About 42,000 pages of state and county documents related to the Jacob Wetterling investigation will be released to the public Thursday morning in Stearns County, Minn.

What’s notable is what won’t be released: thousands of pages of federal documents that have been returned to the FBI.

Mark Anfinson, the attorney who represented a coalition of media outlets and public interest groups that intervened after Jerry and Patty Wetterling sued to keep some documents private, said he was “very troubled” by the number of documents that the FBI has taken back.

A spokesman for the FBI said Wednesday that the agency took back about 4,000 pages, but the Stearns County sheriff’s office chief deputy said the agency has about 13,000 pages.

“Losing that large a percentage of the total investigative file will almost certainly inhibit people’s ability to understand what happened with the investigation,” Anfinson said.

Once a criminal investigation has closed, the investigative file is made public under the Minnesota Data Practices Act.

The Wetterlings, as victims of the crime, were allowed to review the files first. They requested that 168 pages be sealed, claiming the 22 documents held personal information about their marriage and family, but a judge in March ruled against them.

District Court Judge Ann Carrott sided with media outlets and public interest groups, who successfully argued that if privacy concerns were used to trump the Data Practices Act, it would effectively dismantle the law.

However, Carrott also ruled that the federal documents included in the investigative file belonged to the federal government and could not be released by Stearns County; the Pioneer Press has filed a Freedom of Information request seeking those files.

Anfinson said he was “extremely skeptical” that the FBI needed to take most of those documents back, “given the age of most of them.”

“What was so important in taking those back that they were willing to frustrate some broader understanding of the investigation?” he said.

The Stearns County sheriff’s office will release 41,787 pages of documents via thumb drives during a news conference at 10:06 a.m. at the county’s Law Enforcement Center in St. Cloud.

The pages will include all documents from the Stearns County sheriff’s office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, including investigators’ reports, lab findings and search warrants, said Sheriff Don Gudmundson.

WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?

Jacob Wetterling was 11 years old when he kidnapped on Oct. 22, 1989, by Danny Heinrich, who confessed two years ago to sexually assaulting and killing the St. Joseph boy. Heinrich was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a child-pornography charge as part of a plea agreement approved by the Wetterlings.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Heinrich confessed to Jacob’s kidnapping, sexual assault and shooting and agreed to lead authorities to the boy’s body. In return, Heinrich was not prosecuted for murder, which has no statute of limitations, and 24 other counts of pornography were dropped.

Heinrich also had to confess in court to kidnapping and sexually assaulting 12-year-old Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring on Jan. 13, 1989, nine months before he abducted and killed Jacob.

The documents released Thursday should shed light on why it took investigators so long to solve both cases and why Heinrich, who was interviewed by investigators in 1989 and 1990, wasn’t arrested sooner.

The documents also should provide insight as to why authorities focused so intently on Dan Rassier, whose family farm is near the site where Jacob was abducted.

Former Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner publicly named Rassier, an elementary school teacher, as a person of interest in Jacob’s abduction in 2010.

Rassier maintained his innocence, but wasn’t cleared until 2016 when Heinrich confessed. He and his mother, Rita, have sued authorities in U.S. District Court and are seeking more than $2 million in damages.

Their lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Sanner and other investigators obtained a search warrant for the Rassier farm illegally.

The Wetterlings on Wednesday said they were sorry if any information made public Thursday caused pain to others.

“Our hearts hurt for anyone who is pained or hurt from the release of this file,” they said in a statement released through their attorney, Doug Kelley. “Clearly, changes are still needed.”

The Wetterlings said it has been difficult for them “to relive those dark days.”

“With time, our family is healing and getting stronger, and we appreciate all of the efforts to make things better for future victims of crime, their families and for all of us,” they said.

The couple asked that people “honor Jacob and the short life he lived” by hugging their children and telling them how unique and special they are.

It ended with this request: “Say a prayer, light a candle, hold hands, be with friends and always hope.”

By TODD RICHMOND and SCOTT BAUER

MIDDLETON, Wis. (AP) — A heavily armed man opened fire on his co-workers at a Wisconsin software company Wednesday, seriously wounding three people before being fatally shot by police as employees ran from the building or hid inside, according to investigators.

Middleton Police Chief Chuck Foulke said officers shot the man within eight minutes of receiving calls about an active shooter at WTS Paradigm. Foulke said the man was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and extra ammunition, and fired at officers before he was shot.

Foulke said three people were seriously injured during the attack, while a fourth person was grazed by a bullet.

“I think a lot less people were injured or killed because police officers went in and neutralized the shooter,” Foulke said.

The police chief said the motivation behind the attack was unclear and investigators didn’t yet know whether the gunman targeted his victims. He didn’t release the suspect’s name but said he was an employee of WTS Paradigm and lived in nearby Madison.

Foulke said the investigation was ongoing but noted: “We have reason to believe the suspect was heavily armed with a lot of extra ammunition, a lot of extra magazines.”

Judy Lahmers, a business analyst at WTS Paradigm, said she was working at her desk when she heard what sounded “like somebody was dropping boards on the ground, really loud.” Lahmers said she ran out of the building and hid behind a car.

She said the building’s glass entrance door was shattered.

“I’m not looking back, I’m running as fast as I can. You just wonder, ‘Do you hide or do you run?’” she told The Associated Press.

