CHICAGO — A federal appeals court in Chicago narrowly overturned a ruling Friday that could have freed a Wisconsin inmate featured in the “Making a Murderer” series from prison, though one dissenting judge called the case “a profound miscarriage of justice.”

The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed Brendan Dassey’s claims that investigators tricked him into confessing that he took part in raping and killing photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 after telling detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach.

The 4-to-3 opinion conceded a ruling wasn’t obvious or easy, but said it came down to whether findings by Wisconsin state courts that Dassey wasn’t coerced into confessing were reasonable.

“The state courts’ finding that Dassey’s confession was voluntary was not beyond fair debate, but we conclude it was reasonable,” their 39-page ruling said.

But Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner strongly disagreed.

“His confession was not voluntary and his conviction should not stand, and yet an impaired teenager has been sentenced to life in prison,” she wrote in her dissent. “I view this as a profound miscarriage of justice.”

In her dissent, Chief Judge Diane P. Wood added: “Without this involuntary and highly unreliable confession, the case against Dassey was almost nonexistent.”

A federal magistrate judge overturned Dassey’s conviction last year, ruling that detectives took advantage of Dassey’s youth — he was 16 at the time — and learning disabilities to coerce his confession. A three-judge panel from the 7th Circuit upheld the magistrate’s ruling in June. But the state asked for a review by the full 7th Circuit — leading to Friday’s decision.

Dassey’s attorneys, Laura Nirider and Robert Drizin, said they were “profoundly disappointed” and would seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Today’s ruling contravenes a fundamental and time-honored position of the United States Supreme Court: interrogation tactics that may not be coercive when applied to adults are coercive when applied to children and the mentally impaired,” they said in a statement.

State attorneys asked the full 7th Circuit to review the case, arguing the ruling called long-accepted police interrogation tactics into question. The appellate court rarely grants such reviews but opted to take Dassey’s case in August without comment on the merits.

Dassey has remained in prison while the state appeals.

Both Avery and Dassey contend police framed them because they wanted revenge against Avery for filing a lawsuit against Manitowoc County over wrongful imprisonment for a sexual assault he didn’t commit.

Their cases gained attention in 2015 after Netflix aired “Making a Murderer,” a series examining Halbach’s death that spawned widespread conjecture about Avery and Dassey’s innocence.

Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased.

ADA, Minn. — Some drivers in northwestern Minnesota who ignore school bus stop arms are being thrown in jail.

Norman County Attorney James Brue told KFGO Radio that two people have each spent a weekend behind bars since the beginning of the school year. They have also been slapped with $285 fines.

Brue said the Ada School District has worked hard to educate people about school bus safety and “it just doesn’t seem to be working.”

The maximum fine for school bus stop arm violations went from $300 to $500 on Aug. 1. Since then, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety says 458 drivers have been cited statewide for breaking the law.

CHICAGO — A pair of Twin Cities tourists fabricated a story about getting robbed at knifepoint by three men in Chicago’s Loop and told police they were just trying to have “some fun,” prosecutors said Sunday.

Katie Mager, 27, of Apple Valley and Ryan Reiersgaard, 27, of Burnsville originally claimed they were robbed of a $12,000 engagement ring, among other valuables, while walking near the lower level of 300 North Columbus Drive early Thursday morning.

The two said three men approached them with a knife and took the ring, along with $5,000 cash, $3,000 Louis Vuitton suitcase, a Burberry purse, a $2,000 MacBook Air laptop, a $300 suitcase, a wallet and a $150 iPad Mini.

Mager told police she could recognize one of the alleged attackers because he “looked like a milk-dud or Fat Albert, reeked of marijuana and was short in height and heavy-set,” according to Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Carlson.

Reiersgaard said the whole scam was Mager’s idea and that “he doesn’t know her motives.” He said that sometimes, their “shenanigans” get out of control and that he was only trying to have some fun on his birthday, Carlson said.

Prosecutors noted that it was, in fact, his birthday.

They were each charged with a felony count of disorderly conduct relating to the false report of a crime. Judge Sophia Atcherson ordered each of them held on $10,000 bond during a Sunday court hearing.

The pair had called 911 around 1:50 a.m. Thursday and told officers they got lost after taking GPS directions to a hotel. Police drove them around to identify the location of the robbery, but were unable to find the exact location.

They told officers they had landed at O’Hare International Airport from Minneapolis-St. Paul around 9 p.m. and spent about three hours trying to find a rental car.

Mager said she was trying to meet her friend in Evanston for pizza but couldn’t remember the restaurant name. They told police they got lost near Lower Wacker Drive, parked the car and got out on foot with their luggage.

Reiersgaard told police he couldn’t track the Apple items because they were turned off. Maher said she was too stressed out to think about why they would have gotten out of the car to walk around to look for their hotel with their luggage, according to prosecutors.

Police said the couple was unable to provide serial numbers for the luggage, electronics and jewelry. Airport security footage showed them traveling without luggage.

After being arrested, Mager told police she “made a mistake, had bad friends and is sorry.” She said she would only be honest with police if they promised to let her go home, prosecutors said.

