Hennepin and Ramsey counties are abandoning plans to build a joint center for delinquent youth following public outcry that the proposal was not in the best interest of teens and ignored the will of the community.

Hennepin and Ramsey will continue to discuss how they might collaborate on programs to better serve area juveniles who run into legal trouble, Ramsey County commissioners said.

The decision came a week after a tense and loud public meeting held in Richfield on the proposed merger. Some in the audience held signs and chanted slogans articulating their opposition to the process and discussion to date.

Several threatened to shut down future public meetings scheduled across both counties as well.

Hennepin and Ramsey officials have been meeting for the past couple years on how they might work together to improve and broaden services for delinquent teens in the metro area. Part of the discussion included building a joint facility to replace Ramsey County’s Boys Totem Town facility and Hennepin’s Home School.

No final decision had been reached on the merger or where such a facility might be built, but an architect had been hired to begin predesign work. That roughly $240,000 contract will now be terminated.

“I wasn’t at the Richfield meeting, but the feeling around the table (Wednesday) was that, unfortunately, the messaging around this (merger) … wasn’t focused on what it should be, which is how to provide the best continuum of services for our kids,” said Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega.

Ramsey County Commissioner Jim McDonough said the building had become “a distraction” to the counties’ broader intent on how to get best help for kids in the community while keeping the public safe. McDonough added that intense emotions and misinformation about the plans complicated the ability to have productive public discussion.

“I had people telling me not to build a 160-bed prison. Well, no one was ever thinking anything like that … but that was one of the perceptions out there,” he said.

McDonough added that both counties are committed to doing a better job of taking care of juveniles who wade into the criminal justice system and that talks to date between Hennepin and Ramsey will still help both do that.

OPPONENTS OF MERGER CELEBRATE 

Damon Drake, a vocal opponent of the building merger and a past employee at Totem Town, called the decision to abandon building plans “great news.”

Drake is also a member of In Equality, a community group that had mobilized against the plan.

“Throughout this whole process, we were told our efforts were a nonstarter, that we should just get used to this and that this facility was going to be built, … so, for me, this is a very big win for the community,” Drake said.

The biggest flaw with the plan was that the community wasn’t included early enough in the discussion, Drake continued.

He said any plans for changes to the local juvenile system need to address the disproportionate rate of kids of color within it, do a better job of keeping teens close to their communities and make sure that juveniles are not treated the same as adults.

Drake added that it never made sense for the counties to build a larger facility given the decline each has seen in the number of youth served. He also pointed out that the collective narrative coming out of the research community is that detaining kids in locked facilities often just leads to reoffending.

Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman has been against the merger since the outset.

Rettman cheered the news last Wednesday and said she hopes it can be a lesson to both counties about the importance of public engagement.

“It’s easy to say we read this report or we’ve done that or we’re going to look at that other thing and then we’ll take it all to the community to see what they think. … No, community first, people come first,” Rettman said. “They should be a part of the solution at the outset not after some groundwork has been laid about where somebody wants to go.”

FUTURE OF JUVENILE SYSTEM UNCERTAIN

Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter said best outcomes for juveniles was always the driver for her and her colleagues on the board but that somehow that mission and commitment got lost in translation.

“We may have been having one conversation about services and alternatives to prevent out-of-home placement, but if we … (were) unable to connect that with the other conversation about replacing an outdated and inadequate facility then we need to listen to our community and find a different way to have that (discussion),” Carter said. “So that is what we are doing.”

None of the commissioners reached said they know what comes next for Totem Town in light of the development or when its ultimate fate will be decided. Some said it still undoubtedly needs to be replaced; one said it should at least be updated.

The building, located on more than 80 acres in St. Paul’s Highwood Hills neighborhood, is more than 100 years old and has significant maintenance needs, staff have said.

Hennepin’s counterpart, Home School, also needs repair.

That reality, combined with gaps each county has in its youth programming, propelled the merger discussion.

Hennepin’s program, for example, serves girls and sex offenders, while Totem Town offers after-care and day treatment options.

By combining, the thinking was, the two counties could offer a broader spectrum of services to all area-youth instead of sending some out of the region or state to get their needs met.

Ramsey County sent more than 100 kids outside the county for services in 2016, according to county data.

Those discussions on how the two can work together to plug holes in the system will continue, commissioners said.

The Ramsey County Board is expected to receive a report on those findings in the weeks to come, staff and commissioners said. From there, the county will likely decide its next steps.

A University of Minnesota police officer was charged with assault Thursday after allegedly putting his hands on a woman during an altercation during a traffic incident last summer in St. Paul.

Phillip Jack Lombardi, 49, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of fifth-degree assault and one count of disorderly conduct for the July 8 incident, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

All three charges are misdemeanors.

A woman was walking in a crosswalk near Smith Avenue and Chestnut Street in St. Paul when a car suddenly turned the corner and nearly struck her, the complaint said.

Frustrated, she told officers she kicked the vehicle, leading to a verbal exchange between her and the driver, Lombardi. She said Lombardi then drove a short distance ahead, got out his car, came toward her and “extended one arm toward her neck and grabbed her,” the complaint said.

Lombardi reportedly ran off after a passer-by started yelling at him.

A witness was able to take a photo of him as well as his license plate to provide to police.

When later questioned about the incident with the woman, Lombardi said he was a police officer with the University of Minnesota and that he hadn’t “grabbed her by the throat” but had instead “placed (his right arm) on the victim’s shoulder and moved her backwards,” the complaint said.

He added that he only had his hand on her for “a second,” and that he left after the woman started screaming because he was scared of getting caught in the middle of a crowd.

He said the confrontation took place after the woman kicked the front panel of his car. He said the kick did not appear to damage the vehicle.

A witness said he heard Lombardi and the woman arguing loudly before he saw Lombardi follow her on the sidewalk and eventually “(grab) her by the neck,” the complaint said.

