The St. Paul Police Department issued a crime alert Friday regarding kids running a scam in local neighborhoods by asking for donations for a fictional basketball program.
“Since May 1 we’ve seen a rash of burglaries in the Mac-Groveland and Summit-University neighborhoods,” police said. “But these aren’t your typical burglars … because they are kids.”
Police have received numerous calls about boys between the ages of 11 and 16 going door to door soliciting donations for the “Webber Park Spartan Basketball Team.”
If no one answers the door, the boys will walk around the house looking for entry points, police said.
Once they find a way in, they burglarize the house.
The boys carry with them a crudely made flier replete with typos and grammatical errors including misspelling the name of the community program they represent.
“We are a part of the Webber Park community center and on behalf of Minneapolis parks and recreation center our goal is to reach the amount of 1,000 dollar by the end of the month anything help from a few dollars and up all donations will be going toward transportation fees, concession fees jerky’s and ETC,” the flier reads.
It is decorated with clip art from the NBA, a Spartan jersey and a basketball trophy flipped, so the word “basketball” is backward.
The contact information includes the address for Weber Park at 4115 Grimes Ave. in Edina and a phone number for Edina’s after-hours line.
Once the crime alert was posted on Facebook, multiple people responded in the comments saying they had seen those boys and that flier on Charles Avenue, the Hazel Park neighborhood, White Bear Lake and Roseville. Two said they were approached in a parking lot.
Police recommend residents keep their doors locked, even if they are in the yard, ask a trusted neighbor to keep an eye on their home when going on vacation, and to call the Community Engagement Unit at 651-266-5485 to be added to the House Watch program in which reserve officers will check on the home.
“Neighborhoods are safer when we all watch out for each other, so please call 911 if you see any suspicious activity in your neighborhood,” the alert said.
At least one person was injured and taken to Regions Hospital after a shooting Friday evening near Hamline Park in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood, police said.
The victim, who was shot near Lafond Avenue and Asbury Street, had non-life-threatening injuries, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
Police were on the scene, a block off North Snelling Avenue, interviewing witnesses.
CASS LAKE, Minn. — Authorities say a 25-year-old man has died after he was assaulted in northern Minnesota.
Cass County Sheriff Tom Burch says his office was notified late Thursday that a “serious assault” victim had been brought to the Cass Lake Indian Health Services hospital. Burch says the man, from Cass Lake, was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
Police executed search warrants at two homes in rural Cass Lake. An autopsy is scheduled.
Leech Lake tribal police and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are assisting in the investigation.
A 24-year-old man fired a gun at people leaving a St. Paul park before someone shot and wounded him, police said on Monday of witness’ accounts.
Officers were sent to a report of shots fired at Lafond Avenue and Asbury Street, by Hamline Park, about 5:45 p.m. Friday.
Witnesses said a large group of males had gathered in the park and began to fight, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. A man in a white shirt started swinging punches toward another man, then began chasing two men trying to leave on bicycles.
Someone threw a handgun to the man in the white shirt, according to police, and he fired it toward the men on bicycles. Then he fell to the ground after someone shot him, witnesses told police.
People loaded the wounded man into a Jeep Cherokee, which officers found heading east on University Avenue. They tried to pull it over, but the vehicle would not stop, Linders said.
Someone in the Jeep called 911 and reported that a man in the vehicle had been shot and they were headed to Regions Hospital. Police blocked traffic to help them get to the hospital.
The man who was shot had non-life-threatening injuries and gave limited information to police, Linders said. Police continue to investigate and had not made arrests as of Monday.
A St. Paul man faces charges after setting a police squad car on fire Friday, authorities say.
Brian Lee Liston, 45, is accused of dousing the rear end of a St. Paul police car parked near his housing complex in the 700 block of Front Avenue with gasoline around 5 a.m. June 8 and then torching it, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.
Brian Lee Liston
Liston is charged with second-degree arson and first-degree criminal damage to property.
The back of the squad was “significantly burned” and may be a total loss, the complaint said. If it can be repaired, its damages are expected to well exceed $1,000, authorities say.
Liston was arrested after surveillance footage from his building’s security system showed him exiting and entering the complex around the time of the fire and heading toward the vehicle’s location, legal documents say.
While searching his apartment, police found the backpack he was seen wearing on camera. Inside the backpack was a gas can, the complaint said.
He told police that he’d mentioned to his friends that he would “(mess) up” the police car and suggested they must have done it instead, authorities say.
