WAITE PARK, Minn. — Rocori Superintendent Scott Staska has reportedly publicly exposed himself 16 times — most frequently at gas stations — since November, according to Waite Park Police Chief Dave Bentrud.

Staska, who is a former principal at Barnesville, Minn., and was one of six finalists for the superintendent’s job at Moorhead (Minn.) Area Public Schools, was arrested by Waite Park police last week after he was accused of exposing himself to employees at a Waite Park gas station at least five times since December, and as recently as March 18, Bentrud announced last week.

The Rocori school includes the towns of Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond in central Minnesota near St. Cloud.

Since the initial news release March 22, St. Cloud and Waite Park police have determined several additional incidents of indecent exposure by Staska, Bentrud announced in a news release this week.

All of the new cases have the “same or very similar circumstances,” the release stated.

“He’s in the store, unzips his fly, pulls it out and exposes himself and walks around that way,” Bentrud said. “That’s what his M.O. was in 16 different (incidents).”

The cases being investigated include at Kwik Trips in Waite Park and St. Cloud, SuperAmerica in Waite Park and at two stores in a St. Cloud mall.

Bentrud said a few of the clerks at the stores were 17 years old, but none were younger than 16, which could raise the level of offense from misdemeanor to gross misdemeanor.

“It wasn’t like he was targeting younger workers or anything like that,” Bentrud said. “It didn’t really matter — male, female, young, old — it didn’t matter.”

Staska, who was named the state’s top superintendent of schools in 2010, could face several misdemeanor counts. The cases will be sent to Waite Park and St. Cloud city attorneys, who will coordinate prosecution of the incidents.

Bentrud said the police department is not actively looking for more incidents involving Staska, but said more incidents might be reported.

“There’s just multiple counts of a misdemeanor crime because there’s no other threats. There’s no other coercion. Just the exposing,” Bentrud said. “There’s no extenuating …  circumstances to what he was doing.”

“We’ve established that there’s a pattern here,” Bentrud said. “I think the judge will, I’m sure, take that into consideration when it comes to any sentencing, fines or probation.”

Staska is on paid administrative leave. The Rocori school board unanimously approved Monday working with Minnesota School Boards Association to find candidates willing to step in as acting superintendent. The board is planning to meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to consider acting superintendent candidates.

Staska, 56, of Cold Spring has been superintendent at Rocori since 2002. His contract goes through June 30, 2020.

Staska has not had any formal complaints filed against him since he started his tenure as superintendent at Rocori, according to Rocori school board chair Kara Habben.

On March 19, Staska was named one of six finalists for the Moorhead Area Public Schools superintendent. A Moorhead district spokesperson said Staska removed himself from consideration last week before the candidates were interviewed.

Staska came to Rocori from Yellow Medicine East school district in Granite Falls and before that was principal in Barnesville.

In 2010, Staska was named the state’s top superintendent by the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. He was credited for his leadership as the school district went through crises, including a school shooting in 2003 that killed two students.

A guard at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater was assaulted by a prisoner Thursday morning, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.

The attack is the latest on staff at a Minnesota prison recently. As many as 10 employees were injured in attacks this past week at the nearby Oak Park Heights prison.

Few details were available Thursday on the Stillwater incident.

“The Lieutenant walked out of the facility on his own and received medical attention for non-life threating injuries. He was not admitted to the hospital. The details of the incident are under investigation, and I cannot provide any more information at this time,” said Sarah Fitzgerald, spokesperson for the DOC.

Stillwater is a level-4 close-custody facility housing 1,589 offenders. The DOC’s commissioner, Tom Roy, issued a statement about the incident on Thursday.

“The Minnesota Department of Corrections’ top priority is ensuring the safety of our dedicated staff, corrections officers and those in the Department’s care. Offender violence inside a prison is simply not acceptable. Anytime a corrections officer is injured we aggressively investigate and seek prosecution. Many offenders have serious mental health and chemical dependency issues that stay with them once they are inside the facility. Our efforts in treating these conditions makes for a safer work environment for staff and helps more offenders return to the community healthier and less likely to reengage in criminal conduct.”

Five staff members at the nearby Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights were injured in a melee last Friday involving an unknown number of inmates, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.

The staffers were treated and released the same day, Fitzgerald said.

Two days later, another five staff members at the same prison were injured during a confrontation with a single prisoner, according to prison officials.

All 10 employees were taken to an area hospital to be treated for their injuries and were released. One inmate was also injured in the incident last Friday. He was taken to a hospital and treated and released.

A St. Paul woman is accused of relentlessly harassing her neighbor, at times going so far as to yell racial slurs at the woman’s visitors and attaching a sex toy to her fence, authorities say.

Roberta Ann Madison, 63, was charged via warrant with two counts of gross-misdemeanor level stalking, as well as three counts of violating a restraining order her neighbor took out against her, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

She also faces charges of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct for her alleged harassment of her neighbor, which reportedly took place over a six-month period between August of 2017 and February of this year.

