The chance that late fall snow will continue to blanket the Twin Cities remains at least through Wednesday, according to the weather service.

Snow finally accumulated to an amount that could be measured — albeit just a tenth of an inch — by early Friday afternoon at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Inland areas near the North Shore were hit particularly hard, with both Finland, Minn. and Duluth’s airport reporting 10 inches of snow as of 5 p.m. Friday.

There were reports of 217 crashes, 161 spinouts and vehicles in ditches statewide as of 8:45 p.m. Friday.

One of the crashes proved fatal when a semi truck skidded off a snow-covered bridge into a river.

The tractor-trailer driver lost control of the truck just before a bridge along snowy Interstate 35 near Scanlon, which is west of Duluth, about 4:30 a.m. The truck went over the bridge and into the St. Louis River, said Sgt. Neil Dickenson of the Minnesota State Patrol.

The driver’s body was found at about 9 a.m. He was a 44-year-old man from Duluth. His name has not been released.

Another fatal crash took place in Brainerd just after 9 a.m. In that incident, Alvaro Ambriz Rodriguez of Pierz, Minn. was driving southbound on Highway 25 near 30th Street when he lost control of his Kia while trying to pass another vehicle. The 26-year-old slid into oncoming traffic and was fatally struck by a semi in the northbound lane.

The semi-truck driver was uninjured. Both drivers were wearing seatbelts.

In the metro, snow that actually sticks has come earlier than usual this year. Measurable snowfall typically doesn’t fall in the Twin Cities until Nov. 4, according to the National Weather Service. The last couple years there wasn’t measurable snow until late November, and the last time measurable snow fell this early was in 2009.

Over the next week in St. Paul, the weather service forecasts a slight chance of snow on Sunday and Wednesday. As for Friday, they’re looking at up to an inch through the evening.

In addition to the snow up north, driving winds whipped up Lake Superior, damaging a lakefront boardwalk in Duluth, and

making rescue efforts hazardous.

Cloquet Area Fire District Chief Kevin Schroeder said that the winds and waves on the St. Louis River were too strong for the CAFD rapid deployment craft, so the St. Louis County sheriff’s office brought its larger water rescue boat while CAFD firefighters donned their waterproof water rescue suits to search the river on foot that morning.

Firefighters walked into the water “downshore from the bridges” to get the driver, Schroeder said, adding that the water was not shallow. Once the firefighters got the trucker to shore, the rescue boat took off to pick him up from the staging area near the River Inn in Scanlon.

“It’s not the worst but it ranks up there,” Schroeder said when asked about the rescue conditions with driving snow and wind.

“It could be colder,” said Carlton County Chief Deputy Brian Belich, who was assisting at the staging area.

“That’s the saving grace,” Schroeder agreed. “It could be below zero. The weather couldn’t get any worse, but at least we can work in these temperatures.”

The Associated Press and Forum News Services contributed to this report.

Police are looking for a man who held up an Oakdale homeowner at knife-point this week, authorities say.

Oakdale officers responded to a house on the 7500 block of 22nd Avenue N. around 1 p.m. Wednesday on a report of an aggravated robbery.

When they arrived, the 36-year-old homeowner told police he had been in the back entrance of his home when a man with a knife approached him and demanded cash, Oakdale police reported.

Then the man cut him, the victim reported, according to police.

The 36-year-old was treated at the scene for a laceration.

The suspect was described as a white man who was wearing a gray hooded shirt, dark pants and a ski-mask at the time of the robbery. He remains at large, police said. 

A pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a vehicle traveling northbound on Minnesota Highway 51 last night, authorities say.

The incident took place around 8 p.m. just south of County Road E, according to the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

The area has no crosswalks.

The driver of the vehicle reported the crash and has since cooperated fully with investigators, the sheriff’s office reported.

The pedestrian, who was an adult man, was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released.

Authorities do not believe alcohol was a factor in the crash.

A section of Old Highway 8 in New Brighton was temporarily closed Friday night as law enforcement responded to a fatal crash, authorities say.

The crash took place around 4 p.m. at the intersection of Old Highway 8 SW and 3rd Street SW, according to Trevor Hamdorf, Deputy Director of Public Safety for New Brighton.

One driver died in the two-vehicle crash, which involved a commercial vehicle. The other driver was uninjured.

Authorities do not believe weather was a factor in the accident.

The identities of the individuals involved have not been released.

The road was reopened around 7 p.m.

New Brighton police and the Minnesota State Patrol are investigating the crash.

A St. Catherine University security guard has admitted to falsely accusing a black man of shooting him during an incident that sparked an extensive police manhunt for the made-up perpetrator this fall.

On the same day Brent Patrick Ahlers was scheduled to be arraigned in Ramsey County District Court on allegations of falsely reporting a crime, the 35-year-old St. Louis Park man submitted a petition via mail to enter a guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge.

By filing the petition, Ahlers didn’t have to attend his Tuesday court hearing.

“I reported to the police that someone had fired a shot at me. I knew the police that I reported the crime to were on-duty peace officers. I knew the report was false and intended that the officers act in reliance upon my report,” his signed petition read.

His attorney, Eric Rice, declined to comment on Ahlers decision to plead guilty.

Ahlers called 911 on Sept. 12 and said he was shot by a suspicious person he claimed he confronted in a wooded area of St. Catherine’s campus along Cleveland Avenue.