The physical contact allegedly caused a bruise under the woman’s collarbone.

Lombardi could not be immediately reached for comment. A 13-year veteran of the department, Lombardi has been placed on paid leave, university officials said.

He has no known criminal record in Minnesota.

The case was investigated by a sergeant with the Dakota County sheriff’s office because the woman is an employee of the city of St. Paul.

New charges have been filed against former University of Wisconsin-Madison student Alec Cook, bringing to 10 the number of women accusing the Twin Cities native of sexually preying on them.

Cook, 20, of Edina already was charged in October in a 15-count sexual assault case involving five women. One more woman is now accusing him of sexually assaulting her, and four women allege disorderly conduct or that he stalked them on campus, according to an amended criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Dane County Circuit Court.

Cook is generally accused of sexually going too fast, too far and in some cases violently with female students he met at parties, campus recreation centers or in classes. One woman accused him of repeatedly groping her during a ballroom dance class.

The new charges involve a woman accusing him of stalking her at a college library over several months; a woman who says he stalked her from a business class they were both in; a woman who says she had never seen him before he groped her on a sidewalk in front of thousands of other students and followed her as she walked home from class; a woman who worked at a recreational facility on campus and accused him of grabbing, twirling and dipping her; and a woman who said Cook approached her at Festival Foods and asked her personal and sexually suggestive questions she considered “very upsetting” and “disturbing.”

Attorneys for the senior business major, who was suspended from the university and banned from campus following his initial arrest, filed a motion last week asking a judge to reduce the $200,000 bail he’s been held on at the Dane County Jail since October so he could be released on a signature bond and return to his home in Minnesota.

Cook’s attorneys initially agreed to $200,000 bail because they didn’t want Cook to have to come back from Minnesota to face more charges that prosecutors said in October they intended to file soon, one of Cook’s attorneys, Jessa Nicholson Goetz, told the Journal Sentinel

When no charges had been filed by Dec. 7, the attorneys sought a signature bond for his release. They noted in their motion that Cook had cooperated fully with police — surrendering voluntarily as the initial 15 charges were being compiled in October. “He has no criminal record and no history of flight, no failures to appear,” the motion said.

Cook is to appear in Dane County Circuit Court on Friday for a bail hearing. Goetz said Thursday that she believes the new charges do not warrant keeping him in jail on a $200,000 cash bail.

“We intend to file a motion to dismiss a number of the counts,” she said. “In particular, the stalking charges are quite weak.”

Goetz said that it’s her understanding all charges involving women who came forward to police after news of Cook’s arrest for sexual assault in October have been filed.

A 23-year-old man started his car to warm it up Thursday in St. Paul, ran inside to grab his backpack and came back less than a minute later to find it gone.

Soon after, the car was found abandoned at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. A woman had driven the car into a passenger drop-off lane, left it there and ran inside. Police located the suspect, a 33-year-old woman from Phoenix, as she attempted to go through security screening and arrested her, according to a criminal complaint.

There were 33 vehicles stolen in St. Paul between Dec. 1 and mid-day on Dec. 16, after people left them running and unattended. That prompted police to issue a reminder Friday.

“A few minutes of being cold is better than being without your car all day or a week,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

In an eight-hour stretch of Friday alone, three running vehicles were stolen in St. Paul — from the McDonald’s on Rice Street at 12:25 a.m., from Selby and Cretin avenues at 3 a.m., and from Mohawk and Stillwater avenues at 8:20 a.m.

There were at least four instances Thursday, including the 2008 Nissan Sentra that was stolen from the 600 block of Lawson Avenue about 8:35 a.m., which was found at the airport. The woman arrested was charged with motor vehicle theft.

“These are crimes of opportunity,” Linders said. “In many cases, it’s someone who may be waiting for a bus or walking to a destination and they see an easier, warmer way to get there, so they take advantage of it. In other instances, the cars are driven by the thieves for longer periods of time.”

Police are asking people to stay with their running cars and not give thieves an opportunity. Officers in St. Paul can cite people who leave their vehicles running and unattended.

Even when people stay near running vehicles, they’ve been stolen. On Dec. 10 about 6 a.m., a 43-year-old man went outside to start his and his wife’s vehicles. He got in his car and was looking down at his cellphone when a man jumped in his wife’s car and started driving, Linders said.

The man drove after the thief, following him from Hoyt Avenue and Edgerton Street for more than half a mile. The thief stopped and got out of the car, and the man whose wife’s car was stolen ran after him. He caught the thief but was not able to hold onto him, Linders said.

“It shows you how quickly these thefts can happen,” Linders said.

In the first 11 months of this year, 1,688 vehicles were stolen in St. Paul, which was 33 more vehicles than the same time last year, according to police department statistics.

The police department’s Eastern District saw the most cars stolen through the end of November, though it was down 1.5 percent from last year.

Auto theft increased 7.8 percent in the Western District and was up 0.7 percent in the Central District.

A Stillwater woman has been acquitted of a charge she engaged in prostitution at a massage business.

Yuanfen Liu, 52, was charged in September 2015 with prostitution in a public place, the Nirvana Massage and Spa in Lake Elmo. A Washington County district court jury delivered a not-guilty verdict Nov. 22.

Liu was charged after an undercover detective followed up on a tip that illegal activity was happening at the business.

A suspended UW-Madison student accused of sexual assault, stalking or harassment of 10 women was released from the Dane County Jail on Friday after his bail was cut in half at a hearing earlier in the day.

Alec Cook, 20, of Edina, Minn., was released after his parents posted $100,000 bail, which was set at a hearing Friday morning before Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn.

After the hearing, Cook’s lawyers, Chris Van Wagner and Jessa Nicholson, criticized an amended criminal complaint that was filed Thursday against Cook, which they said unfairly gives the impression that Cook’s bad behavior was escalating, and adds new charges against Cook that are nothing like those that prosecutors said in October that they expected to add.

