On Wednesday evening — a night normally reserved for Bible study — 10 predominantly black, east metro churches decided to close their doors.

Instead, hundreds of their members attended a meeting at St. Paul’s Mount Olivet Baptist Church. Sitting in quiet rows, they wanted to talk about the killings.

The meeting had been scheduled months prior, but in the meantime, another man had been shot and killed the night before, just two blocks away.

There had been 30 homicides in St. Paul over the past year. The New Year had already ushered in three more — a wave large enough to bring an unprecedented response.

Unprecedented not only in the number of attendees, but the prominence of those talking with them: St. Paul’s mayor and police chief, Ramsey County’s sheriff and top attorney, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Department of Public Safety commissioner John Harrington.

In the audience stood another state commissioner, Department of Corrections head Paul Schnell.

WHAT IT MEANS

There was a dichotomy to the debate: Few on the panel of law enforcement officers and prosecutors wanted to talk strictly — or even primarily — about law enforcement.

Instead they wanted to talk about jobs, economics, mental health, opportunities — conceivably the things that could prevent a young man from shooting someone.

“When we respond to a crisis, we will never just fund knee-jerk responses,” said St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter — who, though arriving an hour late, quickly energized the crowd.

When a question was posed about how Hmong gangs had been dealt with decades ago, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher spoke not of crack-downs, but of community ambassadors and what  he believed to be the case for even the most hardened gang members: “They were just a little lost. They’re trying to figure out their own path.”

“We have tried to arrest our way to safety. It hasn’t worked,” added Ellison, who talked about addressing untreated mental health problems: “I’m telling you it’s rampant in this community.”

Murmurs of approbation rose from the crowd.

QUESTIONS FOR AXTELL

But while the concept increased policing as a solution was shied away from, most of the audience’s questions went to Police Chief Todd Axtell.

Axtell mentioned the usual ramping up of patrols that seem to occur after every major wave of shootings: force units and “safe streets” officers concentrated in certain crime grids, at least for a time. He pointed out that the majority of recent homicides were tied to gang and narcotic activity: 400 to 600 members in roughly 40 individual gangs.

But in response to questions, Axtell spoke of his two top priorities: Yes, the first was addressing gun violence, but the second was departmental diversification.

The incoming academy class was 78 percent minorities and women. The department has gone from 22 percent to 26 percent under his tenure. He said he wants it at 50 percent by the time he leaves office.

‘WHERE’S THE MONEY?’

There were other programs mentioned by speakers, mostly by name but — with a two-minute time limit on answers — limited detail: A city jobs program that primarily targets underprivileged youth; an outreach program for juveniles leaving the state’s Red Wing detention facility, more investment in community-based groups.

But the lack of details and specifics on dollars spent frustrated some — particularly those in the audience who wanted to talk about economic disparities.

“Where’s the money?” shouted one attendant.

One of the most lengthy — and animated — debates had to do with whether St. Paul should purchase ShotSpotter technology: a system that detects and locates gunshots and quickly relays the information to law enforcement.

Mayor Carter reiterated his previous position that he wanted more evidence that it actually works before spending seven figures on it.

With a ShotSpotter vendor in the room, and supporter and St. Paul council member Dai Thao in attendance, Fletcher rose to speak in favor. Others followed.

The discussion went on long enough that the church’s pastor, Rev. James Thomas, broke in to urge the panelists not to debate each other.

As the panel wrapped up, African American Leadership Council President Tyrone Terrill, who helped organize the meeting, reiterated the need for community members — not just the top governmental officials at the table — to step up.

“No child is born with a pistol in their hand. … If men would stand up, little boys will sit down,” Terrill said to applause.

And as Rev. Thomas wrapped up, he stressed that those doing the shootings — despite their upbringing — still had to be held responsible.

“It’s not all about money,” Thomas said. “Because you do get to choose whether you pull the trigger.”

As attendees slowly filed away after the meeting, Thomas reflected on whether he felt the meeting had made a difference. And why, this time.

“Do you see how many showed up? That’s what is gonna give me hope.”

A man riding on a light rail train in a Minneapolis suburb fatally stabbed a fellow passenger early Thursday following an argument, transit officials said.

The argument between two men turned into a physical fight after the northbound Blue Line train left the Mall of America station in Bloomington about 1 a.m., a Metro Transit official said.

One of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed the other, according to Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla. Police arrested the assailant without incident when the train stopped at another station, he said.

The victim, who has not been identified, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he died.

Security cameras and witnesses on the train were helping investigators piece together what happened, Padilla said.

“They feel that sooner, rather than later, they’ll pull together a case for the Hennepin County attorney,” he said.

