Phanny Phay’s family crowded into four rows inside a Ramsey County courtroom Tuesday to watch her longtime boyfriend make his first court appearance after being charged in her brutal murder.

Andre Antwan Duprey appeared to avoid eye contact with those gathered and instead looked straight ahead as he stood in an orange jumpsuit.

A public defender representing him asked that the presiding judge authorize a mental health evaluation for Duprey, who authorities say repeatedly chanted the words “demon, demon” shortly before killing Phay early Sunday morning.

He was charged Monday with second-degree murder in her death.

“Do you understand what’s going on here,” Ramsey County District Judge Tilsen asked Duprey during the proceeding.

“I do, your honor,” he responded.

Those were the only words Duprey spoke during the hearing, which ended after the mental health evaluation was approved and his next court date was scheduled.

Duprey is being held on $1 million bail.

He was arrested after police discovered Phay’s bloodied body with shotgun wounds and multiple sharp-force injuries inside a bedroom in the couple’s apartment in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood.

Duprey was standing in the room’s entryway holding a knife, charges say. A bloody double-barrel shotgun was reportedly found on the bed.

His aunt, who was staying with the couple at the time to attend a family reunion, told police she woke up around 2 a.m. Sunday to a commotion and saw Duprey pointing a shotgun toward Phay’s head inside their bedroom, legal documents say.

He was chanting “demon, demon,” as Phay, 28, lay on the bed crying, she said, according to charges.

Scared, the woman gathered her 7-year-old daughter and fled for help.

Phay’s uncle, Narann Phay, was among those at Tuesday’s hearing.

He wiped away tears as he described what it was like to look at the man accused of her violent death.

“It’s just really hard to see his face. To accept what happened … what he did to her,” Narann Phay said. “Every time I think of my niece, I’m crying.”

Several other relatives also left the courtroom crying after the hearing.

Relatives say Phay and Duprey had dated for nearly eight years and that they were not aware of past abuse in their relationship.

Her brother, Timothy Phay, said Phay wanted to become a doctor and was taking classes at the University of Minnesota.

That’s where she met Duprey, who graduated from the U with a degree in political science, according to her brother.

“My niece was a very innocent person, very gentle person, very sweet,” Narann Phay said. “She wanted to help people. … He took her life away from her, just like he killed all of us.”

Duprey, an Army veteran, has no significant criminal record in Minnesota.

After his arrest Sunday, he reportedly told an investigator that he was very tired and had spent the previous evening having fun with his family and his “girl,” the complaint said.

When an investigator asked him what had happened, he reportedly covered his face with his hands and said “my girlfriend’s not OK, is she?” charges say.

Police had contact with Duprey 24 hours earlier outside a Lowertown bar.

They found Duprey on his knees on the sidewalk, holding a Bible and looking upward, and talking about being ready to die, according to a police report. He appeared intoxicated and smelled strongly of alcohol, according to a police report.

Officers took him home after he appeared to calm down, the report said.

Duprey’s next court appearance is scheduled for early February.

A 17-year-old was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for fatally shooting a recent Oakdale high school graduate during a drug deal in St. Paul last summer.

Da-Seion Pugh died trying to escape Jamar Alexander Brown Jr.’s gunfire, which broke out inside a car parked near a multi-family residence at Marion Street and Aurora Avenue just before 4 p.m. on June 24.

The 19-year-old was shot as he was trying to get out of the front seat. He collapsed and died shortly thereafter as he was running from the scene.

Brown Jr. was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court this week to more than 21 years in prison in Pugh’s death. The sentencing came after the juvenile was certified as an adult and pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two aggravated robbery counts, court records say.

His attorney, public defender Amanda Weitekamp, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brown Jr.’s getaway driver that day, Merion Dontez Denton, was sentenced to 100 days in jail for aiding an offender. He’ll go to prison for about two years if he fails to follow the conditions of his probation.

Pugh picked up two acquaintances June 24 before driving to the St. Paul location to sell marijuana to Brown.

When they arrived, they saw Brown pull up in a tan vehicle driven by another man, legal documents say. He swiftly got out of that vehicle and got into the back seat of Pugh’s car.

After a brief discussion about the marijuana, Brown pulled out a handgun and demanded both the drugs and money be handed over.

One of the men gave him $250, but Brown started firing shots anyway.

Pugh’s two acquaintances were able to run from the car and avoid the shots. Pugh was struck in the back, upper arm and hand.

Brown was arrested after a police canine tracked him to a swampy area in Oakdale.

Pugh was remembered as a “beloved” son, brother, grandson and uncle in his obituary.

He graduated from Oakdale’s Tartan Senior High School last year and had been helping out his family and taking college courses prior to his death, his family said.

The oldest of eight children, he played basketball and football at Tartan and was a “laid-back, go-with-the-flow guy,” his stepmother previously told the Pioneer Press. He also enjoyed photography and drawing, and loved music and sports.

A Little Canada man is accused of severely injuring his newborn son after repeatedly punching the crying 4-week-old child in the face, authorities say.

Johnny Taylor, 23, was charged this week with first-degree assault, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Taylor and his girlfriend were at their apartment in Little Canada on Sunday morning when Taylor reportedly became upset over the relentless crying of their newborn son, the woman told police, charges say.

Frustrated, he picked the child up out of his crib and hit him in the face two to three times with a closed fist, according to the woman’s account to investigators, the complaint said.

Then he started shaking the baby until the woman said she pleaded with him to stop. according to the complaint.

