A jury convicted a St. Paul man of raping his girlfriend’s 4-year-old twins and giving them both a sexually transmitted disease, court records say.

Arturo Macarro Gutierrez, 36, was convicted Tuesday of four counts of criminal sexual conduct, including two in the first degree and two in the second degree, following a roughly four day trial in Ramsey County District Court. His defense attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Dawn R. Bakst, who prosecuted the case, intends to ask for a longer sentence then is called for under state sentencing guidelines given the nature of the case, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Gutierrez was charged in October of 2018 after one of the 4-year-old girls told her grandmother that her “daddy” hurt her, according to the criminal complaint. Gutierrez was in a relationship with the girl’s mother at the time.

The woman took the child to Children’s Hospital, where tests were run that determined the girl had gonorrhea.

Police arrested Gutierrez after a SWAT team executed a search warrant at a residence in West St. Paul and found him hiding in the attic.

He denied hurting the girl, but was charged with her sexual assault after also testing positive for gonorrhea, court records say.

He was subsequently charged with sexually assaulting the girl’s twin sister when she, too, tested positive for the sexually transmitted disease.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi issued a statement following the verdict about these kinds of cases.

“Cases involving sexual assault of young children pose significant barriers since they do not possess the language to describe the acts, may not understand that the abuse was wrong, and are susceptible to intimidation and manipulation by the offender. This verdict is attributable to the tremendous courage of the young victims and the willingness of caring adults to believe them,” the statement read.

Gutierrez is scheduled to be sentenced April 1.

Police arrested a 14-year-old boy and prosecutors charged him Wednesday in a shooting that injured a teen girl in St. Paul.

The 14-year-old girl was wounded in the stomach on the West Side on Sunday afternoon. The boy is charged with first-degree assault. He turned himself in to police Tuesday and was arrested.

The girl was found behind a liquor store in the area of Robert and Cesar Chavez streets. Paramedics took her to Regions Hospital, where police said she remains hospitalized in stable condition.

Police said the shooting was not random and the circumstances were under investigation.

Eight years ago, Mahamed Dahir was a 13-year-old growing up in St. Paul and Matt Flynn was among a group of police officers who played basketball with him and other kids.

Before that, Dahir never thought about the police much, aside from, “Don’t let them pull you over.”

That started changing as he spent time with officers at the Highwood Hills Recreation Center in his neighborhood and then as officers brought him to the department’s junior police academy.

“Their way of interacting with us influenced me and made me think, ‘Maybe this is something I could do in the future,’” Dahir said.

For Flynn, it wasn’t a question of “maybe.”

Dahir, now 21, is among 39 people graduating from the St. Paul Police Department academy on Thursday.

Flynn told Dahir this week, “It’s really rewarding to see you here because we knew you would make a great police officer.”

Dahir and eight others in the police academy are the first who took part in the Law Enforcement Career Path Academy and are becoming St. Paul officers.

The program provides funding for participants to get two-year college degrees, plus a stipend while they’re doing community outreach alongside the police department and preparing to become a St. Paul officer.

It’s geared toward those from low-income families and diverse candidates, and it’s part of Police Chief Todd Axtell’s goal of further diversifying the department.

Axtell, who launched LECPA with AmeriCorps in 2017, said the idea is to “help us identify young adults from our community who have faced barriers preventing them from becoming police officers.”

“What we’re finding is there are a lot of young adults in our community who are helping raise families, who are working two to three jobs and who simply can’t afford school or didn’t have time to go to school,” Axtell said. “LECPA offers them a livable wage, having their schooling paid for and the best part is they’ve had (two and a half to three years) years to learn at the SPPD and engage with the community, so they’re a group of highly-qualified young adults who know the community before they take their first 911 call.”

Axtell said he’s impressed with all of St. Paul’s newest police officers. Nine have previous law enforcement experience. Thirty of the 39 are people of color and/or women.

The four-month police academy included classroom instruction, which the recruits apply to scenario-based training, said Sgt. Sean Zahaur, the academy’s coordinator.

Beginning Saturday, they’ll head into four months of field training, during which they’re paired with experienced officers. The newest officers will bring the department’s ranks to 637.

RECRUITING FROM YOUNG AGE

Dahir’s path to becoming an officer shows what Axtell found as he rose through the police department’s ranks — the importance of getting people interested in law enforcement at a young age.

“A traditional approach to recruitment just hasn’t worked,” Axtell said.

He started the department’s junior police academy in 2007, when he was a commander, because he said, “we have learned that not only do we have to recruit young people before the age of high school, but also engage their families because this is a big decision.”

When Dahir was 14 or 15, he participated in the junior police academy. Getting a hands-on look at the work of officers made him decide it was a career he wanted to pursue.

What did Dahir’s family think?

“They were like, ‘No’ at first because immigrant families, they kind of have a picture that, ‘My son’s going to be a doctor or an engineer or a lawyer,'” said Dahir, whose parents are from Somalia.

Though his mother also worried about his safety, his family realized his passion for the work and “now they’re super proud of everything that I’m doing,” Dahir said.