Liston is scheduled to make his first court appearances on the charges Monday afternoon. No attorney was listed for him in court records.
HUDSON, Wis. — The husband of a former St. Paul school administrator who stole more than $200,000 from her church was sentenced Monday to three months in jail.
Michael LaVenture, 47, of Roberts, Wis., pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor theft charges under a deal that will let him work to pay back New Centerville United Methodist Church.
He’ll spend one month in jail with work release each of the next three years.
“It really comes down to, ‘How do they get their money?’ And he has to be out there working,” said St. Croix County assistant district attorney Erica Ellenwood.
Church members, she added, “understand that him being in jail is counterproductive to their goal.”
Kara Amundson-LaVenture, a former assistant principal at Highland Park High School in St. Paul, was sentenced in October to two years in prison after pleading guilty to felony theft. She was the church’s volunteer treasurer when she stole at least $203,000 over about 10 years.
She was expected to participate in Monday’s hearing by videoconference to support her husband’s plea agreement, but her attorney, Lars Loberg, said she would not testify and risk additional charges for herself.
LaVenture’s attorney, Jeremiah Harrelson, said LaVenture’s wife deceived him about her crimes. Still, LaVenture feels that as part of her family, he “bears some responsibility” for what she did, Harrelson said.
With the no-contest plea, Harrelson said, LaVenture acknowledges prosecutors have a strong case.
“He wouldn’t stand a chance of winning at trial,” he said.
LaVenture initially was charged with five counts of felony theft. The plea agreement called for no jail time, but St. Croix County Judge Scott Needham said three months behind bars was a more appropriate punishment.
Needham observed that both defendants had careers that paid well but that they stole from a small church to support a lavish lifestyle.
“It was simple greed,” he said.
Through sobs, LaVenture said Monday he wants to “make it right.
“I’m sorry for what happened between my wife and the church. It’s sad. I feel bad for what happened. I just want to get it over with and start paying the bills back,” he said.
However, Harrelson said LaVenture would be resigning his job as a mortgage planner at Flagstar Bank after Monday’s hearing because federal law now bars him from working at financial institutions.
“What training and experience he has to date is now worthless,” he said.
If he fails to satisfy the terms of his three-year probationary term, LaVenture could spend two additional years behind bars and prosecutors could refile one of the felony theft charges.
The amount of restitution he owes will be determined later this month.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a recent Stillwater prison warden was rightly fired for violating multiple workplace policies, overruling an arbitrator’s order and denying the warden’s push to get his job back.
Former warden Steven Hammer was fired in October 2016 for violating Minnesota Department of Corrections policies related to personal code of conduct, respectful workplace, sexual harassment, electronic communications, and personnel files.
Steven Hammer
“This decision validates our initial action to dismiss the warden. We must model the behavior that we expect in others — it is what the public expects of their employees,” state corrections commissioner Tom Roy said in a written statement Monday.
Hammer could not be reached for comment Monday.
The former warden was transferred to Stillwater in March 2015, just months after being reprimanded for a romantic relationship with an employee at the Rush City prison, where Hammer was warden at the time.
The majority of the complaints were related to Hammer’s time as warden at the Rush City facility, rather than Stillwater. His firing followed a weeks-long investigation that started with a complaint from a human resources official whom Hammer reportedly clashed with.
Hammer then sued to get his job back. In October 2017, an arbitrator with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services ordered that Hammer be reinstated to the same or a similar position.
The arbitrator said the Department of Corrections had proved only that Hammer violated his department’s electronic communications policy, which didn’t warrant his firing.
The arbitrator further said that the case was “built on a falsehood,” because a human resources director “inappropriately set in motion an investigatory process designed to strike back at (Hammer) for personal reasons and not because she was concerned about compliance with DOC policy and procedures.”
The state appealed — and the appeals court, in its Monday ruling, said the arbitrator was wrong.
As to whether the complaints against Hammer were related to some sort of human resources vendetta, the appeals court did not state whether it believed that was true. Instead, they said, “Regardless of the HR director’s motivation for reporting Hammer’s conduct, Hammer engaged in the conduct.”
In fact, the court ruled, Hammer had violated multiple department policies.
Both the corrections department’s investigators and the appeals court focused on a 2014 hearing in which Hammer reportedly exploded at an unidentified Rush City employee who had filed a harassment complaint against him.