Once Taylor fell asleep, his girlfriend took their baby and some belongings and left to stay with her mother.

The child’s grandmother discovered discoloration and extensive bruising on the baby’s face after Taylor showed up at her home and said he had “put hands on (his) son,” the complaint said.

His girlfriend told investigators that she didn’t tell her mother about what happened because she was scared of Taylor, charges say.

The baby was taken to the emergency room and eventually admitted to the neonatal intensive-care unit at Children’s Hospital.

Doctor’s diagnosed the newborn with extensive bruising to his face and body, bleeding inside his skull, a potential brain injury, and at least two broken ribs.

The “severely abused infant” could have died from his injuries, the complaint said.

In an interview with investigators, Taylor denied punching or shaking his son. He said he and his girlfriend had been arguing while he was holding the newborn and that each started slapping the other, legal documents say.

During the altercation, Taylor said, he accidentally slapped the child, and he said that he thought the 4-week-old may have also hit his head against a wall during the incident.

No attorney was listed for Taylor in court records.

His next court appearance will be in early December.

A body found near the St. Croix River bottoms on the Wisconsin side of Interstate State Park this week has been identified as that of an Oakdale man who went missing over the summer after reportedly leaving for a kayaking trip in the area, authorities say.

Vue Her, 49, had apparently gone to Interstate Park in Taylors Falls in July, according to news reports. When he didn’t return home, his family filed a missing person’s report with Oakdale police.

An unoccupied kayak was later spotted north of Rock Island on the St. Croix River, according to the Chisago County sheriff’s office.

Deputies found the kayak pulled up on the shore, with a tackle box and keys to a vehicle inside, the sheriff’s office said at the time. Vue Her’s vehicle was located unoccupied at the park. Officials searched the area at the time but found no sign of Vue Her.

His body was discovered Tuesday by two hunters who were walking along the St Croix river bottoms.

Deputies and investigators from the Polk County sheriff’s department arrived and realized the remains had been at the location — off County Road S, north of 113th Avenue — for some time.

His manner of death is still under investigation.

Vue Her’s family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Law enforcement made more than 100 arrests for unlawful drinking and driving across Minnesota last night, more than triple the amount made on an average Wednesday, authorities say.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety reported via Twitter Thursday afternoon that 137 arrests took place statewide on Thanksgiving eve, a night now dubbed by some as “Blackout Wednesday” due to the seemingly increasing amount of pre-holiday partying that takes place throughout the night.

Authorities typically make an average of 47 arrests on a Wednesday.

With that in mind, authorities again encouraged people Thursday to avoid drinking and driving while celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends.

“Serve yourself up a sober ride and stay out of jail,” read a tweet on the department’s Twitter page.

The department also warned that additional law enforcement officers would be monitoring Minnesota roads for drunk drivers throughout the night.

A St. Paul-based literary-arts organization found itself with an unexpected reason to be grateful on Thanksgiving when its treasured Storymobile was discovered intact by a local resident days after being stolen.

The resident learned about the St. Paul Almanac’s missing media hub trailer after reading a story about the theft in the Star Tribune on  Thursday morning, according to Kimberly Nightingale, the organization’s executive director.

It was apparently stolen sometime Monday night after Nightingale parked the auto trailer across the street from her house in the 400 block of Marshall Avenue following an event late last week.

Upon learning it was missing from media reports, a St. Paul resident realized that the auto trailer was parked next to his house in an empty alley, Nightingale said.

He and another neighbor had noticed the trailer arrive near their homes Monday night and each assumed it belonged to the other, Nightingale continued.

The man called St. Paul Almanac about 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning and Nightingale was there along with police to retrieve the trailer about 15 minutes later. The trailer, painted cherry red with St. Paul Almanac logos, was located in the 600 block of Sherburne Avenue, about a mile from where it was stolen.

The organization uses the media hub trailer, which also contains a solar-powered bike trailer, to create a mobile community engagement space where artists, writers and community members work with residents in creating community stories across the metro area.

The bike trailer is  equipped with iPads, cameras, microphones, amps and keyboards to capture personal narratives in a variety of formats.

“Oh, we are so happy,” Nightingale said Friday of its recovery. “We had it insured but it’s a lot of work and time to build a new one. (The Storymobile) is very playful and fun and attracts attention … so it’s a great way for us to move in community and enjoy hearing people’s stories about living in St. Paul.”

The organization has been roaming around St. Paul city streets in search of stories with the Storymobile for about four years, Nightingale said.

So far, it’s collected about 2,000.

Other than a couple clipped wires, a broken chain and a stolen spare wheel, the trailer was intact and its contents present when it was recovered, Nightingale said.

“I think whoever took it wanted the trailer and when they opened it up and realized how strange and wild it was … I think they thought it was maybe (more than they wanted),” Nightingale said.

An anonymous donor offered a $500 reward for information leading to the return of the Storymobile traveling trailer, the Storymobile and the electric bike.

When Jeffrey Berger stood beside hundreds of other protesters and blocked traffic for hours on Interstate 94 following the 2016 police shooting of Philando Castile, he says he knew he was putting himself at risk for arrest or even injury.

But he doesn’t believe his actions to be criminal, he told jury members hearing his case in Ramsey County District Court this week.

“I believe it is necessary for white-skin people to take risks with their own bodies to help heal the effects of white supremacy,” Berger said.

His intent when he walked onto the freeway was to help bring about social change, he told jurors, not to break the law.

