the case solved, and they put up billboards around Stearns County with the age-progression images of Jacob, and the words ‘Still Missing’ were across the billboards,” Newberry said. “When I saw that on the news, that sparked my interest. I was, like, ‘Let’s do this.’”

Getting the Wetterlings’ blessing was key, Newberry said, because “I wanted to hear their story.”

THE FOCUS: TELLING THE MYSTERY

It took several months to gain the couple’s trust, he said. Once they gave their OK, Newberry began researching and filming.

“At that point, I thought I was making a film about an unsolved case — a big mystery, a big open-ended mystery,” Newberry said during a recent interview at his film studio near Loring Park in Minneapolis.

“It was never meant to be, ‘Well, I’m going to be the one who solves this,’” Newberry said. “There are some great documentaries that are like that out there — where they dig up things that move toward getting a crime solved — but that was never my intention.”

Newberry said he wanted to explore the “ripple effect — the bad and the good” of Jacob’s abduction and the impact that ambiguous loss and uncertainty had on the Wetterlings and the state of Minnesota.

“It was like this really painful vacuum — not knowing what happened to him,” Newberry said. “That’s the movie I thought I was going to make.”

ARREST CHANGES EVERYTHING

Those plans changed abruptly in October 2015, just a week after the Wetterlings signed off on Newberry’s project. Heinrich, of Annandale, was arrested at his house on Oct. 29 on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.

“I was communicating with Patty about doing our first sit-down with the cameras rolling, and then the news broke,” he said. “For the family, friends and everybody involved, it totally turned the world on its side.”

Newberry said it was a coincidence that his first day of filming was the day the Wetterlings addressed the media for the first time after Heinrich’s arrest. He filmed, for instance, Patty Wetterling baking chocolate-chip cookies for members of the media waiting outside.

Newberry said he had to quickly switch gears as news in the case broke.

“Instead of a reflective documentary with a lot of talking heads, it became more action-oriented because things were unfolding right in front of our cameras,” he said. “There’s this FOMO (fear of missing out) for documentary filmmakers, this terror that you’re going to miss the moment. That’s something that hangs over us all the time, in all the films we make, but that was very pronounced at that point.”

ABDUCTION’S IMPACT ON US ALL

Newberry, who grew up in Minnetonka, was 14 when Jacob was abducted.

“My mother and I would watch the 10 o’clock news every night together and then ‘Cheers’ afterward,” he said. “It was leading the news every night.”

Before Jacob’s abduction, Newberry and his friends would often bike to the 7-Hi Shopping Center and play arcade games.

“I can’t say that I was one of those kids that my parents — after Jacob was abducted — immediately were like, ‘Oh no, you’re not biking around without supervision,’” said Newberry, who has two young daughters. “But it’s hard to miss the fact that my childhood at the time is so different from the way I approach parenting … and I think that’s echoed by everyone I know, and a lot of people do attribute it to Jacob.”

A FILM CAREER IN THE MAKING

Newberry, 43, of Minneapolis, graduated from Minnetonka High School in 1993. He said he and friends often made films for class projects.

Once, for a film on medieval torture for an English class, Newberry and friends burned one of his sister’s Barbie dolls. “It was called ‘Torture and Punishment,’” he said. “It was very academic.”

Newberry went to Northwestern University, where he majored in computer science, but continued to make films. He has a master’s degree in filmmaking from Goldsmiths, University of London.

His film “American Heart,” which profiled the work being done at the Center for International Health in St. Paul, won an Emmy and was broadcast nationally in 2015 on PBS’s WORLD Channel. His work also has appeared on the PBS series “Independent Lens.”

He also is working as a producer and cinematographer on Norah Shapiro’s documentary “Time for Ilhan,” which chronicles the historic 2016 campaign of state Rep. Ilhan Omar, DFL-Minneapolis, the first Somali-American woman to hold state office in the U.S. “Time for Ilhan” will be released in 2018.

PORTIONS OF FILM TO DEBUT DEC. 7

The Jacob Wetterling documentary, yet unnamed, should be finished in 2019. Parts of the film will be shown Thursday at an event sponsored by the Marine on St. Croix Film Society.

Newberry, who received a $10,000 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board as seed money for the documentary, said he plans to spend next year doing “nose-to-the-grindstone” editing, conducting more interviews and fundraising.