They are both scheduled to appear in court again Thursday.

Four years ago, Gloria Fritz watched as her two American Saddlebred horses were pulled out of a half-dug grave. They had been shot and killed.

A couple of years later, she filed suit against the farm’s owner. Trial for the case, previously scheduled to begin Monday, has been postponed until February.

“I’m hoping some justice will be served because obviously no one deserves to have their animal shot, their loved animal, and that’s what it was for me,” Fritz said. “I took a loss: emotional, financial, psychological, it was everything.”

It started Nov. 10, 2013, when Fritz received a call that both her horses — nicknamed Silver Dollar and Glory Be — had been killed by deer hunters.

Fritz had been keeping her horses at a Scandia farm owned by Ellen and William St. Sauver. She told them she would be transferring the horses to Chicago on Nov. 15 for breeding.

She got the call about the horses’ deaths from the St. Sauvers’ adult son, William “Willy” St. Sauver Jr., who was responsible for taking care of the boarded horses. It was the second time she had ever spoken to him, and he told her he had buried her horses.

“Something was really fishy. I knew that was a hoax; it was not making sense that deer hunters shot them,” the Highland Park woman said. She called the Washington County sheriff’s office and headed out to the St. Sauvers’ land.

The next day, the officer returned with another officer and noticed St. Sauver driving a large tractor in a tight circle in the middle of a cornfield, about a quarter-mile from where he had said he buried the horses.

That’s where the deputies found the partially buried horses under a “large amount of dirt that was recently dug up,” according to legal documents. St. Sauver told the officers he was digging up the horses, which he had somewhat mutilated by driving over with the tractor, the lawsuit said.

The next day, a witness told the sheriff’s office that he had seen St. Sauver shoot the horses in the head with a gun multiple times at close range. Necropsy examinations on both horses confirmed they had died from gunshots, legal documents said.

“I put the horses there on her farm for safekeeping … little did I expect to have anybody shoot my horses while they were there,” Fritz said. “It was such a surprise and such a letdown. I can handle a lot of stress and a lot of problems but I did not expect this, and this really took the wind out of me.”

The mares, 20 and 17 years old, were the last of Fritz’s herd of more than 30 horses.

St. Sauver was charged with two counts of animal torture for each horse, but the charges were dismissed after St. Sauver’s death in 2014. While intoxicated, he had crashed his car into a tree and died. 

William St. Sauver Sr. had died in December 2013, leaving Ellen St. Sauver as the lone defendant of the lawsuit.

Neither Ellen St. Sauver nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

Officers were familiar with the St. Sauvers’ address even before the horses’ deaths. In the 20 previous years, the address had more than 80 police reports — including a few animal calls.

At 16, Willy St. Sauver pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanor theft for stealing a lemur from the Washington County Fair petting zoo, and years later he was charged with harboring an exotic animal for reportedly owning two small alligators.

Fritz filed suit in 2016 for breach of contract, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress. She requested more than $50,000, the amount she said her horses were worth.

FARGO, N.D. — A North Dakota woman pleaded guilty Monday in the killing of a pregnant neighbor so she and her boyfriend could keep the baby, though officials are still saying little about how the victim died.

Brooke Crews, 38, could face life in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder and lying to law officers in the death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, of Fargo. Her boyfriend, William Hoehn, 32, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder and lying to law officers.

He is scheduled for trial in March, which a prosecutor cited as a reason for continuing to withhold information on the case.

Crews’ attorney, Steven Mottinger, said afterward that the guilty pleas will help his client argue for less than the maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

“Ms. Crews early on indicated that she wanted to take responsibility for her actions,” Mottinger said. “From where I stand, she took responsibility today by entering a guilty plea to the three charges.”

Greywind was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in August. Kayakers found her body wrapped in plastic in the Red River. The baby was found alive in the apartment Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend, William Hoehn. Hoehn is scheduled for trial in March.

Crews didn’t offer details on how Greywind was killed. Authorities haven’t said either, but Fargo Police Chief Dave Todd has said her death was a “cruel and vicious act of depravity.”

Cass County State’s Attorney Birch Burdick said further details aren’t likely to be released until after Hoehn’s case is finished.

“As you’re well aware, this is one important step in two cases that are intertwined,” Burdick said outside the courtroom. “At least our office will be rather circumspect until we’ve got both cases resolved. Then we can elaborate more fully.”

Although Crews and Hoehn are not facing murder charges, Burdick said that the conspiracy charges are in the same offense category and carry the same maximum penalty as murder.

“At the time we charged the case, it seemed like an appropriate charge based upon our then-available evidence,” he said. “As the case moved forward, we did not see a reason to change the charges. We believe it makes no difference from a sentencing perspective.”

Crews initially claimed that Greywind gave up her newborn daughter, but she later admitted taking advantage of the woman to get the child, according to court documents. Crews told police she arranged to have Greywind come to her apartment and told her how to induce labor. Greywind came back two days later to give her the newborn baby, Crews said.