“We took them at their word,” Van Wagner said, explaining why he and Nicholson didn’t initially challenge the original $200,000 bail that has kept Cook in jail since October. “Their word has been shown to be almost completely untrue.”

He said that by adding the charges it appears that prosecutors “took the dare” presented in Cook’s bail motion filed last week, which pointed out that no new charges had been added since October.

“What did they give you? Disorderly conduct? These aren’t the charges they threatened,” Van Wagner said. “They fed the media frenzy and the social media firestorm with the specter of horribly many more cases coming in. It didn’t happen.”

Assistant Attorney General Michelle Viste, who argued the state’s case at the bail hearing, declined to comment after the hearing.

Cook initially faced sexual assault, false imprisonment and other charges related to a single incident on Oct. 13 at Cook’s apartment. More charges related to other women were added in late October, when Cook was charged with 11 counts of sexual assault related to five women.

On Thursday, prosecutors filed an amended criminal complaint that added two counts of stalking, three counts of disorderly conduct and one count of fourth-degree sexual assault, related to five other women.

In court Friday, Nicholson said the comparison of Cook’s case to others supported reducing his bail to a signature bond. She argued that despite the number charges against him, he was not at risk of failing to appear in court. She said he would live with his parents in Minnesota.

Viste, citing the amended criminal complaint, said that Cook’s behavior had escalated over time, from an alleged sexual assault in March 2015, leading to instances of harassment and stalking of women before other incidents of sexual assault more recently.

“This is not under any circumstance what anyone might call date rape,” Viste said. “These are serious offenses committed by a serial rapist.”

Viste said that the potential total penalty of more than 343 years of combined prison and extended supervision makes Cook a risk not to appear in court, and asked Bailey-Rihn to set bail at $500,000.

Bailey-Rihn said that while Cook is innocent at this point, a signature bond was not appropriate in the case because of the violent allegations and Cook’s current lack of ties to Dane County. She said the allegation, stated in the complaint, that he told a woman that he had “let go of societal norms a long time ago,” also weighed in favor of cash bail.

In addition to setting $100,000 bail, Bailey-Rihn ordered Cook to surrender his passport; banned him from coming to Dane County except for court hearings, meetings with his lawyers or UW administrative hearings; not use social media or dating websites and to be accompanied by a parent when he visits Dane County. He is also to only be in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

UW-Madison issued an email alert Friday telling students to call 911 if Cook is seen on campus.

A preliminary hearing, originally set for Dec. 27, was pushed back to Jan. 20. Van Wagner said that he and Nicholson will file motions to dismiss the case before the preliminary hearing. They also may seek to move Cook’s trial outside Dane County, citing the possibility of a tainted jury pool, Van Wagner said.

Ten University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football players have been suspended following accusations of sexual assault by a female student.

On Friday, documents leaked to KSTP-TV provided the most detailed accounts yet of the sexual encounter that started all this and why the U reached its decisions. Many will find it disturbing.

A day earlier, players — perhaps the entire roster — promised to “boycott all football activities,” including the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl, until the suspensions are lifted. The university is standing by its decision. Meanwhile, the boycott has put the Holiday Bowl organizers in a bind.

There’s a lot that led up to this that we know about. And there’s plenty we don’t know or are just learning.

Here are the facts.

HOW DID THIS ALL START?

Sept. 2, a sexual incident occurred between a 22-year-old female student and multiple football players and a high school recruit. It happened hours after the Gophers season opener at TCF Bank Stadium. She said it was sexual assault. She went to an area hospital to have a rape kit examination, and reported the incident to Minneapolis police the next day. A number of players, their attorney and family members have said publicly or to police that it was consensual.

WHAT HAPPENED?

It started with the woman, a player and the recruit in a room and then became a prolonged sexual encounter between the woman and between 10 and 20 football players, with males lined up outside an apartment bedroom. That’s according to 23 pages of Minneapolis police reports and an 80-page report from the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action posted by KSTP.

She said she was drunk and her memory was hazy and included gaps. Both the U and Minneapolis police said early parts of the encounter appeared to have been consensual. The woman said that what followed — more men and more sexual contact — was rape. At various times over what might have lasted more than an hour, she said she tried to end the encounter, verbally and physically, but was prevented. Players denied this. The university largely agreed with her, finding her accounts more credible than the players’ denials. Hennepin County prosecutors have declined to press charges.

Examining players’ text messages that chronicled parts of the incident and referred to women with derogatory terms, university investigators concluded there existed a “collective effort by (some) accused students to deny this potentially sexually harassing activity.”

WHAT’S THE STATUS OF THE PLAYERS?

Of the 10 who have been suspended indefinitely, five have been recommended for expulsion — Ray Buford, Carlton Djam, KiAnte Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson, according to an attorney representing them.

The players up for a one-year suspension are Kobe McCrary, Mark Williams, Seth Green and Antoine Winfield Jr.

Antonio Shenault is being considered for probation.

Many of the players have been prevented from playing in various games this season as a result of prior fallout from the incident.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The U’s disciplinary process has not completely played out. Players can appeal, and their attorney has said they plan to. In the meantime, on the football side, it’s unclear whether the U, which finished its season 8-4, will play in the Holiday Bowl. On Friday, Gov. Mark Dayton attempted to diffuse the boycott threat, urging that players and President Eric Kaler meet “face to face.”

RAPE IS A CRIME. HAS ANYONE BEEN CHARGED?

No. Various people representing the players — including attorneys and players’ families, have disputed various aspects of the woman’s account. Some have said it was consensual. Hennepin County prosecutors declined to prosecute, saying in a statement: “There is insufficient admissible evidence for prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either force was used, or that the victim was physically helpless as defined by law in a sexual encounter.”

WHY SUSPENSIONS BUT NO CHARGES?