Madison said Friday afternoon that the charges are baseless.

“They can file all the fake charges they want. They still have to prove something happened and that’s going to be impossible because nothing did,” Madison said. “This has all been played out to make me look bad.”

The dispute started about a year after the neighbor purchased a home near Madison’s residence on the 800 block of Howell Street in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood, authorities say.

Last August, Madison started calling 911 to report that “suspicious” people of a “different race” were coming and going out of her neighbor’s home and suggested that her neighbor might be running a “sex operation,” the complaint said.

She also yelled racial slurs at the visitors and threatened to have them deported, according to legal documents.

The visitors were reportedly houseguests of the neighbor at the time.

The following month, Madison threw debris in the woman’s yard when she had a bonfire and repeatedly set off her own car alarm to compel the woman and her guests to retreat indoors on other occasions, the complaint said.

Some time later, Madison affixed a sex toy to the neighbor’s fence, according to the complaint.

The harassment, described by authorities as “relentless,” led the woman to get a restraining order against Madison last November, the complaint said.

The court denied Madison’s own attempt to secure a restraining order against the neighbor, dismissing her petition due to “lack of proof,” according to legal documents.

The harassment continued undeterred, making life for Madison’s neighbor “unbearable,” authorities say.

On two instances after the restraining order was in place, for example, Madison allegedly exposed herself and made obscene gestures toward surveillance cameras her neighbor had installed and routinely piled snow at the end of her driveway, the complaint said.

Two other neighbors in the area and one of the woman’s friends corroborated the accounts of harassment to investigators, legal documents say.

The neighbors reported that Madison had also harassed the previous homeowner.

Madison, who has lived in her home for nearly 30 years, said Friday that she has secured a retraining order against the woman and accused her neighbor of unlawful invasion of privacy.

She said the woman’s security cameras point in to her backyard, which is a private space. She added that she suffers from incontinence and hip problems, preventing her from sometimes making it upstairs to her second-floor bathroom. In those instances, she uses her backyard instead, Madison said.

She characterized all of the woman’s allegations against her as lies, and said she only once called the police when she saw someone inside her neighbor’s home late at night that wasn’t her.

Madison’s record includes one conviction for disorderly conduct in 2010.

Police are investigating a Friday morning shooting in St. Paul that left a man wounded.

Officers were called about a shooting in the North End at 8:30 a.m. and found evidence of shots fired in the area of West Arlington Avenue and Rice Street. But police didn’t find an injured person or suspect, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

A short time later, a man who was shot in his upper body arrived at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood. His injuries are not considered life-threatening, Ernster said.

A vehicle leaving the scene struck a parked vehicle and another parked vehicle had a window shot out, according to preliminary emergency radio traffic posted by Minnesota PoliceClips.

The details of the shooting are under investigation and there have been no arrests, Ernster said.

Diamond Reynolds was found not guilty of the most serious charges in an assault case that involving allegations she attacked another woman with a hammer last February.

A Ramsey County District jury found Reynolds not guilty of the two felony-level charges filed against her in the case.

Jurors did find her guilty of fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

Reynolds’ attorneys, Michael Padden and Karlowba Adams Powell, asked the court to add the lesser charge for the jury’s consideration at the start of Reynolds’ trial to help ensure she avoided a felony conviction.

While Reynolds left the courtroom crying, her attorneys characterized the verdict as a win.

“It could have been worse. It could have been a felony,” Adams Powell said.

Padden said Reynolds was upset with being found guilty of anything.

“But as her attorneys, we are very happy with this,” he said. “The state was trying to convict her of assault with a dangerous weapon and obviously the jury didn’t find that a dangerous weapon was used.”

The prosecutor on the case, Assistant Washington County Attorney Siv Yurichuk, declined to comment on the verdict as she exited the courtroom Friday afternoon.

Reynolds, 28, came into the public eye in July of 2016 after her boyfriend, Philando Castile, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights by a St. Anthony police officer. Officer Jeronimo Yanez was subsequently charged with manslaughter but acquitted by a jury last summer.

Reynolds and two other women were charged with second and third-degree assault last winter for allegedly attacking a woman that had been feuding with a friend of Reynolds in an unrelated incident that broke out outside a townhome on Jessamine Avenue the morning of Feb. 28, 2017.

Reynolds maintains that she had nothing to do with the altercation and that she was mistakenly identified as one of the attackers.

The victim, Jacinda Dunlap, testified at trial that Reynolds and Chnika Blair jumped out of their car soon after she parked outside her residence Feb. 28, 2017 and assaulted her.

She said they began kicking her and pulling her hair before Reynolds pulled out a hammer and started repeatedly beating her over the head with it.

Then a third woman, Dyamond Richardson, pulled up in another car and sprayed mace at her before all three of them took off, according to Dunlap’s testimony.

Both Richardson and Blair, who also were charged with assault in the case, testified that Reynolds had been involved in the altercation.