But Hoehn told police a different story, according to the documents. He said he came home on Aug. 19 to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom. Hoehn said Crews presented him with an infant girl and said: “This is our baby. This is our family.”

Hoehn told police he took garbage bags containing bloody shoes and his bloody towels and disposed them away from the apartment complex, according to the court documents. Hoehn is scheduled for trial in March.

Authorities have not said how the baby was delivered. The baby is now in the custody of her father, Ashton Matheny, who was Greywind’s boyfriend.

East Central District Judge Frank Racek on Monday asked Crews about letters she sent to the court complaining about a delay in receiving evidence. Crews told the judge that the issue was resolved.

“Cases like this we start with initial police reports, lab reports,” Mottinger said. “Things come in over a period of time. It’s a step by step by process.”

A new trial date has been set in the case of a North Hudson man charged in a fatal crash in Minnesota.

Judge Richard Ilka set a June 18 jury trial date for Drew T. Fleming during a brief hearing Dec. 1 in Washington County District Court.

Fleming, 21, is charged with reckless driving in connection with a Feb. 29, 2016, crash in West Lakeland Township, that left 22-year-old Hudson resident Megan Goeltz dead. Fleming, who prosecutors say was distracted by his phone at the time of the crash, pleaded not guilty to the gross misdemeanor charge in October.

The case was originally set for an October jury trial, but that was called off during negotiations.

An April 30 pretrial hearing was set in the case.

After a St. Paul woman was cut off at a Little Canada bar, she went home and grabbed her pink stun gun, authorities say.

Holding the device in one hand and pepper spray in the other, Tiffany Marie Churchill returned to the Hoggsbreath on Rice Street a short time later and began chasing the bar’s security guards, according to legal documents.

At some point during her pursuit, the 30-year-old woman tripped and fell, prompting security personnel to jump on top of her and detain her, court records say.

Churchill was charged via warrant Monday in Ramsey County District Court with unlawful use of a stun gun and fifth-degree assault for the Oct. 28 incident, according to the criminal complaint.

Churchill also is accused of biting a security guard during the altercation, which started after a bouncer cut Churchill off from more alcohol at the establishment because she seemed impaired, the complaint said.

She was allowed to stay at the bar but an X written on her hand prevented bartenders from serving her.

Irate, she left to get her stun gun and pepper-spray, authorities say.

No attorney was listed for her in court records, and she could not be reached for comment.

Churchill’s criminal history includes convictions for drunken driving, fourth-degree burglary, fourth-degree assault, first-degree criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.

She is scheduled to appear in court on the charges Jan. 9.

WAITE PARK, Minn. — Prosecutors have charged a St. Cloud man jailed in North Dakota with murder in a fatal shooting at an apartment in central Minnesota.

Twenty-year-old Desmond Ormandy Barzey was charged Monday in Stearns County with unintentional second-degree murder as well as assault and being a felon in possession of a handgun.

According to the complaint, Barzey entered an apartment in Waite Park on Saturday, pointed a handgun and ordered everyone to empty their pockets.

One man threw a shirt at Barzey and began moving toward him when Barzey allegedly shot him in the chest.

The victim was pronounced dead at a hospital. Barzey fled and was arrested after a police chase near Bismarck early Sunday.

Police recovered a handgun from the vehicle.

Barzey is being held in the Burleigh County Jail, awaiting extradition.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Facing voters at last after the year’s most bitter U.S. campaign, Alabama Republican Roy Moore cast himself Monday as the victim of a national barrage of unjust allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers. Rival Doug Jones, hoping to become the state’s first Democratic senator in two decades, declared their race was Alabama’s referendum on “who we are and what we’re going to tell our daughters.”

Allegations aside, President Donald Trump said in a robocall to Alabama voters that he badly needs Moore’s own vote in the U.S. Senate. Former President Barack Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, recorded calls for Jones seeking to break the GOP’s lock on statewide office in Alabama.

Whether the calls would sway anyone so late in such a highly publicized campaign was an open question. So was the impact of a rash of false news stories that have appeared on social media spreading misinformation.

One website wrongly claimed that one of the women who have accused Moore of sexual misconduct had recanted. Meanwhile, Moore’s detractors took to social media to claim he had written in a 2011 textbook that women shouldn’t hold elected office. He didn’t.

On election eve, Moore called in to a conservative talk radio show in Alabama to lament the tone of the campaign and portray cast himself as the victim of the sexual misconduct allegations.

“We’ve seen things happen in this campaign that I can’t believe to this day,” said Moore, who has denied all wrongdoing in contacts with the women who said he behaved inappropriately when they were in their teens and he was a local prosecutor in his 30s. One said he initiated sexual contact when she was 14.

“It’s just been hard, a hard campaign,” said Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who was twice removed from that post for violating judicial ethics.

Alabama has been a solidly Republican state for years, and Moore says he is much more in tune with the issues that matter to voters — and to the president.

Jones acknowledged Monday in Montgomery, “Look, I’m not going to be the senator that everybody in the state can agree with 100 percent of the time.” But he added, “They’ll know I’m somebody that will sit down with them. I will learn from them. … I will try to be the public servant I think a U.S. senator ought to be.”