“There are still people on my wish list, or people whom I interviewed before Heinrich confessed, and now I want to go back and talk to them again,” he said.

Newberry was the first filmmaker to approach the Wetterlings with a request to make a documentary, Patty Wetterling said.

“He came well-recommended,” Patty Wetterling said. “He said he wanted to explore the ripple effect that Jacob had had on other people’s lives — his legacy, already at that point, and that sounded nice to us.”

After Heinrich was arrested and “everything changed,” Patty Wetterling said, the couple thought about taking a break from filming. “We didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do.”

But Newberry persuaded them to continue with the project, Patty Wetterling said. “He still believed that the intent of the movie would be to show Jacob’s impact on other people’s lives and the work that still goes on,” she said.

On a recent weekday, film editor Erica Ticknor worked on the documentary in the film studio. She spliced scenes of Patty Wetterling addressing a crowd in Redwood Falls, with interviews with Alison Feigh, program manager for the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, and Joy Baker, a freelance writer who helped bring new attention to Jacob’s case in 2010 when she started researching and publishing blog items on similar attacks on teenage boys in Paynesville between March 1986 and the summer of 1989. Paynesville is about 35 miles southwest of St. Joseph.

“We’re working on an impact scene to show the good work that is being done in Jacob’s name,” Newberry said.

Ticknor had her work cut out for her.

“I have about almost 12 hours of material, and I have to get it down to 12 minutes,” Ticknor said.

Newberry said he expects the final version of the documentary to be 80 to 90 minutes long.

TRYING TO CAPTURE STORY’S IMPACT

He said his goal is to tell new dimensions of the story and “its societal impacts, the personal, emotional story of what this meant for the family and for a guy like me, who’s just another Minnesotan, who was really affected by it from a distance.”

One question he said he’ll be tackling is why Jacob’s case captured the hearts and minds of so many people for so long.

“When I ask people, one answer I get a lot is: Jacob’s photo,” he said. “There’s this kid with this smile and those eyes — more than anything, what has stuck with me over the years is that image of Jacob. As humans, we identify with faces. There’s an emotional connection.”

The details of the crime — that Jacob was abducted by a masked stranger who came out of the woods on a dark night — and eyewitness accounts also contributed to interest in the case, he said.

“It is like this terrible, scary scene if you play it out in your head,” he said. “Part of the reason we have all those details is because of these two witnesses. A stranger abduction is astronomically unlikely, but add on top of that two witnesses, and it’s very rare. I’m sure there are other cases, but I can’t name one.”

IF YOU GO

Part of the new Jacob Wetterling documentary will be screened at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Marine on St. Croix Village Hall as part of the Marine Documentary Film Series; attendees will get a look at the work-in-progress and can interview filmmaker Chris Newberry.

For more information, go to marinecommunitylibrary.org or facebook.com/jacobwetterlingfilm/.

Misty McKinley met an 84-year-old St. Paul man with signs of dementia at a gas station when she walked up to him and asked him for a ride.

Then she started stalking him, showing up uninvited at his house at all hours of the night and intimidating him into giving her additional rides or other favors, authorities say.

Eventually, the man told police he started to feel “like a prisoner in his own home.”

That’s the account included in a criminal complaint filed this week in Ramsey County District Court charging McKinley with one count of stalking and eight counts of violating a restraining order that the 84-year-old eventually filed against McKinley, court records say.

The elderly man lives alone in a house on the 800 block of Capitol Heights Boulevard but his family told police he has started to show signs of dementia in his old age and requires regular assistance from family, the complaint said.

Sometime after meeting McKinley at a gas station in 2016, the 39-year-old woman started showing up at his residence and harassing him for rides or money, legal documents say. She would make him drive her to fast food restaurants and gas stations, where she told him to buy cigarettes, groceries or other items for her and her boyfriend, according to the complaint.

Despite those efforts, sometimes McKinley would show up at his house and “pound on his door ‘all night long and (not) give up,’” the complaint said.

She was found guilty of violating the restraining order twice in January and is now charged with eight additional violations.

McKinley’s criminal record includes convictions for misdemeanor-level theft and check forgery.

She appears to be representing herself in her case and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Her next court date is Jan. 9.

“What happens in this room stays in this room.”

That’s what a massage therapist said to his client moments after sexually assaulting her during a session at his Roseville business this fall, authorities say.