The state also presented photographs of a cut to the head that Dunlap sustained during the incident and said the young woman briefly lost consciousness following the assault, which constitutes substantial bodily harm, one of the elements needed to prove third-degree assault.

Reynolds’ attorneys argued that Dunlap’s injuries were neither substantial nor consistent with a hammer and called a medical expert to testify who told the jury that the victim’s claim to the contrary was highly suspect.

It was much more likely that the one centimeter cut to Dunlap’s head was caused by Blair’s fingernail when Blair pulled out Dunlap’s weave, Padden told jurors.

The defense relied on cell phone data that placed Reynolds south of downtown St. Paul — miles away from the crime scene — shortly after the assault.

They also attempted to poke holes in the victim’s credibility.

Both Richardson and Blair pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in their cases.

Reynolds did not testify during the trial.

Her attorneys will argue she be placed on probation and avoid jail time when she is sentenced in late May, Padden said.

The Washington County sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help in identifying two men who they believe stole credit cards and used them to buy more than $21,000 in Target gift cards.

Police were notified March 23 that two Washington County residents had their credit cards stolen out of their cars. Shortly after noon, calls came in from Target stores in Oakdale, Stillwater and North St. Paul reporting that those stolen credit cards were used to buy $21,839 in Target gift cards.

Cmdr. Andrew Ellickson said the two men would enter the self-checkout area. One would distract the store employee manning the area, while the other used the stolen credit cards to buy gift cards.

Police believe the men may be driving an older Dodge Journey that appears gray in color with Michigan plates

The department has had no leads thus far and is hoping surveillance images will help re-ignite the case.

Police do not know if this duo is local or from out of state or if the theft is limited to the three stores.

Anyone with information should call the tipline at 651-430-7850.

A single-car crash Friday injured five and disrupted light rail service in St. Paul for several hours.

A Honda CRV was traveling east on University Avenue shortly after 4:30 p.m. when the driver lost control of the car near the Chatsworth intersection, swerved, struck a pole on the light-rail line and landed between the tracks, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, public information officer for the St. Paul Police Department.

All five adults in the car were injured, three critically. The driver had minor injuries. The three with critical injuries were transported to Regions Hospital and the fifth passenger was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center and is listed in stable condition.

Ernster said alcohol was a factor in the accident.

No names have been released. Investigators were on the scene Friday evening speaking to witnesses and reconstructing the accident.

Service for the Green Line between the Western and Fairview stations was still off-line as of 7 p.m. Friday. Replacement bus service was called in to get passengers to their destinations. Metro Transit also urged customers to utilize the Route 16 bus for service along University Avenue until the Green Line service resumes.

For 54 years, an Officer Winger has worked for the St. Paul police department.

That ended Friday as Senior Cmdr. Jeff Winger retired after 30 years as an officer. His father had led the way, becoming a St. Paul officer in 1964, and his two uncles followed suit.

“The Winger family has given more than a half century of public service to the people of St. Paul,” said Police Chief Todd Axtell. “Karsten ‘Rocky’, Don, Larry and Karsten ‘Jeff’ all served with distinction and honor, quietly doing whatever was necessary to keep the city safe.”

While Karsten Winger — who goes by Jeff — learned from his dad and uncles, he also carved his own path. He says one of the best days on the job was when he saved a baby’s life 12 years ago. He’s still in touch with her and her family.

He prefers not to talk about the tragedy and peril he faced along the way.

Winger grew up on St. Paul’s East Side, where he was friends with Ron Ryan Jr., another son of a St. Paul police officer who went on to become a cop. Ryan Jr. was fatally shot in 1994 on the same day that Officer Tim Jones was killed.

And 20 years later, when officers were searching for the killer of Mendota Heights Officer Scott Patrick, the suspect fired on Jeff Winger and other officers. They arrested Brian Fitch, who is now in prison.

“Those days of tragedies are the ones that stand out for all the wrong reasons, but every once in a while you have a chance to make a difference in a life and those are the good days,” said Don Winger, Jeff’s uncle.

AFTER HE SAVED THE BABY, HE WOULDN’T LEAVE HER SIDE

Jeff Winger always wanted to stay out of the limelight, though police chiefs recognized him throughout his career, including with medals of valor, merit and commendation. One of the medals was for saving the baby in 2006.

Katie Dadasheva still gets emotional when she tells the story of what happened to her daughter.

On a May morning, she found one of her two-month-old triplets, Kara Windish, unresponsive in her crib. She was hysterical when she called 911.

Winger, then a patrol sergeant on the East Side, said he happened to be within a block of the home when he heard the call dispatched.

“As a parent, you rush to those calls as fast as you can and give as much help as possible,” Winger said this week. He revived Kara using CPR and paramedics took her to the hospital.

As Dadasheva arranged child care for her other kids, Winger told her he had to go make sure Kara was OK and that the next arriving officer would bring her to the hospital.

“When I got there, Jeff was standing in the room with my daughter, watching over her,” Dadasheva said. “The staff said he’d been right there by her side every minute from the time he arrived until I could get there. He just came over and gave me a big hug.”