That’s impossible to answer fully because the university has said privacy laws prevent officials from discussing details. However, we do know that the U’s process for discipline and a court’s process for criminal convictions differ. Court convictions are based on guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” while the U’s threshold is based on a “preponderance of evidence” — a lower bar. In the end, the U concluded the disciplined players violated aspects of university policies, including “sexual assault, stalking and relationship violence,” “sexual harassment” and a section of the student conduct code relating to integrity. These are different from crimes.

WAS THE INCIDENT RECORDED?

Yes. This was revealed when six players — the initial four plus Kiondre Thomas and Carlton Djam — were served with restraining orders in October that prevented the players from entering TCF Bank Stadium.  At least one of the restraining orders alleged sharing of explicit recordings of the encounter. No recordings have been made public, but on Friday we learned that the recordings appear to capture only the early parts of the incident.

WASN’T THIS WHOLE THING SETTLED?

Yes and no. The restraining orders were lifted in November after the woman and the players reached an agreement. Under the agreement, the players and the petitioner are to have no contact while she attends the University of Minnesota. In addition, the players agreed not to file civil lawsuits against the woman. The settlement was reached after a morning of testimony and about 90 minutes of afternoon discussions between the parties involved: the petitioner, the players, their attorneys and Hennepin County Judge Mel Dickson. Afterward, the woman said: “I’m glad this is over. … This has never been about punishing anyone. I just wanted to feel safe. Because of the resolution we came to, now I can.” However, that settlement doesn’t appear to have prevented the U from taking action.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE WOMAN?

She’s a  a 22-year-old female student involved in game-day operations at TCF Bank Stadium. Her name and other details have not been published, as is common with cases involving allegations of sexual assault. Unlike the players named, she hasn’t been disciplined or formally accused of any wrongdoing by any authorities.

A Minneapolis attorney criticized for flooding the court system with hundreds of porn copyright and disability lawsuits was indicted along with his partner Friday in federal court in connection with what prosecutors say was a multimillion dollar fraud case.

Paul Hansmeier, 35, of Minneapolis and Illinois attorney John Steele, 45, were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit perjury and suborn (persuading someone to commit) perjury, conspiracy to commit money laundering, 10 counts of wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud.

They are accused of using “sham entities” under their control to obtain copyrights to pornographic movies that were uploaded to file-sharing websites. The attorneys then filed copyright infringement lawsuits to identify people who downloaded the files. They then threatened those users with lawsuits, prompting many of them to settle for thousands of dollars each, court documents said.

Hansmeier and Steele obtained about $6 million between 2011 and 2014 though such settlements, according to the indictment.

Andrew Luger, the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, called Hansmeier and Steele’s conduct “outrageous” and an abuse of “their positions of trust,” in a statement.

“They used deceptive lawsuits and unsuspecting judges to extort millions from vulnerable defendants,” Luger said.

When officials began to question Hansmeier and Steele’s tactics, the two attorneys “repeatedly lied and caused others to lie in order to conceal the true nature of their scheme,” the indictment said.

Hansmeier is a 2007 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. He also was involved in a rash of Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits targeted by state lawmakers this spring.

Business groups and others claimed Hansmeier targeted minor infractions of the federal ADA law and Minnesota Human Rights Act in an attempts to line his pockets.

Last spring Hansmeier said he made only enough money through disability suits to “keep the lights on” in his Minneapolis law firm. He said he believed his legal actions increased access for the disabled — and sent a message to businesses that aren’t well-designed to allow all customers what they need.

Lawmakers passed a bill during the 2016 session that provided additional defenses for businesses being sued for ADA violations. The new law also provides a standard form for violation notifications sent out before lawsuits are filed, though it does not require notifications to be sent.

A chronology of key events leading up to the threat by University of Minnesota football players to boycott the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl over the suspension of several players:

• Sept. 2: The day after opening the season, several players engage in sex with a woman in the early morning hours at an apartment building near campus. That evening, the woman’s mother calls Minneapolis police to report that her daughter may have been sexually assaulted.
• Sept. 3: The woman meets with police, describes the events of the night before, including going out after drinking five to six shots of vodka. In a police report, she describes going to Carlton Djam’s apartment and having sex with him and roommate Tamarion Johnson. The woman describes several people watching, and her yelling to stop sending people into the room “because she couldn’t handle it.” She says two more players, Ray Buford Jr. and Dior Johnson, entered the room and forced or tried to force her to engage in oral sex, and that Buford had intercourse with her. She told police she got dressed and eventually left.
• Sept. 6: The woman meets with police, says sex with Djam may have been consensual but sexual contact with Buford, Tamarion Johnson and Dior Johnson was not. She names Kiante Hardin as someone who “may or may not” have been in the room and suggests police speak with Seth Green, a player in the room where she first met Djam who was not believed to have been in the apartment where the sexual contact happened.
• Sept. 6: Djam shows investigators video from his cellphone taken during the sexual contact with him and others. Investigator Matthew Wente watches one eight-second clip and one 92-second clip and writes that the woman was conscious and aware of what was going on and not slurring her words. Her coordination “appears to be normal, and the sexual contact appears entirely consensual,” he wrote.
• Sept. 7: Djam is interviewed, tells investigators the sex was consensual and identifies Hardin as also involved in the sexual activity.
• Sept. 9: Investigators interview and collect DNA samples from Tamarion Johnson, Dior Johnson, Buford and Kiante Hardin. All four say the sexual activity was consensual.
• Sept. 30: The case is sent to Hennepin County prosecutors for possible charges.
• Oct. 3: Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office announces no charges will be filed, citing insufficient evidence to prove “that either force was used or that the victim was physically helpless as defined by law in the sexual encounter.”
• Oct. 4: Buford, Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson, who had been suspended since the incident, are reinstated to the team.
• Oct. 19, 21, 22: A judge grants the woman’s request for restraining orders against six players asking they be required to stay away from TCF Bank Stadium.
• Nov. 2: A settlement is reached to drop the restraining order but require the players to stay 20 feet away from the woman or have no contact.
• Dec. 13: Minnesota suspends Buford, Hardin, Djam, Dior Johnson, Tamarion Johnson, Antonio Shenault, Antoine Winfield Jr., Kobe McCrary, Seth Green and Mark Williams from team activities. The school gives no details, citing privacy restrictions. The university recommends expulsion for Buford, Hardin, both Johnsons and Djam; one-year suspensions from the university for Winfield, McCrary, Green and Williams; and probation for Shenault.
• Dec. 14: The school says 10 suspended players will not play in the Holiday Bowl.
• Dec. 15: The entire Minnesota football team says it will boycott all football activities until administrators explain the suspensions.