But Assistant St. Paul City Attorney Stephen Christie argued during his opening remarks that Berger’s motives were irrelevant. What mattered, Christie said, was that Berger knew his actions would cause a nuisance and disrupt drivers but he walked onto the interstate anyway.

Christie pointed out that police gave warnings for protesters to disperse before making arrests in a demonstration that eventually turned violent.

The jury decided both sides had merit. Members returned a split verdict Wednesday after about three hours of deliberation.

They found the 76-year-old retired software engineer guilty of being a public nuisance that evening, but not guilty of the charge of unlawful assembly.

BERGER UNIQUE IN TAKING CASE TO TRIAL

Berger was the only one of the roughly 50 people charged following the hours-long protest on the freeway who took his case to trial.

All of the rest wound up pleading guilty to charges for various reasons after a decision made by the group that each should do what was in his or her best interest.

Berger said he felt compelled to take this case forward.

“I am in the position of being able to accept more risk,” said Berger, who is a father and grandfather. “I don’t have family members who are any longer depending on me so I need to somehow use this white privilege I have to carry things to their logical conclusion.”

He called the split-verdict in his case a victory — he had expected to be found guilty on both counts.

“The evidence was all there for the state to convict me just in terms of the narrow view of the events,” Berger said. “So (the jury) clearly heard my arguments … that we live in a white supremacist society and that people need to approach decisions with that in mind.”

Christie declined to comment after the verdict.

St. Paul City Attorney Sam Clark issued the following statement on the case:

“Our most important duty as prosecutors is to seek justice, which is what we’ve consistently done with every case from that night. We’ve now secured a guilty plea or verdict in all of them. This was a chaotic scene where more than 20 law enforcement officers were injured after police gave everyone multiple chances to leave the freeway without being arrested.”

Clark added:

“On a personal note, I understand the grief and anger that people feel whenever a police officer kills an unarmed civilian. As a person of color who grew up in the same neighborhood and was the same age as Philando, I personally felt those same feelings and more after his death. But while I can’t tell others how to process their grief and anger, as the city attorney I can’t let people get hurt.”

FATAL SHOOTING DURING TRAFFIC STOP LEADS TO PROTESTS

Protesters gathered on I-94 in the days after Castile was fatally shot.

The 32-year-old black man was shot by former St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez during a routine traffic stop July 6, 2016, in Falcon Heights.

His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and Reynold’s then 4-year-old child, were in the car when Yanez pulled them over for a broken taillight.

Yanez shot Castile during their brief interaction after Castile told him he was carrying a gun.

Castile was licensed to carry it, but hadn’t disclosed that information before Yanez fired.

This summer Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter charges filed in connection with the shooting.

The fatal shooting sparked protests across the Twin Cities centered on excessive use of force by police, particularly against people of color.

Some protesters began hurling objects at police during the otherwise peaceful protest on I-94, causing injuries to responding officers. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman described it as a riot.

About 120 others were charged in the protests. About half have entered guilty pleas. The rest of the cases are pending.

A FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WITH A HISTORY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ARRESTS

During his two-day trial, Berger, who represented himself, shared his background with jurors.

The father of two and grandfather of four served in the Army in the early 1960s before being honorably discharged. Two of his grandchildren are children of color, he said.

The practitioner of Zen Buddhism said he started to get interested in activism during the Vietnam War. His focus shifted to issues of racial injustice following the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin.

He’s been arrested at demonstrations previously, including once during a Standing Rock oil pipeline protest in North Dakota and another time for disrupting the light rail in Minneapolis following Jamar Clark’s fatal shooting by police.

None of the charges involved allegations of violence.

As a white man, Berger said it’s imperative he continue to participate in protests, regardless of his consequences.

OTHER PROTESTERS CHIME IN

While Kate Havelin, 56, and Brian Heilman, 34, both ended up pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges for their role in the I-94 demonstration. Both of the St. Paul residents say they still feel like they won something.

One major victory, they said, was Ramsey County District Court Judge Tony Atwal’s decision to dismiss the most serious of the three charges initially filed against most protesters, which was a third-degree riot charge.

That left the majority of defendants facing two misdemeanors — unlawful assembly and public nuisance.

The one exception was Louis Hunter. Hunter, a second-cousin of Castile’s, was the only protester charged with felonies in connection with the interstate protest.

The 38-year-old was accused of being among those who threw objects at police, but the Carver County Attorney’s office later determined it lacked conclusive evidence linking Hunter to the allegations and dropped his charges.

That was the second victory, the protesters said.

At that point, many of the others facing charges who had resisted resolving their cases unless the charges against Hunter were dismissed decided to plead guilty to their charges.

They did so knowing they could make a statement in court about why they participated in the protest, a point both Havelin and Heilman said was crucial to their decision to plead.

“I went on the freeway because we have to change Minnesota,” Havelin said. “We have to acknowledge that we live in a place where people of color are treated radically differently and we who are white who haven’t been treated badly, we have to acknowledge that and we have to be the ones to make change.”

She, Heilman and the other I-94 protesters were sentenced to court fines and a 30-day stayed sentence, plus credit for the three days they served in jail.

Bergen was sentenced to roughly the same Wednesday, with the addition of a 90-day stayed sentence and costlier court fines.

Maxim Kenneth Rhone acted strangely in the weeks leading up to her arrest for the murder of Gerald Montantes in the fall of 2016, prosecutors say.