The triplets were born prematurely and Kara was especially tiny, with weak lungs. Now, she and her sisters are healthy at 12 years old.

“Kara is tall and intelligent and spunky and she has this great personality and she’s kind and loving,” Dadasheva said. “And I don’t know that things would have been the same for her had Jeff had not appeared when he did. … They said it was matter of another minute or two, and things could have been very different.”

When Kara was younger, she referred to Winger as “my police officer.” She invited Winger to her 10th birthday party and he couldn’t make it because he was out of town, but he and his family brought the girl a gift back from Disney World.

Dadasheva still sends pictures of Kara and updates to Winger, and they stopped by his retirement party this week. They had just learned he was retiring — “he’s very modest, very humble” — and had not mentioned it, Dadasheva said.

FROM EAST SIDE ROOTS TO POLICE SERVICE

The Winger family is among others who have generations serving in the St. Paul police department. There have been fathers and mothers with sons or daughters who were officers, brothers, and husbands and wives.

The three Winger brothers grew up on the East Side, raised by a single mother. They all went to Harding High School and two of them enlisted in military service.

After Karsten “Rocky” Winger joined the police department, next up was Larry Winger. He served from 1968 until 1999. Don Winger became a St. Paul officer in 1972 and left in 1998 to become Maplewood’s police chief. He’s now St. Mary’s University of Minnesota program director of the police science program.

Jeff Winger started as a St. Paul officer in 1988.

“Growing up around it, I always knew I wanted to be an officer,” he said.

All the Wingers rose to the rank of senior commander or the equivalent in today’s system.

Younger people in the family, including Jeff Winger’s two children, haven’t shown an interest in law enforcement. But he and his uncles say there’s always hope there could be a resurgence in future generations.

Jeff’s father died of cancer in 1990 at 49. His last assignment was in the traffic and accident unit, which was among the units Jeff Winger supervised before he retired. He also felt a connection to his dad by wearing the same senior commander badge number as him — No. 27.

“I think his father would be so proud of him — he always was,” said Larry Winger.

CROOKSTON, Minn. — A bestiality charge against a former Polk County mail carrier accused of having sex with a dog has been dismissed, and he’ll avoid jail time for the burglary charge if he abides by his probation terms.

Brian Chapman, 22, was ordered Thursday in Polk County District Court to complete a number of supervised probation requirements, including attending a sex offender program and avoiding unsupervised contact with animals. In exchange to pleading guilty to a second-degree felony charge of burglary, the misdemeanor bestiality charge was dismissed.

Chapman was arrested in February 2017 after a Polk County resident noticed his mail carrier, later identified as Chapman, was spending a long time dropping off a package in the homeowner’s garage, according to court documents. Surveillance footage revealed Chapman engaging in a sexual act with the homeowner’s dog, court documents stated.

Chapman resigned a few days later, a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson confirmed.

He had faced up to 10 years in prison on the burglary charge and 90 days in jail for the bestiality crime. Instead, he agreed to do 40 hours of community service and have no contact with the homeowner or the dog.

His supervised probation will last 10 years.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Stearns County prosecutors said they plan to seek the maximum sentence allowed for Gregory Allen Scheel, 33, of Paynesville, because of his criminal history.

Scheel faces two counts of second-degree intentional murder of his grandparents Willie and Gloria Scheel of Paynesville. He is currently in the Stearns County Jail on $3 million bail. Gregory Scheel had been living with his grandparents.

According to search warrants filed this week, after Gregory Scheel was detained and before he asked for a lawyer, he told investigators that his actions had something to do with a drug debt.

The couple’s bodies were found March 22 in their car on a northern Kandiyohi County road. Gregory Scheel was arrested on foot about a half mile from the vehicle.

Joshua J. Kannegieter, an assistant Stearns County attorney, filed a motion saying he would argue for the maximum sentence allowed in the law.

The motion lists 10 felony convictions since 2003. In addition, the motion lists two aggravating factors. The crimes were committed against vulnerable victims and they were treated with “particular cruelty.” Court records indicate his criminal history score, used to determine sentences, is a 10.

The search warrants offer more details about the investigation, including the presence of a wood stick with two pieces of metal in one end, with electrical wire attached found on Wilbert Scheel’s body. A car battery covered with blood was also found in the car.

Parts of the car had been charred, and it smelled of gasoline. The search warrants included efforts to find materials that may have been used to start a fire.

A separate search warrant was used to collect Gregory Scheel’s clothing, DNA and other evidence from his person.

The Scheels were reported missing March 21 after they missed a 6 p.m. dinner appointment with relatives. Gregory Scheel told a family member his grandparents had gone out of town, but other relatives said it was uncharacteristic of them to miss the dinner.

Gregory Scheel’s employer said he had not come to work March 21.

The next day, the Scheels did not show up for their Meals on Wheels duty, another odd occurrence.