Voters seemed as divided as ever, including young Alabamians, some going to the polls for the first time.

Lillian Woolf, 18, a University of Alabama freshman, said she was disgusted that some people would vote for Moore despite the allegations by multiple women.

“It creeps me out,” she said. “It shocks me just how much people are willing to ignore a person’s past just because of their political stance.”

But Joseph Chesnut, 20, a junior, said he will be voting for Moore, who “holds more Republican values … just his Christianity standpoint and his Second Amendment standpoint and just, you know, trying to fight the establishment up there.”

For Alabama Democrats, the special election is viewed as a chance to renounce a history littered with politicians whose race-baiting, bombast and other baggage have long soiled the state’s reputation.

Many Republicans see the vote as an opportunity to ratify their conservative views — referred to by Moore as “Alabama values” — and protect Trump’s agenda ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. But the sexual allegations have dented some of that support. Sen. Richard Shelby said “I think the Republican Party can do better,” and he wrote in another Republican’s name.

The two candidates have taken very different approaches to campaigning, with Jones holding events regularly and Moore popping up only occasionally in small churches, rallies or in interviews with friendly media.

In a morning stop at a diner in Birmingham, Jones accused Moore of disappearing during the campaign’s closing days and claimed the Republican wasn’t even in Alabama over the weekend.

“We’re making sure our message is getting across while Roy Moore hides behind whoever he’s hiding behind,” said Jones.

Moore has made only a few public appearances since women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct years ago.

Moore, the former judge, has spent two decades advocating conservative Christian positions. Jones is a former federal prosecutor best known for prosecuting two Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for killing four black girls in a 1963 church bombing.

The winner will take the seat held previously by Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Republicans control the Senate with 52 seats.

Democrats don’t hold a single statewide office in Alabama, and both houses of the Legislature are controlled by the GOP.

Two men charged in the May shooting death of a Minneapolis man in Fridley pleaded guilty on Monday.

Johnny Earl Edwards, 44, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder, while Bryston Markeis Hill-Turnipseed, 35, pleaded guilty to aiding an offender during the commission of second-degree murder, according to a news release issued by the Anoka County attorney’s office.

Edwards shot and killed 54-year-old James Chapman in the basement of a house in Fridely on May 27 after he and Hill-Turnipseed traveled there to buy marijuana from Chapman, according to charges filed in Anoka County District Court.

When the men are sentenced on Feb. 13, prosecutors will seek a prison term of between 23 and 30 years for Edwards and a term of nearly 12 years for Hill-Turnipseed, the news release said.

“We feel, after lengthy discussions with the victim’s family, that this is a just resolution to the case,” Anoka County Attorney Tony Palumbo said in the news release.

Edwards and Hill-Turnipseed were identified by the owner of the home where the shooting took place and were arrested in Minneapolis a short time later, the charges said.

SILVER BAY, Minn. — A Hibbing truck driver accused of criminal vehicular homicide in a crash that killed the Silver Bay mayor’s son two years ago pleaded guilty Monday in Lake County District Court.

John Ray Carpenter, 61, entered a plea of guilty to operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner, avoiding a trial. Carpenter admitted in court to causing the crash that killed 31-year-old Andrew Johnson.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Carpenter faces three years in prison, but the defense can argue for probation with a stayed sentence. Judge Eric Hylden scheduled sentencing for Feb. 5 at 9 a.m in Two Harbors.

Special Assistant Lake County Attorney Lisa Hanson said the victim’s family was in agreement with the plea offer.

Johnson was killed when his pickup truck was struck head-on by Carpenter’s tanker truck on Oct. 22, 2015, according to authorities. Carpenter, the owner and operator of a septic pumping and portable toilet business, allegedly told law enforcement officers at the scene that he “blacked out” or “dozed off” before striking the oncoming motorist.

Witnesses reportedly told police that Carpenter’s truck was driving erratically before the crash, swerving onto the shoulder and across the centerline.

Carpenter also allegedly told authorities at the crash scene that “he has spells every once in a while that cause him to think his eyes are open when they are not,” a criminal complaint stated.

Carpenter is also facing a civil lawsuit filed by Johnson’s family.

Maplewood police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a city park on Tuesday morning.

Officers were dispatched to Battle Creek Park about 8:30 a.m. after a passerby reported finding a body, a Maplewood Police Department spokesman said. Upon arrival, they “located an adult male deceased in the park,” according to a post on the department’s Twitter account.

On December 12, 2017 at about 8:30 am Maplewood Police Officers were dispatched to Battle Creek park. On arrival, officers located an adult male deceased in the park. The circumstances surrounding this death are being investigated by the Maplewood Police Dept. and the MN BCA.

— Maplewood Police MN (@MaplewoodPolice) December 13, 2017

The circumstances surrounding the death remain under investigation, according to the tweet.

“At this time there does not appear to be any danger to the public,” the department said in a follow-up Twitter post.