The report set off an intense manhunt that involved 55 officers, four dogs and a Minnesota State Patrol aircraft. The university was temporarily shut down following the report.

The next day, after being treated for his injuries at Regions Hospital, Ahlers reportedly confessed that he made the whole thing up.

He told investigators that he accidentally shot himself while handling his personal handgun and lied about it out of fear of losing his job, St. Paul police said at the time.

The incident sparked anger among some in the community who said Ahlers’ choice to implicate a black man in his story painfully perpetuated a long history of African-Americans being wrongfully accused of crimes.

Some community leaders also said Ahlers’ reckless accusation put black men in jeopardy during the police manhunt.

Ahlers faces up to 90 days in jail for his conviction, a $1,000 fine, or both.

He is expected to attend his sentencing hearing.

The university terminated Ahlers’ employment shortly after the incident.

University President Becky Roloff said in a statement at the time that the university “strongly condemns racial discrimination, racial stereotyping, and racial profiling of any kind. The statements attributed to the former employee concerning the race of an alleged suspect are deeply troubling and do not reflect our values.”

A 19-year-old passenger in a car idling at a stoplight was shot by the driver of another vehicle moments after it pulled up at the light in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.

“I’m hit. I’m hit. I’m hit. I can’t move my legs. I can’t move them at all,” Diamante Marie Jorge-Salgado cried as a bullet ripped through her back, according to statements her boyfriend and other passengers in the vehicle later gave police following the Oct. 22 shooting.

Ten days later, Jorge-Salgado still can’t feel her legs, according to her brother, Roberto Perez. She remains hospitalized. Her doctors have told her she may never walk again, he said.

“To be honest with you … I don’t even think it’s hit her yet, not 100 percent,” Perez said of how his sister is processing her prognosis. “She’s a fighter, though … We just hope that she pulls through. She has a 9-month old daughter.”

Perez added that his sister also has a large family supporting her.

A 19-year-old St. Paul man was charged in the shooting late last week.

Latre Lamont Anderson faces two counts of committing a crime to benefit a gang, one count of first-degree assault and a fourth count of being involved in a drive-by-shooting, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Jorge-Salgado told police she was sitting in the passenger seat in her boyfriend’s car when a car pulled up beside them at the intersection of Western Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue, according to the complaint.

When she turned her head, she said she saw a man she recognized as the brother of one of her acquaintances driving the vehicle. When she realized he was holding a handgun, she told her boyfriend to drive away, the complaint said.

That’s when she says she heard a “loud boom” and immediately felt intense pressure in her back as she realized she was bleeding, court documents say.

Her boyfriend drove her to the hospital.

Jorge-Salgado later identified Anderson as the shooter in a photo array.

Her boyfriend eventually told officers he recently “had beef” with three of Anderson’s friends during the Rondo Days Parade, the complaint said.

Anderson is a member of the Everybody Killer gang, authorities say. Jorge-Salgado’s boyfriend is affiliated with the Time for Money gang, the complaint said.

Anderson’s next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 20.

His attorney, public defender Bruce Wenger, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Anderson’s criminal record includes misdemeanor convictions for theft and disorderly conduct.

HOW TO HELP

A fundraising account for Diamante Jorge-Salgado has been established at gofundme.com/diamante-jorgesalgado-survivor

A federal agent in California went fishing last January by posing online as a 13-year-old girl looking for an adult to buy tickets to the racy R-rated film “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

He posted the fake online advertisement on Craigslist under the website’s “Casual Encounters” section.

A day later, a St. Paul man took the bait, authorities say.

Matthew William Tolkinen, 46, was charged Wednesday via warrant with one felony count of soliciting a child online to engage in sexual conduct, according to the complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court. He also faces two related charges.

Referring to himself as “daddy,” Tolkinen responded to the agent’s ad and said he was willing to take the girl to the movie, as long as the two went alone, legal documents say.

That was allegedly the beginning of a months-long conversation between the two. Many of the messages detailed sexual acts Tolkinen wanted to engage in with an individual he thought was a young teen, including taking the girl’s virginity, the complaint said. He also sent three photos of his genitalia, according to legal documents. 

After a search warrant was executed at Tolkinen’s St. Paul home, Tolkinen admitted to having “sexual chats” on Craigslist with people he believed to be at least 21, the complaint said.

He then tweaked his story and lowered the age of his chat partners to 18 before finally admitting to engaging in a conversation with a 13-year-old girl who asked him to buy her tickets to a movie, the complaint said.

Tolkinen said he continued the conversation to arouse the teen, not himself, legal documents say.

He has not yet been taken into custody and no attorney was listed for him in court records.

His criminal record includes two drunken-driving-related offenses as well as three misdemeanor convictions for issuing bad checks.

While three of his acquaintances repeatedly raped two girls at gunpoint, Deandray Easley “stood watch” over the girls’ male friends who were forced to lie face-down in the grass nearby and listen as the sexual assaults unfolded, according to a Ramsey County prosecutor.

“Helpless to do anything about it because (Easley) stood watch … asking them if they wanted to die,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kelly Olmstead said during opening statements in Easley’s trial Wednesday. “He did nothing to stop the sexual assaults.”

So while he didn’t actually rape the teens, he is still culpable for what happened to them, Olmstead told jurors.

That’s why, she said, they should find him guilty of all the counts the Ramsey County attorney’s office charged him with following the June 5 incident at Harriet Island in St. Paul.