The 26-year-old told police days earlier that she was God and that a man inside her St. Paul apartment was raping and stabbing babies. The incident prompted officers to take Rhone to Regions Hospital, where she was briefly admitted for psychiatric evaluation.

Then, just three days later, “annoyed, tired and impatient,” with Montantes’ attempt to retrieve a phone from inside Rhone’s apartment, Rhone pulled out a knife and plunged it 16 inches into Montantes’ side, according to opening statements Thursday by the prosecution in Rhone’s murder trial in Ramsey County District Court.

The 29-year-old collapsed on the grass outside the building and died shortly after.

Rhone faces two counts of second-degree murder in the 29-year-old’s Sept. 23, 2016 death.

“This is not a case of self-defense,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ayodele Famodu said. Rather, Rhone stabbed Montantes because she was annoyed with him and didn’t like the relationship with a roommate, Famodu said.

She said her client, who is transgender and identifies as a woman, was fearful of Montantes that evening because he had been aggressive toward her in the past.

The two knew each other through Montantes’ girlfriend, who was Rhone’s roommate at the Grand Avenue apartment.

Rhone’s roommate had recently been kicked out of the apartment but still had belongings there. She and Montantes shared a child who also had been living with her and Rhone, according to authorities.

On the night of his death, Montantes was attempting to break into Rhone’s apartment to retrieve their belongings and “ransack” it when he unexpectedly encountered Rhone inside, Iverson said.

Montantes had assumed Rhone was still hospitalized, Iverson added.

An argument ensued between the two, and Rhone repeatedly ordered Montantes to leave, Iverson said, but Montantes refused.

Fearful of what the significantly bigger man might do to her, Rhone picked up a knife and stabbed him once, Iverson said.

“Ms. Rhone was fearful because she had been assaulted by him before,” Iverson said. “She needed to defend herself.”

When police responded to the scene, Rhone made no effort to deny what happened, Iverson said.

“She said ‘I stabbed him. There’s the knife,’ ” Iverson said, adding that Rhone continued to cooperate with police.

If the jury isn’t convinced that her actions were in self-defense and convicts her of murder, then Rhone’s attorney plans to argue that her conduct was due to mental illness.

Witnesses began giving testimony in the case late Thursday morning.

“If you move, I’ll blow your head off,” the intruder said as he pressed a gun to the back of a St. Paul resident’s head last week.

The threat came shortly after the 45-year-old resident in the 1200 block of Albemarle Street heard a knock on his door around 8 p.m. Nov. 29, according to legal documents filed in Ramsey County District Court.

When he opened it, he saw a family acquaintance who had previously done yard work for him standing outside. Then he saw another man he didn’t recognize standing behind him with a gun, the resident told police, court documents say.

The resident tried to close the door but one of the men — Martonio Jeremiah Austin — fired a bullet through it and the assailants pushed their way inside, authorities say.

His family acquaintance — Lamar Smith Jr. — then punched the resident in the face and said “you know what this is,” before he and Austin forced the resident and his girlfriend to lie face-down in a bedroom as the men ransacked the home, according to criminal complaints filed against the men.

“Where’s the money? Where’s the money? I just got out of jail, I’m hungry,” one of the men said, according to the complaint.

Both now face kidnapping, burglary and first-degree aggravated robbery charges.

Smith, 18, and Austin, 19, are accused of holding the couple at gunpoint before taking off with cash and watches stolen from inside the residence.

Police were called to the home by a woman who said she was on the phone with the alleged victim when she suddenly heard a loud sound followed by someone shouting “get the (expletive) on the floor,” the complaint said.

Both Smith and Austin were arrested following a foot chase near the scene.

In an interview with police, Smith said the incident “just kinda happened,” and that Austin wielded the gun, the criminal complaint said.

Austin declined to provide a statement to officers.

Neither man’s attorney could be immediately reached for comment.

Their next court appearance will take place later this month.

Hours after a Woodbury man dropped off heroin to a woman last March in New Brighton, her boyfriend called the dealer to say something was wrong, authorities say.

The man told John Jay Williams that his girlfriend, Nicole Marie Ritchie, stopped breathing sometime after the couple ingested the drugs Williams delivered, and he asked what to do, according to legal documents.

Williams instructed him to pour milk into her mouth, court records say, and that appeared to work. But hours later, after the couple had gone to bed, Ritchie’s boyfriend woke up to find her again not breathing.

Despite paramedics attempts at resuscitation, the 27-year-old woman died from a fatal drug overdose, legal documents say. A mix of opiates, fentanyl and other drugs were found in her system.

Williams, 33, was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder in her death, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Investigators linked him to the case using Ritchie’s cellphone records and information from her boyfriend.

In addition to telling police that Williams sold them the heroin, the man worked with investigators to record conversations he had with Williams after the overdose, the complaint said.

In those interactions, Williams agreed to sell the man more heroin and also expressed concern over Ritchie’s condition.

“I’m just concerned about her, bro,” Williams said to her boyfriend, according to the criminal complaint.

At the time, Williams didn’t know Ritchie had died, legal documents say.

When her boyfriend asked whether Williams could get him the same drugs that he provided the night of the overdose, Williams apparently severed ties with him, telling him to quit calling him and changing his cellphone number, the complaint said.

When initially interviewed about the case, Williams reportedly denied knowing Ritchie and later said he had contacted an attorney.

Williams’ criminal history includes past convictions for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, domestic assault, fifth-degree drug possession and disorderly conduct.

No attorney was listed for him in court records and he could not be immediately reached for comment.