Death investigation continued. At this time there does not appear to be any danger to the public. Further information will be released once the autopsy is completed by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner.

— Maplewood Police MN (@MaplewoodPolice) December 13, 2017

Further information is to be released after the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office conducts an autopsy.

A jury found that a St. Paul woman who stabbed her roommate’s boyfriend days after telling police she was God acted in defense of her home.

After more than a day and a half of deliberations, members of the Ramsey County District Court jury determined Thursday that Maxim Kenneth Rhone was not guilty of the two counts of second-degree murder that had been facing the 26-year-old in the 2016 homicide of Gerald “Jay” Montantes.

Family members of 29-year-old Montantes stormed out of the courtroom immediately after the verdicts were read and could be heard yelling and swearing in a courthouse hallway before leaving the building.

By contrast, Rhone turned and smiled at her father, who blew her a kiss from his front-row seat in the gallery. Rhone then turned to hug her attorney, public defender Connie Iversen.

Rhone, who is transgender and previously identified as a man, was arrested after stabbing Montantes while the two were inside Rhone’s St. Paul apartment Sept. 24, 2016.

Montantes collapsed on the grass outside the building and died shortly after.

The state argued at trial that Rhone was “annoyed, tired and impatient,” with Montantes’ after he came into her apartment uninvited late that night, prompting Rhone to unnecessarily grab a knife and shove it six inches into Montantes’ side.

Montantes had returned to the residence to retrieve a phone left behind after he and his girlfriend were kicked out days earlier, according to Assistant Ramsey County attorneys Ayodele Famodu and Clayton Robinson.

Iversen disputed the state’s narrative and said Rhone was defending herself and her home when she stabbed Montantes, who she said had broken in with the intent of “ransack(ing)” the place that night.

She added that Montantes had been aggressive toward Rhone in the past, adding to her fear the night of the stabbing.

She grabbed a knife only after Montantes’ refused to comply with Rhone’s repeated requests to leave her home, Iverson argued.

While the verdict means Rhone will be released from police custody, she will remain civilly committed for the foreseeable future at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter as her mental health continues to be monitored and treated, according to her father, Patrick Rhone.

Rhone told police days before Montantes’ fatal stabbing that she was God and that a man inside her apartment was raping and stabbing babies.

Court records indicate she struggles with schizoaffective disorder and was deemed mentally ill and dangerous in May.

Her mental health caused the state to delay her criminal proceedings after she was initially found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Iverson said after the verdict that she was pleased that the jury understood Rhone’s right to defend her home that night.

“I’m very happy… Ms. Rhone is very happy,” Iverson said. “She will remain under civil commitment where she will continue to work to get well.”

Patrick Rhone, who had previously been estranged from his daughter, echoed those comments.

“I’m glad my daughter can go back to where she was receiving the help she desperately needs to be a functioning member of society,” he said.

He added that she is working hard to restore her mental health after years of struggling with violent outbursts and other troubling behaviors.

He also offered his condolences to Montantes’ family.

“It is incredibly unfortunate that Jay lost his life,” Patrick Rhone said of Montantes. “No one but (Rhone and Montantes) will really know what happened that night. … I have an incredible amount of compassion and empathy for his family and for their loss. It’s senseless.”

The county attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the verdict.

A civil trial to determine the future of Rhone’s civil commitment is expected to take place early next month.

Montantes was a father and a tattoo artist. Someone wrote on his Facebook wall in the months after his death, “Every day you are missed Jay. You will never be forgotten.”

JAMESTOWN, N.D. — A traffic stop described as routine resulted in more than 198 pounds of marijuana being seized this week on Interstate 94 in North Dakota, according to the Stutsman County sheriff’s office.

Sgt. Matt Thom was on patrol on eastbound I-94 about 9:30 a.m. Monday when he saw a Dodge Grand Caravan with Minnesota license plates fail to signal a lane change about 9 miles east of Jamestown, according to court documents. He had the minivan pull over.

The driver, Mae Thao, 31, of St. Paul, and her passenger, Xang Thao, 30, of Redding, Calif., were extremely nervous, Thom said, and when he asked them individually about their travel plans, their stories were not the same. Thom said when he looked in the rear passenger compartment of the minivan he saw the entire floor was covered with blankets, and he noticed the odor of raw marijuana.

After a search warrant was obtained for the vehicle, $4,937 in cash was found in the van as well as 198.58 pounds of marijuana. Court documents state the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation and the St. Paul Police Department are also involved in this case.

Mae Thao and Xang Thao were charged in Southeast District Court in Jamestown on Tuesday with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver marijuana, a Class A felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor. Each has a $500,000 bond. Both were held in the Stutsman County Correctional Center.

Chad Kaiser, Stutsman County sheriff, said this illegal drug seizure was probably the biggest in the sheriff’s office’s history.

“It’s the biggest since I’ve been with the department, that’s for sure,” he said.

Kaiser said it is no secret illegal drugs can be found in large quantities traveling on I-94.

“The problem is those drugs may pass through here, but eventually they find their way back here,” he said.