A 77-year-old man who apparently walked out of a senior living facility Sunday night in Oak Park Heights was found dead outside early Monday morning.

Thomas LeCloux, a retired principal of Oak-Land Junior High School in Lake Elmo, is believed to have fallen outside and died of exposure to frigid weather.

Oak Park Heights Police Chief Brian DeRosier said the man was living at an apartment at Boutwells Landing at 5600 Norwich Parkway.

Police have not identified the man, but statements from Boutwells Landing and the Oak-Land school said he was LeCloux.

DeRosier said staff at the facility went to check on the man about 11 p.m. Sunday to help him get ready for bed, but they didn’t find him in his apartment.

The facility told police that wasn’t unusual because the man sometimes visited other people in the facility.

“He generally would take care of himself,” DeRosier said.

But staffers called police at 1:10 a.m. Monday when they still couldn’t find him. A search was launched involving about 10 police officers and 10 to 15 firefighters, including personnel from Bayport, Stillwater and Washington County. A Minnesota State Patrol helicopter also joined in the search.

DeRosier said the man’s body was found lying on a relatively untraveled walking path between a Walmart store and a Lowe’s store about a half mile north of the senior living facility.

“We assume he was trying to get to the Walmart,” DeRosier said.

DeRosier said police do not suspect foul play. He said the man may have fallen, could not get up and died of exposure. It was 0 degrees at 11 p.m. Sunday in the Twin Cities.

The man was wearing a winter jacket but no hat or gloves, DeRosier said. Audio of the search on the MN Police Clips website indicated that the man used a walker.

“It’s a sad outcome for an individual who shouldn’t have been out on his own,” DeRosier said.

DeRosier said the man’s body did not show up on the State Patrol helicopter’s thermal imaging camera, indicating he may have been there a while before he was found.

“We were first aware that Mr. LeCloux wasn’t in his apartment last evening when staff arrived for scheduled services,” Wendy Kingbay, campus administrator at Boutwells Landing, said in a prepared statement. “Mr. LeCloux was free to come and go as he wished. However, when his absence raised concerns, we initiated our standard missing-resident protocols and notified his family. An extensive search by staff and police was done.”

The statement continued, “Boutwells Landing places a high priority on the security and well-being of residents. We regularly evaluate our standards of resident care and safety protocols to reduce risk for personal harm. We routinely reinforce procedures and practices along with the responsiveness required to meet resident needs at the highest level possible.”

The facility said it is fully cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

“The family and friends of Mr. LeCloux are in our thoughts and prayers today,” the statement said.

LeCloux was the principal of Oak-Land School until he retired in 2005 — after spending 32 years as a principal in the Stillwater Area School District.

“Tom was extremely bright, a visionary and a champion for Oak-Land and the Stillwater District,” said Oak-Land principal Andy Fields. “He was a friend to everyone he met along the way.”

Bob Shaw contributed to this report.

A 65-year-old woman woke up last week to two gunmen burglarizing her St. Paul home, police said Monday.

The woman was uninjured, but officers found her visibly shaken when they responded to her home in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood.

Police were called to the 1900 block of Princeton Avenue on Thursday about 10:25 p.m. The homeowner told officers she’d been sleeping upstairs when her dog, who was in her room, started barking.

The woman reported she walked downstairs and found two men, whom she didn’t know, going through her things in the living room. Each man had a handgun and they told her to sit down. One threatened her with a gun, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

One man sat next to the woman to make sure she didn’t move, while the other rummaged through the home’s downstairs and upper levels. They then forced the woman to go into the basement and she heard them leaving through the front door, Linders said.

The woman’s cell phone, wallet and iPad were stolen. She believes the suspects also took jewelry, Linders said.

Officers found fresh footprints in the snow from the woman’s front door to the street. The woman thinks the intruders entered her home through the front door. It was unclear whether the door was locked and there were no signs of forced entry, Linders said.

The woman described one of the suspects as a black male in his 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 200 pounds or more. He was wearing all dark-colored clothes — a hooded sweatshirt, jacket, pants and winter gloves. A description of the other suspect was not listed in a police report.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 651-266-5574.

A Minnesota appeals court has upheld the conviction of a national right-to-die group that was found guilty of assisting in the 2007 suicide of a Minnesota woman.

Final Exit Network Inc. was convicted last year of assisting in the suicide of 57-year-old Doreen Dunn, an Apple Valley woman who took her life after a decade of suffering from chronic pain. The group was sentenced to pay a $30,000 fine and funeral expenses.

On appeal, the group argued that Minnesota’s law barring assisted suicide is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment.

The appeals court says it won’t question Supreme Court precedent.

A Minneapolis woman has been charged with burglary in a case in which she allegedly took the dog of a woman who rejected her romantic overtures and killed it, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint alleges that Elizabeth Rose Osterbauer, 24, broke into a home on the 3500 block of Boardman Street in Minneapolis twice, once on Dec. 10, 2015, and again on June 6, 2016.

A witness told police that in the December 2015 break-in, Osterbauer entered the house using a hidden key and stole the dog, according to the complaint.

That witness told police she was present with Osterbauer during the killing of the dog, which Osterbauer “tortured, drugged, and killed.”