Gary Lee Sarppo, 59, was charged Wednesday with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in the alleged conduct after police arrested him at Massage Rejuvenation this week, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Sarppo is a licensed massage therapist in the city and works solo in the business he owns at 2499 Rice Street, court records say.

One of his longtime clients went there for a massage Sept. 23 and was about 45 minutes into a two-hour session when she said Sarppo began working on her hip area, the complaint said.

He then made the unusual request of asking the 43-year-old client to flip onto her back, which is when the sexual assault took place, according to the woman’s statement to investigators.

In response, the woman started to sit up, prompting Sarppo to ask, “Do you want me to stop?” the woman said, according to legal documents.

When she said told him she did want it to stop, he went back to his usual massage techniques before whispering in her ear, “What happens in this room stays in this room,” the complaint said.

The woman told investigators she felt scared and shocked and didn’t initially know how to respond.

After the massage, Sarppo told the woman he’d apply her gift certificate to cover the charges, the complaint said.

When the woman responded that she didn’t have one, Sarppo said, “I know. I will take care of it,” according to legal documents.

Once back in the lobby, the client informed Sarppo that he wouldn’t get away with the uninvited conduct.

He allegedly responded that nothing like that had ever happened before and said his behavior wasn’t premeditated, the complaint said. He added that he had been under a lot of stress.

Police arrested Sarppo at work Tuesday.

In his interview with investigators, he reportedly acknowledged touching the woman’s genital area but wouldn’t say whether the conduct was intentional. He denied that penetration took place, legal documents say.

He described the incident as a “misunderstanding” based on “flirting” and “body language, the complaint said.

No one answered the phone Wednesday afternoon at Massage Rejuvenation.

Sarppo was in custody at the Ramsey County Jail on Wednesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

His criminal history includes three convictions for drinking and driving related offenses in 1991, 1992 and 2001.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

He is expected to make his first appearance on the sexual misconduct allegations Tuesday afternoon.

A 22-year-old St. Paul woman was run over in a Roseville parking lot Nov. 6, and police want the public’s help in finding the man responsible for her injuries.

The woman was seen talking to a man who was sitting in a car outside an Uber office at 2055 Rice St., between North McCarrons Boulevard and County Road B. As she walked away, the man accelerated his vehicle and intentionally ran her over, police say.

The victim is recovering at Regions Hospital.

The incident happened about 5:45 p.m. Nov. 6. The man fled southbound on Rice Street in a smaller, gold, mid-2000s SUV or minivan, police said.

Anyone with information can contact Roseville police at 651-792-7008 or submit an anonymous tip at 800-222-8477 or online at crimestoppersmn.org.

Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the assailant.

A regular Saturday morning turned into a nightmare for a St. Paul woman as she took her garbage out and found herself being attacked by a police dog looking for a male burglary suspect, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Desiree Collins, 52, suffered multiple bites to her arm and a bite to her lower leg.

Right after it happened, Collins asked the officers, “What did I do?,” to which they replied, “Nothing,” according to her attorney, Andrew Noel.

“Part of the reason for the lawsuit is she says, ‘If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,’ ” Noel said. “She wants St. Paul to make the appropriate changes to makes sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Police apologized to Collins when she was in the hospital, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

“Officers were responding to a report of a burglary in progress,” he said. “They did not know she was in the area and they certainly did not intend for this to happen to her. We are sorry. We have reviewed the incident to see what we can do better next time and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

About 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 23, Collins was taking out garbage behind her home on Van Buren Avenue, near Dale Street.

Meanwhile, police had responded to Minnehaha Avenue and Grotto Street, about three blocks away, on a burglary in process where two males were reported to have kicked in a door and entered a home.

Officer Thaddeus Schmidt was among those who responded, and he is the officer being sued.

“The bottom line is this was a situation that could have been avoided if the dog was kept on a shorter leash and proper warnings were given,” Noel said.

Schmidt’s announcement about the presence of the dog was not close to where Collins was and occurred about 7 minutes before the encounter, according to Noel. Schmidt also had the dog on a 20-foot leash.

The dog bit Collins’ lower left leg and clamped onto her right arm. Officers tried to pull Collins and her arm away from the dog, “but per (K-9) Gabe’s training, their actions only caused Gabe to exert more bite pressure and pull her arm harder in his direction on the bite,” according to the lawsuit.