Easley, 19, is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree criminal sexual conduct, as well as four counts each of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery and kidnapping.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Easley’s alleged accomplices that night — Devontre Vann, 19, Vershone Hodges, 20, and Choncey Stewart, 16 — also were charged in the case.

Stewart, Easley and Hodges are gang members, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

In addition to allegedly “standing watch” while the rapes took place, Easley is accused of robbing the girls and their two male companions.

The males were made to strip down to their underwear to be sure they had handed over all valuables before being forced to the ground, authorities say.

That’s when Vann, Hodges and Stewart led the girls one after the other at gunpoint into a car and took turns raping them while Easley guarded the boys, according to charges in the case.

Easley’s attorney, A.L. Brown, warned jurors during his opening statement Wednesday against letting their emotions cloud their judgment as they weigh what happened that night.

“The facts of this case keep you up at night,” Brown said. “It’s terrifying. I think the right word is that it’s heartbreaking. … The evidence will show (that what happened) was vicious, sick, demented. … What the evidence won’t show is that Mr. Easley did it.”

And by “it,” Brown said he was referring only to the allegations that Easley is somehow responsible for the kidnapping and sexual assault that took place. Brown admitted that Easley would be hard-pressed to prove he didn’t rob the victims.

Even the victims would back him up, Brown added.

“They say he is not the rapist. He is the guy who robbed us. … They will say he told the (others) to knock it off. … They will say he told the victims, ‘If you don’t want to do this you don’t have to do this and no one will hurt you,’” Brown said. “The state wants you to hold Mr. Easley accountable for what he didn’t do. I want you to listen to what he did do.”

The incident took place after 11 p.m. in Harriet Island as the two teenage girls and their male friends ate food from McDonald’s off the trunk of one of their cars.

As Easley’s trial continued Wednesday afternoon, one of the other defendants in the case, Hodges, was pleading guilty in another Ramsey County courtroom to the role he played, court records say.

He pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of aggravated robbery, court records say. He will be sentenced in January.

Meanwhile, Vann’s case is proceeding toward trial. Stewart has a hearing next week.

When a 10-year-old boy spilled pop at his Maplewood home on Halloween, his mom’s boyfriend bound his mouth, legs and hands with tape and locked him in a dark room, authorities say.

Steven Robert Goossen’s conduct crossed a legal line, according to a criminal complaint filed against him Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

The 57-year-old now faces a charge of malicious punishment of a child, a gross misdemeanor.

Goossen told investigators he took action after the boy refused to stop banging on walls and doors, court documents say.

Binding him with tape, he said, prevented the boy from continuing to “bang on stuff,” the complaint said.

He also admitted to unscrewing the lightbulbs in the boy’s room so he would go to sleep, legal documents say.

The incident took place after the boy reportedly threw a bottle of water across the room and knocked over a can of soda pop.

The 10-year-old continued to act out after his mom left, Goossen said, prompting him to take further action, according to the complaint.

When she returned, she told police she could hear her son whimpering in his room. He emerged a few minutes later with tape around his neck and wrists. She called police after she learned Goossen was responsible, legal documents say.

Goossen’s criminal record includes two drinking-and-driving related offenses.

He could not be reached for comment. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

The boy’s mother, Amber Reynolds, said the incident has been very upsetting for her family.

“As a parent i stepped away just to cool off and when I came back and saw what i saw, I immediately started texting for help,” Reynolds said.

She texted a neighbor and asked her to call the police out of she fear Goossen might hear her if she placed the call herself and try to stop her, Reynolds explained.

“That is not how I discipline my kids,” she added. “I am not going to let anybody abuse my kids.”

Nobody got to see Victor Wayne Lynch’s reaction Thursday when a jury found him guilty of aiding and abetting murder in a White Bear Lake woman’s fatal drug overdose last fall.

That’s because Lynch was in jail.

The 50-year-old Vadnais Heights man was arrested Wednesday night in Hennepin County for suspected drug possession hours after his trial closed.

So he wasn’t present in the courtroom Thursday afternoon when he was the first individual to be convicted of murder charges in Ramsey County for his role in an unintentional fatal drug overdose.

Jurors found Lynch guilty of all five counts he faced, including two counts of aiding and abetting third-degree murder, one count of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and two counts of fifth degree drug possession.

He was charged with the crimes several months after police responded to a Roseville motel the evening of Oct. 10, 2016, and found 28-year-old Trina Maurstad unconscious from an apparent drug overdose.

She was pronounced dead hours later from mixed-drug toxicity.

Lynch was living at the Red Roof Inn at the time. He, Maurstad and one of her female acquaintances spent the previous evening getting high on a speedball of methamphetamines and heroin and having sex before falling asleep.

Prosecutors said he placed the tourniquet on Maurstad’s arm and injected her with the drugs that wound up taking her life.

His conviction was welcomed by Ramsey County authorities. The case was the first time Ramsey County prosecuted someone for his or her role in an unintentional drug overdose.

“I am pleased with the jury’s decision,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Cory Tennison said of the victory. “Justice was served today.”

Lynch’s attorney, Seamus Mahoney, called the verdict, its ramifications for his client, and Maurstad’s death “all tragedies.”

Mahoney questioned the wisdom of holding addicts responsible when a fellow user dies after willingly ingesting drugs.