She said she knew one co-worker had been grazed by a bullet but was OK. She didn’t have any other information about the shooting but said it was “totally unexpected. We’re all software people. We have a good group.”

WTS Paradigm Marketing Manager Ryan Mayrand said in a statement Wednesday evening that the company was “shocked and heartbroken” and was working to set up counseling for workers. He asked the media to respect the privacy of the workers, particularly those who were among the victims.

University Hospital in Madison confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it was still treating three victims from the shooting, saying one was in critical condition and two were in serious condition.

Police conducted a secondary search of the office building after the shooting to ensure there were no more victims or suspects — and officers discovered some people still hiding in the building, which also houses Esker Software.

Gabe Geib, a customer advocate at Esker Software, said he was working at his desk when he heard what “sounded like claps.” He said he then saw people running away from the building at “full sprint.”

“We knew at that point that something was going down. A ton of people were running across the street right in front of us,” he said.

Geib said he and his colleagues were still huddled in their cafeteria, away from windows, more than an hour after the shooting.

Jeff Greene, who also works at Esker, said police told those gathered in the cafeteria to go to a nearby hotel to make a statement about what they saw.

Three yellow school buses full of more than 100 people, including witnesses, were unloaded at a hotel about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the office building. Some people hugged as they were reunited with loved ones. Others stopped to pet a dog that had been brought by someone picking up a worker.

WTS Paradigm makes software for the building products industry. A Wisconsin State Journal profile from 2014 listed company employment at about 145 employees and noted the company was looking to move to a larger location at the time.

The company’s website was down Wednesday.

A shopping center next to the building was temporarily put on lockdown at the direction of police.

Middleton is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Milwaukee.

___

Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee, and Amy Forliti and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

Minnetonka police say a 3-year-old boy was struck and killed by a car when he darted into traffic.

Police say the 80-year-old driver was heading eastbound on Smetana Road on Thursday morning when he struck the boy.

Investigators say the boy had been in the care of a family member when he ran into traffic while running along the road. He died at the scene.

The driver is cooperating with police. Police do not suspect the driver was impaired.

The name of the boy was not released. The crash is under investigation.

The investigation into a sexual assault allegation against a Chinese e-commerce tycoon has been turned over to prosecutors by Minneapolis police.

Liu Qiangdong, also known as Richard Liu, was arrested in Minneapolis on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct Aug. 31 and was released a day later.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Thursday that prosecutors will now review the  police investigative findings and decide whether to bring charges. No deadline was set for the decision.

Liu is the founder of JD.com, China’s biggest online direct retailer. JD.com said in a statement online after his arrest that he was falsely accused and police found no misconduct.

The company said Liu returned to Beijing days after his arrest. A police report said the charge stemmed from a felony rape accusation.

Liu was in Minneapolis attending a weeklong executive degree program geared toward high-level executives in China at the University of Minnesota from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1.

JD.com is the equivalent of Amazon.com, FedEx and Visa combined and attracts high-level investors and partners.

In June, Google agreed to invest $550 million in the company while Tencent owns a 20 percent stake and Walmart owns almost 10 percent — merging its own struggling China online operation into JD.com.

The alleged rape victim is reportedly a Chinese University of Minnesota student, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mendota Heights police officers may start wearing body cameras next year.

The police department has asked that the city’s 2019 budget include $40,000 to buy body cameras, upgrade squad car cameras and store video.

After 2019, video storage would cost about $20,000 a year, Police Chief Kelly McCarthy said.

At Monday’s city council meeting, a public hearing was held for residents to comment on a proposed policy for use of body-worn cameras. No one spoke.

According to a 2016 state law, elected officials or governing bodies do not have to approve a body camera policy, but they do have a say on funding.

The number of Minnesota law enforcement agencies with body-worn cameras totals at least 40 — and is growing, according to the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association. Burnsville police in 2010 became the first in the state to use them.

Two other Dakota County cities — Farmington and Hastings — also use body cameras, and Inver Grove Heights is planning to implement them later this year.

It took 27 years to get a confession out of Jacob Wetterling’s killer, but investigators had substantial evidence against Danny Heinrich within months of the October 1989 attack in St. Joseph.

“All of us failed,” Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson said Thursday as he summarized and then released some 42,000 pages of files from local and state investigators.

Gudmundson, who became sheriff last year, spent over an hour with reporters describing missed opportunities and the failure by scores of investigators to piece together evidence that Heinrich was behind not only Jacob’s killing but also sexual assaults of several boys in Cold Spring and Paynesville.

Heinrich admitted in 2016 that he’d attacked Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring in 1986 and months later sexually abused and shot Jacob. He led authorities to Jacob’s buried remains as part of a plea agreement on child pornography charges.

Gudmundson said the investigation “went off the rails” early on.

Despite the similarities in the two attacks, the Cold Spring case didn’t appear in investigative files until five weeks after Jacob’s abduction.

“How many other boys were abducted in Stearns County? Well, there was one, the Cold Spring boy. The investigators should have been on that in mere moments after Jacob was taken,” Gudmundson said.

Similarly, one of several boys who had been groped by a stranger in Paynesville in the three years prior told investigators two days after Jacob was killed that it was likely the same man who did it. Both attacks were “quick, military and efficient,” the investigative notes say.

Yet, no one followed up on that lead for more than two months.