Ritchie’s father declined to comment about her death or the criminal charges filed Tuesday.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 100 days in jail for biting a 3-year-old’s face after getting into a fight with the child’s mother.

Scottie Dale Heckel, 20, was ordered to serve the jail time by a Ramsey County District Court judge Tuesday, about a month after Heckel pleaded guilty of third-degree assault in the case, court records say.

Heckel was also sentenced to a 15-month stayed sentence, meaning he will serve that additional time if he fails to meet the conditions of his probation.

The child was at her mother’s home in the 900 block of Geranium Avenue in St. Paul in June when her mother got into an argument with her boyfriend, the woman told police, court records say.

She put her daughter down for the night on a couch and went to bed while Heckel reportedly stayed up talking to another woman, authorities say.

When the child’s mother woke the next morning, she discovered bite marks on her daughter’s cheek, the complaint said.

Her daughter told her that Heckel bit her during the night.

Heckel’s attorney, public defender Terrance Hendricks, could not be immediately reached for comment.

This is Heckel’s first felony conviction. He was previously convicted of fifth-degree assault and domestic assault.

Misty McKinley met an 84-year-old St. Paul man with signs of dementia at a gas station when she walked up to him and asked him for a ride.

Then she started stalking him, showing up uninvited at his house at all hours of the night and intimidating him into giving her additional rides or other favors, authorities say.

Eventually, the man told police he started to feel “like a prisoner in his own home.”

That’s the account included in a criminal complaint filed this week in Ramsey County District Court charging McKinley with one count of stalking and eight counts of violating a restraining order that the 84-year-old eventually filed against McKinley, court records say.

The elderly man lives alone in a house north of the capitol but his family told police he has started to show signs of dementia in his old age and requires regular assistance from family, the complaint said.

Sometime after meeting McKinley at a gas station in 2016, the 39-year-old woman started showing up at his residence and harassing him for rides or money, legal documents say. She would make him drive her to fast food restaurants and gas stations, where she told him to buy cigarettes, groceries or other items for her and her boyfriend, according to the complaint.

Despite those efforts, sometimes McKinley would show up at his house and “pound on his door ‘all night long and (not) give up,’” the complaint said.

She was found guilty of violating the restraining order twice in January and is now charged with eight additional violations.

McKinley’s criminal record includes convictions for misdemeanor-level theft and check forgery.

She appears to be representing herself in her case and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Her next court date is Jan. 9.

“What happens in this room stays in this room.”

That’s what a massage therapist said to his client moments after sexually assaulting her during a session at his Roseville business this fall, authorities say.

Gary Lee Sarppo, 59, of New Brighton, was charged Wednesday with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in the alleged incident after police arrested him at Massage Rejuvenation this week, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Sarppo is a licensed massage therapist in the city and works solo in the business he owns at 2499 Rice Street, court records say.

One of his longtime clients went there for a massage Sept. 23 and was about 45 minutes into a two-hour session when she said Sarppo began working on her hip area, the complaint said.

He then made the unusual request of asking the 43-year-old client to flip onto her back, which is when the sexual assault took place, according to the woman’s statement to investigators.

In response, the woman started to sit up, prompting Sarppo to ask, “Do you want me to stop?” the woman said, according to legal documents.

When she said told him she did want it to stop, he went back to his usual massage techniques before whispering in her ear, “What happens in this room stays in this room,” the complaint said.

The woman told investigators she felt scared and shocked and didn’t initially know how to respond.

After the massage, Sarppo told the woman he’d apply her gift certificate to cover the charges, the complaint said.

When the woman responded that she didn’t have one, Sarppo said, “I know. I will take care of it,” according to legal documents.

Once back in the lobby, the client informed Sarppo that he wouldn’t get away with the uninvited conduct.

He allegedly responded that nothing like that had ever happened before and said his behavior wasn’t premeditated, the complaint said. He added that he had been under a lot of stress.

Police arrested Sarppo at work Tuesday.

In his interview with investigators, he reportedly acknowledged touching the woman’s genital area but wouldn’t say whether the conduct was intentional. He denied that penetration took place, legal documents say.

He described the incident as a “misunderstanding” based on “flirting” and “body language, the complaint said.

No one answered the phone Wednesday afternoon at Massage Rejuvenation.

Sarppo was in custody at the Ramsey County Jail on Wednesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

His criminal history includes three convictions for drinking and driving related offenses in 1991, 1992 and 2001.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

He is expected to make his first appearance on the sexual misconduct allegations Tuesday afternoon.

A St. Paul man is charged with raping a woman he met less than an hour before near a light-rail station in St. Paul, authorities say.

Torrie Lee Bolden, 41, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

It was about 3 a.m. Oct. 4 when a woman got off the light rail at Fourth and Wacouta streets, legal documents say.

As she walked behind the light-rail station, she met a man she thought to be in his 30s and started walking with him toward a liquor store while the two smoked a cigarette, the woman later told police, the complaint said.

As they were walking, it occurred to the woman that the liquor store wouldn’t be open at that time of morning and that they were walking in the wrong direction anyway.

When she told him, he started punching her in the face and repeatedly slammed her head against a brick wall, the complaint said.

Then he raped her, telling her he would get a gun if she didn’t comply, the woman told police, according to legal documents.

Surveillance cameras in the area reportedly show the two talking and sharing a cigarette in the area before going out of the camera’s vantage point, the complaint said. Shortly thereafter, the woman is seen with her face bloodied, running back toward the station for help.