Such cases have increased in recent years as fatal drug overdoses related to the so-called opioid epidemic soar.

Third-degree murder provides that anyone who, “without intent to cause death, proximately causes the death of a human being by directly or indirectly unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging or administering a controlled substance,” according to state statute.

“Prosecuting this health problem is not the way to go,” Mahoney said after the trial. “These are all drug addicts.”

Maurstad’s family and friends, who were fixtures throughout the trial, cried and hugged after the verdicts were read.

“It’s time for someone to be responsible,” said Maurstad’s mom, Tina Ramgren. “I am just happy that she has justice.”

Lynch’s defense argued that the state’s key witness in the case — the other woman who got high with him and Maurstad before her death — lacked credibility.

As a fellow user, she had reason to spin what really happened in that room so that investigators would focus their attention on Lynch instead of her, Mahoney argued.

He also pointed out that Lynch left the motel room for several hours on the day Maurstad overdosed, meaning Maurstad and the other woman had plenty of time to continue using more drugs while he was gone.

He also took issue with the state’s claim that Lynch actually administered drugs to Maurstad, saying his client only helped her with her tourniquet.

“It’s a very sad situation. It’s sad for everyone involved,” Mahoney said during his opening statement in the case. “But adjusting a junkie’s tourniquet is not enough to find (Lynch) guilty of murder.”

Prosecutors countered that argument with testimony from the other woman about the sequence of events that took place before Maurstad overdosed.

Tennison also relied on Lynch’s own statements to police following Maurstad’s death to prove his case.

He quoted Lynch during his closing argument.

“‘When they are doing this stuff, and they are (expletive) stabbing themselves a thousand times … and they are crying … I say ‘Please, let me get it for you. That’s what I do,’” Tennison read.

Tennison told the jury: “The defendant did, in fact, ‘get it for her.’ He put the shot in her arm.”

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi issued a statement about the state’s win late Thursday afternoon.

“We are obviously pleased with the jury’s verdict as it sends an important message that those who contribute to overdose deaths deserve to be held responsible for their role,” the statement read. “While prosecution alone cannot solve this crisis, it is an important part of the equation along with drug treatment programs, enhanced support for families, improved regulation of prescribing and dispensing practices of opiate-based pain medication, and holding manufacturers and distributors accountable for their role in this growing epidemic.”

Lynch is scheduled to be sentenced in December. The state plans to argue for 20 years.

Maurstad was the mother of three boys; her family wrote in her obituary they would “miss (her) beautiful smile.”

A former deputy commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Commerce admitted to arranging to pay a woman for sex after finishing up work meetings this past spring, according to court records.

Michael Shane Deal, 47, of Litchfield filed a petition last week to plead guilty to one count of engaging in prostitution in a public place. The gross-misdemeanor charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor per the terms of a plea agreement reached with the state, the petition says.

The arrangement calls for a 90-day jail sentence for Deal that will be stayed for one year. He will also be ordered to pay about $1,000 in fines and fees.

His attorney, John A. Price III, did not return a call for comment. Deal could not be reached.

His petition was made public on the same day Deal was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in his case in Ramsey County District Court.

His employment as deputy commissioner of the state Commerce Department’s financial institutions division ended shortly after his arrest last March. It’s not clear whether he resigned or was terminated.

The former state employee was one of several men arrested during an undercover sex sting that took place at a St. Paul hotel March 7, according to the charges.

Police placed an ad on a website advertising sexual services out of the establishment in exchange for money. Deal was one of the men who responded.

During a text conversation with the undercover officer, Deal asked where and when the woman could meet and indicated his “sexual preferences,” the complaint said.

When the undercover officer asked if Deal was willing to pay $100 for a half hour and meet as soon as possible, he agreed and arranged to be at the hotel where she was staying after completing his work meetings, according to the charges.

He arrived at the hotel around 3 p.m. and greeted the woman with a hug inside her room, the complaint said. He was arrested after placing $100 on a dresser.

Before his work with the state Commerce Department, Deal worked for nearly 20 years in the community banking sector. He was previously senior vice president and market president at Bank Midwest in New Ulm, Minn., and market president of North American State Bank in Willmar, Minn.

An emotional young mother placed two small, silver urns on a table as she walked up to the front of a crowded Ramsey County District courtroom Monday to address the judge.

Inside were the remains of her 5-month-old baby boy, who died in St. Paul last January after his then-19-year-old baby sitter, Tyanna Jabree Graham, shook him.

Whitney Dunagan told Judge Nicole Starr that she wanted to bring them because she wasn’t allowed to bring pictures to Graham’s sentencing. Her son Ja’mir’s face was printed on the front of the shirt she was wearing though, below the words “Mommy’s Angel.”

“I just know you took my whole life,” Dunagan said to Graham before breaking down in her grandmother’s arms.

Though she remained at the front of the courtroom for several minutes longer, she wasn’t able to say anything more despite Starr telling her several times she was willing to wait for as long as Dunagan needed.

Instead, Dunagan cried and stared ahead as her grandmother, Catherine Booker, tried to describe the family’s loss. In addition to Booker, three of Ja’mir’s aunts spoke.

Graham pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree unintentional murder in the infant’s death in September. She was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison Monday in accordance with the terms of a plea deal with the state.

“There are no words other than this will affect our lives forever,” Booker said.

Ja’mir was her first great-grandchild, she said, and Dunagan’s only child.