Once they did, the Paynesville police chief said Heinrich should be considered a suspect. A sheriff’s office investigator noted Heinrich bears a “strong resemblance” to a composite drawing of the Cold Spring suspect.

HEINRICH FAILED LIE DETECTOR TEST

Days later, Heinrich took a lie detector test and registered “deceptive on all questions” pertaining to both Jacob’s disappearance and the Cold Spring attack. The same day, his shoes and the tires of his car were found to be consistent with tracks left in the dirt where Jacob was taken.

“What are the chances of anyone else matching both those? Pretty slim,” Gudmundson said. “Not just slim, but miniscule.”

Scheierl recalled Heinrich keeping a police scanner in his car. Investigators located records from Heinrich’s 1986 drunken driving arrest, which said he’d had a scanner then, too.

However, when Scheierl was asked to pick his attacker out of a lineup, he did not choose Heinrich.

In February 1990, investigators arrested Heinrich anyway for the Cold Spring assault. After an hourlong interrogation, the county prosecutor let him go for lack of evidence.

FBI criminal profilers who watched the interrogation told detectives they didn’t think Heinrich was guilty, Gudmundson said, citing his own conversations. The FBI’s investigative files on the Wetterling case have not been made public.

After that, Gudmundson said, “Heinrich is essentially forgotten.”

CLAIRVOYANTS, TAROT CARDS, MEDICINE MEN

Eleven-year-old Jacob liked to play hockey, basketball, soccer and football. He loved to go fishing. He liked to tell jokes. He was happy in school. He was learning to play the trombone. He loved dogs. He wanted to be a veterinarian when he grew up.

When a masked gunman stepped out of the woods on a rural road in St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989, and took Jacob, the case attracted national attention and dominated headlines.

How in the world, people wondered, could something like that happen in small-town America?

But instead of concentrating on local leads, investigators were sidetracked tracking down leads around the country, Gudmundson said. “The first week, a lead is run in California,” he said. “By the second week, leads are run in Iowa, Vermont and North Dakota.

And then there were the psychics, he said.

“You know your investigation is already off the rails when you’re dealing with psychics less than 48 hours after the abduction,” he said. “There was a lot of contact with psychics in this case, and they are right about precisely nothing.”

He said investigators consulted psychics before completing a thorough canvass of the neighborhood. In addition, there were reports of “clairvoyants, Tarot cards, Indian medicine men, witching rods, Satanists, voodoo, witchcraft, hypnosis, premonitions and dreams and repressed memory in the file,” he said.

Many suspects were investigated who didn’t need to be, according to Gudmundson, including a man who weighed 350 pounds, an inmate who was incarcerated at the prison in Stillwater at the time of the attack and an 80-year-old man in Vermont.

When the investigation “goes wrong, it really goes wrong,” he said. “In short order, this task force was not just on the wrong path, it was on the wrong freeway and, later, it was on the Autobahn with no speed limit.”

FBI AGENT: ‘WE HAD TO KEEP LOOKING’

Following the news conference Thursday, FBI special agent Al Garber, who was in charge of the case, took issue with the sheriff’s characterization of the investigation.

“Don wasn’t there. He didn’t see the day-to-day operations,” he said. “He didn’t see how many investigators were working so hard on this case.”

He said investigators “absolutely” felt Heinrich took Jacob but couldn’t prove it.

There were other clues that for years, a serial offender had been terrorizing Stearns County boys. Numerous victims described their assailant the same way: He was short and stocky. He attacked without warning, wearing Army gear and concealing his face. He spoke in a low voice and indicated he had a gun. He groped them. When he was done, he ordered them to run away or he’d shoot.

But more than one person confessed to killing Jacob. They had to keep looking, he said.

“I remember a guy who confessed,” Garber said. “He said, ‘I kidnapped Jacob, and I put him in this lake,’ and we found him in the state of Washington. Are we supposed to not go and talk to this guy? Of course not. Another guy confessed to an inmate in prison: ‘I did it, and this is how I did it, and this is the car I used.’ Are we supposed to say, ‘He’s in prison. He didn’t do that’?”

“I want the picture to be clear: We’re not dopes. We’re not stupid. We don’t miss big things. We didn’t do everything right, but we certainly didn’t do this.”

Jerry Wetterling, Jacob’s father, attended the news conference along with Garber and another FBI agent, Steve Gilkerson. Wetterling declined to comment.

After Heinrich was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a child-pornography charge as part of a plea agreement approved by the Wetterlings, the criminal case was closed.

Once a criminal investigation has closed, the investigative file is made public under the Minnesota Data Practices Act.

The Wetterlings, as victims of the crime, were allowed to review the files first. They requested that 168 pages be sealed, claiming the 22 documents held personal information about their marriage and family, but a judge in March ruled against them.

The ruling applied only to state and county documents in investigative file; the judge in March ruled that the federal documents in the file must be returned to the FBI and released under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

A spokesman for the FBI said Thursday that the agency is reviewing the Wetterling case file under the act.

AMES, Iowa — It was decades ago, but Sara Schwendinger remembers perfectly the panic she felt when she realized a car was following her as she ran along a country road at dusk, just outside her small Wisconsin hometown.

She desperately tore into a cornfield and listened as the vehicle stopped.