Police obtained a search warrant for the house and received another warrant to expand the search after the bodies were found. Search warrants were issued for the vehicle, which was towed to the Kandiyohi County Law Enforcement Center after it was found.

Wilbert Scheel, 93, was found with his hands and feet bound with electrical cord and a plastic bag over his head and was ruled to have died by asphyxiation. Gloria Scheel, 80, was found with an electrical cord around her neck and was ruled to have died by strangulation.

Scheel’s next court appearance is April 9 in Stearns County.

A funeral service for the Scheels will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at the Grace United Methodist Church in Paynesville.

An early morning shooting in Maplewood left two men with serious injures and a St. Paul man in custody.

Maplewood police responded to a call about 2 a.m. Saturday near McKnight Road South and Pond Avenue. Two men were shot, one in the leg and the other in the groin area. Both men were taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with injuries that were serious but not expected to be life-threatening, according to police.

Greyson Cunningham, 18, of St. Paul, was arrested and booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of aggravated robbery.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and the general public is not believed to be in danger.

A search warrant filed in a fatal hit-and-run case in Alexandria says the owner of the SUV believed to have been involved in the incident told dispatchers he or she believed they may have struck the victim, but thought they had hit a curb.

Twenty-six-year-old Travis Penning was struck and killed the evening of March 19. KSTP-TV reports the warrant filed Thursday says Alexandria police were made aware on March 25 that the vehicle’s owner had called 911 thinking he or she may have been involved, but didn’t mean to hurt anyone.

The warrant says the vehicle confiscated from the owner had damage consistent with the incident.

Authorities say they’ve been unable to speak with the vehicle’s owner because an attorney had advised the owner not to provide a statement.

“There’s a man with a gun trying to hurt me!” a terrified St. Paul man told a 911 operator.

Officers rushed to his residence, but they found no sign of a gunman.

After the 54-year-old man dialed 911 on a few other days, reporting the same scenario, Sgt. Jamie Sipes responded to one of the calls. Sipes coordinates the police department’s new mental health unit.

After talking with the man, Sipes learned he has a diagnosed mental illness that includes hallucinations. When the halluciations happen, the man said, they’re so frightening that all he can think to do is call the police for help.

St. Paul police formally started its mental health unit in March, and Sipes said people like the 911 caller are among those they will try to help.

In the past decade, calls to St. Paul police involving mental health issues have doubled. By devoting a unit to mental health issues, St. Paul police aim to connect people with community resources, reduce escalations that could end in police using deadly force, and ultimately cut down on the need for officers to be called for crisis situations.

About 30 percent of the people fatally shot by police in Minnesota between 2004 and 2016 were diagnosed as having a mental illness or had exhibited signs of mental illness.

‘WE WANT TO BE INVOLVED BEFORE THERE’S A CRISIS’

When tragedies happen — whether it’s violence in the community or an officer-involved shooting — people have questions and “law enforcement has a responsibility to answer some of those questions,” Sipes said. “We want to be involved in the conversation before there’s a crisis situation and to be ensuring that people are getting the resources that they need.”

Former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman proposed adding to the police budget for this year to increase the department’s authorized strength. The city council approved the move, which allowed four officers to be dedicated to the mental health unit.

They went through intensive training in the beginning of March and then began their work.

The officers spend part of each day reviewing recent mental health-related reports that patrol officers responded to. They’re looking into whether they can follow up with the individual or their family to ensure they know about available mental health services.

The mental health officers also are listening to emergency radio traffic and responding to some calls as they happen.

St. Paul police already team up on some calls with Ramsey County’s mobile crisis team, but the mental health officers will be looking for ways to partner more with social workers or other mental health professionals.

“This is new to law enforcement, and we’ve been thinking outside the box of what we can do to help people get connected with services, keep them in their homes, keep them stable and reduce those police calls for service, reduce those EMS runs to the hospital and reduce those emergency department visits,” Sipes said.

MENTAL HEALTH CALLS ON THE RISE

Sipes said one question he hears from fellow officers and community members is, “Why are police getting more involved in an area that is traditionally a social work area?”

He says people often call 911 when someone is having a mental health crisis and they don’t know what else to do.

“The reality is police are first-responders and they need to respond to anything,” said Sue Abderholden, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Minnesota chapter. “What we want to do is to make sure we have the best outcome, and (the mental health unit) is certainly one way to do that. We want officers to know that there’s more than just bringing someone to an emergency room, that they really know the wide range of options and know what to tell the family.”

When mental health officers recently responded to a woman outside a St. Paul home — who reported that a relative made threats of harming himself several days earlier — one officer told her about the Ramsey County crisis hotline. She could call the hotline if his threats of self-harm continue.

“I told her, ‘We’re kind of this bridge between some mental health resources, and I would encourage you to touch base with Ramsey County Crisis because they have a lot of good programs,'” said Justin Tiffany, one of the mental health officers.

In 2016, St. Paul police received 8,704 mental health calls for service, compared with 4,122 in 2004, according to police department statistics.