“He never had a chance. She took an innocent baby’s life. There is no excuse,” Booker continued. “We never get to see him walk, talk, get his first teeth. Nothing … She trusted this person with her baby, and it hurts.”

“If I didn’t forgive her,” one aunt said during her statement. “Forgiveness isn’t for her; it’s for me.”

Graham, 20, wailed and shook during much of the hearing. When she finally got her chance to speak, she read a letter apologizing to Dunagan and the rest of Ja’mir’s family.

“I never wanted to hurt Ja’mir. He was like one of my own,” Graham said. “I made a mistake … Whitney, I am so sorry for taking him away from you so soon … You lost your heart because of me. I can never forgive myself for this … He didn’t deserve this.”

The infant was found unresponsive Jan. 28 inside a home in the 2200 block of West Seventh Street by police called to the residence on a report that a child wasn’t breathing.

The boy was taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital, where doctors discovered he had suffered a severe brain injury. He died the next day.

The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office determined that his death was caused by injuries from an assault. In addition to bleeding in his brain, the infant had bruises and bleeding on his left lung and a cut on his lip.

When interviewed by police, Graham, who had no prior criminal history, initially gave conflicting accounts of his injuries.

She eventually admitted to being frustrated that she had to care for the child when she wanted to go out that night and said she may have “blacked out” and shaken him for 3 to 5 seconds,according to court documents.

Judge Starr addressed the pain on both sides of the case during her remarks.

“I’ve never experienced” a case like this, she began.

“It doesn’t matter what you say, there is nothing that will bring back Ja’mir,” Starr said to Graham. “But I want you to know that you are not a bad person … You have done a terrible, terrible thing … (But) you have been honest with yourself and to that extent, I have a lot of hope for you.”

She also addressed Ja’mir’s mother.

“We will not forget him, we simply won’t … this baby that you brought into this world. I promise you that.”

Frustrations among public defenders with growing caseloads and what they say is problematic scheduling in the Ramsey County District Court system came to a head this week when a judge held two attorneys in contempt of court — including Ramsey County’s chief public defender.

The rare reprimand prompted a swarm of public defenders, law clerks and others to pack Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr.’s courtroom Tuesday to show support for their colleagues and advocate for changes they say would help them serve their clients and deal with heavy workloads, several said.

“It’s a miserable lose-lose situation for everybody,” Ramsey County Chief Public Defender Jim Fleming said of the burden Ramsey County’s trial scheduling system places on already overworked public defenders. “People just get ground up and spit out.”

Ramsey County Chief District Judge John Guthmann said after the hearing that the court system has seen an increase in murder and shooting-related trials recently. That has placed added tension on the judicial system in general, not just public defenders, Guthmann added.

“(So) while moving more slowly allows (public defenders) to better manage their workloads … my judicial colleagues and I want to make sure that we are being thoughtful about the impact slowing down cases will have on the rights of defendants, the rights of victims of crime, and the rest of the justice system,” Guthmann said.

Tuesday’s incident arose after public defender Baylea Kannmacher got word Friday that one of her cases was to go to trial before Gilligan this week.

With hearings already scheduled for other clients, Kannmacher said she explained to the court she wouldn’t be able to proceed with the trial at that time.

She was told in response that she’d have to make it work and to be present at a hearing in the case Monday morning, according to Kannmacher. After explaining the situation to Fleming, her boss, Kannmacher was instructed not to attend the hearing. Instead, Fleming said he would go.

While both Fleming and Kannmacher risked being arrested or fined Tuesday, Gilligan ended up rescinding Kannmacher’s contempt of court and staying Fleming’s.

The judge also explained to the packed courtroom what prompted him to take the unusual action, which he said he hopes will be the start of ongoing talks with public defenders about how Ramsey County schedules cases.

“I have seen the effect the (growing) caseload has had on you …,” Gilligan said. “I listen carefully to your requests for continuance. … If you have to be in two or three courtrooms (at once), I try to accommodate that.

“I understand the concerns of the public defender’s office … and we can have discussions about those issues. … But brinkmanship is not a way to address those issues,” Gilligan continued.

His reprimands for Fleming and Kannmacher came on the same day the public defender’s office rolled out changes to the way it distributes cases among its staff to help offset some of their workload, Fleming said.

It also came on the heels of a letter Fleming sent to the court of the public defender’s office’s expectation that Ramsey County begin scheduling Rule 8 hearings for defendants the same as other counties do.

Fleming said Ramsey County has historically rolled that hearing regarding legal representation into a defendant’s first appearance. Reinstating it would buy public defenders more time to work with their clients and better ensure the best outcome for their cases, Fleming said.

He added that Ramsey County also asks public defenders to be on-call for four-week trial blocks, meaning one of their trials could be called to begin at any point during that time period. Since public defenders can’t afford to sit idle for a month in anticipation, they often have to schedule other clients’ hearings within the same window, Fleming said. The result is that scheduling conflicts often occur, public defenders are exhausted and overworked, and defendants’ cases can suffer, Fleming said.

“It’s so bad private lawyers won’t even take cases in Ramsey County,” he said.

Other metro-area counties have two-week trial blocks for cases, Fleming said, adding that they also make other scheduling accommodations to meet the needs of strapped public defenders.

Guthmann said he is not aware of those differences elsewhere. He said he’s asked public defenders to bring documentation of that to future conversations on the issue.