A University of Minnesota law professor accused of stealing millions from investors in his father-in-law’s diamond lab company was sentenced Tuesday to probation and community service.

Edward Adams pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge in October under a plea agreement that saw prosecutors drop numerous counts of felony mail and wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank imposed a $5,000 fine, two years of probation and 200 hours of community service with legal aid groups.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said after sentencing that he couldn’t comment on the case.

Adams, who makes $170,820, has been on paid leave from the U since he was indicted in March 2017.

The indictment alleged he stole over $4.38 million from company investors between 2006 and 2013. In that same time, they said, he paid his law firm another $4.13 million from company funds.

Adams first got involved with Apollo Diamond when the company hired Equity Securities to raise over $25 million for the company. Adams was one of Equity’s principals, and the company’s commission was more than $3 million.

Adams went on to occupy key leadership positions within Apollo and its successor company, Scio Diamond, which since has been sold.

Prosecutors alleged his father-in-law, Robert Linares, enabled Adams to make financial decisions for the company with little to no oversight.

Linares wrote a favorable letter to the court before sentencing, calling Adams a “good provider for this wife and son.”

“Ed did his best to keep the toxic cloud of his personal legal ordeal from settling on his son,” Linares wrote.

He added: “Ed is a person who has the capacity to leave a positive mark on the legal community in his teaching and consulting. I ask that he be given another chance to serve in this capacity.”

The court also received a letter from Adams’ wife, Denise.

“I was saddened that allegations in the original indictment related to Ed’s efforts to help my family in its business — efforts that I witnessed and into which he poured his heart, soul, and valuable time,” she wrote.

“I saw firsthand how hard Ed worked to help my family and its business, even during very trying times and in the midst of the financial crisis. As saddened as I was by these allegations, I was heartened by the fact that my parents did not forget the help that Ed provided them for all those years, and that they stood behind Ed and supported him and our family during this difficult time — support that remains solid to this day.”

Judge Frank said he also read 27 letters from investors in Apollo and Scio. But he said he could not consider those letters during sentencing because they are unrelated to the misdemeanor tax charge.

According to a presentencing memo, at least one person was expected to seek restitution related to the initial fraud charges. Because those charges were dropped, however, that isn’t happening.

The tax charge relates to nearly $600,000 in unreported income from the sale of company stock between 2008 and 2010. Adams told the IRS about that income in 2015 and paid the $118,000 he owed.

Frank’s sentence went above what the attorneys had agreed upon. The government was seeking just one year of probation and no fine or community service.

The judge noted that Adams is a law professor, saying, “You clearly knew that what you were doing was illegal and unethical.”

Adams apologized in court.

“I’m very sorry for what happened here,” he said. “I promise you I won’t find myself in this situation again.”

His lawyer, Joe Petrosinelli, released an additional statement from Adams after the hearing:

“I have always maintained my innocence as to the original charges that were brought against me, and I am grateful that all of them have been dismissed. I look forward to putting this whole episode behind me and moving on with my life. I have been very fortunate to have the support of my wife and son, friends, and colleagues throughout this process, and I cannot thank them enough.”

China has imprisoned a University of Minnesota student for unflattering social media posts about President Xi Jinping, according a report on the news website Axios.

Chinese court records reportedly show Luo Daiqing was detained by Chinese police in July in his hometown of Wuhan for posting over 40 comments on Twitter “denigrating a national leader’s image and indecent pictures,” according to the report.

The tweets were published in September and October 2018 while Luo was studying in the Twin Cities, the report said.

Luo, a liberal arts student, was sentenced in November to six months in prison for “provocation,” Axios reported.

U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement calling for Luo’s release.

“Don’t forget that the Chinese Communist Party has banned Twitter, so the only people who even saw these tweets were the goons charged with monitoring Chinese citizens while they’re enjoying freedom here in the United States. This is what ruthless and paranoid totalitarianism looks like,” Sasse said.

As of the fall semester, the U’s Twin Cities campus had 2,755 students from China, accounting for 42 percent of its foreign enrollment, U records show.

A Twin Cities psychiatrist has admitted to having sex with a patient who sought help for past sexual assaults.

Gavin Patrick Meany, 38, of Apple Valley, on Thursday pleaded guilty to four counts of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Dakota County District Court in connection with incidents that spanned from May 2017 to this past August. Judge Jerome Abrams ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for April 20.

The woman reported to Burnsville police on Aug. 27 that she had been “abused” by Meany while receiving therapy and psychiatric services from him, according to charges filed in September.