“I remember hiding in the cornfield and hearing them and then just running as fast as I could in the other direction and making it out of this cornfield and all the way to my house and being petrified,” she said. “That experience has never left me, and it’s 25 years ago.”

Now 41 and living in Des Moines, Schwendinger often recalls that evening as she hears comments yelled by passing motorists when she trains along city streets. It’s a disturbingly common part of life for female athletes, and it’s suddenly in the spotlight following the deaths of three women who were attacked while engaged in the sports they love.

The killings raised alarms about how women can defend themselves and why they must be ready to fight off attackers in the first place.

“It’s not fair that they have a different situation than a man does,” said Steve Bobenhouse, the owner of a Des Moines-area running store and a longtime fixture in the city’s running community. “But it’s the way it is.”

The latest attack happened Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., when Wendy K. Martinez, 35, was attacked as she went for a run in the Logan Circle neighborhood. She was stabbed in what police said was likely a random attack, dying after she staggered into a restaurant where customers tried but failed to save her life.

A day earlier, Iowa State University golf star Celia Barquin Arozamena was stabbed to death during a random attack while she was golfing by herself in broad daylight on a course not far from campus in normally quiet Ames, Iowa. That attack came little more than a month after the body of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts was found hidden among corn stalks near her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. She had disappeared weeks earlier after going for a run.

Police have charged men with murder in both of the Iowa killings.

Tibbetts’ death prompted an outpouring from other runners, especially on social media under the hashtag #MilesforMollie. Hundreds of women shared their experiences of being harassed and followed and vowed to keep running as a show of defiance.

“It was foggy & still dark when I went for my run this morning. I looked over my shoulder more than usual, but running outside is something I love too much to let fear stop me,” one Twitter user said.

“I just want us all to be able to feel safe and free when out on a run — is that so much to ask?!?” someone else lamented on Instagram.

Kathleen Meek, who helped organize the event, said a key issue is situational awareness.

“I’d be the first one to say that, even walking, I’ve had headphones in and I’ve thought ‘Oh my gosh. I don’t even know who’s around me,” Meek said. She urged women to “know what’s going around you so you can be confident in what you’re doing.”

Other suggestions included using the buddy system, joining a running/biking club and informing others of intended routes should something go wrong.

Des Moines police spokesman Paul Parizek, who hosted the meeting, also warned women to know their abilities and understand their limitations should they find themselves in imminent danger.

“There’s a lot of conversation now, especially since Mollie Tibbetts’ (death), about, do I need a gun? Do I need a stun gun? Pepper spray? What do I need? Well, that depends on what you’re willing to do, what you think you need to do and what you’re capable of doing,” Parizek said.

According to Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York City detective and sergeant who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the ways that women can also put themselves in danger is when they share their whereabouts on social media.

Giacalone says his warnings to his students not to announce their plans on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat can “fall on deaf ears.” But he also tells his students to change up their routines as often as they can and make sure their headphones aren’t turned up too loud to for them to not know what’s happening around them.

“These guys are just looking for that opportunity,” Giacalon said. “Women, specifically, need to be mindful of their surroundings, unfortunately, when they’re going out.”

If there’s one thing Parizek, Giacalone and Schwendinger agree on, it’s that women shouldn’t have to face these issues to begin with.

But they do, and Schwendinger, the cross country coach at Roosevelt High in Des Moines, said it happens to her so often that she’s “almost” unfazed when she’s harassed while running. Recently, a truck full of men yelled out lewd comments to her in the middle of the day on a busy main street between downtown and the airport.

“We shouldn’t have to arm ourselves against men who are making those decisions,” she said. “You teaching me how to throat punch a guy is all well and good. But why do I need to be in the position to throat punch a guy?”

August 1986-fall 1988: Paynesville, Minn., law enforcement receives eight reports in which a lone man ambushes young boys and, in most cases, gropes and threatens to kill them.

1989

Jan. 13: Jared Scheierl, 12, is abducted in a blue car in Cold Spring, Minn., and sexually assaulted. The assailant lets him go, telling him to run away or he’ll shoot. He keeps the boy’s jeans and underwear.

Oct. 22: Jacob Wetterling, 11, is abducted near his home in St. Joseph, Minn., by a masked man with a gun. Jacob’s brother and friend are told to run away.

Oct 24: A Paynesville victim tells investigators Wetterling’s abductor likely is the same man who assaulted him. The Wetterling investigative task force doesn’t follow up until Jan. 5, 1990.

Dec. 12: Danny Heinrich is interviewed. It is noted his car has tires that match the tracks left at the scene of Wetterling’s disappearance.

1990

Jan. 8: The Paynesville police chief says Heinrich should be considered a suspect in the molestations.

Jan. 10: Task force members interview Heinrich and note his “strong resemblance” to a drawing of the Cold Spring suspect.

Jan. 12: Heinrich takes a lie detector test and registers “deceptive” on all questions related to the Wetterling and Cold Spring cases. Heinrich’s shoes are sent to an FBI lab, which finds they correspond to tracks found at the Wetterling abduction site. Heinrich is placed under surveillance and the task force starts interviewing people who know him.

Jan. 16: The task force gets a copy of Heinrich’s 1986 DWI arrest report, which says he had a police scanner in his car. When Scheierl is attacked months after that arrest, the boy tells authorities his assailant had a police scanner. Scheierl later sits in Heinrich’s car and says it’s no different from the car used in his kidnapping.