After graduating from St. Paul’s Central High School, he enrolled at Inver Hills Community College. One day, when he was at a boxing gym in St. Paul, another young man asked Dahir what he was going to school for. “Law enforcement,” Dahir told Victor Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who was in the Law Enforcement Career Path Academy, told Dahir about the program. Now, Rodriguez is also becoming a St. Paul police officer on Thursday.

HE WANTS TO GIVE BACK

There are 36 current LECPA students who are working at the police department and going to college, and the police department will soon be hiring for its sixth class. The deadline is March 3 and more information is available on the city’s website.

The police department pairs with Century College and Community Action Partnership for LECPA, which is funded through AmeriCorps, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and non profits, including the Otto Bremer Trust and Grotto Foundation.

Dahir said he hopes to pay forward his experiences of being mentored, after he’s settled into his job.

But Acting Cmdr. Amber Larson, who oversees LECPA, said Dahir has already been a leader, though she said he’s too humble to toot his own horn about it. He was a mentor to fellow LECPA students, started a youth soccer group and took a central role in working on a video project with young people in the East African community, Larson said.

Axtell remembers having a conversation with Dahir about his goals and, when he was in the LECPA program, he told him, “Hopefully, one day I will have the opportunity to pin the badge on you.”

Hearing that from the police chief “motivated me to do the best I can in everything,” said Dahir, whom Axtell will present with his badge Thursday. “It feels like I made it, I reached my dreams.”

A St. Paul man is accused of physically and sexually assaulting a woman he’d just met as the two sat in her vehicle, according to criminal charges.

The woman told officers that she and a man who introduced himself as Chris Page were in her vehicle in the area of Reaney Avenue and Johnson Parkway in St. Paul last May 30. At some point the man grabbed the keys from her ignition and took her cell phone, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court.

Then he punched her in the face multiple times, causing her to lose consciousness, before forcing her into the backseat and raping her, according to the criminal charges.

Police later identified the man as President Pimpin Austin.

When the woman came to, she went to her ex-boyfriend’s home and he took her to the hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault examination.

Officers who interviewed her noted injuries to her face at the time.

Police arrested Austin, 28, about a week later. He denied knowing the victim and asked for an attorney, charges say.

He initially identified himself to officers as Chris Page, authorities say.

About a month later, the woman picked Austin out of a line-up as her attacker. A sample of his DNA also matched the DNA found on the woman, according to the complaint.

Austin was charged via warrant with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Austin’s criminal history includes first-degree criminal damage to property, malicious punishment of a child under four-years-old, domestic assault and violating a no contact order.

By SCOTT BAUER

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin high school teacher was charged Thursday with seven federal counts of attempting to create child pornography by secretly recording minors twice last year. The charges follow an investigation triggered by the discovery of hidden cameras that were planted in the Minneapolis hotel room of students he was chaperoning on a business club trip.

David Kruchten, a teacher at Madison East High School, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday and arrested at his home in the Madison suburb of Cottage Grove on Thursday morning, according to U.S. Attorney Scott Blader.

Kruchten, 37, was placed on leave in December after the students found the hidden cameras and the investigation was launched. Kruchten’s license to teach in Wisconsin was listed as being under investigation by the state education department, but no other details were provided on a public database.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota says it is reviewing the case involving the hidden cameras in the hotel, but charges have not yet been filed.

Kruchten has taught in the Madison district since 2008, most recently as a business education and marketing instructor, according to his LinkedIn biography. He was listed as the assisted girls tennis coach on the high school’s website.

No attorney was listed for Kruchten in the online case file. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in federal court in Madison.

If convicted, Kruchten faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison on each count.

“This indictment alleges criminal conduct that is an unconscionable betrayal of trust,” state Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “We will continue working to ensure that there is full accountability for the crimes alleged in this case.”

The indictment charges Kruchten with six counts of attempting to produce child pornography involving six different minors on Oct. 27, 2019, and one count of attempting to produce it with a seventh minor on Jan. 20, 2019, using hidden recording devices that had been moved across state lines. It was not immediately clear where the alleged recordings that led to the charges were made. The state Department of Justice previously asked parents for information about other trips involving the business club, other than the one in December to Minneapolis.

“This news is incredibly disturbing to the (school district) family and our community,” said interim superintendent Jane Belmore in a statement. She said the district will do everything it can to offer support to both students and the community “through this unimaginably challenging time.”

___

Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP

NEW YORK — Citing a recent Associated Press investigation, the foreman of the jury that sent a Minnesota teen away for life in the 2002 death of an 11-year-old girl said Friday he regrets voting to convict.

“I do feel badly,” jury foreman Joe McLean told the AP. “I feel, for lack of a better word, that we were misled.”

“Maybe we should have taken more time,” he added. “Maybe we should have said we couldn’t decide.”

No gun, fingerprints or DNA were ever recovered, and the 2003 trial of Myon Burrell centered on the testimony of one teen rival who offered conflicting stories when identifying the triggerman, who was standing 120 feet away, mostly behind a wall.

McLean said he and other jurors did the best they could with the evidence presented and were unaware of information turned up in the AP review of the case — in part because his co-defendants were not allowed to take the stand. Both have since said Burrell was not even on the scene. One of them, Ike Tyson, admits to being the shooter.