After a man confessed to Dorothy Noga that he had kidnapped and murdered a 6-year-old girl in St. Paul, he threatened that he was going to cut her throat.

Then, the man showed up at her work and “pushed his face into my face and said, ‘Take a look because it’s going to be your last (look).’ … He said, ‘I’ll show you what (Cassie Hansen) went through,’” said Noga, recalling how Stuart Knowlton tried to smother her and then stabbed her 32 times.

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell honored Noga and three retired St. Paul police officers on Wednesday, the 36th anniversary of the day that Noga was attacked.

Noga had been face-to-face with Knowlton, whom Axtell described as a sexual predator who abducted Cassie Hansen from Jehovah Evangelical Lutheran Church at Thomas and Snelling avenues on Nov. 10, 1981. Cassie’s body was found the following day in a trash dumpster near Grand Avenue.

Then, after Knowlton confessed to Noga over the phone on two occasions, he went to her work on Dec. 13, 1981. Among many stab wounds, Knowlton severed her carotid artery and her jugular vein.

“(The blood) just poured like a faucet, like a garden hose,” Noga said, adding she knew if she didn’t pretend she was dead, Knowlton would not leave. “I prayed … ‘Please help me, God’ and just like that, two seconds later, … they said, ‘The cops are there.’”

Pat Scott, then a young patrol officer, was on a coffee break at the Flameburger on Minnehaha Avenue and Milton Street — which Axtell described as about 125 feet from the massage parlor where Noga worked and was attacked.

Scott had returned to his squad car and was a couple of blocks away when he heard a dispatch about a stabbing and quickly responded. He was the first officer to arrive and he grabbed the nearest towel, applying pressure to what appeared to be the most serious wound on her neck. Noga said she remembers Scott telling her, “Hang on.”

Afterward, Scott found his uniform pants soaked with blood from his thighs to his boots. Paramedics reported that Scott’s actions saved Noga’s life, according to the commendation he received from Axtell on Wednesday.

Noga went on to be a key witness in Knowlton’s trial and he was convicted of Cassie’s murder. Knowlton died in prison of natural causes.

RECOGNITION ‘DECADES OVERDUE’

After Cassie’s murder, 23 members of the police department’s sex-homicide unit were recognized with a unit citation from the police department, which Axtell said they certainly deserved.

“The 18-month investigation was grueling,” he said, describing how they interviewed 633 potential witnesses and looked into 107 potential suspects.

But Axtell said there were several other people who “contributed significantly to this investigation.”

“The St. Paul Police Department is decades overdue in recognizing these true heroes, but today, as we always do … we make it right and we’re making it right today,” Axtell said.

The police chief presented Noga, Scott, retired Sgt. Rick Klein and retired officer Jim Groh with the Chief’s Award for Merit on Wednesday.

Members of Cassie’s family attended the ceremony, including two of Cassie’s sisters who were born after she was killed. Cassie also had a sister who was 4-years-old at the time of her murder.

“It’s surreal, it’s amazing to meet the people that helped our family and our parents get closure,” said Brittany Koller, 32, one of Cassie’s sisters. Her parents live out of state now.

Noga, 68, traveled from her home in Florida to be at Wednesday’s ceremony.

‘FEELING OF DOOM’

When Klein and Groh responded to the report about a missing child on Nov. 10, 1981, it didn’t initially seem too unusual. Most reports of missing children turn out to be a kid who wandered away and is quickly found.

But when they searched the church, it became clear that Cassie wasn’t there and her jacket had been left behind on a cold night, Klein recalled.

“I just had this overwhelming feeling of doom,” Klein said. Cassie’s body was found the following day.

Both Groh and Klein, then patrol officers, “tirelessly” worked on the case, Axtell said Wednesday.

“They

beat the bushes, they shook the trees and they developed information,” he said. ” … Through their contacts on the street, they developed a strong lead about the suspect — a cabdriver by the name of Stuart Knowlton. This tip and a very important informant (Noga) was turned over to the homicide unit for follow-up by these case investigators.”

Noga said she had just met Knowlton at her work, and she told police she was going to call him to try to get information. She said he confessed to her twice.

But “Knowlton became suspicious of Dorothy’s many questions as she was trying to solve this tragic homicide,” Axtell said and he attacked her in attempt to silence her.

The city approved a $50,000 settlement to Noga in 1991, acknowledging that the police department knew she was trying to get information from Knowlton, but did not provide adequate protection of her on the night she was attacked.

NEVER FORGETTING CASSIE

What happened to Cassie is never far from the minds of her family, the officers, Noga and others in the community.

“I remember every Nov. 10,” said Klein, who stopped at the church last month on the anniversary of Cassie’s abduction and who still keeps a photo of the smiling girl. “I thought, ‘This is where he carried her out the door and just how callous can you to be to grab a 6-year-old?”

The three officers honored, along with Noga, each had children who were close in age to Cassie at the time she was killed.

“That’s why I did this — because I was a mom, you know?,” Noga said of wanting to get justice for Cassie’s family and a predator off the streets.