Jan. 23: The task force searches the Paynesville home of Heinrich’s father, finding Army clothes and two police scanners. They also find two photos of partially clothed children. Heinrich objects to their seizure, lies about how he obtained them and later burns them.

Jan. 26: Scheierl fails to pick Heinrich as his attacker in a six-man lineup.

Feb. 9: Heinrich is arrested and interrogated for Scheierl’s kidnapping and molestation but is freed the next day. The FBI lab determines a fiber found on Scheierl’s clothing matches one taken from the carpet of Heinrich’s former car.

1991

March: Duane Hart, an imprisoned sex offender and friend of Heinrich’s brother, is interviewed. He says he’d been at Heinrich’s apartment about the time of Wetterling’s abduction. Heinrich showed him a pistol and two police scanners and asked about how to get rid of a body, he said.

July 12, 2015: DNA from a hat the assailant left behind during one of the Paynesville attacks is matched to that of Heinrich. Heinrich’s home is searched and child pornography is found.

Aug. 31, 2016: Heinrich leads investigators to Wetterling’s remains as part of a plea agreement on child pornography charges. He also admits to assaulting Scheierl in Cold Spring.

An Indiana man is accused of stealing about $69,000 worth of prescription drugs from Walgreens pharmacies in St. Paul and Edina.

Michael Iman White, 19, of Muncie, Ind., was charged Tuesday with two counts each of robbery and attempted robbery for a string of armed holdups that occurred in April and July, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court.

White, who is in custody, pleaded not guilty to the charges during an arraignment on Tuesday afternoon before a federal judge in Minneapolis, court documents say.

On April 3, a man wearing a reflective vest and wielding a handgun held up a pair of St. Paul Walgreens stores, according to charges filed in August. In the first case, he fled the store at 1585 Randolph Ave. without taking anything. In the second, he made off with about $18,000 in prescription drugs from the store at 1110 Larpenteur Ave.

On July 16, the same man and two accomplices again attempted to rob the Walgreens at 1585 Randolph Ave. in St. Paul, but they fled when the security alarm sounded, the charges said. The following day, the trio stole about $51,000 in narcotics from a Walgreens in Edina.

Investigators used cellphone tower records to identify a single number that had been in the area of all four pharmacies when the robberies took place and found it belonged to White, according to the charges against him. They then used White’s driver’s license photo and Walgreens surveillance footage to identify him as the man involved in all four robberies, the charges said.

A pharmacist who was working at the Edina Walgreens when it was robbed also picked White out of a line-up as one of the robbers, the charges said.

White’s next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 7.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says it failed to provide an audio recording of a fatal law enforcement shooting to the Ramsey County attorney’s office, which was responsible for determining whether the officers involved would be charged with a crime.

Darren Jahnke used his cellphone to record audio of his interaction with Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies in Vadnais Heights in April 2017, which ended with 47-year-old Jahnke being shot to death after he took a gun from one of the deputies during a scuffle, according to a news release issued Thursday by the BCA.

The county attorney’s office determined the shooting was justified and announced in March that charges would not be filed in the case.

“The agent assigned to review the cell phone information reviewed multiple sets of data stored on the phone but did not listen to audio recordings,” the news release said. “The BCA’s report to the Ramsey County Attorney did not reference or include the audio recording.”

That agent has been reassigned, and the recording “has been turned over to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for their consideration in their review of this case,” the news release said.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday that it has reopened its review of the case and will update the public when a charging decision has been made.

“While it is disappointing that this evidence was not presented to us, we appreciate that the BCA is taking steps to ensure that this does not occur again,” the county attorney’s office statement said. “Prosecutors are carefully reviewing the audio and have requested that the BCA prepare a written transcript of that audio.”

Jahnke was shot to death by Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy Andre Rongitsch on April 16, 2017, after Jahnke took a loaded gun from another deputy’s holster during a scuffle in an RV, according to a memorandum released in March by the county attorney’s office.

Jahnke’s sister and the organization Communities United Against Policy Brutality criticized the BCA’s investigation and called for charges against the deputies involved.

A Ramsey County prosecutor told a jury Thursday that one of the men accused of killing a 79-year-old St. Paul woman in her home early last year left fingerprints and DNA at the scene.

The statement, made by Ramsey County prosecutor Tom Hatch, was one of the opening arguments in the trial of 47-year-old Kevin Reek. Reek and 31-year-old Richard Joles are accused of killing Myong “Susie” Gossel in January 2017.

Gossel was found fatally bludgeoned and partially clothed in the basement of her house in the 2300 block of Nokomis Avenue on Jan. 4, 2017. Hatch said authorities calculated that she had been struck in the head at least 46 times.

Both men are charged with one count of first-degree murder and another count of second-degree murder and have pleaded not guilty.

Joles had previously done odd jobs for Gossel and received $18,000 in compensation, court documents show. He returned to her home in early January with Reek in search of more work. Joles told investigators that he liked Gossel and blamed Reek for her murder, according to the criminal complaint.

Hatch said Thursday that a combination of DNA evidence, witness testimony, surveillance video and cellphone tracking records will prove Reek’s guilt to the jury.