The attack knocked Collins out of her shoes and the dog dragged her to the ground; it lasted about 30 seconds as she screamed in pain, the lawsuit said. Officers issued 10 “release” commands to the dog and Schmidt tried to use the dog’s E-Collar, an electronic shock device, but they could only stop the dog when Schmidt was able to physically remove him from Collins, according to the lawsuit.

Collins’ wounds on her right arm required dressings, but they were difficult for her to change herself. When she was an infant, she was injured in a fire and her left hand was amputated due to burn injuries, Noel said.

St. Paul officers were initially helping Collins get her dressings changed and assisting her with getting groceries, but “this aid stopped once they found out she was represented by counsel,” the lawsuit said.

Collins has permanent scars from the dog bites and “emotionally, the incident still affects her a lot,” Noel said.

The lawsuit says Schmidt’s dog bit another innocent person in August 2016, and “he received supervisory counseling on ‘leash handling and K-9 control at that time,’ ” according to the lawsuit.

The police department conducted an internal affairs investigation after the Collins incident, which resulted in officer discipline, according to Linders, who didn’t have details Wednesday night. Schmidt remains a K-9 officer, Linders said.

In addition to seeking financial damages, the lawsuit seeks an order mandating changes to St. Paul police policy and training “in the use of effective warnings” and “proper leash techniques” to control K-9s.

Linders said “it’s important to note” that St. Paul officers have responded to about 200,000 calls for service this year and “K-9s have only been involved” in biting 22 suspects to apprehend them.

“This was an extremely unfortunate incident and we feel bad,” Linders said.

In addition to Noel, Collins is represented by Robert Bennett and Kathryn Bennett. They were also the attorneys of Frank Baker, who was awarded a $2 million settlement in April, the largest in St. Paul’s history. The 53-year-old man who was hospitalized for two weeks after he was bit by a police dog and kicked by an officer last year.

In Jose Hernandez Solano’s final moments, his friends and family were by his side.

The 52-year-old, who was struck by a hit-and-run driver in St. Paul a week and a half ago, was taken off life support early Thursday, and some of his organs were donated.

“We’re remembering the wonderful human he was and hopefully the people who get his organs will carry on his awesome spirit,” said Megan Gall, general manager at Brasa Rotisserie on Grand Avenue, where Hernandez Solano was a dishwasher.

Hernandez Solano was bicyling home from work when he was struck by a westbound sport-utility vehicle shortly after midnight Nov. 26 at West Seventh Street and Grand Avenue. Police continue to look for the driver.

Hernandez Solano suffered major brain damage and a crushed and severed spine, according to a GoFundMe site. He underwent two surgeries for swelling in the brain.

People have donated more than $16,000 to the site, which allowed Hernandez Solano’s two brothers to travel to Minnesota from other states, as well as his 26-year-old son who is a college student in Mexico, Gall said.

Hernandez Solano’s son arrived Tuesday.

“The Mexican consulate was great in assisting us, but it was very, very difficult to get him here because there were issues at the border and with getting him approved,” Gall said.

Hernandez Solano was one of 13 children, and is also survived by his parents; he was a father of three.

“He was a very generous, funny guy, always entertaining, kind of a jokester around here,” Gall said. “He was very well liked and an incredibly hard worker.”

Hernandez Solano was an avid bicyclist who took safety seriously, though he had also faced danger about three weeks before the crash that took his life. He was biking to work when a vehicle hit him and drove away; his arm was banged up and he had noted the driver was texting, according to Gall.

“It’s amazing how many people have reached out in the community since this happened, sharing stories of tragedy and drivers not paying attention,” Gall said. “It seems like things are easily preventable if drivers put down their phones and pay attention.”

People are planning to have a funeral locally for Hernandez Solano and fundraising continues on the GoFundMe site, so his body can be transported to Mexico for burial, Gall said.

“I think there’s a little sense of peace now — it’s been a long week and a half of ups and downs, and emotionally exhausting,” Gall said Thursday. “But there is definitely an open wound of not knowing who did this or having that closure.”

Investigators have determined that the vehicle that struck Hernandez Solano was a 2008 to 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe in the color of platinum sage metallic, which can look light green, silver or beige, depending on the lighting, according to police. The suspect vehicle has dark-colored rims and front-end damage and will be missing its passenger-side mirror.

Police have asked anyone with information to contact them at 651-266-5727.

A St. Paul man is charged with raping a woman he met less than an hour before near a light-rail station in downtown St. Paul, authorities say.