“Now there are statements from Ike Tyson saying he did the shooting. We didn’t have that then,” McLean said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who led the Hennepin County Attorney’s office at the time Tyesha Edward was felled by a stray bullet, was asked about the case while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in New Hampshire. She has cited the case repeatedly during her political career, including during her 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and more recently in a Democratic candidates’ debate.

“If there is new evidence,” Klobuchar told New Hampshire Public Radio, “this should be reviewed immediately because the job of the prosecutor is to convict the guilty and protect the innocent.”

Burrell was tried and convicted of Tyesha’s murder twice, and the second trial occurred when Klobuchar was no longer the Hennepin County attorney. McLean was the foreman in the first trial.

In his interview with the AP, McLean recalled the trial and said Burrell’s defense attorney seemed inexperienced and unable to mount an aggressive defense.

“He was in the deep end and the judge was throwing him bricks,” McLean said. “I thought that from the get-go this kid’s not got a decent attorney.”

Paul Fedor, a juror who held out against a guilty verdict longer than any of the others, told AP there were many aspects of the trial that troubled him.

Although jurors never visited the scene of the shooting, he said, he found it difficult to believe that Burrell, who is 5-foot-3, could have fired a handgun over a 5-foot wall, as prosecutors claimed.

But Fedor said he finally “collapsed.”

“I held as long as I could,” he said. “It’s weird. You think you can do it, you can hold on, but you’ve never been in that situation.”

After the verdict was read, Fedor addressed reporters and said he felt pressured to convict.

McLean said that after jurors agreed on a verdict, he went into a jury restroom and vomited.

“He was a 16-year-old boy and I was a pretty newly minted dad at that time,” he said. “Based on our conviction, there was a real possibility that he was going to go to jail for the rest of his life. I was struck by the gravity of that.”

McLean’s comments followed a Wednesday rally of community activists at the Government Center in downtown Minneapolis where they demanded Klobuchar join with police and prosecutors to re-examine the case, in light of the AP’s findings.

At the end of the interview, McLean asked an AP reporter to deliver a message to Burrell: “Tell him that I’m sorry,” he said. “I tried to do my best. I kind of think in retrospect I failed.”

___

Robin McDowell reported from Minneapolis.

Firefighters from St. Paul Fire Department’s Rescue Squad 3 were called out early Sunday morning to a report of an adult male stuck on a cliff near Wabasha Avenue and Shepard Road.

Video of the rescue, which happened at 1:37 a.m., shows the man, who is believed to be in 50s, about 100 feet above the ground “with no way of getting down,” Deputy Chief Roy Mokosso said.

A safe rescue was performed, and no injuries were reported, he said.

Yesterday at 1:37am @StPaulFireDept Rescue Squad 3 performed a Technical Rescue of an individual at Wabasha and Shepard Rd. The individual was stuck 100’ above the ground with no way of getting down. A safe Rescue was performed and no injuries were reported. pic.twitter.com/o9rAFfjToL

— Saint Paul Fire Dept (@StPaulFireDept) February 2, 2020

Fire officials are not sure how the man got to the face of the cliff, but Mokosso said cabling or steel wires were found at the top of the cliff.

“He may have lowered himself down and became stuck,” Mokosso said. “He also may have come through a network of series of tunnels in the cliff.”

Fire officials routinely have seen either “urban explorers” in the networks or “unsheltered individuals using the caves as shelter,” Mokosso said.

It is illegal to enter the city’s caves.

In November 2017, firefighters had to descend into a cave in Crosby Farm Regional Park to bring eight teenagers to safety.

Two weeks earlier, they had to extricate two teenage boys from a deep cave on the city’s West Side. In that case, the teens had climbed down a shaft to reach the cave about 100 feet below but could not climb back out.

The particular danger in caves is the unknown air quality. In April 2004, three teenagers died after they were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes while exploring caves on the city’s West Side.

A Maplewood man who provides space for an informal children’s religious class at an African grocery store has been charged with sexually assaulting two young children.

Police learned of the allegations after a 7-year-old told an employee at her school this past November about being inappropriately touched by a man she referred to as “Daddy Alim” while she attended classes at his store. The store is located in the 2000 block of East Minnehaha Avenue in Maplewood, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

The girl disclosed what happened after a teacher noticed her “crying heavily” during a discussion on class rules, one of which instructed students not to let anyone touch their private parts.

Concerned, the teacher asked the girl if she wanted to talk privately about what was causing her emotional response. That’s when the child told her that “Daddy Alim,” who police subsequently identified as Akeem Adebayo Lamina, reportedly took her into his office while she attended classes at his store and shut the door.

Then he would play “disgusting videos” on his cellphone and make her engage in conduct that he made her promise not to tell anyone about, according to criminal charges.

The girl said the conduct took place about five times and told investigators that her father is a friend of Lamina, 51.

The girl’s parents were contacted, and they informed police that their child had been attending classes at the store for about two years.