The department’s regional human resources director, who attended the meeting, said Hammer “snapped” and told the longtime employee that he was “a (expletive) worthless employee, you’re a bully, I’m so sick of your (expletive),” before tearing up the complaint and throwing it on the floor.
The arbitrator noted that none of Hammer’s supervisors had done anything about the incident at the time. But the appeals court noted that Hammer’s supervisor reportedly hadn’t been made aware of the ripped-up complaint. The supervisor said that if he had been, he would have investigated it.
The incident violated the department’s policies relating to personal conduct and maintaining a respectful workplace.
In another instance, the arbitrator said the state failed to prove that Hammer falsified a former employee’s 2014 reference to work for the Minneapolis police.
But the appeals court said Hammer did falsify the report. “The document was discovered on Hammer’s computer and a forensic analysis revealed that he was the last author,” the court stated.
In 2015, Hammer gave the Minneapolis Police Department a positive review of a former corrections officer, saying she had no history of discipline. In fact, the officer had been noncertified during her probationary period for not reporting an association with an offender, and was reprimanded for making inappropriate comments to a co-worker.
Additionally, the court noted that Hammer sent sexually explicit emails from his work account, and revealed private information about employees to a female co-worker whom he identified as his “personal support person.”
Hammer was never given a job within corrections during the appeals process, corrections officials said.
After two men approached a woman in St. Paul, one stole her cellphone and they didn’t stop there — the other punched her 7-year-old daughter in the mouth, according to police.
Police were notified at 1 p.m. Sunday about the assault and robbery at a bus stop in the North End.
The 30-year-old woman was with her son and daughter at Rice Street and Hoyt Avenue when two men, who appeared to be in their early 20s, rode up on bicycles, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.
Without saying anything, one man grabbed the phone out of the woman’s hand and the other punched her daughter. Paramedics checked out the girl, who had a swollen upper lip but did not need to go to the hospital, Linders said.
A detailed description of the men was not available. They were last seen riding away on their bicycles and police did not find them.
Three St. Paul toddlers were struck by a motorist fleeing Minnesota State Patrol troopers through a Minneapolis park on Monday morning, officials say.
The children were at a playground in Bohanon Park when a black SUV driven by 27-year-old Kabaar Wahleen Powell crashed into them, according to Capt. Jason Bartell, a State Patrol spokesman.
About 9:30 a.m., a trooper had attempted to stop Powell for speeding on Interstate 94, but Powell exited the interstate at 53rd Avenue and fled on surface streets through North Minneapolis, crashing into the children a short time later, Bartell said.
Powell fled the scene of the crash on foot, but he was apprehended by a pair of state troopers, both of whom suffered minor injuries during the arrest. Investigators found a gun in Powell’s SUV, Bartell said.
Two of the children, 2-year-old Kayden Jay Peltier and 3-year-old Lillianna Lee Peltier, suffered life-threatening injuries, according to the State Patrol’s website. The injuries to the third child, 3-year-old Konnor Jace Peltier, were less serious, the State Patrol said. All three were taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.
Powell, who lives in Minneapolis, has several convictions for traffic-related offenses on his criminal record, including one for speeding and two for driving without a valid license.
St. Paul police arrested 15 men and women on Monday evening during a march and rally to promote a $15 minimum wage, authorities said.
The protesters were arrested at their own request near St. Paul City Hall when they declined to disperse, police spokesman Steve Linders said.
“It was very peaceful,” Linders said. “It was a symbolic arrest, from their point of view … done without incident.”
The arrests occurred at 6:10 p.m. when the protesters said they wouldn’t vacate Wabasha Street and Kellogg Boulevard, and ignored multiple warnings, according to police. They were booked into the local jail on suspicion of participating in an unlawful assembly.
The protest, sponsored in part by the Minnesota Poor Peoples Campaign as part of a national anti-poverty push, began at around 2 p.m. outside a McDonald’s restaurant near University Avenue and Marion Street before moving downtown at about 4 p.m.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter arrived at city hall at about 5 p.m. and had one-on-one conversations with protesters, spokeswoman Liz Xiong said. He entered the building a bit later, then came back out for more discussions with the marchers, she added.
Carter said he didn’t want the protesters to be arrested, but he wasn’t “going to try convincing them otherwise, and it was clear he couldn’t,” Xiong said.
Carter’s office and the St. Paul City Council recently scheduled four community discussions on a possible increase to the citywide minimum wage.