Reek’s DNA was found on Gossel’s upstairs refrigerator, on the wall of the stairwell going down to her basement and on her sweatshirt, Hatch said. He added that authorities also found Reek’s fingerprints on a handwritten receipt in the home.

CASTING DOUBT

Reek’s attorney, John Sadowski, questioned the credibility of some witnesses and said prosecutors will not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reek committed the murder.

Sadowski turned jurors’ attention to Joles and 32-year-old Perrin Cooper, who was charged with second-degree murder and simple robbery in the killing of Gossel. Cooper pleaded guilty to the robbery charge.

He said jurors must understand the relationship between Joles and Cooper when considering their version of events. Cooper’s sister was Joles’ longtime girlfriend.

“The bottom line is this: Perrin Cooper will admit that he and Richard Joles entered Ms. Gossel’s home the morning of Jan. 2 and robbed her. He took a plea deal to protect himself and he’ll say whatever he needs to say to protect himself. He simply isn’t credible,” Sadowski said.

Reek’s trial will continue Friday morning.

A Farmington woman is accused of swindling nearly $80,000 from a Burnsville nonprofit health-care clinic while employed as its finance director — buying Taylor Swift concert tickets, writing checks out to herself and making 330 Amazon purchases and unauthorized ATM withdrawals.

Alia Joy Pranke, 44, was charged this week in Dakota County District Court in Hastings with three counts of felony theft by swindle. Pranke, who was charged by summons, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

As a part-time finance director at Dakota Child and Family Clinic, Pranke was in charge of payroll and had unsupervised access to its bank accounts since around April 2017.

According to charges, police began investigating Pranke after a clinic employee reported seeing in Pranke’s car clinic credit cards, withdrawal slips for clinic accounts and a clinic bank statement with charges for the Taylor Swift tickets.

Police also learned that Pranke had under-reported her income on her W-2s and doubled her salary and hours, charges allege.

She is scheduled to make her first court appearance on the charges Oct. 15.

A Minneapolis man is accused of ramming a stolen SUV through the back door of a Lakeville gun shop and stealing four semi-automatic pistols in August.

Presley Aaron Peltier, 22, is charged with theft of firearms from a federally licensed dealer and possession of stolen firearms, according to a news release issued Thursday by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Peltier made his initial appearance before a federal judge in St. Paul on Thursday.

The burglary at Dakota Custom Guns happened just before 6 a.m. on Aug. 3, and was captured by surveillance cameras.

Peltier and another person allegedly drove a stolen Ford Flex into the rear entrance of the store and made off with four guns, before ditching the SUV in a south Minneapolis school parking lot, the news release said.

Peltier was arrested on Aug. 17.

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A fender-bender in downtown St. Paul ended with a confrontation and a driver being shot in the ankle on Thursday, police said.

A 35-year-old man told police, after they responded at 7:25 p.m., that he had been stopped at the light at Seventh and Robert streets when a red four-door vehicle struck his vehicle, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman, on Friday.

The suspect kept going and the man followed him to Ninth and Robert streets, where the other driver suddenly stopped and exited his vehicle. The suspect got into a verbal argument with the other driver and denied striking his vehicle, Ernster said.

The man whose vehicle was struck said the suspect suddenly pulled out a gun and started shooting at him. After he was shot in the ankle, the man said he ducked behind his own car. He has a permit-to-carry and he returned fire at the suspect, according to Ernster.

The suspect ran away and was not found. A woman, who was a passenger in the suspect’s vehicle, drove away.

Paramedics took the man to Regions Hospital, where he was treated for a non-life threatening injury.

A second man has pleaded guilty to last year’s armed robbery attempt at a Verizon Wireless store in Inver Grove Heights.

Jamaal Marquie Mays, 33, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to robbery and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, the U.S. attorney’s office said. His alleged accomplice, Jaquon Keshawn Moman, 26, pleaded guilty to the same charges last month.

Shortly before 11 a.m. on Aug. 17, 2017, Mays and Moman entered The Cellular Connection, at the northeast corner of Concord Boulevard and Cahill Avenue, federal charges said. Mays pointed a .45-caliber handgun at the clerk’s head and told him to “make it easy on me,” but the clerk drew his own gun and shot Mays twice, according to earlier charges filed in Dakota County.

Mays was critically injured and spent several days at Regions Hospital in St. Paul recovering from his wounds.

Moman fled the Verizon store in a minivan. The federal indictment did not say how he was eventually apprehended.

The case was investigated by the Inver Grove Heights Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Four hundred survivors of clergy sexual abuse voted almost unanimously Friday to approve a reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that will bring them compensation for their abuse.

Of the 400 votes cast, 398 voted in favor of the plan. The $210 million settlement announced in May will compensate 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse. All victims would receive at least $50,000, with greater compensation depending on the nature, duration and effects of the abuse suffered.

“The survivors’ overwhelming vote to accept the plan shows the power of giving survivors a voice,” St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents most of the survivors who voted, said in a statement. “They wanted to be heard, included and respected, and to know they’ve done something to protect kids and make the community safer.”

A confirmation hearing for the plan will be held Tuesday morning at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. Attorney Mike Finnegan of Jeff Anderson and Associates said the survivors’ vote will be weighed heavily in the court’s decision.

“It’s good to be able to see … process-wise that their voices are in this and that their voices will be heard loudly on Tuesday,” Finnegan said.