A police officer recognized Bolden in the footage and asked Bolden’s community corrections officer to confirm his identity, according to court documents.

He was arrested Monday.

In his interview with officers, Bolden initially said he didn’t recognize the victim but later said he had seen her in the area and recalled helping her escape two other men who were assaulting her.

Bolden’s criminal history includes a 2016 gross-misdemeanor conviction for domestic assault.

He has no permanent address.

No attorney was listed for Bolden in court records.

The husband of a Roseville-based home day care provider is accused of sexually assaulting three children cared for at the site, authorities say.

Edgar Noe Lopez-Monter, 44, was charged Thursday with one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Police received a report about the conduct in August after a 6-year-old asked her day care provider, Joy Lopez, to tell her husband to stop kissing her, legal documents say.

She and her 9-year-old sister later told their mother that Lopez-Monter had been kissing them for years when his wife wasn’t present, the complaint said.

The 9-year-old also said Lopez-Monter fondled her on multiple occasions dating back to when she was 6, the complaint said.

The girl reported that Lopez-Monter asked her not to tell anybody about the conduct and said he loved her, according to legal documents.

Lopez-Monter was arrested Wednesday. He declined to give a statement to investigators.

His wife said Thursday that she didn’t know about the allegations and declined to comment.

She runs a day care in the couple’s home on the 300 block of Judith Avenue in Roseville.

The day care’s license has been temporarily suspended, according to records provided by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Joy Lopez has been a licensed day care provider since 2006. This is the first licensing action taken against her.

No attorney was listed for Lopez-Monter in court records.

He does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota.

He was scheduled to make his first appearance on the allegations Friday.

After a St. Paul woman was cut off at a Little Canada bar, she went home and grabbed her pink stun gun, authorities say.

Holding the device in one hand and pepper spray in the other, Tiffany Marie Churchill returned to the Hoggsbreath on Rice Street a short time later and began chasing the bar’s security guards, according to legal documents.

At some point during her pursuit, the 30-year-old woman tripped and fell, prompting security personnel to jump on top of her and detain her, court records say.

Churchill was charged via warrant Monday in Ramsey County District Court with unlawful use of a stun gun and fifth-degree assault for the Oct. 28 incident, according to the criminal complaint.

Churchill also is accused of biting a security guard during the altercation, which started after a bouncer cut Churchill off from more alcohol at the establishment because she seemed impaired, the complaint said.

She was allowed to stay at the bar but an X written on her hand prevented bartenders from serving her.

Irate, she left to get her stun gun and pepper-spray, authorities say.

No attorney was listed for her in court records, and she could not be reached for comment.

Churchill’s criminal history includes convictions for drunken driving, fourth-degree burglary, fourth-degree assault, first-degree criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.

She is scheduled to appear in court on the charges Jan. 9.

A jury has found that a St. Paul woman who fatally stabbed her roommate’s boyfriend days after telling police she was God had acted in defense of her home.

After more than a day and a half of deliberations, the Ramsey County District Court jury determined Thursday that Maxim Kenneth Rhone, 26, was not guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in the 2016 homicide of Gerald “Jay” Montantes, 29.

Family members of Montantes stormed out of the courtroom immediately after the verdicts were read and could be heard yelling and swearing in a courthouse hallway before leaving the building.

By contrast, Rhone turned and smiled at her father, who blew her a kiss from his front-row seat in the gallery. Rhone then turned to hug her public defender, Connie Iversen.

Rhone, who is transgender and previously identified as a man, was arrested after stabbing Montantes while the two were inside Rhone’s apartment in the 400 block of Grand Avenue on Sept. 24, 2016.

Montantes collapsed on the grass outside the building and died shortly after.

The state argued at trial that Rhone was “annoyed, tired and impatient” with Montantes after he came into her apartment uninvited late that night, prompting Rhone to unnecessarily grab a knife and shove it six inches into Montantes’ side.

Montantes had returned to the residence to retrieve a phone left behind after he and his girlfriend were kicked out days earlier, according to assistant Ramsey County attorneys Ayodele Famodu and Clayton Robinson.

Iversen disputed the state’s narrative and said Rhone was defending herself and her home when she stabbed Montantes, who she said had broken in with the intent of “ransack(ing)” the place that night.

She added that Montantes had been aggressive toward Rhone in the past, adding to her fear the night of the stabbing.

She grabbed a knife only after Montantes refused to comply with Rhone’s repeated requests to leave her home, Iversen argued.

While the verdict means Rhone will be released from police custody, she will remain civilly committed for the foreseeable future at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter as her mental health continues to be monitored and treated, according to her father, Patrick Rhone.

Rhone told police days before Montantes’ fatal stabbing that she was God and that a man inside her apartment was raping and stabbing babies. She was briefly admitted to Regions Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Court records indicate she struggles with schizoaffective disorder and was deemed mentally ill and dangerous in May.

Her mental health caused the state to delay her criminal proceedings after she was initially found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Iversen said after the verdict that she was pleased that the jury understood Rhone’s right to defend her home that night.

“I’m very happy … Ms. Rhone is very happy,” Iversen said. “She will remain under civil commitment where she will continue to work to get well.”

Patrick Rhone, who had previously been estranged from his daughter, echoed those comments.

“I’m glad my daughter can go back to where she was receiving the help she desperately needs to be a functioning member of society,” he said.

He added that she is working hard to restore her mental health after years of struggling with violent outbursts and other troubling behaviors.

He also offered his condolences to Montantes’ family.