Her mother recalled an incident when she went to pick up her daughter from classes last  June and found her alone in Lamina’s office with the door closed, according to the complaint. She said Lamina abruptly placed his cellphone face-down on his desk when she entered the room.

St. Paul police received a similar report involving Lamina and another 7-year-child late last month, according to the complaint.

In that incident, the child told a teacher that Lamina had taken her into his office and exposed himself, according to the complaint.

The girl was subsequently brought to the Midwest Children’s Resource Center for an examination, which is when she disclosed details of several other incidents when Lamina sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint. She said the instances happened at both his store and home.

Investigators learned that the child’s mother is friends with Lamina’s wife and that the couple often provided child care for the girl and her two brothers at their St. Paul home, according to the criminal complaint.

Lamina was charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct as well as one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police suspect there could be more victims, and ask anyone with information to call 651-291-1111 to file a report, according to Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.

“Our investigators would like to speak to anyone who believes their children have come into contact with this suspect and was possibly victimized,” Ernster said.

Both Lamina and his wife are listed as owners of 2Ajibola Trading, which is described online as an African grocery store that also sells shoes, bags, jewelry, beads and other wares.

A search warrant filed in the case referred to the classes the girls attended at the store as “Saturday School.”

Lt. Daniel Busack, who oversees investigations for Maplewood police, said the classes take place Saturday afternoons and appear to be “really informal.”

“It’s basically just a network of friends and family who go there to learn Arabic and study the Koran,” he said.

He added that Lamina did not teach the classes.

He encouraged anyone with information or concerns to contact him at 651-249-2607.

Lamina is expected to make his first court appearance on the charges Tuesday. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report. 

A Guatemalan woman deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children, has pleaded guilty to re-entering the United States illegally, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday.

Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 36, entered the guilty plea Monday before Judge Susan Richard Nelson, while also admitting to a charge of falsely using a Social Security number on a Form I-9, which is meant to verify employment eligibility in the United States.

A sentencing date has been set for June 11.

Acting on a tip, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Franco del Cid on Nov. 26 at a residence in Inver Grove Heights. A day earlier, a family member had reported her missing.

In February 2008, Franco del Cid was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood in southwestern Minnesota when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.

After the crash, Franco del Cid gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the U.S. illegally.

During her trial the following August, Franco del Cid told jurors that her boyfriend had been driving the van at the time of the crash, but she said the impact of the crash ejected him from the vehicle and threw her partially into the driver’s seat.

While she was in prison, Franco del Cid began corresponding with a Minnesota man. The couple married in 2009 and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to a court document.

A southern Minnesota police officer who was shot in the head last month while responding to a report of a suspicious person in a backyard is out of intensive care and spent the weekend in an acute care facility, according to an update on CaringBridge.

Waseca officer Arik Matson, 32, left North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale and is at an unspecified facility for longer-term care, his sister-in-law Nicole Matson wrote on a CaringBridge page. She said the hospital had a send-off for Matson before he left.

“Had his pain meds not kicked in about 5 minutes before our send-off, he would have been more awake to see it, but there’s no doubt he knew what was going on,” Nicole Matson wrote.

Arik Matson was shot Jan. 6 while he and other officers were responding to a report of a suspicious person in a backyard. Tyler Janovsky, 37, is charged with multiple counts, including three counts of first-degree attempted murder.

Janovsky has a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday, the Star Tribune reported. A motive hasn’t been disclosed but a search warrant affidavit said Janovsky, who has a violent past, “had discussed his desire and intent to commit ‘suicide by cop.’”

A Cottage Grove police officer assigned as the school resource officer for Park High School is accused of asking for hugs from students and then touching their buttocks and asking one student to send nude photos of herself through Snapchat.

Adam Gentile Pelton, 40, of River Falls, Wis., was charged Tuesday with three counts of felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the alleged touching of seven students from Sept. 1, 2018, to Oct. 4, 2019.

Pelton made his first court appearance Tuesday in Washington County District Court in Stillwater. He was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bond, but is due back in court March 2.

Pelton has been on administrative leave since the investigation began in October 2019, Cottage Grove police said in a statement.

“As soon as allegations were brought forth, (the police department) responded immediately with a preliminary investigation,” the statement read. “Within 24 hours, the case was turned over to an outside agency to conduct an independent investigation.” The city and police department declined further comment.

Pelton’s attorney did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

According to the criminal complaint:

Apple Valley police began investigating on Oct. 4, 2019, after reports were made by several Park High female students of inappropriate sexual contact initiated by Pelton. Investigators learned that seven students at the Cottage Grove school said he repeatedly initiated hugs with them during which he would touch their buttocks over their clothing.

Most of the alleged criminal conduct happened in Pelton’s private office, which did not have video surveillance. The investigation, however, did find video of Pelton initiating hugs with female students in school hallways.

Several students reported that Pelton would often call or refer to them as “beautiful” and “sweetheart.”

One student reported that Pelton called her beautiful and told her if he were her age, he would date her. The student also reported receiving Snapchat messages from Pelton, who used the user name “OfficerPelton86.” In one of the messages, he made lunch plans with her over summer break.