Torrie Lee Bolden, 41, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

It was about 3 a.m. Oct. 4 when a woman got off the Green Line at the Union Depot Station in Lowertown, legal documents say.

As she walked behind the light-rail station, she met a man she thought to be in his 30s and started walking with him toward a liquor store while the two smoked a cigarette, the woman later told police, the complaint said.

As they were walking, it occurred to the woman that the liquor store wouldn’t be open at that time of night and that they were walking in the wrong direction anyway.

When she told him, he started punching her in the face and repeatedly slammed her head against a brick wall, the complaint said.

Then he raped her, telling her he would get a gun if she didn’t comply, the woman told police, according to legal documents.

Surveillance cameras in the area reportedly show the two talking and sharing a cigarette in the area before going out of the camera’s vantage point, the complaint said. Shortly thereafter, the woman is seen with her face bloodied, running back toward the station for help.

A police officer recognized Bolden in the footage and asked Bolden’s community corrections officer to confirm his identity, according to court documents.

He was arrested Monday.

In his interview with officers, Bolden initially said he didn’t recognize the victim but later said he had seen her in the area and recalled helping her escape two other men who were assaulting her.

Bolden’s criminal history includes a 2016 gross-misdemeanor conviction for domestic assault.

He has no permanent address.

No attorney was listed for Bolden in court records.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. –The bodies of two recently divorced attorneys were discovered in an apartment in Fergus Falls late Wednesday following what authorities say was a homicide and a suicide.

A preliminary investigation shows Ryan Christopher Cheshire, an Otter Tail County prosecutor, fatally shot attorney Sarah Ruth Cheshire and then fatally shot himself, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The two were both 41 years old, the parents of three children and were living in separate Fergus Falls residences.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, Fergus Falls police responded to a 911 call from friends of Sarah Cheshire about a person not breathing at Ryan Cheshire’s apartment, a building on the campus of the former Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center, the bureau said.

When officers arrived, they found Sarah Cheshire and Ryan Cheshire dead inside the apartment, according to the bureau.

Investigators are not looking for any other individuals involved, and there is not a risk to the public, Fergus Falls police said. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is helping with the investigation.

The couple had resided in Fergus Falls for 11 years.

Sarah Cheshire was an attorney and partner at Karkela, Hunt & Cheshire in Fergus Falls.

Paul Hunt, a partner in the firm, said those at the firm were very saddened by news of Sarah Cheshire’s death and troubled by what they have heard regarding the possible circumstances of her death.

The law firm’s website said Sarah Cheshire worked in the firm’s Fergus Falls and Perham offices. She worked with the Minnesota Judicial Branch for 10 years prior to joining the firm in 2013. She also served as legal advisor for the Fergus Falls Hockey Association.

Sarah Cheshire is the daughter of longtime Bottineau, N.D.,  attorney Swain Benson and his wife Kathy, and a sister to Bottineau County (N.D.) District Court Judge Anthony Benson.

Ryan Cheshire was an assistant Otter Tail County attorney. A call to the Otter Tail County Attorney’s Office seeking comment was not returned Thursday.

Ryan Cheshire’s father, Bob Cheshire, was a U.S. marshal who was killed in the line of duty in 1983 when federal officers tried to arrest Gordon Kahl, an anti-government protester, near Medina, N.D., when Ryan Cheshire was 6.

Ten years later, when Cheshire was 16, his younger brother by one year was killed when he and friends accepted a ride after a high school football game. The driver, who had been drinking, got into a crash that killed Cheshire’s brother.

In a 2006 Fargo-Moorhead newspaper story, Ryan Cheshire said after his brother’s death, he set his sights on a career in law enforcement.

“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it helped me. It gave me a new motivation to go forward and to help to do what’s right.”

Sarah Cheshire’s uncle, Brad Benson of Bismarck, N.D., said the incident appeared to be a sad conclusion to a relationship family members had worried about for years, with Sarah Cheshire having been the focus of what Benson described as a controlling and abusive partner.

Oak Park Heights police say a threat about a shooting at Stillwater Area High School posted last week on social media appears to be an attempt at “dark humor” gone bad.

The post said: “If you go to Stillwater, do not go to school tomorrow because there’s someone threatening to shoot up the school.”