“Raising the minimum wage is a big change for St. Paul,” Carter said, in a written statement, at the time. “Engaging community voices at every step in this process is critical to developing a set of recommendations that best serve our city.”
“All working Minnesotans deserve a living wage. But with our minimum wage stuck far below the cost of living, thousands of Minnesotans are working full time and still fighting to make ends meet. That’s why Saint Paul workers are organizing to raise the minimum wage to $15.”
The Minnesota Poor Peoples Campaign said it has partnered with 15Now, Hmong Americans for Justice, CTUL, Our Minnesota Future and Restaurant Opportunities Center in this minimum-wage campaign.
Burglars used a sledgehammer to smash through the glass door at Heritage Embroidery and Design in Stillwater early Monday.
Burglars used a sledgehammer to smash through the front door of Heritage Embroidery and Design in Stillwater on June 11, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Heritage Embroidery and Design)
The burglars stole money, a cash register, an Apple computer, mini iPad, wireless headphones and other items from the silk-screening and embroidery business at 1655 Market Drive. They also ransacked the store, opening every drawer, said Jennifer Washington, the store’s co-manager.
The store’s alarm system went off about 3:30 a.m., when the burglars escaped through the back door, Washington said.
“It’s very bizarre,” Washington said. “We’re just a small business. We all just work hard every day. Most of our employees have been here for seven, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. We’ve never fired anybody; we don’t have turnover. Our turnover is when our high-school girls and boys leave to go to college.”
Washington said managers are grateful no employees were on site when the burglary occurred.
“Nobody was hurt,” Washington said. “We have to be thankful for that. It could have been worse.”
Police are reviewing security-camera footage in the area, said Investigative Sgt. Steve Hansen of the Stillwater Police Department.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the Stillwater Police Department tip line at 651-351-4945.
A St. Paul man is accused of robbing a man he met on Snapchat at gunpoint last weekend.
Kemaludin Nuredin Mohammed, 20, faces one count of first-degree aggravated robbery and a second count of theft of a motor vehicle, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.
A 24-year-old man told police he arranged to meet Mohammed around 11 p.m. last Sunday near Charles Avenue and Mackubin Street in St. Paul.
He said he knew Mohammed from the social networking site, Snapchat, and that they met in person for the first time about two weeks prior.
When he pulled up in his 2013 Hyundai Sonata, both Mohammed and another man were waiting for him, the man told officers, the complaint said.
Mohammed’s accomplice proceeded to pull out a handgun and ordered the victim to exit his vehicle, according to the complaint.
Then he and Mohammed jumped inside it and took off with the victim’s wallet and cell phone, according to the complaint.
Police located the vehicle the following day as it was pulling into a gas station. Mohammed, the driver, was the lone occupant, authorities say.
Officers reportedly found several cell phones as well as a black BB gun inside the vehicle.
When interviewed by police, Mohammed said he and his friend had been in the area of the robbery to meet someone to buy marijuana, according to the complaint.
He said he was standing outside the dealer’s car when an unknown assailant walked up and ordered all three of them to hand over their belongings, according to the complaint.
Scared, Mohammed said he jumped into the dealer’s car and fled, according to the complaint.
He claimed he called 911 from his cell phone to report the incident.
Police inquired with Ramsey County dispatch and determined that no emergency call was placed to the center from Mohammed’s phone, the complaint said.
Mohammed has no criminal record in Minnesota.
He was scheduled to make his first appearance on the robbery and theft charges Tuesday afternoon.
A Stillwater man has been charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a physically helpless woman in connection with a November 2016 assault near the apple orchard his family owns.
Aamodt allegedly met the 22-year-old woman at a bar in downtown Stillwater, where the woman told police she consumed “at least three whiskey sours,” according to the criminal complaint.
“The next thing she remembered was waking up as she lay in a doorway near the front door” at Aamodt’s house at 6492 Manning Ave. N., the complaint states. She was “wearing a pair of black leggings that were not hers. The victim was able to find underwear on a table in the kitchen, as well as her jeans, which were turned inside out.”
The woman called her grandmother around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2016, to say she was “near an apple orchard with some men she did not know and wanted to go home,” the complaint states. “The phone line then went dead. Calls to victim’s phone went unanswered.”
The victim then called her mother from another phone number and said she “just wanted to go home,” the complaint states, but one of the men she was with “refused to give the address,” according to the complaint. He instead indicated he would drop the victim off at the corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue.
Family members drove to the intersection, but could not find her.