Sipes has theories about the increases.

“I think one of it is we, as a society, have really worked hard to decrease the stigma of mental illness,” Sipes said. “I think people in general are talking about it more, recognizing those issues more, and that includes our officers potentially documenting it more.”

BEYOND TEMPORARY FIXES

Police officers have traditionally responded to mental health calls with quick fixes.

For example: Negotiating with a person to move him or her to safety from a bridge’s ledge and then getting the person to the hospital — because officers have to move on to the next emergency call.

Because most of St. Paul’s patrol officers have gone through 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training, the mental health officers’ expertise wouldn’t necessarily be needed on crisis calls that officers respond to daily, Sipes said.

The department also has a crisis negotiation team, which Sipes is a member of, for the most pressing situations.

Instead, Sipes plans for mental health officers to be communicating with people in the days after they initially have police contact or get out of the hospital.

They’re putting together small fliers explaining the new mental health unit. Organizations that work with people who are mentally ill will hand out the fliers to their clients.

“We want them to know we’re a different kind of police — we’re not the police that arrest, we’re not the police that write tickets; we’re the police that do follow up and call you and say: ‘Hey, how are you doing today? Are you taking your medications? Have you seen your case manager recently? How did that go?’ ” Sipes said, adding they’re aiming to counter fear that people may have.

Various groups have lent support to the officers as they built the unit, particularly Regions Hospital and the nonprofit People Incorporated, Sipes said.

Jill Wiedemann-West, chief executive of People Incorporated Mental Health Services, said her nonprofit has been discussing with St. Paul police whether they could provide a social worker or therapist to respond to calls with the department’s mental health officers.

NUMEROUS CALLS TO 911, BUT WORKING TO MANAGE HIS CONDITION

The 54-year-old St. Paul man who repeatedly called 911 for help, who asked not to be named, said he hopes his story will help others feel less alone than he does.

About one in five adults in the United States have experienced mental illness in a given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The man, who said he takes prescribed medications for schizoaffective bipolar disorder, has hallucinations at times.

“I see people with guns and they’re standing there looking at me like they’re getting ready to hurt me,” he said.

In the last 12 months, the man dialed 911 in St. Paul on 19 occasions to report people with guns were trying to kill him, along with other delusions.

The man met Sipes when the officer was running a pilot program of the mental health unit last year, and he signed an information release that allows Sipes to talk with his case manager.

Based on conversations with the man’s case manager, Sipes said, he’s provided patrol officers with a “safety plan” they can discuss with the man if he calls 911.

It includes reminding him about techniques he’s learned in therapy to keep himself calm and focused on reality.

“This is somebody who’s not a bad guy, not a danger — he’s just trying to live his life, but he’s got this illness that he’s dealing with,” Sipes said. Now that the new unit is running, the man has been in direct contact with mental health officers when he’s needed to.

Recently, Sipes stopped by the man’s home to introduce him to Officer Justin Tiffany because each of the mental health officers is taking responsibility for an area of St. Paul the officer previously patrolled.

Tiffany’s thesis for his master’s degree was based on work in downtown St. Paul with those who are homeless, mentally ill or chemically dependent and their interactions with the criminal justice system. He’ll take on the Central District.

Lori Goulet, a St. Paul officer for nearly 22 years, has the Western District.

And Marshall Titus, who has a master’s degree in psychology, will focus on the Eastern District.

INCREASED FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH IN RECENT YEARS

St. Paul police have been focused on mental health for the past few years.

Since March 2016, some calls to 911 in Ramsey County concerning mental health problems, which don’t involve a crime or immediate safety risk, are instead referred to the county’s mental health crisis line. Mental health professionals provide in-person assessments and assistance over the phone.

The county’s mobile crisis team and the emergency response system’s collaborative work has continued to grow, said Alyssa Conducy, Ramsey County manager for adult mental health and chemical health services.

In 2015, there were 27 crisis assessments completed as the result of first-responders identifying the need for services.

That number increased to 104 in 2016, and grew to 147 in 2017.

BATTLING LONELINESS, ISOLATION

During their first week on the streets, the mental health officers met with staff from the Listening House and RADIAS Health, which does homeless outreach and works with the mentally ill.

Julie Borgerding, program director at Listening House, told the officers she hopes they’ll spread the word about the day shelter and community center in Dayton’s Bluff.

“Obviously, there are people who have severe mental illness, but I also think we have a crisis of loneliness in our society,” Borgerding said. “People that are mentally ill and often poor are in dire straights of social connection and become more escalated and stressed, and pretty soon they may be calling 911 for help. Potentially, if they had more interaction during the day, the middle of the night might be a less stressful time for them.”

Earlier in the day, when Sipes and Tiffany stopped by the residence of the man who had called 911 a number of times, he confided in them that the hardest times for him are between midnight and 6 a.m.

He said if he had someone to call and talk to for 10 minutes or so during those times, he might be fine.