Another student said that Pelton would rest his hand on her buttocks four to five days a week while receiving a hug. She also reported that in May 2019, when she was 17 years old, she received three requests over Snapchat from Pelton to send him nude photographs, which the student never sent.

When questioned during the investigation, Pelton denied touching any student’s buttocks. He initially denied asking any student for nude pictures, but later acknowledged asking one student for such pictures after she graduated from high school “as a joke.”

When an investigator told Pelton she was 17 years old at the time of the request, Pelton did not respond.

At the time the alleged sexual touching, three of the student victims were between the ages of 13 and 15 and four were 16 to 17 years of age, according to the criminal complaint.

The Dakota County attorney’s office is prosecuting the case to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. The investigation was done by Apple Valley police.

According to the attorney’s office, Minnesota law states a person is guilty of a felony offense if the person touches a minor’s intimate parts, which includes touching of buttocks over clothing; and the person is more than 48 months older than and in a position of authority over the minor.

A second-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction carries a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.

Pelton was a part-time firefighter/EMT and community service officer for Cottage Grove before being hired as a police officer in July 2009, according to the city.

Prior to being assigned as school resource officer at Park in September 2018, Pelton was the resource officer at Cottage Grove Middle School from January 2017 to June 2018.

Park Principal Todd Herber notified parents of the charges Tuesday through an email, calling them “both surprising and upsetting. At Park High School, our first priority is the safety and well-being of the children you place in our care.”

A man and woman are charged with aggravated robbery after stealing from a Famous Footwear in Roseville last month and pepper-spraying the employee who confronted them about it.

Authorities say it wasn’t their first time.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office on Tuesday filed criminal complaints against Dajoun Lamarr Coleman, 24, and Brandi Simmone Jefferson, 26.

According to the charging document, the two entered the shoe store in the 2000 block of Snelling Avenue Jan. 17 and walked toward the Nike section.

Coleman reportedly grabbed two boxes of shoes and then left without paying for them, followed closely by Jefferson, who was holding pepper spray in her right hand, the complaint said.

When a 17-year-old followed behind them to confront them about the theft, Jefferson sprayed him with the chemical before she and Coleman climbed into a Chevrolet Impala and fled the scene, according to the criminal charges. The incident was caught on video.

About a week later, the investigating officer got a call from a Maple Grove investigator who said the same couple had stolen products from an Ulta cosmetics store, but noted that in his case Jefferson had sprayed several people with pepper spray despite not being confronted by anyone about the theft first, according to the complaint.

Several of those hit with pepper spray went to the hospital.

A few days later, Coleman called the investigator and admitted to stealing the shoes, but said he was so drunk at the time that he couldn’t recall who he was with at the time or what happened afterward, according to the charges.

Coleman received a departure in a different aggravated robbery case he was sentenced in this past June and given credit for the 154 days in jail he served in the case and placed on probation for four years, according to the complaint.

Jefferson has three prior felony theft convictions.

Both Jefferson and Coleman were charged via warrant. No attorney was listed for them in court records.

A Twin Cities personal injury attorney has pleaded guilty to defrauding auto insurance companies by making false health care claims.

William Sutor III enter the plea Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. Sutor was accused of working with chiropractors to bill insurance companies for treatments that he knew the patient never received.

In June 2015, a so-called runner brought Sutor a prospective client. The following April, Sutor submitted a letter to the insurance company falsely stating the client, who was actually an undercover agent, had received chiropractic treatment totaling $24,000 to settle a bodily injury claim, the Star Tribune reported.

The plea deal has prosecutors asking for 10 to 16 months, plus up to $55,000 in fines and $14,600 in restitution.

An escapee from a state-operated psychiatric hospital is charged with stealing a police squad car in Anoka County.

Mattu Chuol, 23, left the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center without permission last Thursday, according to prosecutors.

Officers arrived and found Chuol walking along a sidewalk. The Star Tribune says he spotted the squad car and took off.

One officer got out of her squad and began pursuing Chuol. Authorities say that’s when he jumped into her car and took off. A few blocks later he stopped in the middle of the road and surrendered.

Chuol was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in December in two cases in Blue Earth County, one involving burglary and another for threatening violence and obstructing a police officer.

Chuol is now charged in Anoka County District Court with felony vehicle theft. It’s not clear whether he has hired a defense attorney.

As president of the Grand Avenue Business Association, Bob Lawrence is feeling confident that the Grand Old Day parade and street festival will return to St. Paul on June 7. Lawrence envisions a high school battle of the bands, oversize helium balloons, local restaurant booths and maybe a youth circus, wrestling and roller-derby performers.

And to keep the expected 200,000 spectators safe?

According to the city of St. Paul, that will require hiring 57 police officers, at costs that have more than doubled in three years. Grand Old Day’s security price tag totaled $20,285 in 2017, $20,530 in 2018 and $27,974 last year.

This year, policing Grand Old Day is projected to cost GABA $48,700. It’s an expense that has Lawrence wondering if there are any discounts, especially for an event that was almost called off in 2019 due to financial challenges.