“Criminal activity of this nature is a significant breach of trust by a psychotherapist as to any patient,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a Thursday statement. “We are pleased the defendant has accepted responsibility for this egregious behavior by his guilty plea today. I wish to commend the victim for her courage in coming forward to report these crimes to law enforcement.”

According to an online profile, Meany had worked as a staff psychiatrist for Counseling Care, which has offices in Burnsville and Lake Elmo, starting in January 2018. He was fired after charges were filed.

Meany also was a division psychiatrist for the Army National Guard for about eight years.

He worked as a psychiatrist for West End Consultation Group in St. Louis Park from December 2016 until March 2018.

The woman began seeing Meany at a St. Louis Park clinic because of past trauma that involved prior sexual assaults from her youth, as well as domestic violence from a prior partner, a criminal complaint states.

The woman gave a detailed statement to Burnsville police, as well as physical evidence and documents pertaining to the alleged sexual contact by Meany, according to the complaint.

She described multiple acts of sexual contact that occurred in the professional offices of Meany, first in St. Louis Park starting in the summer of 2017 and later in his office in Burnsville between May 2018 and August 2019.

She also said they had sex at his Apple Valley home in May 2018.

When questioned by an investigator, Meany acknowledged he “crossed boundaries” with the woman and admitted to the sexual activity she described to authorities. He said they had sex at his home while his wife was out of town.

St. Paul police are investigating a shooting in the city’s Frogtown neighborhood, officials say.

A man was shot in the chest and arm about 7:45 p.m. Thursday outside a house in the 300 block of Van Buren Avenue, according to a St. Paul Police Department spokesman.

He then drove himself about half a mile to Rice Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, where officers found him, the spokesman said.

A friend called police to report the shooting and an officer who found the man reported he was “hit multiple times,” according to emergency radio traffic.

St. Paul Fire Department paramedics took the wounded man to Regions hospital in critical condition.

Police set up a perimeter, looking for two suspects who were both reportedly armed with handguns. An officer reported, “Sounds like an attempted robbery. They were yelling for him to open the vehicle and he refused before they opened fire,” according to a police dispatch.

Another person who was in the vehicle wasn’t injured.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are under investigation, police said.

Taral Junior Holmes tried to bring his gun into Born’s Bar in St. Paul earlier this month. When a bouncer found it during a pat-search, he was denied entry.

Afterward, Holmes was outside the Rice Street bar when he threw a punch that landed on another man’s head and neck, according to a criminal complaint. Then he started shooting at the man from close range before taking off.

The gunfire missed the target during the Jan. 14 incident, according to criminal charges.

That’s the account in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office criminal complaint filed Thursday evening. The 35-year-old St. Paul man is charged with one count of attempted second-degree murder and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.

Holmes has four felonies on his record, including a first-degree drug charge, second-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm by an ineligible person.

When he was arrested in the recent shooting, police found a 50-round capacity drum magazine in his backpack, and 9 mm handgun in a vehicle, according to the charges.

The vehicle belonged to his girlfriend, and she reportedly said the firearm didn’t belong to her.

Holmes was scheduled to make his first court appearance on the allegations Friday morning. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Prosecutors say no charges will be filed in connection with a fatal stabbing that occurred on a light rail train in Bloomington.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Friday that after reviewing the case, prosecutors determined they would not be able to disprove a self-defense claim.

Authorities say a 67-year-old man pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed 45-year-old Anthony Demetrius early Thursday after an argument escalated into a physical fight. The stabbing happened on the Blue Line light rail, near the Mall of America.

Court records show the suspect has past convictions for assault, disorderly conduct, and criminal sexual conduct, the Star Tribune reported.

An 18-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of Larnell Brown, the St. Paul Police Department announced Saturday.

Darrion Isiah Gresham Coats was arrested by Minnesota State Patrol troopers during a traffic stop in Red Wing.

He is suspected of killing Brown, a 42-year-old St. Paul father, about 4 p.m. Tuesday near University Avenue and Arundel Street.

“This arrest is the culmination of a lot of long hours, intense focus and collaboration among our investigators, patrol officers and law enforcement partners,” St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell said in a statement. “It should send a strong message to anyone who has or is thinking about pulling a trigger in St. Paul: If you do it, we will work tirelessly to find you and hold you accountable for your actions. It’s what we do — for the victims, their loved ones and everyone else who is fed up with the violence our city has been experiencing.”

On Tuesday, officers on patrol heard gunshots and found Brown wounded on Arundel Street, just south of University Avenue. He had been shot in the chest. Brown was taken to Regions Hospital, where he died.

Police said then that they did not believe the shooting was random.