The Minneapolis City Council has decided against funding an independent investigation into whether police officers inappropriately urged paramedics to sedate people.

The Star Tribune reported that Mayor Jacob Frey had earlier announced plans to hire former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates to look into the issue. That came after a police conduct review found eight cases in the past two years where officers were involved in deciding whether paramedics should sedate citizens with ketamine.

Several members who voted against the plan Friday said that the city could not afford to pay Yates’ firm $195,000, especially since it would come out of an already-strained police budget.

The issue gained public attention three months ago when the Star Tribune reported findings from a draft report.

A campaign aimed at preventing school bus stop-arm violations kicked off Friday in Dakota County, with law enforcement and school officials emphasizing that continuing violations are risking children’s lives.

The “See Me” campaign, developed by the Dakota County Toward Zero Death Coalition, is meant to bring awareness and education to drivers about the state’s stop-arm law and safety of kids at bus stops.

The campaign, which is being funded by the county attorney’s office and sheriff’s office, includes an educational video that will be distributed through social media; extra law enforcement patrols to catch drivers breaking the law; and cards that will be handed out to drivers to remind them of the law.

“When I went through driver’s (education), I recall the thing they taught us was, if you see a ball roll out into the street, what you should consider is the fact that a child now will be coming after that ball,” Leslie said during a news conference, which was held in a school bus parked in Rosemount. “If you see something yellow and big, think kids are going to be coming off that and be very careful and deliberate when you’re near buses to make sure you’re not part of the problem.”

In Minnesota, motorists traveling in any direction must stop at least 20 feet from a school bus that is displaying red flashing lights and a stop arm on an undivided road. In August 2017, the fine for violating the law increased to $500 from $300.

“It’ll sting,” Leslie said of a stop-arm citation. “It’s meant to sting.”

Across Minnesota, about 1,500 drivers are cited every year for stop-arm violations, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Meanwhile, during the annual stop-arm survey last year, 3,659 bus drivers across the state reported 703 stop-arm violations in just one day.

“So really pay attention and focus,” Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Brian Reu warned drivers during Friday’s news conference.

Mary Kreger, superintendent of Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan schools, said the district’s fleet of 226 buses transports 23,000 students to 35 schools and learning centers every school day.

“And each day our bus drivers see people who illegally drive past their bus when the stop-arm is extended,” she said.

To help deter and prosecute stop-arm violations, she said, the school district is starting to mount cameras on the stop-arms.

“Video from these cameras can be used to identify and prosecute those who violate the stop-arm law,” she said.

Meanwhile, the department of public safety reminds students of the following:

• When getting off a bus, look for any cars passing on the shoulder.
• Wait for the bus driver to signal that it’s safe to cross.
• Look left-right-left when coming to the edge of the bus to make sure traffic is stopped. Keep watching traffic when crossing.

When law enforcement caught up to Jacob Wetterling’s killer in October 2015, he said he wasn’t the “monster” he was 27 years earlier.

In transcripts of jailhouse phone conversations between Danny Heinrich and his brothers, released Thursday along with much of the Wetterling investigative file, Heinrich said Wetterling was his last victim.

“I was a monster back then but I stopped 27 (years ago). I haven’t had no sexual contact with anybody, David, since that night,” Heinrich said to his brother after confessing in 2016, according to transcripts.

He went on to describe his mindset after the murder.

“I got home that night, David, I’m gonna tell you the truth, and I cried. I could, my god, what have I done. … The wonderful, I don’t know, I’m trying to think of what was wrong. I don’t know what went, went wrong, everything went wrong. S—, I don’t know what to think.”

Heinrich was on investigators’ radar early on in 1989 but wasn’t publicly named in connection with the case until 2015, when he was arrested on child pornography charges.

In one of his first phone calls from Sherburne County Jail, Heinrich admitted to a brother that he was “guilty of the porn.” But Heinrich at first called his suspected connection to the Wetterling case “bull” and a “setup” and said he would not be convicted.

Much of their conversations concerned what property Heinrich’s brothers could sell so that Heinrich would have money while in jail and once he was released from prison.

At one point, Heinrich said he missed his cats and sobbed, “Oh god, I hope I don’t go away too long. … I don’t deserve this. I tried to be a good person.”

“There’s lots of excuses I could say, I guess,” he said at another point in the call. “Whatever. So, it’s done, it’s done, it’s done, it’s done.”

A Pioneer Press review of the state and local files revealed other aspects of the investigation, including Heinrich’s connection to other crimes, the role of psychics and the intense focus on Daniel Rassier, a Wetterling neighbor.

PAYNESVILLE CASES

Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson on Thursday described eight incidents in Paynesville from 1986-1988, in which a stranger ambushed and groped or tried to grope one or more boys.

Heinrich never was charged but in a phone call from jail, Heinrich took responsibility for “a couple” of those attacks.

“They’re blaming me for a lot of them Paynesville incidents and I never committed. … I was involved in a couple, but not all of ‘em because I, I know what I did and what I didn’t do,” he told his brother.

TIPS FROM PSYCHICS

The files show that investigators looked into hundreds of possible suspects in Jacob’s abduction, including every known sex offender in the state about a decade after the crimes.

They also followed leads from the great beyond.

Within a week of the abduction, a former neighbor went to authorities with information he got from his sister in St. Louis, who knew a clairvoyant who’d been “very successful in finding missing persons and bodies.”