“I have no idea how many cops should be here,” said Lawrence, a State Farm Insurance agent and former U.S. Army field medic. “If they say 57, I’m with them 100 percent. But give us a little love and help us out. I’d like to see the city recognize the additional revenue we’re bringing in and give us a little offset.”

‘THE WORLD HAS CHANGED’

Across St. Paul, street festivals are singing a similar tune.

Events that got by for years hiring off-duty St. Paul police officers as independent security contractors are now required to funnel requests through the St. Paul Police Department, which approves security plans and sets staffing expectations.

The changes apply to any events drawing 1,000 or more people to city streets and parks.

They come in the wake of incidents that have targeted public gatherings around the world, such as the mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival in 2017 and a motorist who drove into a street protest in Charlottesville, Va., the same year.

“Because the world has changed we have to adapt new practices,” said Assistant Police Chief Robert Thomasser. “The police department is planning these events to deal with threats that didn’t exist before.”

The department is not making money from the change — “this does not increase our budget or fund other initiatives,” Thomasser said. “This really has been an expectation of the (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security for these events.”

BUDGET BUSTER

For some St. Paul events, hiring dozens of city officers at time-and-a-half pay amounts to a budget buster.

Highland Fest, a neighborhood tradition for 36 years, confirmed last weekend that it will not return to Highland Park this year, citing security costs as a significant factor.

“Funding is almost nonexistent for festivals,” Antrim said. “Rice Street, we’re on total hiatus. We have some great sponsors in the North End, but I do think they’re a bit lower. City Cultural STAR grants are highly competitive. You can (receive them) for three years, but you have to match the grant, and after three years you have to take a year off.”

ORGANIZERS CONCERNED ACROSS ST. PAUL

St. Paul Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said using on-duty officers isn’t just a question of staffing.

The police department made the decision, with the mayor’s support, in part due to liability concerns. Off-duty officers don’t necessarily have access to legal representation from the city attorney’s office in the event of a lawsuit, though they may if an arrest took place or they were engaged in stopping a crime.

Tincher said the increased costs were raised as a concern last year at a board meeting of Visit St. Paul, the city visitors bureau, around the time of the annual LuckyPalooza street party on West Seventh Street.

She said the mayor’s office wants to convene stakeholders such as Visit St. Paul, the Downtown Alliance and the St. Paul Festival Association to take a hard look at the actual costs of putting up police barricades and creating security plans, and to think of solutions.

“Are we effectively using police reserves? Is that a cheaper solution? Would that conversation lead us to a financing source for the city that could be tapped into?” Tincher said.

The police costs are just the latest price increase that festivals face — and it’s an expensive one, said Steve Heckler, board chair of the St. Paul Festival Association. Heckler, who puts on the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, and the Lowertown Blues & Funk Fest, said he’s expecting officer costs for each of his events to go from about $8,000 to nearly $14,000.

“In my mind, this is not one problem, but a barrage of things that have happened,” Heckler said.

In his 22 years of planning the music festivals, he said prices for staging and production have gone up incrementally, but he estimates that costs from the city have more than tripled.

About 10 organizers responded to a questionnaire last year from the Festival Association and “many are having concerns about what their events are going to look like in a few years with these costs,” according to Heckler.

For example, to close down a city street, festivals have to pay for all the parking meters on the streets for the times that vehicles could be parked there. As St. Paul has raised meter prices, that cost has become more significant, Heckler said.

They’ve also seen increases for trash collection, plus new costs to put up concrete barriers at closed streets.

The police department started requiring them after high-profile instances elsewhere of people driving into crowds. Heckler said he doesn’t question the safety need for the barricades, but it’s another cost.

The St. Paul Festival Association plans to seek a meeting with representatives from City Hall and the police department to see if any of the fees can be lowered.

“We love that people can come downtown and enjoy the new restaurants and music and see the venues and how cool downtown is,” Heckler said. “I think the city and the county need to assess the value of these festivals bringing people together and bringing in business.”

City Council Member Rebecca Noecker — whose ward is home to various festivals downtown, on the West Side, in the West Seventh and Summit Hill neighborhoods — said it’s important that fees cover the true costs to the city. Otherwise it would fall to taxpayers.

Noecker said she will be sponsoring an ordinance, brought forward by the police department, that would increase the cost for permit fees to accurately reflect the staff time that police are spending developing security and traffic management plans.

She said she plans to talk to event organizers before finalizing the proposal.

HOW TO COVER THE COSTS?

St. Paul festivals are usually run by nonprofits and mostly free to attend, so organizers don’t have the option of raising ticket prices, Heckler said.

The St. Paul Classic Bike Tour saw their costs for police go from about $21,513 to $38,143 for the 25th annual event in September, said Dorian Grilley, executive director of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.

The Bicycle Alliance used funds from its operating reserve to cover the difference, but that can’t happen every year, Grilley said.

He said they’ll have to see if they can seek slightly more funding from major donors, and they may have to increase the registration fee — which was $44 for adults last year — by $3 to $5 for the 5,000-plus people who participate.

“As expenses increase for our events,” Schaber said in a written statement, “we are forced to make hard decisions about cutting traditional events, and finding unique ways to create revenue.”