The nearby Rondo Complex, which includes the Capitol Hill and Benjamin E. Mays schools at Concordia Avenue and Mackubin Street, was locked down for nearly 30 minutes.

Hudson’s family said Brown spent most of his life in Chicago and moved to St. Paul in recent years to be with his girlfriend.

Tuesday’s homicide was the city’s third of 2020 and the second shooting death. St. Paul police have responded to 64 reports of shots fired so far in 2020. By the end of January last year, the department had received just over 40 shots-fired reports.

After a man was fatally shot in St. Paul last year, the police department tested out new video technology for the first time.

Investigators often spend hours watching surveillance footage for clues in cases, but this time, police department employees deployed a computer program that quickly searches videos for them.

If they’re looking for a blue car or a man wearing a white shirt, for example, algorithms can pinpoint when those objects appear in videos from particular locations and times.

The program can only find what’s caught on video, though.

While it located the vehicle that the shooting victim was a passenger in, the suspect vehicle was out of range because some surveillance cameras on St. Paul streets automatically rotate their views. The homicide remains under investigation.

“It didn’t pan out that time, but it saved us from watching hours and hours of video,” said Sgt. Joe Higgins, who supervises the video management unit. Higgins said he believes the technology will help solve cases going forward.

After a trial run, the St. Paul Police Department got BriefCam up and running a few weeks ago.

They plan to use it for major cases, such as homicides, serious assaults, robberies and sexual assaults.

With the prevalence of cameras — whether they’re home or business surveillance systems, or from people’s cell phones — “it’s very unusual that there isn’t some sort of video” when police are investigating a crime, Higgins said.

In the approximately 50 homicides in St. Paul since 2018, police said there have only been a handful of times in which the department didn’t collect video evidence.

While the footage helps solves crimes, police say it’s also time consuming for investigators to comb through all of it. With BriefCam, the company says hours of videos can be reviewed in minutes and sometimes in seconds.

TECHNOLOGY SEARCHES VIDEO FOR VEHICLES, PEOPLE

BriefCam was founded in 2008, based on technology developed by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor who is a computer vision researcher. It has been credited with helping law enforcement identify the Boston Marathon bombers and the suspect in the Oslo, Norway, terrorist attacks.

The St. Paul Police Department is spending about $40,000 over three years to use the technology.

BriefCam can use facial recognition, though the St. Paul Police Department said it isn’t using it and doesn’t have the ability to in any of its technology.

Ben Feist, American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota chief programs officer, said he has has concerns about how police could use BriefCam.

Feist said police departments should let community members provide input before implementing technology like BriefCam because it “is not as simple as police saying, ‘This is a tool that will make the job that they’re already doing easier.’ It’s fundamentally changing the way that you police people.”

While St. Paul police indicate they’ll use BriefCam for investigations into serious crime, Feist said he thinks it “could also be a tool that’s used in ongoing cases of suspicion of people and could lead to an increase of racial profiling. It just really has the potential to go way too far.”

BriefCam doesn’t search for people by skin color, race or ethnicity, and the company has no “intention of doing so in the future,” said Stephanie Weagle, the company’s chief marketing officer.

If, for example, police are told a suspect was a male wearing a hat and backpack at a particular intersection, technicians can enter the terms “hat” and “backpack” to search CCTV videos for people with those objects. Investigators would then look more closely at whether they could be the suspect in question.

“It narrows things down for us and frees up time for investigators to work on other aspects of a case,” Higgins said.

Police say a 14-year-old girl was injured by gunfire Sunday afternoon near Robert and Cesar Chavez streets in St. Paul.

Police received a call about the shooting at 4:15 p.m., according to Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul Police Department spokesman. When officers arrived, they found the teen with a gunshot wound to her abdomen. She was conscious and breathing when she was taken to Regions Hospital, he said.

Further details were not available Sunday afternoon from investigators. No arrests have been made in the case.

A Champlin woman who took advantage of her aging mother’s deteriorating mental health by writing checks to herself totaling more than $50,000 will spend 90 days in jail.

Jane Francis Barbosa, 54, also was ordered to pay restitution in the case.

Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher sentenced Barbosa on Friday, about two months after Barbosa pleaded guilty to one of the four felonies in the case. 

The other three filed against her were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

That agreement included keeping Barbosa out of jail if she paid back the money she owed by her sentencing date, her defense attorney, David Sjoberg, said Friday.

But she wasn’t able to come up with the money in time, so jail time came back into play.

When given a chance to speak at the hearing, Barbosa expressed remorse as well as her desire to pay her mother back as soon as possible, Sjoberg said.

Barbosa was charged with two theft counts and two counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult this past April after investigators learned via her mother’s attorney that the 90-plus-year-old St. Paul woman was feeling “scared and intimidated” by her daughter, according to the criminal complaint.