“It is incredibly unfortunate that Jay lost his life,” Patrick Rhone said of Montantes. “No one but (Rhone and Montantes) will really know what happened that night. … I have an incredible amount of compassion and empathy for his family and for their loss. It’s senseless.”

The county attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the verdict.

A civil trial to determine the future of Rhone’s civil commitment is expected to take place early next month.

Montantes was a father and a tattoo artist. Someone wrote on his Facebook wall in the months after his death: “Every day you are missed Jay. You will never be forgotten.”

A Minnetonka man faces criminal charges after stealing a Taser, handcuffs, ammunition and other law enforcement equipment from a Metro Transit police department in St. Paul, authorities say.

Demario Dontae-Eugene Brown, 25, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of second-degree burglary of a government building in the alleged theft this month, according to a criminal complaint.

Police discovered the stolen goods while arresting Brown on Dec. 4 at a Walmart in St. Paul’s Midway area on suspicion of shoplifting.

During a search of his belongings, the Taser was found in his pocket, the complaint said. The handcuffs, three rounds of ammunition, pepper spray and a Metro Transit employee photo ID badge were reportedly found inside his backpack.

Investigators learned that the items were stolen from the Metro Transit Police Department East Command Office at 677 Transfer Road during the early morning of Dec. 2 after the station’s surveillance video showed footage of Brown inside the building, authorities say.

The stolen items are stored in an area off limits to the public, the complaint said.

The charging document did not say how Brown might have gained access to the premises.

Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said that remains under investigation.

Brown was “uncooperative” during the booking process and wouldn’t give an interview to investigators, the complaint said.

His attorney, public defender Edith Brown, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brown has been civilly committed for mental illness at least four times since 2012.

In court records for his civil commitment in 2012, Brown was listed as schizophrenic and was said to have been engaging in “grossly disturbing behavior” and exhibiting “faulty perception” that put him at risk of causing physical harm.

He has been cited nine times for unlawful conduct since September, with all of those cases pending. Most involve traffic violations, along with arrests for theft, third-degree assault and fleeing a police officer.

Four criminal charges filed against him in 2014 were dismissed because of mental deficiency, court records say.

The Minnetonka address listed for Brown in his most recent criminal complaint houses a state-run adult foster care program.

A mental health evaluation has been ordered in his most recent case.

His next hearing in that matter will be in February.

After Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights nearly a year and a half ago, it seemed like nearly everyone wanted to weigh in on what should happen next.

Calls for the officer to be charged came swiftly. Many in the community believed St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez recklessly killed the 32-year-old black man while Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old child looked on.

Others came to the defense of Yanez and other police officers tasked with making split-second, life-and-death decisions.

Their opinions weren’t the ones that counted, though. The decision rested with Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.

In November of last year, Choi made history when he became the first county attorney in Minnesota’s modern history to bring criminal charges against a police officer involved in an on-duty fatal shooting.

Choi charged Yanez with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm for endangering the lives of Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and Reynolds’ daughter.

Reynolds live-streamed the shooting’s immediate aftermath on Facebook, capturing worldwide attention when the footage when viral.

In June, a Ramsey County District Court jury acquitted Yanez on all the charges after the officer testified that he saw Castile gripping a gun despite commands not to do so.

A national dialogue about police use-of-force, particularly against people of color, continues.

Twin Cities residents are awaiting Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s decision on an officer-involved fatal shooting of an unarmed Minneapolis woman last July.

Just this Friday, Choi declined to charge officers involved in the fatal shooting of Cordale Handy, a black man, in St. Paul last March.

Choi agreed to an interview with the Pioneer Press to reflect on how and why he arrived at charges in the Castile shooting — a case he knows will define his career.

The following is that interview, conducted Thursday. It’s been edited for brevity and clarity.

Let’s go back to July 6, 2016, shortly after then-St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez fatally shot Philando Castile during that traffic stop. It happened in Falcon Heights, your jurisdiction, so the decision about whether Yanez crossed a line criminally belonged to you. When did you start to feel the weight of it all?

I remember that night I stayed at work late, just kind of thinking about what I would say to the public, and we came to the conclusion that it was important for me to say something, to tell the community, you know, I got this, I am the person that will be responsible, I will figure these issues out.

So that’s when I started to recognize that this would be a case that would be defining for me from a professional standpoint, defining for our community, and something where the whole world is going to be paying attention. So you can imagine the thoughts and feelings I was having. I had to put my game face on and get ready for what I needed to do, which was to be strong and make sure I fought hard for the integrity of this process.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension spent about three months investigating the case, and your office got it in late September. Why does the process take so long, especially when other cases are charged in a couple of days? 

Well, the first thing to recognize with respect to a police officer-involved shooting is that the issues are complex and it’s not just a simple cut-and-dried investigation. Only a small percentage of these result in convictions. So you have to make sure that the investigation is thorough because from a prosecutor perspective, the thing you never want to have happen is for you to charge a case and then have a judge dismiss it and say that you did not have probable cause or the requisite facts.

I know from the perspective of the community, it’s really hard to understand why it takes so long because they are thinking, “Well, we need an answer. We need some action to happen.” … But in the course of getting it right, I think space is so critical for investigators to be able to do what they have to do.

And as your team worked through the process and reviewed the case, were you all on the same page, or were there lots of back-and-forth conversations?