Those discussions began Tuesday morning, when Fleming, state Chief Public Defender William Ward, Guthmann and Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr sat down in chambers to discuss the scheduling challenges.

“This is a very complex issue,” Guthmann said, adding that the court is bound by state statute to afford defendants and victims trials in a timely manner. “(The public defenders’ office) is obviously acting in the best interest of their clients and we are working in the best interest of both their clients and all the other components of the criminal justice system.”

One of the frustrations among Fleming and his staff is that they say they have attempted to discuss scheduling changes in the past with court staff but maintain that those talks were halted abruptly without explanation.

While calling out the irregularities within the county’s problematic scheduling system, Ward said Tuesday that problems also exist for public defenders statewide.

The average public defender in the metro area juggles about 550 misdemeanor cases a year and 300 felony cases, he said. By comparison, the American Bar Association recommends caseloads be capped at about 400 misdemeanors and 130 felonies.

With that context in mind, it appears that some in Minnesota’s legal system expect public defenders to just sub in for each other whenever a colleague has a conflict, Ward said, but that doesn’t equate to good service for defendants.

Defendants build relationships with public defenders and get better representation when they are served by the same one throughout their case, he said.

“Our clients and lawyers are treated as fungible goods and that is just not right …,” Ward said. “The (system) needs to start thinking about the human toll this takes on our clients and lawyers.”

Both Fleming and Ward said they are hopeful future conversations with judges will result in those changes.

While Kannmacher said she’s glad Gilligan rescinded her contempt of court finding, she’s more interested in seeing judges and court staff across the county and state address a “broken system.”

Deandray Easley wasn’t the one who sexually assaulted two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped at gunpoint in a St. Paul park this past summer, but his actions that night were enough to convince a jury that he played a pivotal role in what happened.

After a day and a half of deliberations, a Ramsey County District Court jury Wednesday found the 19-year-old St. Paul man guilty of all 10 counts against him in the June 5 attack. Those included two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree criminal sexual conduct, four counts of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery, and four counts of aiding and abetting kidnapping.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office declined to make a statement on the verdict Wednesday as cases are still pending against other defendants in the case.

Easley’s public defender, A.L. Brown, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Prosecutors and the witnesses called during Easley’s roughly weeklong trial described him as the informal leader of the group that held up two teen girls and their two male friends on Harriet Island about 11 p.m. June 5.

The teens were eating food from McDonald’s on the hood of a car when Easley and three of his friends walked up, flashed a gun, and robbed the teens of their belongings, authorities say.

Then they ordered the two boys to strip down to their underwear and lie face-down in the grass while Easley’s three male acquaintances forced the girls into a nearby car and took turns raping them, prosecutors said.

Easley guarded the girls’ friends, who were made to listen as the assaults unfolded, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kelly Olmstead said during her opening statement in the trial.

“(They were) helpless to do anything about it because (Easley) stood watch … asking them if they wanted to die,” Olmstead said. “(Easley) did nothing to stop the sexual assaults.”

Easley’s choices that night make him culpable for what happened, Olmstead argued at trial.

Olmstead prosecuted the case along with Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Elizabeth Lamin.

In his defense, Brown tried to convince jurors that while the kidnapping and sexual assaults that took place that night were “vicious,” “sick,” and “demented,” Easley wasn’t to blame.

On the contrary, Easley told his friends to “knock it off,” and informed the young women they could stop what was happening without fear of repercussion if they wanted, Brown said during his opening statement.

Brown admitted that the evidence wasn’t favorable to his client as far as the robbery charges.

Authorities say Devontre Vann, 19, Vershone Hodges, 20, and Choncey Stewart, 16, were accomplices during the incident. All three were charged with raping the young women, as well as aiding in the robberies and kidnapping.

Stewart, Easley and Hodges are gang members, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Hodges pleaded guilty to four of the six charges facing him in the case. He is expected to be sentenced in January. Stewart’s and Vann’s case are proceeding toward trial with hearings scheduled for both next month.

Easley will be sentenced in late January.

St. Paul police arrested a man carrying a large knife and a bottle of tequila Tuesday after he killed a neighbor who tried to intervene in a domestic disturbance, authorities say.

Htoo Day, 61, of St. Paul was charged Thursday with one count of second-degree intentional murder in the fatal stabbing of a 29-year-old woman in the heart, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Paw Boh Htoo was trying to help Day’s wife and children make arrangements to stay someplace else until tension subsided, according to the complaint.

Day’s wife told investigators through an interpreter that two of the couple’s four children were “horsing around” Sunday in their apartment on Edmund Avenue in St. Paul when one of them accidentally broke a mirror, the complaint said.

The children range in age from 4 to 12.

Day reportedly got angry about the incident and told the kids to leave. Day’s wife told him if they had to leave, she would go, too, according to the complaint.

They were staying in a different neighbor’s unit in the building when Day’s wife returned to her apartment Tuesday to get her youngest child.

That’s when, she said, Day grabbed her to prevent her from leaving and began threatening to kill her and her family if she followed through with her plans, the complaint said.

She eventually broke away and ran back to the other unit. Day followed, carrying a large knife in a shoulder bag, charges say.

A NEIGHBOR INTERVENES

When he got there, he saw Paw Boh Htoo also inside the unit.

Day asked her what she was doing there, according to the complaint, and Paw Boh Htoo responded that she had agreed to help his wife move in with relatives until their home situation cooled.