Family members called police and said the woman was “being held against her will … and could not locate her,” the complaint states.
Officers traced the second phone number to Aamodt’s address. When they arrived, the woman was in the front seat of Aamodt’s truck as he was leaving the driveway, according to the complaint. “Upon seeing the officers, the victim jumped out of the truck and ran to a squad car and asked officers … to please take me home.”
The woman was taken to a hospital for a sexual-assault test, which found a “laceration in her genital area,” the complaint states. “The victim also reported that her rectum was sore to the touch.”
Aamodt told police that he met the woman at a bar in downtown Stillwater. He said the two were drinking and made out at the bar, according to the complaint. “Since they were too intoxicated to drive, they took a cab back to his home. (He) told officers they kissed a little bit when they arrived at his home, but nothing else happened.”
A DNA test conducted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension determined semen found on the black leggings the woman was wearing matched Aamodt’s.
A contested omnibus hearing was held May 30 in Washington County District Court. Judge Mary Hannon has taken the case under advisement.
Aamodt’s attorney Sean Stokes said his client “has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation of the alleged offense and also during the pendency of the criminal proceeding.”
“My client has full faith and confidence in the legal process and the justice system that is now well underway,” Stokes said in a written comment provided Tuesday night to the Pioneer Press. “We have every expectation that the legal process will fully vindicate Mr. Aamodt. The public ‘rush to judgment’ that so often occurs when media and other publications report inaccurate, distorted or otherwise incomplete accounts of a serious and complex legal action are of great concern regarding all parties’ right to due process of law. Mr. Aamodt has, and will, vigorously defend these false charges and untrue allegations.”
WILLMAR, Minn. – Federal weapons charges have been filed against a Willmar man who had been set to face a jury trial on similar charges later this month in Kandiyohi County.
Chad Monson, 46, made an initial appearance Tuesday afternoon, June 12, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on 18 federal charges, including possession of machine guns, possession of machine guns with obliterated serial numbers, possession of unregistered destructive devices described as pipe bombs and possession of unregistered silencers.
The weapons were allegedly seized during searches of Monson’s property last winter.
Chad Lee Monson.
Monson, who had been held in the Kandiyohi County Jail on $500,000 bail until Tuesday morning, is now being held in federal prison.
He’s scheduled to make another appearance at 12:30 p.m. Friday for a detention hearing, according to Monson’s attorney, Dan Mohs.
Monson also faces a total of 24 weapons and drug-related charges filed in Kandiyohi County that stem from a search Jan. 30 at his rural residential property and a search Feb. 21 of his business property.
Along with the weapons, methamphetamine was also seized as part of the search and resulted in felony and petty misdemeanor drug charges.
A jury trial had been set to begin June 25 at the Kandiyohi County Courthouse in Willmar.
But, according to Mohs, the jury trial in Kandiyohi County is on hold as the case shifts to the federal level.
He said it’s likely the federal government will handle the weapons charges and the drug charges will be handled in Kandiyohi County.
Given the items seized during the searches and that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was involved, Mohs said he wasn’t surprised by the federal charges.
According to the federal indictment, Monson is charged with knowingly possessing 10 machine guns, two machine guns that had serial numbers obliterated and three pipe bombs and three silencers that were not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Mohs said it’s possible additional charges, or an additional list of weapons, could be added to the federal indictment.
The Richfield driver who allegedly struck three toddlers at a Minneapolis park Tuesday was speeding through residential streets at 80 mph and blew at least 22 stop signs before crashing, according to charges filed Wednesday.
Kabaar Powell, 27, was charged with felony fleeing police in a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily harm and fleeing police in a motor vehicle resulting in substantial bodily harm. He was also charged with three gross misdemeanors — two for criminal vehicular operation with bodily harm and another for possession of a pistol without a permit in a public place, according to the Hennepin County attorney’s office.
His first court appearance is expected Thursday.
According to the criminal complaint, Minnesota State Patrol troopers attempted to pull Powell over for speeding Tuesday morning near Interstate 94 and 46th Avenue. Powell sped away, barreling through neighborhoods and stop signs. Officers realized mid-pursuit troopers had chased the same SUV Friday, but had failed to catch it, the complaint says.
Powell soon drove onto the grass in Bohanon Park near 50th and Dupont avenues north. Powell then reached a basketball court where a 30-year-old father of four was playing with his children. Powell’s SUV struck two of the children. Footage from a squad car shows the father trying to gather up his children, but he had only four seconds to do so, the complaint says.