The woman told her attorney that her daughter recently demanded she write her a check for $60,000 and noted she made similar demands of her in the past.

After reviewing the woman’s bank records, investigators noted several checks written to Barbosa, including one for $10,000, another for $7,000 and a third for $7,000.

Barbosa told investigators that the checks were loans from her mother, but her mother told investigators she hadn’t been aware of them.

Barbosa has no prior criminal history in Minnesota.

An 18-year-old fatally shot a St. Paul man in the back last week shortly after the man robbed him during a marijuana deal, according to criminal charges.

Darrion Isaiah Gresham, also known as Darrion Gresham Coats, was arrested last weekend after others allegedly involved — as well as video surveillance footage — revealed him to be the shooter, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

He is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Larnell Brown, a 42-year-old father.

A man who had been with Brown last Tuesday told police that the two met with Gresham to buy marijuana from him, the complaint said.

They climbed into Gresham’s BMW to conduct the exchange, according to the complaint, and drove to a liquor store near University Avenue and Arundel Street.

That’s when Brown and his friend pulled out guns and robbed Gresham, according to criminal charges.

Brown took marijuana from a bag that belonged to Gresham, then grabbed the keys to Gresham’s BMW, and got out of the vehicle along with his accomplice.

As the two men walked away down an alley, gunshots rang out. Brown’s friend started running, and Brown was hit, according to the complaint.

The friend fired back toward Gresham, and then ditched his gun, according to the complaint.

Surveillance footage shows Brown make contact with someone else nearby and hand over his gun. Then he went across the street and collapsed, according to the charges.

Metro Transit police who were on patrol in the area heard the gunshots. One of them saw a man wearing a black jacket standing in the sidewalk of Arundel Street holding a handgun in his extended left hand as he fired down the street, according to the criminal complaint.

Shortly thereafter police discovered Brown, keeled over and holding his hands to his chest.

Brown was taken to Regions Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:33 p.m.

Five 9mm casings were found near the vehicle, and police towed the BMW.

Suspecting Gresham’s involvement, one of the officers called a number associated with him and heard a phone ring inside the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

Police also interviewed both men seen with Brown that night.

The man who said he was an accomplice to the robbery identified Gresham from a lineup as the shooter with 50 percent certainty the first time around, and 70 percent the second time, according to the charges.

Police later recovered “high-quality” surveillance footage of the incident from a nearby store, and officers familiar with Gresham recognized him as the driver of the BMW that day, the complaint said.

Officers also were able to find Brown’s and his accomplice’s discarded handguns.

The Ramsey County medical examiner determined Brown died from a gunshot wound to the back.

Gresham’s next court appearance on the charges is scheduled for Feb. 10.

He was adjudicated delinquent for unlawful possession of a firearm in 2018.

Police are investigating a series of robberies Sunday in St. Paul, in which young assailants often took people by surprise by confronting them at gunpoint.

The five cases happened in the Greater East Side, North End, Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods during a span of less than three hours. In one case, a male pushed down a 70-year-old woman and grabbed her purse.

“There are definitely similarities and we’re looking into a connection between all of them,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman, on Monday.

They also match a pattern of street robberies the St. Paul police warned the public about in December, and police are investigating whether the same suspects are involved.

The first robbery Sunday happened about 6:30 p.m., when a 33-year-old was going into an apartment building in the 1100 block of Barclay Street, near Maryland Avenue. He noticed two young males hanging out by the front door. As he headed in, one put a gun to his back and said, “Give me everything you have,” according to police.

They escaped with cash and his keys and tried to take his vehicle, but the man stopped them and they ran off.

About 7 p.m., a 38-year-old woman parked her vehicle in the 1500 block of Timberlake Road, off Wheelock Parkway and Jackson Street, and began walking to a residence. Three males approached from behind, grabbed her and pointed a gun at her. They pulled a purse from her shoulder and ran off.

Next, officers responded at 7:10 p.m. to Sherburne Avenue, between Arundel Street and Western Avenue, after a woman and her mother parked and saw a vehicle driving by with no headlights on. They were walking toward an address “when three males came out of nowhere, pointed a black handgun toward” the 23-year-old’s face and demanded her bag and PINs for her cards, Ernster said. They fled with her purse.

Police were called to the robbery of the 70-year-old woman at 7:18 p.m. She and her 69-year-old sister were crossing Mackubin Street at Holly Avenue when they saw a vehicle stop. Two males jumped out and came up behind them.