Another witness told police she was present during the dognapping and said Osterbauer “took the dog to a state park or wildlife refuge and killed it by stomping on it before drowning it in a marsh,” according to the complaint filed Friday in Hennepin County District Court.

The complaint said Osterbauer had romantic feelings for the dog’s owner, but the owner did not feel the same way.

The victim in the case, Shelly Byzewski, said Monday that she had met Osterbauer at a dog rescue agency where Osterbauer worked, and that Osterbauer developed romantic feelings for her. Byzewski said when she did not reciprocate those feelings, Osterbauer began stalking her.

“She just got obsessed with me,” said Byzewski, 41. “She’s crazy. She’s mental.”

Byzewski said that when her dog, a 3-year-old miniature pinscher named Ducky Momo, disappeared last year, “I suspected her immediately.”

Yet another witness said Osterbauer offered him and other friends $1,000 “to do a job” at the house, the complaint said, but the witness told police they refused. That witness said Osterbauer took “a blanket, vet records and other things that meant something to her” in the burglary.

In the June 2016 break-in, a friend of the home’s resident checked on the house and found it had been broken into, with cat litter strewn throughout the living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, according to the complaint. The toilet had been plugged with cat litter, and water from the toilet poured onto the floor in the bathroom and kitchen and down the stairs leading to the basement and into the living room, the complaint said.

Osterbauer, who was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bail, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Court records show that Osterbauer was convicted of a misdemeanor charge in 2015 of having multiple dogs at large in Sherburne County.

Wearing a black suit and blue tie, St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez made his second appearance in Ramsey County District Court Monday for his alleged role in the death of motorist Philando Castile.

The short hearing included little more than Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro’s declaration that the matter next will be assigned to a judge to preside over the case.

No plea was entered.

The only words Yanez said were, “good afternoon your honor.” His attorneys, Earl Gray, Thomas Kelly and Paul Engh, said previously that Yanez will enter a not guilty plea at a later date.

Sitting in the front row of the courtroom on the side reserved for Yanez’s supporters was St. Anthony Police Chief Jon Mangseth. Beside him sat four other men in suits as well as a man and woman who declined to comment after the hearing.

Mangseth also declined to comment.

Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, was at the hearing, along with other family and friends of Castile’s. One woman wore a shirt bearing Castile’s picture along with the words, “I am not a statistic.”

Yanez, 28, faces manslaughter charges following the fatal shooting of the 32-year-old black man during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights July 6. He also was charged with two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.

Castile, who was licensed to carry a firearm, reportedly told Yanez before the shooting that he had a gun with him when Yanez pulled him over.

The shooting gained national attention when Castile’s girlfriend, who was with him in the car at the time, began live-streaming the aftermath on Facebook. Protests over police shootings broke out across the Twin Cities.

In announcing his charging decision in November, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said its review of the evidence indicated Castile “never removed nor tried to remove his handgun from his right pocket, which was a foot deep,” before Yanez shot him.

In fact, during his short interaction with the officer, Castile reportedly told Yanez he “wasn’t pulling it out,” Choi said.

His final words before Yanez fired were allegedly, “I wasn’t reaching for it.”

“I would submit that no reasonable officer knowing, seeing or hearing what officer Yanez did would have used deadly force,” Choi said during the November press conference.

Yanez’s attorneys have said previously that Yanez’s reaction was in response to the “presence” of a gun in the car and that he was in fear for his life and the life of his fellow officer at the scene when he decided to shoot.

Last week Yanez’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming that Castile was high on marijuana during the stop and thereby was negligent in his own death.

Prosecutors have not filed a response to the motion.

After the hearing Monday, a member of the defense team said they planned to file “several” more motions.

Yanez, a married father of one, is a four-year veteran of the St. Anthony police department.

A St. Paul man who blamed God when he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood will be indefinitely committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program.

The decision was made during a Wednesday civil commitment hearing for August James Ruthaferd in Ramsey County District Court.

Ruthaferd was formerly found incompetent to stand trial on the criminal charges filed against him following the alleged assault, which took place in early May.

The 48-year-old, who was not present at the Wednesday proceedings, recently signed a waiver that acknowledged his criminal behavior toward the young girl and waived his right to fight his civil commitment in a court trial, according to Kathleen Rauenhorst, Ruthaferd’s court-appointed attorney.

“He told me he … knew what he had done … and wanted to know what options he had for treatment … seeing he has a history of sexual misconduct,” Rauenhorst said of Ruthaferd’s decision to sign the waiver.

She added that Ruthaferd acknowledged he had “engaged in sexual misconduct,” is unable to control his impulses and was “likely to do it again,” without treatment at a state hospital.

The legal document granted Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson clearance Wednesday to find Ruthaferd to be a sexually dangerous person with a sexual psychopathic personality and to have him committed under those terms.

The move will keep Ruthaferd detained at the Minnesota State Hospital in St. Peter for the foreseeable future.

The building is locked, surrounded by razor wire and staffed by employees trained in “maintaining the safety and security of the hospital and … the community in the face of extremely dangerous offenders,” according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Ruthaferd had earlier been committed to the hospital for mental illness following the May assault.

It is much more difficult for offenders committed as sexually dangerous in Minnesota to be released back into society, according to the county attorney’s office. The overall program is the subject of an ongoing court challenge over its constitutionality because hardly anyone ever gets out.

It was not apparent what effect the commitment would have on Ruthaferd’s criminal case, which was suspended after he was found incompetent to stand trial in August.

His competency is expected to be evaluated every six months.

“While securing the civil commitment of a sexually dangerous individual is a great outcome for our community, we understand that it is only one step in an ongoing process that our office will closely monitor,” County Attorney John Choi said. “Should he be restored to competency to stand trial while committed, we will prosecute him in criminal court for his alleged crimes.”

Ruthaferd, who was known as Mark Meihofer before legally changing his name last year, faces charges of kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct for the May 5 incident.