While Scott told the people gathered on Wednesday that he was humbled and honored to get the award, he added: “The simple fact of the matter is, none of us should be here today. The only reason we should have ever heard of Cassie Hansen would be if she had gone on to do something great in her life.

“She is the same age as my oldest daughter, and life was never the same for that generation of kids in this city,” Scott continued. “It shook us to our core and a monster who walked among us, impersonating a human being, took her from her family and took her from all of us.”

An Elk River man is in critical condition after being shot in Ham Lake on Wednesday night, officials say.

Anoka County sheriff’s deputies responded about 7:20 p.m. to the parking lot of a SuperAmerica on Constance Boulevard after receiving a report of a road rage incident that ended in a shooting, according to a news release issued by the sheriff’s office.

The 21-year-old victim, who was a passenger in a pickup truck, was transported to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids with a gunshot wound to his chest, the news release said. After undergoing surgery, he was listed in critical condition late Wednesday night.

The pickup’s other occupants — a 31-year-old Ham Lake man and a 20-year-old Zimmerman man — told authorities they were traveling north on Minnesota 65, when the victim shouted at the driver of another vehicle and was shot, according to a KMSP-TV report.

But investigators now believe this account was fabricated and that no road rage incident took place, the sheriff’s office news release said. They continue to interview the two men and are seeking a warrant to search the pickup.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting remained unclear late Wednesday, according to the news release. The victim’s identity has not yet been released.

A Minnetonka man faces criminal charges after stealing a Taser, handcuffs, ammunition and other law enforcement equipment from a Metro Transit police department in St. Paul, authorities say.

Demario Dontae-Eugene Brown, 25, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of second-degree burglary of a government building in the alleged theft this month, according to a criminal complaint.

Police discovered the stolen goods while arresting Brown on Dec. 4 at a Walmart in St. Paul’s Midway area on suspicion of shoplifting.

During a search of his belongings, the Taser was found in his pocket, the complaint said. The handcuffs, three rounds of ammunition, pepper spray and a Metro Transit employee photo ID badge were reportedly found inside his backpack.

Investigators learned that the items were stolen from the Metro Transit Police Department East Command Office at 677 Transfer Road during the early morning of Dec. 2 after the station’s surveillance video showed footage of Brown inside the building, authorities say.

The stolen items are stored in an area off limits to the public, the complaint said.

The charging document did not say how Brown might have gained access to the premises.

Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said that remains under investigation.

Brown was “uncooperative” during the booking process and wouldn’t give an interview to investigators, the complaint said.

His attorney, public defender Edith Brown, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brown has been civilly committed for mental illness at least four times since 2012.

In court records for his civil commitment in 2012, Brown was listed as schizophrenic and was said to have been engaging in “grossly disturbing behavior” and exhibiting “faulty perception” that put him at risk of causing physical harm.

He has been cited nine times for unlawful conduct since September, with all of those cases pending. Most involve traffic violations, along with arrests for theft, third-degree assault and fleeing a police officer.

Four criminal charges filed against him in 2014 were dismissed because of mental deficiency, court records say.

The Minnetonka address listed for Brown in his most recent criminal complaint houses a state-run adult foster care program.

A mental health evaluation has been ordered in his most recent case.

His next hearing in that matter will be in February.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department reduced the psychological tests it gives to new recruits from five to one as it relied in recent years on a psychiatrist with no experience in law enforcement psychology, according to a report broadcast Thursday.

The department’s recruiting and training practices have been questioned since an officer killed an unarmed 911 caller when she approached his squad car in the alley behind her home this summer. Officer Mohamed Noor has refused to say publicly why he shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, and the county attorney is still deciding whether to charge him. The fallout led to the resignation of then-police Chief Janee Harteau.

There is no way to know whether Noor’s psychological makeup played a role his decision to pull the trigger, or whether any screening could have detected such an inclination, according to APM Reports, an investigative unit of Minnesota Public Radio. But the protocol used with Noor and 200 other new officers during the past five years is less extensive than in comparable cities and other Minnesota agencies. It’s also less rigorous than national best practices.

Starting in 2012, Minneapolis eliminated four of the five psychological tests it was using, even though a Justice Department study found that some of the tests had been effective. And over the past 15 years, APM Reports found, Minneapolis has fired some of the most qualified police psychologists in Minnesota, then turned to a succession of mental health professionals with little or no experience in the specialty.

For the past five years Minneapolis has relied on Dr. Thomas Gratzer, a psychiatrist who cut the tests from five to one. His resume shows no experience in law enforcement psychology.

New Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told APM Reports he had no concerns about any officers Gratzer approved. Going forward, though, he said the city will follow state regulations requiring a licensed psychologist to give officers the green light.

Minneapolis is in the process of replacing Gratzer. Officials including Harteau said they decided to replace Gratzer because he screened out a large percentage of minority applicants.

Gratzer did not respond to four interview requests by APM Reports.

Like most states, Minnesota allows local departments to decide their own screening protocols. By contrast, California has created a 200-page manual widely regarded as a set of best practices. It calls for at least two tests, one to weed out unstable candidates, the other to identify applicants who would be a good fit.