The 70-year-old who was robbed of her purse had a sore knee after being pushed down, according to Ernster. Her sister reported she thought the other male was going to rob her, but he slipped on the ice. The robbers left in the sport-utility vehicle they arrived in.

An attempted purse snatching also was reported nearby, around the same time, at Selby and Western avenues.

Then, about 9:10 p.m., a man and his wife arrived home in the 1300 block of Western Avenue, near Cottage Avenue, and walked to the apartment building’s entry. The man heard his wife scream, turned around and saw a male pointing a gun at him. Another male was with the robber and they ran away with the 26-year-old woman’s purse.

No arrests have been made and police are investigating.

In each of the cases, two to three males were seen. Police reports did not contain detailed descriptions of the robbers, who were wearing sweatshirts or jackets — often with the hoods up — so victims weren’t able to get a good look at their faces, Ernster said.

People estimated the robbers were 16 or younger and, in one case, the males appeared to be around 13 and 14. In another robbery, one robber was described as being in his older teens or early 20s. In some of the cases, they were seen in a dark-colored station wagon or SUV, possibly a Toyota RAV4 or similar.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the homicide and robbery unit at 651-266-5650.

A 15-year-old was hospitalized after she was recently shot in the head in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen area and police said Monday they are investigating.

In a case that police say is unrelated, another teen girl was injured in a shooting on Sunday on St. Paul’s West Side.

On Friday about 6:15 p.m., officers were called to the 1300 block of Payne Avenue on a report of a female who had been shot inside a residence, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman. Paramedics took the teen to Regions Hospital, where Ernster said she was in stable condition.

Police transported people who were at the residence to St. Paul Police Department headquarters to be interviewed. They were released, pending further investigation, Ernster said.

The circumstances of the girl being shot, along with the shooting of a 14-year-old girl on Sunday afternoon, are under investigation.

The 14-year-old is also stable, Ernster said. She was shot in the abdomen when she was outdoors, near Robert and Cesar Chavez streets about 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

A judge sentenced a Hastings man to 10 months in jail and 10 years of probation for causing a collision that killed a mother and daughter when a massive boulder fell from his dump truck and slammed into their car in Rosemount.

Dakota County District Judge Arlene Perkkio on Tuesday stayed a prison sentence of nearly five years for Joseph Paul Czeck, as long as the 34-year-old remains law-abiding during his probation. Czeck, who was also ordered to pay restitution, was taken into custody Tuesday to begin his jail sentence.

Czeck pleaded guilty to two counts of felony criminal vehicular homicide last month for the deaths of Karen Christiansen, 67, and Jena Christiansen, 32, both of Shoreview.

Prosecutors say surveillance video captured from businesses before the July 9, 2018, crash show that several rocks in the back of Czeck’s truck were not secure.

“We are pleased to have brought this man to justice for this easily preventable crime on our roads which tragically claimed two lives in our community,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a Tuesday statement.

Prosecutors say Czeck knew the boulder — estimated to weigh more than 1,100 pounds — fell off his dump truck and caused the crash, but drove away and did not return to the scene, according to a criminal complaint.

The boulder became dislodged from Czeck’s truck after he crossed over railroad tracks while driving south on Rich Valley Boulevard near 125th Street.

It bounced along the road, crossed the center lane and crashed through the windshield of a Toyota Avalon headed north on Rich Valley Boulevard. Karen Christiansen, who was driving, and her daughter, who was in the front seat, both died at the scene from head trauma.

Czeck drove away.

Investigators went to construction sites and at one, off Minnesota 3 in the Inver Grove Heights-Eagan area, a contractor identified the truck as belonging to Czeck Services, a landscaping company. The contractor said Czeck was there the day of the crash and picking up boulders, according to the complaint.  

A Roseville contractor was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three years and 10 months in prison for six counts of tax evasion.

Randal Scot Brinkman, 61, was found guilty in July following a four-day trial. He was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Joan Ericksen in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

According to court records, Brinkman owned and operated a Roseville-based construction company from 1999 through 2018.

During that time, he took steps to hide his income and to actively evade paying taxes by using sham businesses, closing his personal bank accounts, using money orders and cash to pay daily expenses and creating a fake religious organization to hide his income and assets.

Following a 2007 IRS audit, Brinkman filed personal income tax returns for 2002 through 2007, admitting that he owed more than $145,000 in federal income taxes for those years.

Brinkman didn’t pay any of the taxes he admitted he owed to the IRS and failed to file tax returns or pay any of his federal incomes taxes from 2012 through 2018.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS and the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

In addition to the prison time, Brinkman will also serve three years of supervised release.