He abducted a girl who briefly wandered out of her father’s sight in the 300 block of Dayton Avenue in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. She was found later that day in Ruthaferd’s room at a nearby charity-run boarding house at 286 Marshall Ave.

He also called himself her “new daddy” and her “real dad,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

The girl later tested positive for amphetamine.

Ruthaferd was in the room with her when police arrived and told him to open the door. He finally did, but reportedly only after police began prying the hinge pins out.

As Ruthaferd was escorted away, he told police that “God told him to do it,” and blamed God for “getting him into trouble,” according to the complaint.

Ruthaferd’s history of troubling and criminal behavior stretches back several years. He was first civilly committed in 2004 and then again in 2011 after attempting to solicit a child for sex.

In the 2011 case, Fridley police were called about a man in a car — later identified as Ruthaferd — following a 13-year-old girl as she rode her bike through a park. The girl said he introduced himself and offered her $10,000 to have sex with him.

She fled and Ruthaferd was arrested and charged with soliciting a child.

After a year of legal proceedings and psychological examinations, the judge overseeing the case determined he was so mentally unsound that he didn’t know his actions were wrong, citing a history of mental health issues, “grossly delusional and disorganized thinking” and a professional diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.

At one point, he told police that “God wrote about me in a book” and “said I could do whatever I want” — specifically, solicit children for sex, according to court documents from the case.

The judge found him not guilty by reason of mental illness and ordered him to be civilly committed for up to a year.

A doctor who evaluated his mental competency in August diagnosed him with schizophrenia, stimulant-use-disorder and pedophilia. He also said he exhibited “disorganized thinking,” “deep paranoia” and mood swings, court documents say.

The parents of the young girl Ruthaferd is suspected of kidnapping and assaulting were present at Wednesday’s hearing. They declined to comment.

The Lakeland City Council decided Tuesday to add $5,000 to the reward in the arson of a controversial new city hall that had been under construction.

The new city hall building was destroyed Nov. 13 in a blaze that was determined to be arson. A $5,000 reward for information leading to the arsonist previously was offered by the Minnesota chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators.

So far there’s been no word of progress in the investigation, according to Richard Glasgow, a city council member and the mayor-elect in Lakeland. So the city council decided to add another $5,000 to the reward.

“We thought maybe $5,000 would help in the process,” Glasgow said. “It’s dangerous anytime somebody burns down a building. It’s extremely dangerous whether it’s occupied or not.”

The project divided the city and became an issue in the mayor’s race. Glasgow wanted to stop construction on the new project and preserve the historic city hall while his opponent, incumbent Amy Williams, favored the new construction.

The council on Tuesday split on a 2-2 vote on whether to move forward on spending $108,000 to repair the burned building site. Glasgow said the consensus of the new city council that takes office next year will be to remodel the old city hall.

Anyone with information about the fire should call the Washington County sheriff’s office at 651-430-7882.

A woman who had been texting while driving caused a four-car pileup on Interstate 35W in New Brighton this spring that ended up killing a young woman and critically injuring her fiance, charges say.

Destiny Xiong, 35, of Hudson, Wis., was charged Wednesday with one count of criminal vehicular homicide and another count of criminal vehicular operation that resulted in great bodily harm for her role in the crash, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Xiong had been driving on 35W just north of County Road D on the afternoon of May 1 when she got a text from one of her children, the complaint said.

It was in response to a text Xiong sent to them about her intentions to pick them up at 2 p.m. After reading the reply, which said “Okay,” Xiong tried to place her phone on the dash of her 2010 Acura, court documents say.

Instead, she accidentally dropped it. She was fumbling to pick it up when the crash occurred, according to the complaint.

Xiong’s vehicle smashed into a Honda Fit that had been stopped in traffic in the right lane. The area was under construction and traffic had slowed as cars merged to accommodate a lane closure, court documents say.

The impact of the crash forced the Honda Fit to rear-end a Chrysler Town and Country in front of it. That car in turn hit a Hyundai Santa Fe.

An off-duty Minneapolis firefighter witnessed the wreck and rushed to help. He was able to extricate a woman from the Honda Fit by cutting off her seat belt. A nurse who also stopped began performing CPR on the woman while the firefighter tended to an injured passenger, court records say.

Both were taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

The woman, Brea Amanda Miller of St. Paul, ended up dying of blunt-force injuries caused by the crash, the criminal complaint said. She was 32.

Her 37-year-old fiance sustained several broken ribs and a traumatic brain injury. He reportedly has no memory of the crash.

Xiong later told police she could not recall if she braked before smashing into the Honda Fit. Drivers of both the Town and Country and Hyundai Santa Fe said they had been at a complete stop when the collision occurred.

The Minnesota State Patrol later determined Xiong was likely traveling between 68 and 80 mph at the time.

Xiong could not be immediately reached for comment.

Distracted driving was deemed a factor in more than 86,000 crashes across Minnesota between 2011 and 2015, contributing to more than one-in-four crashes statewide that took place over that time period, according to the State Patrol.

In 2015, distracted driving contributed to 7,666 injuries and 74 deaths.

“As a driver, taking a few seconds for a quick text or message can be so tempting, but that decision can easily be the last choice you make. It’s just not worth it when your safety and the safety of others are at risk,” said Lt. Tiffani Nielson of the State Patrol. “I think most Minnesotans would agree that distracted driving is one of the most infuriating behaviors they see on the road, yet it keeps happening. We ask Minnesotans to please pay attention when driving and speak up if you’re a passenger with a distracted driver. There is no such thing as multitasking behind the wheel.”

Nielson added that state troopers are increasingly on the lookout for distracted driving.

Troopers issued nearly 3,350 citations for texting and driving in 2016, up from about 1,200 in 2014.

VIRGINA, Minn. — Last month’s officer-involved shooting of an Iron Range man following a vehicle pursuit has been ruled justified.