“Unfortunately, it appears a poor decision of one subject to post what they thought was ‘dark humor’ to a specific small group of friends was then misinterpreted” by another student, Police Chief Brian DeRosier said Friday.

The other student then posted “what they felt was a public-service announcement,” which was spread widely on social media and caused significant concern among students and parents, he said.

Police learned of the posting about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 and determined there was no threat to the school, which is in Oak Park Heights.

“We still have no reason to believe at this time there is any threat associated with this investigation,” DeRosier said.

No arrests have been made or charges filed.

School officials said they could not comment on any disciplinary action because of data-privacy laws.

The husband of a Roseville-based home day care provider is accused of sexually assaulting three children cared for at the site, authorities say.

Edgar Noe Lopez-Monter, 44, was charged Thursday with one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Police received a report about the conduct in August after a 6-year-old asked her day care provider, Joy Lopez, to tell her husband to stop kissing her, legal documents say.

She and her 9-year-old sister later told their mother that Lopez-Monter had been kissing them for years when his wife wasn’t present, the complaint said.

The 9-year-old also said Lopez-Monter fondled her on multiple occasions dating back to when she was 6, the complaint said.

The girl reported that Lopez-Monter asked her not to tell anybody about the conduct and said he loved her, according to legal documents.

Lopez-Monter was arrested Wednesday. He declined to give a statement to investigators.

His wife said Thursday that she didn’t know about the allegations and declined to comment.

She runs a day care in the couple’s home on the 300 block of Judith Avenue in Roseville.

The day care’s license has been temporarily suspended, according to records provided by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Joy Lopez has been a licensed day care provider since 2006. This is the first licensing action taken against her.

No attorney was listed for Lopez-Monter in court records.

He does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota.

He was scheduled to make his first appearance on the allegations Friday.

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — Two Park Rapids, Minn., men are lucky this isn’t the Old West and they don’t hang rustlers in these here parts.

The two have been charged with felonies after allegedly selling cattle they did not own.

Bret Ricardo Glatzmaier, 49, has been charged in Becker County District Court with two felony counts of rustling and cattle theft, and Christopher Charles Strehlow, 31, has been charged with one felony count of each.

According to court records, an investigator with the Becker County sheriff’s office spoke on Nov. 4 to a cattle owner who said he had responded to an advertisement placed by Glatzmaier regarding pasture land for rent. The two agreed the man could graze his cattle on the land in exchange for one small Holstein heifer. Glatzmaier had no other cattle in the pasture.

On Aug. 20 the renter brought 16 head of cattle to the pasture. When he returned on Nov. 4, only four were there.

Employees at the Perham Stockyard told the investigator that Glatzmaier had also sold two other steers to them on Sept. 25 and that another man, allegedly Strehlow, had sold six Holstein steers to them on Oct. 16.

Strehlow allegedly admitted that the cattle he sold were from the rented pasture. He said the check was made out to him, and he split the money with Glatzmaier. The cattle owner said each head of cattle was worth about $800.

Becker County District Judge Gretchen Thilmony set cash bail Nov. 27 for both Glatzmaier and Strehlow at $2,500 and bond at $25,000, with standard conditions of release, or $50,000 without conditions.

A Minnesota judge didn’t doubt the the progress a confessed drug dealer had made in treatment, but said those steps weren’t enough to avert a prison sentence.

Washington County District Court Judge John McBride sentenced Karl R. Heinrichs on Monday to six years in prison — four of which must be spent behind bars. The Stillwater man, arrested last year after a sting that involved Minnesota and Wisconsin authorities, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree drug sales.

Heinrichs pleaded guilty Nov. 9 in St. Croix County to felony drug possession with intent to deliver. He faces a maximum penalty there of 19 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Heinrichs, who drew a measure of celebrity through his “Sir Death” alter-ego as part of the Vikings World Order fan group, was arrested in September 2016. Authorities said he was stopped with 31 pounds of pot and nine pounds of marijuana wax in his vehicle during a Stillwater traffic stop. A search of a storage unit he used in Houlton, Wis., turned up another 134 pounds of pot, according to the Wisconsin charges.

During Monday’s sentencing — the third such hearing in the case, after a last-minute revelation derailed the previous hearing in October — Heinrichs begged for mercy from McBride. He described how a decades-long substance addiction upended his life, including his studies in law school at the University of North Dakota.

Still, he said progress he’s achieved through the Minnesota Adult-Teen Challenge program while on bail has left him a changed man.