When asked during a recent panel discussion to explain how the sexual abuse Ben Hoffman endured by former St. Paul priest Curtis Wehmeyer impacted his life, the 26-year-old didn’t hold back.

He described how he spent years feeling somehow responsible for the abuse he and his two brothers endured as children by Wehmeyer, and how he eventually turned to drugs, alcohol and work to “fill the void” left in him.

He also found himself hating the church and the Catholic faith.

But today Hoffman is a married father to a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and has reclaimed his faith. In fact, he recently left a corporate job at Best Buy to devote more time to ministry work.

Hoffman was among those attending a court hearing in the Ramsey County District Courthouse Tuesday alongside his brothers and mother.

At the hearing Ramsey County dismissed its child protection case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

It brings to an end four years of court monitoring brought about after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi filed civil and criminal charges against the archdiocese for its failure in handing the clergy sex-abuse crisis. 

SETTLEMENT DEMANDED SWEEPING CHANGES

Wehmeyer and his abuse of the Hoffman brothers was at the center of the charges. The case took more than 20 months, 17,000 documents and interviews with more than 50 archdiocese stakeholders to investigate.

At the time, authorities said the Wehmeyer case was indicative of a larger and historic pattern within the archdiocese that valued protecting priests at the expense of children.

Per the terms of the settlement agreement, Choi wound up dropping the charges against the archdiocese in exchange for a public apology from Archbishop Bernard Hebda for its mistakes. Hebda was appointed to the post after Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned in the midst of the scandal.

The archdiocese had to commit to undergoe a sweeping institutional change involving an exhaustive overhaul of its child-protection policies and practices these past four years.

The archdiocese also was forced to implement a system of checks and balances, including enforced training requirements for all clergy, staff and volunteers on how to spot and report sexual abuse, as well as the creation of a new ministerial review board comprised mostly of laity — including Patty Wetterling.

It’s a seismic shift from the days when only clergy reviewed such cases, often sweeping them under the rug as accused priests were quietly shuffled to other parishes.

The archdiocese also hired staff with backgrounds in law enforcement for notable leadership roles, including Tim O’Malley, a former director of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who now heads up the archdiocese’s Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment Office.

It’s also made a commitment to helping survivors heal by appointing an ombudsman unaffiliated with the archdiocese to field their concerns and hired a victim outreach coordinator. It’s held regular restorative justice sessions for survivors.

HEBDA VOWS TO CONTINUE EFFORTS

Ramsey County District Judge Teresa Warner has ensured compliance of the settlement agreement by reviewing eight progress reports submitted to the court and three external audits.

Tuesday marked the day the archdiocese will continue the work on its own, without the court making sure its doing the right thing.

Hebda vowed to continue the work in his remarks at a press conference after the hearing.

“The conclusion of this period … is a time for neither celebration or relief … And this is certainly not a time to relax,” Hebda said.

He noted a report that the archdiocese submitted to the court Tuesday that outlines its plan to continue its commitment to safe environments for children in perpetuity. Among other elements, it includes continuing to bring in outside entities to conduct external audits.

His commitment is fueled by the mantra he hears from survivors to “do everything you can to make sure this doesn’t happen to another child,” he said. “I trust the … citizens of this community will hold us to our commitment.”

JUDGE, CHOI COMMEND PROGRESS

Both Choi and Judge Warner lauded the archdiocese’s efforts, saying they exceeded both the expectations of the law and the spirit of the agreement.

“Can we say no child will ever be abused again, no,” Warner said during the hearing. “What we can say … is the safeguards are in place in his archdiocese so that the protection of children is paramount before any protection of any clergy.”

Choi echoed those remarks after the hearing, giving credit to the leadership of Hebda, O’Malley and deputy director of the archdiocese’s Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment Office, Janell Rasmussen.

So long as those three remain involved, Choi said he has “great confidence” the archdiocese’s will continue its commitment to the work.

He added what others have said, that the true test of the depth of the institutional change will come about five years from now, when new leaders take over.

‘EVERYONE SAID CHILDREN ARE SAFER’

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office conducted its own in-depth review prior to Tuesday’s hearing, consisting of interviews with dozens of archdiocesan stakeholders to assess how far the the archdiocese has come.

“Everyone said children are safer … the change has embedded,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Thomas Ring said of the findings. They were compiled in a report filed to the court Tuesday.

WORK, CONCERNS REMAIN 

Still, everyone who spoke during and after the hearing said plenty of work remains.

The county attorney’s report outlined weak-spots within the archdiocese, including some outdated training materials, a lingering sense among survivors that the archdiocese needs to do more to reach out to them, and a concern among some that priests should be better trained in how to respond to trauma.