St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Tim Officer fired a single shot at 27-year-old Aaron Lee Boshey of Tower on Nov. 22. Law enforcement had attempted to arrest Boshey for an outstanding warrant when he fled from a Virginia gas station, according to documents.

The 13-mile chase continued to a wooded area west of Eveleth, where Boshey fled into the woods and was shot by Officer, a 19-year veteran of the sheriff’s office.

Boshey was struck by a single bullet to his left hand and buttocks, according to a report from the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office. Boshey, who authorities said was carrying a handgun and wearing a bullet-resistant vest, suffered minor injuries. 

The incident was investigated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin and retired prosecutor Vern Swanum conducted a review of the incident, announcing Wednesday that Officer’s actions were “reasonable and justified.”

Boshey has been charged with four felonies in State District Court in Virginia.

Her attacker smashed a beer mug into her face for speaking another language.

The blow cut deep into her skin, tearing away bits of flesh that left physical wounds requiring 17 stitches — and a psychological wound that left her fearful of living in Minnesota, she said.

Yet on Tuesday, Asma Jama forgave the woman who attacked her.

“In front of everybody here, I do forgive you, and I hope that you choose love over hate,” Jama said to Jodie Marie Burchard-Risch, who was sentenced Tuesday in Anoka County District Court.

Burchard-Risch, 44, of Ramsey, pleaded guilty in October to third-degree assault in the attack, which took place in 2015 inside an Applebee’s restaurant in Coon Rapids.

On Tuesday, Judge Nancy J. Logering sentenced her to 180 days in jail, five years of probation, and mandatory alcohol testing and treatment, according to court documents.

Prosecutors have said they declined to charge her with a hate crime because the penalties actually would have been less severe, given the injuries she caused Jama.

Jama, an ethnic Somali who speaks English, Somali and Swahili, came to Minnesota from Kenya in 2000.

On Oct. 30, 2015, she was inside the Applebee’s, wearing a hijab and speaking Swahili, according to her account and court documents.

Burchard-Risch and her husband, who were seated in the next booth, became upset that Jama “was speaking in a foreign language,” according to a criminal complaint.

Restaurant managers tried to get Burchard-Risch to leave, but she yelled and threw her drink on Jama. She then “smashed a beer mug across (Jama’s) face in a ’round house punch’ motion and fled,” the complaint states.

Burchard-Risch pleaded guilty but maintained that she threw the mug, rather than delivered it as an extension of a punch. Jama required 17 stitches to her nose, eyebrow and lower lip.

Burchard-Risch declined to speak Tuesday. But Jama did, according to courtroom video from local TV stations.

“What you did to me that day wasn’t good. You should never do anything like that to anybody,” Jama said in comments recorded by WCCO-TV.

“I don’t have any ill feelings toward you. I just want you — at the end of all this — to understand we are all the same. It doesn’t matter what’s on my head. It doesn’t matter the color of my skin, we are all the same human beings. We are fighting for the same rights,” Jama said in comments taped by KARE-TV. 

Following the attack, Jama said she felt scared to stay in Minnesota, but she has since said her outlook has improved — albeit only somewhat.

“I used to be a care-free person and now I can’t go anywhere by myself,” she said.

Burchard-Risch’s attorney, Rodd Tschida, told the judge, in part: “I don’t see her as a lunatic. I don’t see her as a racist. I see her as someone, not unlike many others that come before the court, that has an alcohol problem that brought her here.”

Just over an hour after a 17-year-old boy was shot in St. Paul on Monday, leaving him paralyzed, police tried to pull over a car to talk to a 19-year-old driver about the case, according to a Ramsey County criminal complaint.

The driver sped away, reaching 90 mph on Interstate 94 before crashing into a snowbank. St. Paul police arrested Keithshon Daquan Lamar Fairley, and the Ramsey County attorney’s office charged him Wednesday with fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle.

The shooting of the 17-year-old came 20 minutes after an instance of shots-fired about a mile away. In that case, officers received a report that Fairley had shot at a man, according to the complaint charging him with fleeing police. Fairley was not charged Wednesday in connection to a shooting.

“All these cases are under investigation to try to determine what role people played in these separate incidents and if they are or are not connected,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

On Monday morning, St. Paul gang unit officers received information that two suspects in a Dec. 1 shooting were likely to be riding in a car with Fairley, of St. Paul, according to the complaint filed Wednesday.

Officers found Fairley driving in the area of Maryland Avenue and Clarence Street about 11:40 a.m. They followed the car and identified two of the passengers but could not determine whether the third passenger could be one of the suspects in the Dec. 1 shooting.

Police temporarily lost sight of Fairley in the area of Maryland Avenue and Arundel Street and, when they spotted him again, he was alone in the car and they stopped following him, the complaint said.

At 1:20 p.m., officers responded to a report of shots fired near Galtier and Burgess streets. Police have said no one was injured.

Then, at 1:42 p.m., police responded to a report of shots fired and found a 17-year-old with a gunshot wound to the neck in the parking lot of the Maryland Supermarket at Maryland Avenue and Arundel Street, about one mile from the shots-fired incident.

The victim’s family said Wednesday that the 17-year-old is paralyzed from the neck down, and they are praying for a miracle for him.

Officers wanted to talk to Fairley about the Monday incidents. They found his car near Maryland Avenue and Earl Street and followed him until other officers could assist with stopping him, the complaint said.

An officer pulled over Fairley at Dale Street and Sherburne Avenue on Monday at 3 p.m., but when the officer got out of his squad to approach, Fairley drove off. Multiple squad cars followed Fairley, who sped through red lights and stop signs over roads packed with snow and ice, the complaint said.

Fairley then headed west on I-94 before crashing just west of Prior Avenue. He and the passenger in the car both ran off. A police dog apprehended Fairley as he ran up an embankment, the complaint said.

Fairley told police that he knew an officer had stopped him and he should have stayed, but he said his passenger had told him to flee, the complaint said.