“I’m not the same man I was 15 months ago,” he told the judge.

Heinrichs asked to be sentenced to the mandatory minimum — three years, saying it would allow him to be closer to family members who need him at a crucial time.

“I humbly submit to your authority and beg for your mercy and forgiveness,” Heinrichs said to McBride.

The judge acknowledged the hard work Heinrichs had done through the treatment program, but said he wasn’t sure if the words of contrition were simply coming from a convict who knew what the judge wanted to hear.

Still, McBride said the sentence represents a break. Though it wasn’t the three years Heinrichs was seeking, it’s also not the nine years recommended by Assistant Washington County Attorney Karin McCarthy.

“It’s very obvious that you were a big player in spreading marijuana around the community,” McBride told Heinrichs, adding that most of the juvenile offenders he sees in court are busted with pot at some point. “I see these lives that are destroyed, and they all start with pot.”

Heinrichs initially thought he was poised for a probationary sentence before an Oct. 23 sentencing hearing. However, McCarthy said it was revealed at that hearing that 10 years hadn’t elapsed since his probation for a previous drug conviction. That, she said, triggered the mandatory minimum prison sentence.

Heinrichs will be sentenced Jan. 16 in St. Croix County.

Twelve days after St. Paul bicyclist Jose Hernandez Solano was injured in a hit-and-run crash that claimed his life this week, his family asked the public for help finding the driver.

“This person not just took my dad’s life, but he also changed the lives … of me and my family. From my mom, he took a husband, and from my aunts and uncles, he took a brother,” Solano’s son Jose Adrian Hernandez said in Spanish during a Friday news conference at St. Paul police headquarters. “The only thing I ask is for justice for my father.”

Jose Hernandez Solano, 52, was struck early Nov. 26 while biking home from working as a dishwasher at Brassa Rotisserie on Grand Avenue. He was hit as he crossed West Seventh Street at Grand. The driver who hit him fled after speeding through a red light at the intersection and has not been found.

Hernandez Solano, who suffered extensive brain and spinal cord injuries, died Thursday after he was taken off life support at Regions Hospital. Some of his organs were donated.

A native of Mexico, he is survived by his wife, three children, several brothers and sisters, and a 2-year-old grandchild he never got to meet.

“He was biking with his helmet, front light, rear light,” said David Fernandez, Hernandez Solano’s biking partner and co-worker at Brasa. “He always liked to enjoy biking together. … He would always wait for me or I would wait for him.”

Jose Adrian Hernandez came from Mexico to be with his father in his final days. Hernandez Solano’s brothers Armando and Raul Hernandez Solano traveled from other parts of the United States.

“They don’t deserve this. That’s not fair,” Brasa general manager Megan Gall said of the family.

THE INVESTIGATION

Under the direction of lead investigator Sgt. Julie Sam, St. Paul police are still looking for a suspect.

The hit-and-run vehicle is a 2008 to 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe sport utility vehicle. In different light, the “platinum sage metallic” color can appear gray, tan or beige, with a definite green tint, Sam said.

The suspect vehicle has dark-colored rims and front-end damage and will be missing its passenger-side mirror.

Police used surveillance camera video to trace the SUV’s route from the Wabasha Street Bridge  to the scene of the crash. The driver continued westbound on Seventh Street after hitting Hernandez Solano, but investigators were unable to track the SUV any further.

Video footage shows erratic driving, including running red lights and high speeds, Sam said. Passing by Cossetta’s restaurant on West Seventh Street, the vehicle was “a blur … a streak of light,” Sam said.

Officers are looking through state motor vehicle data,  but Sam said she’s hoping for tips.

“People who don’t see their neighbors’ cars anymore. People who had a co-worker who had that car and is now missing. If a co-worker or neighbor comes up with a story that they sold the car, that the car is stolen, it’s all of the sudden gone — those are the tips I need because there’s a reason the car is no longer out,” Sam said.

Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. They might receive a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

“To find real closure in this at this point, someone needs to be responsible for what happened,” Gall said. “You don’t want to live the rest of your life with this guilt. I know I wouldn’t. And if this was your brother or your father or your family, you wouldn’t want them to leave this world on this note, either.”

HOW TO HELP

Fundraising continues at gofundme.com/josehernandezstp in order to assist Hernandez Solano’s family with transporting his body to Mexico for burial.