Many also have expressed concern about some priests who remain in the ministry, in particular the Rev. Kevin McDonough, despite their suspected roles in helping to cover up abuses by fellow clergy.

Jennifer M. Haselberger, who served as chancellor for canonical affairs with the archdiocese from 2008 to 2013, disclosed priest sexual abuse cases and their mishandling by the archdiocese. In 2014 Haselberger authored a 107-page affidavit describing top officials’ cover-ups and a “cavalier attitude toward the safety of other people’s children.”

On Tuesday O’Malley said the archdiocese is continuing to investigate individual clergy member’s responsibility. But he said to date the focus has been on priests accused of abuse.

Others say they would like to see more leadership from the archdiocese in reminding those who wish to “move on” from the crisis.

A woman who recently attended a restorative justice event held by the county attorney’s office and the archdiocese spoke to the concern.

“I feel like there needs to be a bigger voice then mine saying that this isn’t ever going to be over for people, that this will never be done,” she said.

BEN HOFFMAN: ARCHDIOCESE IS A SAFER PLACE

However, for Ben Hoffman, the progress has been unfathomable.

When asked after Tuesday’s hearing if he believes the archdiocese is really a different and safer place, Hoffman was unequivocal.

“100 percent … it’s a night and day difference,” he said, adding that as someone closely involved in ministry, he is in a position to know.

He added that the change brings particular relief to him as a father to a young boy.

“I can walk into the church and not have to worry about him,” he said.

The stepfather of girl killed by a stray bullet 17 years ago is now questioning whether a teenager sentenced to life for the shooting was wrongfully convicted.

Leonard Winborn made the comments Tuesday to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a community newspaper in the South Minneapolis neighborhood where his 11-year-old daughter, Tyesha Edwards, was shot while studying inside her home.

Winborn was responding to an Associated Press investigation that uncovered new evidence and numerous inconsistencies about the Nov. 22, 2002, case.

The convicted shooter, Myon Burrell, was 16 at the time. He has maintained his innocence.

“If that man hasn’t done nothing, then he doesn’t need to be in there at all,” said Winborn, adding that he’s worried Tyesha’s death may have been used by Sen. Amy Klobuchar and others for political capital.

“They done hurt that man because it’s been almost 20 years now. Whatever happens, I would never want to see somebody do some time for somebody else’s wrongdoing.”

No gun, fingerprints or DNA were ever recovered, and the case centered around the testimony of one teen rival who offered conflicting stories when identifying the triggerman, who was standing 120 feet away, mostly behind a wall.

Klobuchar has long cited the case as an example of her tough-on-crime record as a former top Minnesota prosecutor. She raised Tyesha’s story during a nationally televised Democratic debate in the fall, and had previously used it during her 2006 campaign run for the U.S. Senate. During that time, she arranged for Tyesha’s family members to appear in a political ad.

“Looking at it right now, it was an elevation thing,” Winborn told the paper. “I know all the players. I think my family got hoodwinked.”

He said he reached out to Klobuchar’s office after reading the AP story. He said he was told to call the Hennepin County attorney’s office.

Klobuchar also declined multiple requests for comment from the AP, but a campaign spokesman said Burrell had been tried and convicted twice — after the first case in 2003 was thrown out by Minnesota’s Supreme Court over a Miranda rights violation — and that any new evidence should be handed over for review by the court.

A judge sentenced a former Dakota County probation officer to two years of probation after he admitted to gambling during work hours at a casino racetrack.

Troy Dal Withers, 46, of Oakdale, pleaded guilty Tuesday to misconduct of a public officer/employee for falsely reporting work hours and mileage reimbursement claims on four occasions between June 2018 and February 2019 while working for Dakota County Community Corrections.

Dakota County District Judge Douglas Bayley ordered Withers to spend 10 days on a crew working on community improvement projects, pay a $750 fine, restitution and complete gambling treatment.

Withers resigned on April 11 and was charged May 10 with two counts of theft by swindle of public funds. The felonies were dismissed Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to the gross misdemeanor.

A worker from community corrections contacted Dakota County sheriff’s office investigators in February about a probation officer possibly filing false timekeeping records and mileage reimbursement claims.

While probation officers do not keep set hours, they are required to work at least 80 hours per two week periods, and maintain an electronic calendar of their hours and meetings with clients, according to the criminal complaint.

Investigators found 15 occasions where Withers reported meeting clients or attending meetings that he did not actually attend, the charges allege. And there were 10 occasions where he was at Running Aces casino and racetrack in Anoka County when his electronic calendar, time records or building access card said he was working.

When questioned by an investigator, Withers said he thought about getting help for his gambling, but hadn’t, the complaint said.