Minneapolis has offered the job to Jan Tyson Roberts, a licensed psychologist who acknowledges she has never screened aspiring police officers. She hasn’t decided what tests she’ll administer, but said there will be more than one.

“It’s never a good idea to only use one test,” she said. “You always want to use collateral information when you’re making a decision as important as that.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said he doesn’t yet have enough evidence to charge a Minneapolis police officer who killed an unarmed Australian woman this summer, blaming investigators who “haven’t done their job.”

Freeman is still deciding whether to charge officer Mohamed Noor, who shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond in the alley behind her home in July. Damond had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault. As she approached the squad car, Noor fired from the passenger seat, across his partner and through the driver’s window.

Damond’s death in Southwest Minneapolis’ Fulton neighborhood sparked protests and led to a police department shake-up, including the resignation of Chief Janee Harteau.

Freeman was captured on video expressing his frustration at a Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation holiday reception Wednesday night, after he was asked about a charging decision. Union member Sam Sanchez recorded the conversation and posted it on Facebook. It wasn’t clear if Freeman knew he was being recorded.

In the video, Freeman said he doesn’t have enough evidence yet to decide whether to charge Noor, who has declined to speak with investigators.

“I’ve got to have the evidence. And I don’t have it yet. And let me just say, it’s not my fault,” Freeman said. “So if it isn’t my fault, who didn’t do their jobs? Investigators, and they don’t work for me. And they haven’t done their job.”

“The BCA conducts the majority of officer-involved shooting investigations in Minnesota, and the collaboration between prosecutors and investigators as a case file is reviewed under the statutes is a typical part of the review process,” the BCA statement said. “State law prohibits us from providing additional details, because it is an active investigation.”

Freeman had previously said he expected to make a charging decision by the end of the year. His office acknowledged the video Thursday and did not dispute its authenticity.

“We are working diligently on the case to complete the investigation as soon as possible,” the statement said. “Beyond that, we cannot comment at this time.”

Freeman indicated that Noor’s refusal to speak had put prosecutors in a difficult position.

“I have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, (that) the moment he shot the gun, he feared for his life. And he used force because he thought he was gonna be killed,” Freeman said. “But I can’t. He won’t answer my questions because he doesn’t have to, OK? We all have Fifth Amendment rights, and I respect that. So I can’t talk to her because she’s gone, and the other cop just gave us some (expletive), OK? So guess what? I gotta figure out angles of the shot, gun residues, reckless-use-of-force experts.”

Freeman didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Associated Press for an interview. In an email to the Star Tribune, Freeman declined to respond to questions about how investigators have failed to do their job.

“Good questions and I respect you asking them,” Freeman wrote in the email. “We are working very hard to complete our review of the facts provided in the investigation to date and to assist in helping to complete the investigation.”

Sanchez is also an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, which was formed after the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark by a Minneapolis police officer in 2015. Freeman decided not to charge the officers involved in that case.

Sanchez told Minnesota Public Radio that he was surprised by Freeman’s honesty but disheartened that he hasn’t yet made a decision.

Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett, who represents Damond’s relatives in Australia, told MPR he was concerned but not surprised by Freeman’s comments

“I hope that the BCA hasn’t so irretrievably damaged the evidence, or failed to recover evidence that should be reasonably expected to be recovered at the time that the crime occurred,” Bennett said. “And I use the term ‘crime’ pointedly and intentionally.”

Noor’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, told MPR that he was concerned by Freeman’s remark that having enough evidence to make a charging decision would be “the big present I’d like to see under the Christmas tree.” He also said the job of investigators is to gather evidence, not create it.

“No lawyer wants their client placed under a Christmas tree as a present to a vocal segment of the community. That said, this case is about an officer that follows procedure and training,” Plunkett said. “This led to the death of a very fine person, which is a horrible tragedy, but not a crime.”

Two men and a teenage girl have been arrested for their involvement in the shooting of a 21-year-old Elk River man in Ham Lake on Wednesday night.

Adam Clippard, 31, of Ham Lake and Zachary Hintz, 20, of Zimmerman are in custody at the Anoka County Jail. The 16-year-old girl was taken to the Lino Lakes Juvenile Detention Center.

Cmdr. Paul Sommer, of the Anoka County sheriff’s office, said the three were arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting a second-degree assault, but have yet to be formally charged.

Sheriff’s deputies responded about 7:20 p.m. Wednesday to the parking lot of a SuperAmerica store on Constance Boulevard after receiving a report of a road rage incident on Minnesota 65 that ended in a shooting. Investigators subsequently ruled out road rage as a factor.

Police are not yet releasing the identity of the 21-year-old victim, who was transported to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids with a gunshot wound to his chest. After undergoing surgery, he was listed in stable condition Thursday, police said.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting remained unclear. The Anoka County attorney’s office is reviewing the preliminary investigation to determine the charges.

Police are asking anyone who may have information about the incident to call the sheriff’s office at 763-427-1212.