“To be isolated, to be alone all the time, it causes problems and then I start having symptoms,” the man said. He asked if any of the mental health officers would be working at night.

Sipes told him they’re currently working weekdays, with one officer working on the weekends.

In the short term, Sipes is aiming to train some patrol officers to become mental health liaisons.

When the mental health officers aren’t working, the liaisons would be on call to help between their regular patrols. Someday, if there’s enough funding, Sipes said he hopes to add officers and hours to the mental health unit.

Before Sipes and Tiffany said goodbye to the man, he told them he’s participating in a brain study at the University of Minnesota. He’s hoping it will reveal some solutions because he is determined not to let mental illness dominate his life.

As they departed, Sipes told the man: “I know this is a journey. I journeyed through some dark days, too. I don’t know what you’re going through, but I understand it.”

FOR HELP

People in need of immediate police response should still call 911.

The Ramsey County 24/7 crisis line for adults having a mental health or substance abuse crisis is 651-266-7900. There’s also a Ramsey County hotline to call for children’s mental health services at 651-266-7878.

Those who want to follow up on a mental health call in St. Paul or have questions may reach the police mental health unit at 651-266-5840.

Police are looking for a silver sedan that may have been involved in a drive-by shooting on St. Paul’s East Side that injured two people Saturday night.

The incident happened in the 100 block of York Avenue in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. Witnesses told police someone shot from the vehicle and then fled east on York Avenue. A 9 mm casing was found at the scene.

The two victims were taken to Regions Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Prosecutors charged a 22-year-old with criminal vehicle operation Monday after police say he crashed his vehicle into a Green Line light-rail power pole in St. Paul, injuring the four passengers inside.

One remained in critical condition Monday.

Kanyi Lee Williams admitted to investigators that he consumed “several glasses of a hard-liquor mix” before the Friday afternoon crash, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court. (Williams’ first name is sometimes spelled “Kayni” in other records.)

The St. Paul man faces four felony-level counts of criminal vehicular operation.

Williams was arrested Friday after officers arrived at the crash at University Avenue and Chatsworth Street about 4:45 p.m. and found him walking nearby.

He was slurring and smelled of alcohol, the complaint said. His four passengers remained trapped inside his vehicle.

A preliminary breath test indicated his blood-alcohol level was 0.118, legal documents say. The results of a blood test are pending. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.

Williams told police he was traveling eastbound on University Avenue when he went into the left turn lane to try and pass another vehicle, according to a police spokesman.

He said he overcorrected as he switched back to his lane and ended up striking a power pole on the Green Line tracks.

Paramedics took front-seat passenger Lamar D. Rodriguez, and back-seat passengers Deshawn L. Perry and Brian Trnka to Regions Hospital.

Perry, 21, was listed in critical condition and Trnka, 22, in good condition on Monday. Rodriguez was released from the hospital.

Amber Schochet, 16, also a back-seat passenger, was in satisfactory condition Monday at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Williams also also injured, but has since been released from the hospital and is being held in the Ramsey County jail.

He told police at the scene that he only had a glass or two of hard liquor before the accident, but later admitted to consuming “several glasses,” the complaint said.

He told officers that his actions caused him “to fail his friends and that he deserve(d) whatever punishment he receives,” according to legal documents.

Williams’ vehicle landed between the tracks after the crash, leading to light-rail service being disrupted for several hours.

His criminal record includes a petty misdemeanor theft conviction in 2016 and two minor traffic violations. He was charged in January with driving without insurance and possession of a small amount of marijuana. That case is still pending.

No attorney was listed for Williams in court records and his family could not be immediately reached for comment.

WINONA, Minn. — A Winona man is accused of leading police on a chase in a stolen semi that went on for 50 miles through at least seven Minnesota communities.

A criminal complaint charging Michael Kronebusch with assault with a dangerous weapon and fleeing from police says he rammed the semi into squad cars at least twice during the pursuit early Saturday morning. Authorities say the 42-year-old defendant was wearing a blue face mask and hat during the chase which reached speeds of nearly 70 mph.

Officers pursued the semi through Winona, Goodview and Minnesota City. Winona County sheriff’s deputies and the Minnesota State Patrol joined the pursuit through Rollingstone, Elba, St. Charles and Lewiston.

The complaint says officers used a stun gun on the man to eventually pull him out of the semi and arrest him. It wasn’t immediately clear if Kronebusch had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

Minneapolis police are set to train officers to use a potentially lifesaving antidote for opioid overdoses.

Chief Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday kicked off the training and the release of naloxone, commonly known as Narcan. The department plans to first equip officers in South Minneapolis’ Third Precinct, which has seen a higher number of opioid deaths.

Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said that about 125 officers are expected to be trained by the end of the week. He said as officers are on their regular patrol, they’re coming across incidents where Narcan would be helpful to save a life.

On the day DeShawn Lloyd Perry Jr. turned 21, his family had to say goodbye to him.

Perry was listed in critical condition since Friday, when he was a passenger in a vehicle his friend crashed into a Green Line light-rail power pole in St. Paul. He died Monday, shortly before midnight, on his birthday.