That’s when Day pulled the knife out of his bag and stabbed her in the chest, Day’s wife told investigators. Everyone else in the unit fled.

After police arrived, Paw Boh Htoo was taken to Regions Hospital, where she died.

Day was arrested in the entryway of the apartment building. He was holding a bottle of tequila while carrying the knife inside a bag, the complaint said.

In an interview with police, Day admitted to the stabbing and said he did it because he was drunk and angry that Paw Boh Htoo was trying to take his wife away from him, according to the complaint.

He said he knew his actions were wrong and that he deserved the death penalty, the complaint said.

Day has no criminal history in Minnesota. His wife told police that the couple arrived in Minnesota from Thailand in late 2016.

He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on the charges Thursday. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Paw Boh Htoo moved to Minnesota in 2011 from a refugee camp in Thailand, according to a staff profile posted on the Karen Organization of Minnesota’s website.

She had been going to school to obtain an associate’s degree in legal interpreting and translating, the profile said.

Paw Boh Htoo was a weaving project coordinator for the Roseville-based Karen Organization of Minnesota, which provides services to refugees, most of whom were born in Myanmar, according to Alexis Walstad, one of the organization’s co-executive directors.

Walstad recalls interviewing the 29-year-old before she was hired this past spring.

“She was just very excited. Very hopeful. Very eager to support her community,” Walstad said.

Born and raised in a small village in Myanmar, Paw Boh Htoo learned how to weave traditional Karen clothes while living in a Thai refugee camp.

She shared her skills locally by leading a Karen Weaving Circle that met weekly at a St. Paul library. She also taught classes to high school students as part of the organization’s youth program.

One of her friends, Carrie Vogelsang, posted about her loss on Facebook.

“I’m heartbroken to learn about my sweet friend Paw Htoo. She was a beautiful person, a light and treasure. One of the kindest people I’ve known,” Vogelsang wrote, later referring to Paw Boh Htoo as a “community leader” and passionate traveler.

“She saw more places in her short life in the (United States) than most Americans who were born here,” Vogelsang continued.

Paw Boh Htoo had just recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where she and hundreds of other Minnesota Karen residents gathered to advocate for help on issues facing Myanmar.

Staff at the Karen Organization of Minnesota have been deeply troubled over her death, Walstad said. They met Tuesday to share stories about her and begin brainstorming how best to support her family.

Paw Boh Htoo was married and has two children.

“She was just extremely kind. Just a very joyful presence and very passionate and proud of what she did and where she came from and wanting to keep that culture alive,” Walstad said.

Trevor Squire and Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

A Vadnais Heights City Council member pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Thursday following allegations that he became violent and threatening toward a woman he was seeing.

Terry Nyblom entered the plea in Ramsey County District Court in Maplewood, according to court records.

The 53-year-old previously faced charges of disorderly conduct, interfering with a 911 call, misdemeanor-level domestic assault and fifth-degree assault.

The other charges were dropped in accordance with Nyblom’s agreement to plead guilty to the disorderly conduct count, which is a misdemeanor.

Nyblom was taken into custody at his Vadnais Heights home in late April after quarreling with a 53-year-old St. Paul woman in his home, and trying to prevent her from placing a 911 call, according to the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

After his plea, Nyblom issued a statement maintaining his innocence and disputing many of the charges in the original complaint. 

“I did not restrict her 911 call, I did not assault her, I did not threaten to hurt her nor did I ever make reference that the Sheriff won’t do anything to me because I’m a city council member,” he wrote in an email Thursday.

At about 1:30 a.m. on April 30, deputies were called to the home on the 700 block of Hiawatha Avenue in response to a 911 call.

They found the caller “crying, visibly shaking and (having) a hard time speaking because she was so upset,” according to an incident report. The woman stated that she was “involved in a romantic/sexual relationship with Terry Nyblom.”

She went on to tell deputies that Nyblom was “extremely intoxicated” and had been yelling at her to leave the house, according to the report. She said he made verbal threats to kill or injure her, adding that “they’re not going to do anything to me, I’m a city councilman,” the woman alleged.

Then she said Nyblom grabbed her by the collar of her jacket, pulled her up forcefully from her chair and tried to choke her, the report said. Deputies said they found a bruise on her right bicep where the jacket rubbed the skin.

The woman told deputies she tried to call 911 using a landline telephone, but that Nyblom “took it and threw it.” She then placed a 911 call using her cell phone, according to the report.

A deputy who responded to the scene described Nyblom as having bloodshot and watery eyes along with slurred speech, a strong smell of alcohol and difficulty maintaining his balance, according to the report. Nyblom “admitted to consuming a six pack but denied that anything physical happened” with the woman, according to the report.

He declined to take a preliminary breath test.

While he remains a city council member, Nyblom was removed from his position as deputy mayor following the allegations.

“We didn’t want this to distract from the ability of someone to lead our city,” Vadnais Heights Mayor Bob Fletcher said.

Fletcher added that while the city is “disappointed” by Nyblom’s alleged actions, it has no authority to remove him from office.

“It is really up to the voters to decide next year whether this incident offsets the positive things that he has done as a city council member,” Fletcher said.

Charges have been dismissed against one of two people accused of fatally shooting a man in the face outside a St. Paul bar this past summer.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office announced its decision Monday to drop the second-degree murder charges against Charles Eugene Frye in the death of Carlos Michael Rogers.