WASECA, Minn. — Bail has been set at $3 million for a man accused of gravely wounding a southern Minnesota police officer in an exchange of gunfire in January.

Uniformed officers from Waseca County and Waseca joined dozens of others in a courtroom Tuesday where Tyler Janovsky made an appearance on three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Janovsky is accused of shooting Arik Matson in the head and shooting at two other officers who responded to a report of a suspicious person roaming backyards in Waseca on Jan. 6. Officers returned fire and Janovksy also was injured.

Janovsky, 37, was wheeled into the courtroom with a cast around his foot. When Judge Carol Hanks asked him if he understood his rights and if he had any questions about the proceedings, he quietly responded with a “Yes, your honor” and a “No, your honor,” Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

According to Matson’s CaringBridge web page, he is out of intensive care.

The $3 million bail would be for release without conditions attached. The judge also set a $2 million bail option with several conditions, including that Janovsky have no contact with Matson, his family or Waseca police officers.

Hanks also set bail on a separate drug case against Janovsky at $500,000 with no conditions or $250,000 with the condition that Janovsky wear ankle monitoring and submit to future drug tests.

Janovsky’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 14.

A St. Paul police officer badly injured by an assailant during an arrest last summer said she had a message for the public after leaving the man’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.

“I just think it’s important the public know that things are changing and more officers are being assaulted,” Shannon Diedrich said.

When asked what she believes is the cause, Diedrich cited lighter sentences for offenders who she believes get sent back into the community too early, and the “negative atmosphere” police work in these days.

However, Diedrich said she was pleased with the sentence Ramsey County District Judge Judith Tilsen gave to the man who hurt her last August.

Tilsen sentenced Julius Tasha, 32, to three years of probation on one felony count of fourth-degree assault that resulted in demonstrable bodily harm to the officer. He also served 99 days in jail.

His attorney, Jenna Campion, had argued for her client be sentenced at a gross-misdemeanor level because he never intended to hurt Diedrich and struggles with mental health issues.

“My client still believes he is an FBI agent,” Campion told the judge. She added that he also recently believed he was being inhabited by an alien.

“The conduct in this case is significantly different then someone who just walks up to an officer and punches her,” Campion said. “The resulting harm, the level of harm, was not intended.

Tasha, who was homeless at the time, had stolen food from a Speedway in downtown St. Paul’s Lowertown area when Diedrich, who was working off-duty at the convenience store, grabbed his shirt and told him to put them back.

Instead, Tasha punched her repeatedly in the face and ran.

Diedrich pursued him, and they wrestled on the ground. He later bit another officer who was trying to take him into custody.

Diedrich was left with marks on her face, arm, hand and knee, and was taken to Regions Hospital for treatment.

She told the court Tuesday that the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury that rendered for unable to get out of bed for a time. It kept her out of work for three months, which added considerable stress for her and her wife as she is the primary breadwinner of  their family.

She now lives with chronic pain, vision problems, and finds herself stuttering and unable to think as clearly as she once could.

“My brain will never be the same,” she said, adding that “not being able to care for your family makes you feel weak and vulnerable.”

She has since returned to full-time work for the police department.

“I love my job, but this has affected the way I do my job,” she said.

Tasha apologized for what he did when he got a chance to speak.

“What I did was very wrong,” he said, adding that police should be treated with respect.

“That is what we have out there, is police, that’s all we got,” he said.

Deidrich said after the hearing that she was glad Tilsen wasn’t swayed by the defense’s attempt to secure a shorter probation period of Tasha.

“I am glad he got the felony,” she said. “I think my statement made a difference.”

A fourth person has been arrested in connection with the death of a real estate agent on New Year’s Eve, according Minneapolis police.

A 38-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Hennepin County Jail on suspicion of murder in the death of Monique Baugh.

Prosecutors allege the 28-year-old Baugh was lured to a Maple Grove home that was for sale. She was kidnapped and shot to death, her body was found with her hands bound by tape in a north Minneapolis alley on Dec. 31.

Her boyfriend was shot in the couple’s Minneapolis home with their two young daughters present but survived.

Search warrant affidavits tied Baugh’s killing to a suspected drug rivalry between her boyfriend and one of the accused.

Police spokesman John Elder declined to say how the fourth person arrested may have been involved.

It is not uncommon to find drunks, drug users and vagrants passed out or using Twin Cities light-rail trains as a toilet — and not just after hours.

That was what two train operators told a group of lawmakers Wednesday, saying they often fear for their safety and are disgusted by the behavior they see.

One morning, commuters boarded a train to see a man passed out with his penis in his hand, said Honey Darling, a light-rail operator.

“This is ‘Welcome to the Twin Cities,’ ” Darling said. She added that riders are often greeted by “used, bloody needles” and “half-naked people” when they board the train.

Darling said the Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit have been too slow to react to a string of complaints from workers.

“I love my job … it’s embarrassing,” she said. “I am embarrassed and, I’m sorry, but the Met Council should be ashamed. This is humiliating.”

Reports of serious crime, like assault and robbery, have risen more than 20 percent on trains and buses since 2015, Metro Transit data show. For instance, there were 125 aggravated assaults reported through October of 2019 compared with 50 reports in 2015.