The vehicle chase ended when Powell crashed into playground equipment. Powell ran, but officers were able to catch him. Officers found a handgun and ammunition in Powell’s vehicle. Powell does not have a permit to carry a firearm, according to the complaint.
In the crash, a 2-year-old boy suffered bone fractures and internal bleeding and had to have his spleen removed, according to the complaint. A 3-year-old girl experienced bleeding between the brain and the tissue covering the brain, as well as cuts and bruises. A third child was also injured, but his injuries were less serious, the State Patrol said.
St. Paul police officers will be getting raises — more than 11 percent staggered over three years — in a new contract approved Wednesday by the city council. Starting pay for officers also will be increased, after city officials expressed concern that it could be keeping people from applying for the job.
And a new provision for “restorative justice,” which could be used when an officer is being investigated internally or disciplined, has been added to the contract with the police union.
Mayor Melvin Carter, who took office in January, asked the negotiating team to look at other possibilities and the idea of restorative justice came up, said Jason Schmidt, St. Paul labor relations manager.
“Our focus is on producing safer outcomes, and the principles of restorative justice allow us more tools to achieve this goal,” Carter said in a statement Wednesday. “By expanding our system of accountability, we can better preserve and strengthen the trust between our community and officers.”
Kay Pranis, a St. Paul resident who is a leader in restorative justice and trains people internationally, emailed City Council Member Jane Prince to say it’s exciting to have the concept arise, but she also has “some cautions about this.”
“There is a problem with associating restorative justice with reduced discipline or punishment,” Pranis wrote Monday. “That is not the point – the point is a resolution determined by those most impacted that moves toward repair of harm and ensuring it will not happen again.”
PAY RAISES HIGHER THAN OTHER CITY CONTRACTS
The other contracts settled by the city of St. Paul this year have an 8 percent wage increase over three years, Schmidt said.
The St. Paul Police Federation has long said the city’s 600 officers are paid less than those in surrounding cities.
In January, when the city extended the deadline for police officer applications because a smaller-than-expected number applied, Police Chief Todd Axtell said a challenge to recruiting “the highest quality police officer candidates” was the department continuing “to slip lower in the rankings in police officer pay in the metro area.”
The new police contract increases starting pay for an officer by $6,000 to about $62,000 annually, which will more closely match Minneapolis police starting pay, Schmidt said.
“We felt we needed to be in a position to attract the best and the brightest,” he said.
Before the wage increases, an officer with 10 years of seniority in St. Paul makes about $80,000 annually; they earn more if they have special assignments, such as being on the SWAT team.
Over a 30-year career, St. Paul police officers are currently ranked 17th for pay compared with other departments in the metro area, according to the St. Paul Police Federation’s analysis.
After the final wage increases in 2020, they estimate they’ll be ranked 13th for pay.
The pay raises are “a good step in the right direction,” said Dave Titus, police union president. “We thank the mayor and labor relations for acknowledging and addressing the recruitment and retention issue.”
Thirteen contracts for city of St. Paul employees in non-trade jobs expired at the end of last year, and the city has reached tentative agreements or new contracts for 11 of them. Negotiations are underway for the remaining two.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE THROUGH ‘RECONCILIATION’
The new police union contract says the police chief or union “may propose reduced punishment if employee agrees to participate in restorative justice,” which “is a system of justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large.”
It could include the officer meeting with the person who filed the complaint, department-sponsored community service or additional training, according to the contract, which doesn’t include details of how it will be implemented.
“Each example of restorative justice could look different and it could come about with an internal or external complaint,” Titus said. “It’s about creating an understanding about everyone’s actions in regards to the incident involved.”
In her email to the City Council member, Pranis wrote there are “important questions to be answered.”
“Police hold a great deal of power on the streets when they encounter citizens,” she wrote. “It is extremely problematic to offer an approach to responding to harm that is more respectful, more humane, more thoughtful and more meaningful to those with more power than is offered by them to the people they regularly exercise power over.”
Email from Kay Pranis, a former restorative justice planner with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who is now a national restorative justice trainer, to City Council Member Jane Prince.
Without St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao’s help the Hmong woman he faces criminal charges for assisting inside a voting booth last fall couldn’t have cast a ballot, according to Thao’s lawyer.
As such, the charges facing him in the case are in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act that protects voters’ constitutional right to vote and should be dismissed, according to arguments defense attorney Joseph Dixon laid out in a motion filed recently in Ramsey County District Court.