Frye’s jury trial was to begin Tuesday.

His attorney, Aaron Haddorff, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The dismissal was prompted by “recent developments regarding a key witness,” according to Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

The case against Justin Darrell Reynolds — the other man charged with Rogers’ killing — is still moving ahead, Gerhardstein reported.

Reynolds’ next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Police found Rogers with a gunshot wound to his face amid a crowd of people outside Born’s Bar in the 800 block of Rice Street around 1:30 a.m. June 11.

The 28-year-old St. Paul man had reportedly gotten into a dispute with one of the bouncers around that time and was kicked out of the establishment. He was accompanied by a woman who later told police that Rogers was like an uncle to her.

Frye, 38, Reynolds, 29, and another woman were standing outside the bar when Rogers was escorted outside, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.

A dispute between the parties reportedly ensued. At some point, Reynolds took out a gun and shot Rogers in the face, according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities previously stated that Reynolds took the shot after Frye told him to “get” Rogers.

Rogers’ friend told police there had been ill will between Frye and Rogers stemming from a 2011 murder, court documents say.

Rogers was released from prison about a week and a half before he was killed. He had been focusing on stabilizing his life and caring for his children, his cousin said shortly after his death.

He had been incarcerated for drug possession.

A California woman who profited from an international sex-trafficking ring that preyed on foreign-born women in Minnesota won’t be going to prison.

After reaching a deal with prosecutors in the case, Fangyao Wu, 23, of Irvine, Calif., received a stayed sentence Monday in Washington County District Court after pleading guilty to one felony count of racketeering, court records say.

That means Wu won’t have to serve prison time provided she follows the terms of her 20-year probation. Those terms include completing 100 hours of community service.

Wu previously faced six felony charges in the case, including two charges of aiding and abetting the sex-trafficking of an individual.

As part of her agreement, Wu is expected to cooperate on the criminal cases still pending against the three others charged in the bust, which was led by Washington and Ramsey county officials.

Two of the three, including Wu’s mother, Hong Jing, and Dongzhou Jiang, a Blaine man who managed the enterprise’s local logistics,  have already pleaded guilty in the operation. The third, Sophia Wang Navas, is taking her case to trial.

Navas and Jing, both of Irvine, Calif., are accused of heading up the enterprise on the West Coast.

At her sentencing hearing this week, Wu acknowledged that she knew about the trafficking operation and that she had benefited financially from the enterprise, according to information provided by the Ramsey and Washington county attorneys’ offices.

Her role in the criminal activity was limited, though, authorities say.

The sex-trafficking ring ran from February 2015 until February 2017 and involved nearly 20,000 advertisements for sexual services placed on Backpage.com, according to legal documents.

Jiang, of Blaine, coordinated the logistics of the enterprise in Minnesota and North Dakota, finding establishments and private homes for the women to work out of and collecting the money paid to them by clients, the complaint said.

He told officers that the women, who ranged in age from 32 to 45, were forced to earn at least $800 a day or risk getting fired. He also said they had to pay for food, housing and transportation.

Jiang admitted that some of them were raped, beaten and robbed by clients, charges say.

Most of the women were foreign-born, mainly Chinese or Korean nationals. Locally, they served clients across the Twin Cities, including Oakdale, Cottage Grove, St. Paul, Blaine, Maplewood and St. Louis Park.

While announcing charges in the case last winter, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput described a Cottage Grove home used as a meeting place for clients and sex workers.

Little more than two mattresses were found inside the townhome, along with “a line of men” waiting to have sex with three women inside the residence.

Jing and Jiang are scheduled to be sentenced in December. Navas’ next court appearance will be in February.

A North Dakota man who scammed Minnesota welfare programs out of hundreds of thousands of dollars will spend his next several years in prison.

Elfonzo Dyrell Shelby was sentenced Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to just over nine years in prison for committing identity theft and other related crimes, according to court records.

The 47-year-old used information he collected on phony surveys he sent out to inmates at a correctional facility in Mississippi to create actual and fake identities, authorities say.

He used the identities to scam the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ general assistance and food stamp programs in Ramsey, Hennepin and Renville counties out of more than $300,000, according to legal documents.

Shelby pleaded guilty to the allegations in September.

An Isanti, Minn., man admitted in court this week to groping a woman and masturbating in front of children at the Minnesota State Fair this past summer, court records say.

Jeffrey Thomas Pendzimas, 62, made the admission Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court when he pleaded guilty to one count of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

His public defender, John Chitwood, could not immediately be reached for comment on Pendzimas’ behalf.

Pendzimas was arrested Aug. 28 after a woman told officials that she felt a man reach into her shorts and grab her buttocks while she was in the fair’s Miracle of Birth center with her young son and nephew, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.

She initially thought the incident was an accident and moved away, but noticed that the man appeared to be masturbating. He then lifted his shirt and exposed himself, causing the woman to scream and cover the eyes of her son and nephew, legal documents say.

A State Fair employee also reported the lewd conduct. She told officials she saw Pendzimas expose himself and masturbate in front of children, the complaint said.

He initially denied his behavior and said he didn’t know why police had placed him under arrest.

Pendzimas has a long history of criminal sexual conduct, including convictions for interference with privacy of a minor, indecent exposure and fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He is scheduled to be sentenced for his latest conviction in January.