Agents called the man’s sister the next day.

Jacob’s father, Jerry Wetterling, at times welcomed the dubious assistance.

In 1992, two clairvoyants wrote him a long letter asserting that previous tips from psychics were “in large-part accurate.” They wrote that Jacob was taken by a man named Willy to the home of a white supremacist cult and was “no question” still alive.

Investigators also learned from two fellow inmates that Duane Hart, a convicted sex offender and Heinrich acquaintance, claimed to have psychic powers and had “seen” what had happened to Jacob.

THE WRONG MAN

In the tens of thousands of pages of documents released Thursday, one name stands out: Daniel Rassier.

Rassier, a music teacher, lived with his parents on their family farm near the Wetterlings, and their driveway was near the spot where Jacob was abducted. After Rassier was identified as a “person of interest” in the case in 2010, investigators searched his home and dug up the farm, looking for clues.

But it’s clear from the documents that law enforcement officials had mistakenly narrowed in on Rassier at least eight years prior. A 2002 cold-case review by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children focused heavily on Rassier as a prime suspect in not only Jacob’s abduction but also the January 1989 attack on Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring.

The documents also include a list of every marathon Rassier ran in 2006; a surveillance log detailing Rassier’s movements over four days in 2007, including a stop at Mills Fleet Farm to get gas; and a list of all mail Rassier received over a 30-day period, beginning on Dec. 11, 2007.

In the fall of 2009, Patty Wetterling agreed to wear a wire and confronted Rassier at the Midtown Mall in St. Cloud, where authorities knew he liked to work out on Tuesday nights.

In March 2017, Rassier sued former Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner, Stearns County and the BCA in U.S. District Court, claiming they defamed him and caused him emotional distress. He and his mother, Rita, want $2 million in damages.

The release of documents on Thursday related to the Wetterling case and the arrest and conviction of Danny Heinrich in connection with the crime help vindicate Rassier, said Mike Padden, his attorney.

“He wants the truth to come out.”

WHY NOW?

Gudmundson released the 41,787-page investigative file Thursday in response to a court order ruling that the documents be made public.

Once a criminal investigation has closed, the investigative file is made public under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. The documents include countless interviews, transcripts, tips, names of potential suspects and scores of photos.

Some of the information is particularly sensitive; some of the information Patty and Jerry Wetterling sued unsuccessfully to keep private.

About 12,500 pages were pulled from the file and returned to the FBI; the Pioneer Press has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for those documents.

Gudmundson said he hopes the release of information will help future investigations. “We can’t change what’s happened,” he said. “But we can learn from it.”

JACOB RECORDING

The file labeled “Transcripts 1989, Part 1” starts with a transcript of a recording of Jacob.

“The date is Oct. 12,” the transcript reads. “I’m 5 feet tall. My favorite food is steak. My favorite color is blue. I don’t really have a favorite song. My favorite game is Clue. My favorite thing to do most is watch football. My favorite sport is football, and my favorite TV show is ‘The Cosby Show.’ What I want to be when I grow up is a football player. My favorite hobby is collecting football cards. I don’t have a favorite book, and my newest friend is Gabe. I’m finished.”

911 TRANSCRIPT

A Stearns County Sheriff’s Office transcript of a 911 call from Merlyn Jerzak, a neighbor of Patty and Jerry Wetterling, is included in the documents.

Jerzak’s daughter, who had been babysitting at the Wetterling house, called him to come to the Wetterling house when she learned of Jacob’s abduction from his brother, Trevor, and their friend, Aaron Larson.

Q: 911 emergency.

A: Ah, yes this is Merlyn Jerzak calling from … in St. Joe, out in the township.

Q: Uh-huh.

A: I’m right now next door to um, my neighbors, at my neighbors, the Jerry Wetterling family.

Q: That’s where you’re calling from, correct.

A: And some of their boys went down to Tom Thumb to pick up a movie and on their way back ah someone stopped them and ah, we believe that they have one of the boys because the, one of the boys did not come back with them.

Q: OK, were you, were they picked up in a vehicle?

A: Just a second I’ll ask the boys, was there a vehicle there or was he walking? They couldn’t, they didn’t see a vehicle, ah, this person appeared ah, on the road when they were bicycling back home.

Q: OK, was it, and they don’t know where the other friend is at?

A: They don’t where their brother and friend is at.

Q: OK, so we’re missing two people?

A: Just missing one.

Q: One?

A: Right.

Q: OK, did they see the individual at all?

A: Yes, they did. Did you see the individual at all? He had a mask on.

Q: He had a mask on?

A: Right.

Q: OK, Jacob. It’s Jacob, right?

A: Yes.

Q: And he’s 11.

A: Jacob. Jacob Wetterling.

MADISON, Wis. — Dane County sheriff’s officials say a deputy arrested the same woman twice for drunken driving within an hour and a-half.

Authorities say a 35-year-old Sun Prairie woman was pulled over about 12:30 a.m. Friday in Blooming Grove, taken to the county jail, cited for operating while intoxicated and released to a responsible party.

Shortly before 2 a.m., the same deputy stopped the woman driving the same vehicle in Madison. Officials say she still tested more than twice the legal limit to drive. She was again cited for drunken driving and booked into the Dane County Jail.