Metro Transit operates two light-rail lines in the metro, the Blue Line that connects downtown Minneapolis with the Mall of America and the Green Line that connects downtown Minneapolis with downtown St. Paul. Both have seen their ridership grow since starting service, the Blue Line first in 2004 and the Green Line in 2014. On an average weekday, there are 42,500 rides taken on the Green Line alone.

LAWMAKERS SHOW CONCERN

Fellow light-rail operator Jeff Ziegler, who moved from Ohio to Coon Rapids to work for Metro Transit, said some nights he worries he’ll end up in the hospital. “I cannot calm down due to the trauma I experience on the job,” he said.

Some lawmakers on the Legislative Commission on Metropolitan Government appeared shocked to hear of the conditions on the light-rail trains. The fatal stabbing of a man in January on the Blue Line was mentioned a number of times.

“I’m very concerned about the safety of your workplace,” said Sen. Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, who urged train operators to file complaints with the state Department of Labor.

When the Legislature convenes next week, improving safety on transit is expected to be a top priority. But Democrats and Republicans have expressed very different ideas about how to go about it.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled House is expected to debate a bill that would hire a new force of “transit ambassadors” who would be able to write citations for fare evasion and would work to make trains safer. The proposal also includes decriminalizing fare skipping, making it a petty misdemeanor.

State Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, who chairs the House transportation committee, said lawmakers were committed to passing legislation to make transit safer.

“We need to make sure we have a very good and safe system,” he said.

Republicans have sought more police on trains and buses. They also want new criminal penalties for people who loiter at transit stops.

TRANSIT OPERATOR AWARE

Judd Schetnan, Met Council government affairs director, said leaders were aware of the situation and working to improve it. He noted that initiatives the council and Metro Transit are considering will require long-term funding.

“This is very difficult for us to hear as well,” Schetnan said. “We take safety very seriously. Frankly, we need your help to achieve some of the things we are pursuing.”

The commission meeting almost didn’t happen. Minutes after it began Wednesday, Democratic members moved to unseat the Republican chair, Rep. Jon Koznick of Lakeville.

Their motion was called out of order and “political” and after a recess, the meeting continued. At the end of the session, Koznick resigned his chairmanship and DFL Rep. Sandra Masin, of Eagan, was picked to lead the commission.

A Wisconsin high school teacher facing federal child pornography charges was charged Wednesday in Minnesota with trying to secretly record students in their Minneapolis hotel rooms on a business club trip.

Hennepin County prosecutors charged David Kruchten, 37, of Cottage Grove, Wis., with three felony counts of interfering with the privacy of a minor under 18.

Kruchten is a teacher at Madison East High School and was chaperoning students on a trip to Minneapolis in December. Authorities allege Kruchten hid cameras in a smoke detector and two air fresheners planted in students’ hotel bathrooms at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis.

Kruchten was indicted  by a federal grand jury on child pornography charges last week. Minnesota authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kruchten, who is being held in Wisconsin.

According to the Minnesota complaint, the alleged victims were all girls between the ages of 15 and 17.

Minneapolis police were called to the hotel on Dec. 8 on an invasion of privacy call and learned that “suspicious surveillance devices” were found in three rooms where “multiple teenagers” were staying for a conference. Officers learned that Kruchten had delivered two air freshener canisters — later determined to contain surveillance cameras — to the front desk.

Kruchten told hotel staff that the devices were in the cabinet of student rooms instead of that the devices actually were found positioned in bathrooms “in places where the likely intent was to capture sexual imagery,” the complaint said.

The automatic air fresheners and a smoke detector were “oriented to face toward the toilet and shower area. One of the victims noticed an air freshener on her bathroom counter and went to press a button that she believed would activate the spray. When she pressed it, the device opened up to reveal the inner workers of a surveillance camera and other related electronics,” the complaint said.

The students in those three rooms reported their rooms were not cleaned on Saturday, Dec. 7, and that the devices were found that night. A member of the hotel cleaning staff told investigators a man who matched Kruchten’s description said that the rooms did not need to be cleaned, according to the complaint.

Kruchten told investigators he had removed some thermostats from walls in the rooms of the students and had given the thermostats and a smoke detector to a security guard, but his description of the guard’s uniform did not match what hotel staff wears, the complaint said.

Police found that the air fresheners had been modified to hold tiny cameras and battery packs. The other devices were never found. Officers searched Kruchten’s cellphone and found he had an account with a company that sold electronic equipment and had purchased surveillance cameras built to look like smoke detectors, air fresheners and thermostats, according to the complaint.

Kruchten was placed on leave in December after the students found the hidden cameras and the investigation was launched. Kruchten has taught in the Madison district since 2008, most recently as a business education and marketing instructor, according to his LinkedIn biography. He was listed as the assistant girls tennis coach on the high school’s website.

Minnesota court records do not list a defense attorney who could comment on Kruchten’s behalf. Kruchten’s attorney on the federal charges, Joseph Bugni, declined to comment Wednesday, but earlier said he’ll build a defense around authorities’ failure to recover any images from Kruchten’s devices.