The motion also asks the judge overseeing the case to acquit Thao of the charges should she choose not drop them.
The legal documents provide a window into Thao’s legal strategy as he continues to fight the charges filed against him stemming from his alleged conduct in last November’s election.
CHARGES EXPLAINED
Authorities charged Thao with unlawfully marking a ballot, misconduct in or near polling places and unlawful assistance of a voter — all misdemeanor-level offenses — after he drove a Hmong woman he encouraged to vote to the Martin Luther King Recreation Center last Nov. 6 and helped her mark her ballot.
Dai Thao
The 63-year-old woman did not speak English and had vision problems, Thao said previously. Without any Hmong interpreters made available to help her from election judges, Thao, who was a candidate for St. Paul mayor at the time, accompanied her into the voting booth himself, his attorney wrote in the motion.
The woman later told authorities that while Thao read her the candidates’ names in the various races and helped her mark her ballot, he did not tell her who she should vote for, nor that he was a candidate running for mayor.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter wound up winning the race with 51 percent of the vote. Pat Harris came in second, garnering about 25 percent. Thao came in third place with 12 percent.
WILL VOTING RIGHTS ACT FACTOR IN CASE?
The federal Voting Rights Act allows any voter in need of aid due to “blindness, disability, or inability to read or write be given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice,” according to Thao’s motion for dismissal of the charges.
The only exceptions in the federal law are the voter’s “employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union,” all of whom are barred from assisting citizens as they might try to influence or manipulate the voters’ selections, the motion states.
What it does not expressly state, according to the legal filing, is that elected officials are among those barred from providing such help, a distinction that is made in Minnesota law.
“Minnesota is attempting to restrict conduct expressly allowed by the Voting Rights Act. Such a constraint on federal law cannot be tolerated,” the memo argues. It continues that banning Thao Thao from helping the woman would have denied her “a meaningful opportunity to vote due to her inability to read English and her poor vision.”
The Voting Rights Act is aimed at preventing discrimination in the electoral process, particularly against “citizens of language minorities,” the motion states.
Such a concern is “very real” for Hmong voters in St. Paul, where about 28 percent of the voting age population identified as speaking English “not well” or “not at all,” according to a 2015 estimate provided by the Census Bureau, Dixon argues.
ATTORNEY LAYS OUT CASE
In addition to violating the Voting Rights Act, Thao’s attorney argues that local election judges at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center failed in their official capacity to enforce election laws when they witnessed Thao unknowingly break state law by accompanying the voter into the polling booth.
Instead, they seemed to permit his actions, Dixon wrote.
Thao and the voter worked closely with election judges to register her to vote and were observed by several entering the polling booth together as well, Dixon added.
“Some (of the election judges) recognized Mr. Thao as a mayoral candidate. Yet none … made any effort to inform (him) that he could not assist a voter, even though election judges are affirmatively charged with doing so.”
Further, he said a campaign manual distributed to candidates underscored that individuals can help voters without making any mention of exclusions for candidates, Dixon stated.
As such, Thao thought he was acting within the bounds of the law, according to his motion, further bolstering the soundness of his argument that the case should be dismissed.
The motion also states that the state’s case violates Thao’s First Amendment right to free speech.
Nearly nine months after a woman was struck by a drunk driver as she crossed a St. Paul street, she died with her four daughters by her side.
Joy Hundley, 52, sustained a traumatic brain injury and needed nine surgeries, but she was able to make amazing progress, according to one of her daughters, Maddie Medved, 26.
“She had been playing the piano … feeding herself and looking forward to getting an apartment in the future,” said Morgan Medved, Hundley’s 21-year-old daughter, on Thursday.
Joy Hundley, 52, died on Monday, June 11, 2018, nearly nine months after she was struck by a drunk driver while crossing a St. Paul street. Hundley had four daughters, Morgan Medved, 21, left, Maddie Medved, 26, to the left of her mother, Jenny Hamborg, 35, far right, and Hannah Hundley, 13, at center. (Courtesy of Jenny Hamborg)
But Hundley contracted bacterial meningitis from a shunt, a medical device that had been placed in her brain, according to Morgan Medved. When a different shunt was adjusted, it created bleeding on the opposite side of her brain and she needed to be placed on a feeding tube and ventilator, her daughter said.
Hundley died on Monday. Her four daughters, ages 13 to 35, were with her.