“He was a very energetic and likable kid,” said his cousin, Danny Givens. “He would draw people in with his smile and people just wanted to be around him.”

Perry — who came from a large extended family — was a talented basketball player who loved music, dancing and “was an artist at heart,” Givens said. He went to St. Paul’s Central High School between 2012 and 2014, before moving to Iowa and attending school there.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Kayni Lee Williams, 22, with four felony-level counts of criminal vehicular operation on Monday. With Perry’s death, prosecutors will review the case for potentially amended charges.

Williams told police he consumed “several glasses of a hard-liquor mix” before crashing into the power pole at University Avenue and Chatsworth Street about 4:45 p.m. Friday.

Williams and all four passengers in his vehicle were injured. Two have been released from the hospital. A 16-year-old girl was listed in satisfactory condition on Tuesday.

Givens, who is a pastor, said he’s praying for everyone who was involved.

“It’s a tragedy across the board,” he said. “… I hope that this becomes a place of dialogue for our communities around safe driving, wearing our seatbelts and the affects of impaired driving because it doesn’t take much.”

Williams made his first court appearance Monday, where a judge set bail at $75,000. No attorney was listed for him in a court record.

After Williams’ arrest, he told officer that that his actions caused him “to fail his friends and that he deserve(d) whatever punishment he receives,” according to the criminal complaint.

Perry’s father posted a heartbroken Facebook message to his son after his death.

“Happy 21st birthday Son…no words can describe how my heart is broken by your departure from this planet. #4/2/97-4/2/18,” he wrote.

The former controller of a St. Paul golf club has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million from the organization.

Julie Anne Lee, 53, of Farmington, was charged with four counts of wire fraud and six counts of filing false tax returns last August after authorities learned that the storied Town & Country Club was missing funds.

She pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to one count of wire fraud and a second count of filing a false tax return, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota.

Neither she nor her attorney could be immediately reached for comment.

Lee worked as the controller for the exclusive club from 2008 to 2016, giving her access and oversight to Town & Country’s bank accounts. During that time, she devised a scheme to steal more than $1 million.

Lee issued more than 50 checks to herself, totaling more than $150,000 directly from the club’s accounts. She also stole approximately $250,000 in cash from the club and deposited it into her own bank account.

And, Lee also made payments to her own personal credit cards directly from club accounts in the amount of roughly $750,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Authorities say Lee spent the money on personal travel, home improvements, her mortgage as well as vehicles such as a 2013 Dodge Charger, a 2015 GMC Sierra K3500 pickup truck, a motorcycle and a recreational vehicle.

She also reportedly purchased 81 acres of land in northern Minnesota.

Lee attempted to cover her tracks and cover the shortage in the club’s bank accounts by taking advances on Town & Country’s line of credit at Alliance Bank, legal documents say.

The scheme left Town & Country without enough money to make its quarterly payroll tax payments to the IRS, authorities say.

Members are staff are still feeling the impacts, according to Christine Meuers, the president of the club’s board of directors.

“I can’t even describe the disappointment in the theft and the embezzlement by our former controller,” Meuers said. “We run a small business and we have a lot of longtime employees, and this has (impacted) our club significantly with the breach of trust.”

Meuers added that the Merriam Park club — which dates to 1888 and is the home of the first golf course to be established in Minnesota — is still recovering from the financial loss.

“We are gratified that the U.S. Attorney has taken these actions and was able to reach an agreement with her resulting in significant prison time and … (her) fully admit(ing) the full extent of her crimes,” Meuers said.

The Minnesota National Guard has assigned someone to monitor social media amid growing concern about scammers using soldiers’ identities on Facebook and other places.

The U.S. Army receives hundreds of reports each month from people being victimized by criminals stealing a soldier’s identity, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

“I think it’s easy for us to just say, ‘Gosh, you have to be really dumb to fall for this,’” said Minnesota National Guard Master Sgt. Blair Heusdens, who patrols Facebook for fake profiles. “But they’re really good, these impersonators, and so people are falling for this. They are sending money.”

The identity thefts are typically “romance scams,” where scammers try to gain someone’s trust before asking for money, he said.

Such scams can appear on Facebook, dating sites and other social media platforms, military officials said.

“They say that the military members need money for transportation, for food, for medical bills and these are things that are covered by the military so they’re using the support the public has for us to ask for things soldiers wouldn’t need money for in the first place,” Heusdens said.

The scammers are often located overseas, which he said makes holding them accountable difficult. While a fake profile might get taken down, more will often go up in its place, Heusdens said.

Command Sgt. Major Douglas Wortham has personally reported more than 20 instances over the past few years of scammers who used his military persona on Facebook.

“Early on, very few were ever removed and recently they’ve been removing the majority of the ones that I’ve been submitting so you know they probably have changed along the way as well,” Wortham said.

Facebook officials said they have a dedicated team and automated systems to help find and block identity scams.