Morgan Medved wrote on Facebook that she doesn’t “know how to live in a world” without her mother, but she added that Hundley raised them all with strength and love.
On Sept. 27, Hundley left work at Comcast and was crossing nearby, at Fillmore and Robert streets, to get to a bus stop, her daughter said. Hundley, of St. Paul, was struck by a vehicle driven by Gary Thomas Schmalz.
Schmalz, 64, pleaded guilty in December to criminal vehicular operation causing great bodily harm while under the influence of alcohol.
In February, a judge gave Schmalz a five-year prison sentence, which he set aside on conditions that he abide by terms of his probation. The judge also mandated that Schmalz serve another 31 days in custody, on top of the 79 days he had already been jailed.
Schmalz also was convicted of a DWI about 15 years ago.
“The biggest thing for us is he had a previous DWI and then he did it again and this time it killed our mom,” Morgan Medved said. “There’s no sentence that could be enough to make us feel better about losing our mom, but this didn’t even show anyone they shouldn’t drink and drive. It just seemed like a slap on the wrist.”
Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office, said Thursday that “because this case has already been sentenced and double jeopardy applies, we are not able to bring additional charges in this tragic situation.”
Since the crash, Hundley’s 35-year-old daughter, Jennny Hamborg, has taken over the care of her 13-year-old sister, Hannah Hundley. The teen’s father died of cancer four years ago.
Joy Hundley had been mourning her husband’s loss, but she was “selfless and made sure that everybody around her was taken care of,” Medved said.
Visitation for Joy Hundley will be on Monday from 3-4 p.m. at Hosanna! Church in Lakeville, with funeral to follow.
An online fundraiser has raised more than $3,000 for the St. Paul family whose children were badly hurt Monday when a high-speed chase ended with a crash at a North Minneapolis park.
4-year-old Lilliana Peltier had bleeding on her brain, and 2-year-old Kayden Peltier suffered a broken neck and had his spleen removed, according to a charging document for the driver.
Both children are being treated at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale along with 3-year-old Konnor Peltier, whose injuries were less serious, according to the State Patrol.
Tory Schalke of Wayzata started an online fundraiser Tuesday with a goal of raising $50,000 for the Peltier family.
“It seems to me that the simplest and most tangible thing we can do to help this family is to cover as much of their little ones’ medical bills as we can,” he wrote.
Kabaar Powell, 27, of Richfield faces felony charges for causing great bodily harm while fleeing police, as well as a gross misdemeanor gun charge.
A former Burnsville High School music teacher who admitted to having sex with a teenage student was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in jail and additional jail time each of the 15 years he’ll serve on probation.
Erik Michael Akervik, 30, of Burnsville, pleaded guilty in Dakota County District Court in March to one count of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct. A second third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge involving the same victim was dismissed.
Akervik’s 60-day jail sentence begins June 28. He is also required to serve an additional 30 days of jail each year he’s on probation, which may be converted to electronic home monitoring starting in 2024.
Charges filed in April 2017 allege that Akervik had intercourse with a 16-year-old boy in his apartment in August 2016. The boy was a student at Burnsville High School.
“Sexual abuse of a student by a teacher is deplorable conduct and we are pleased that Mr. Akervik has been held accountable for his actions,” Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom said in a statement following the sentence, which was handed down by Dakota County District Judge Arlene Perkkio.
Akervik also was charged in April 2017 with felony electronic solicitation of a child charge for allegedly sending nude photos of himself to another male student. He pleaded not guilty in May 2017. A jury trial is scheduled to begin July 9.
In that case, charges accuse Akervik of beginning sexually inappropriate communications with a 15-year-old student in late March 2017. During this conversation, which lasted two or three days, the student received nude photos from Akervik.
Akervik had been employed by the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district since August 2013, working as a high school music teacher the entire time. He resigned the same month he was charged with the crimes.
He was released on bail after his first appearance in court, with the stipulation that he could not have contact with anyone under the age of 18.
He was arrested May 2 for violating the conditions of his release after police say he sent an April 26 message to a 15-year-old boy on Instagram, asking the boy to follow him on the social media network.
The boy whom Akervik contacted was known to him through Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, where he directed a choir for middle-school boys.
Akervik, who grew up in Duluth, received a degree in vocal music education from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 2010.
The 35 conditions of Akervik’s probation set by the court Thursday include attending a sex offender program; no contact with anyone under age 18, without prior authorization of probation officer; and no alcohol or controlled substance use.