The conversations were really important because — it wasn’t so much anybody saying, “I don’t feel like this case should be charged”; it was more everybody raising all the issues that a defense attorney would raise and kind of thinking through all of the issues. So even if you kind of thought this case should be charged, we were being very thorough and critical about all of the pieces of evidence we had and making sure that we were being thorough about … whether or not we believed we had probable cause.

CASTILE TRYING TO PUT OFFICER AT EASE

Is it fair to say that earlier on, you knew you were going to charge the case but that you needed more time to kind of poke holes and make sure you had looked it from every angle?

We didn’t make a decision about prosecution until after we had gotten the case, but I think that, I can speak for myself, I started feeling that this case should be charged when I heard the audio (from the squad camera) and you hear the tone of what’s happening with each of them and I am hearing Philando Castile trying to do everything he can to put the officer at ease and I am also hearing maybe confusing commands. So just for me, personally, that was when my thoughts started to change about this particular case.

And we had (Reynolds), who was sitting next to Philando Castile who told us what she perceived. Taking her account — though it was confusing, I’ll admit that — what she was saying was … he was trying to comply with the officer’s commands and was doing everything that he could to be respectful.

So that was my evolution as I was kind of thinking about this case. For me it’s about doing the right thing. I have to look at myself in the mirror, and I know that from the standpoint of that charging decision, I know forever I will be remembered as the person who, if you didn’t like that decision, I am the one that I guess “moved the cheese.” And for those who liked the decision, I guess it’s a bold, courageous decision or however people might characterize it. But trust me, no prosecutor wants to be in that spot. I mean it’s not something that I woke up and said I want to do. But I recognized that when I ran for election, this was something that I signed up to do.

Did you ever waver, especially considering you were the first in Minnesota to go there? 

I felt good about it because at the end of the day, I have to just do what is right. That is what the public is asking me to do. To be fair and impartial and to think about justice and to think about everybody involved, the officer, Philando Castile and his family, Diamond Reynolds, her daughter. And it’s a heavy thing, to charge a police officer with a crime in this context in the line of duty, because Officer Yanez woke up that morning and his intentions were never to be in this situation. He didn’t wake up saying, “I want to kill somebody today.” He woke up and said, “I am going to do my job. I am going to protect the public and do it to the best of my ability.” … He was confronted with some choices, and from our perspective, he made the wrong choices that were in violation of the law.

‘A CASE OF UNREASONABLE PANIC’

You said when you announced your decision to bring charges in this case that “no reasonable officer knowing, seeing and hearing what Officer Yanez did at the time would have used deadly force.” Why do you believe Yanez shot him? Do you believe, as Gov. Mark Dayton said shortly after the shooting, that had Castile been white, he’d be alive today?

When I said that, I don’t think that an officer who was trained in the way a typical officer would be trained would have taken those actions; there were so many things that could have happened to avoid that.

And we can’t get in the mind of Yanez. But I think what the governor was trying to articulate is that we have to recognize that …we all come to our life or our situations with our own life experiences. We all have biases based upon how we were raised and our professional experiences inform our judgments and our decisions. Everybody in this world has it. It’s actually a survival mechanism, so in that context, was there implicit bias in this case? Well, I think in every context of police interaction there is that implicit bias. I have an implicit bias as I sit here today based on my life experiences. Now if we are talking about (whether) Officer Yanez intentionally shoot Philando Castile because of his race, the answer would be no, I don’t think so. Again, I don’t know what’s in the mind of an officer, but I think as a society, we should presume that he wouldn’t do that … — that (nobody) in our law enforcement would ever do that.

There were a whole host of other issues, though. Some people might point to the traffic stop itself. Our expert said it was unreasonable for Officer Yanez, as a car was driving down Larpenteur Avenue, to assume that … Philando Castile was the (suspect) in that robbery.

… When the governor was speaking, I think some people may have misinterpreted what he was saying. I think he was talking about this implicit bias that we all have, and in the context of how that affects communities of color, because I think if you talk to African-American men, oftentimes they share stories of having been pulled over multiple times or not been given the benefit of the doubt. Or that they are presumed to be aggressive and dangerous … and that can be very disheartening and degrading, and also just exhausting.

Are you saying you think Officer Yanez just panicked?

Yeah, this case was about unreasonable panic.

Officer Yanez entered into a voluntary separation agreement with St. Anthony after he was acquitted and is no longer serving there as a police officer. Do you feel like he is equipped to serve anywhere as a police officer after what happened?

No, I don’t think so, and I am glad that the city took the action that they took and … whatever is in Officer Yanez’s future, I hope it’s … good. … But I don’t think he should be a police officer. He couldn’t be a police officer in (Minnesota); I don’t think a community would want that.

A LOT TO ASK OF JURORS

You were the first county attorney in Minnesota to file charges against a police officer involved in an on-duty fatal shooting in at least the state’s modern history. Is it your belief that no other police officer has crossed that criminal line before?

In the end, the state lost this case. Why do you think that was?

I think, again, whenever you are charging a police officer in the line of duty, that is a tough mountain to climb. In fact, I think it’s just a little more than 20 percent of these type of cases that actually result in a conviction, and so they are just extraordinarily hard. I think a big part of that is because you are really asking the jurors to … turn their world view upside down.

Because of many people’s trust in the police?

Yeah, and the lens they are then going to view the (case) with.

So you knew going in that it this was going to be a hard case to win? 

Yeah.

How much involvement did you have with your team on making the calls about how to present the case and handle the trial?

Well, it’s probably the biggest case that has happened in my tenure as the county attorney, so I was very involved, but my style of leadership is not to micromanage people, and so I assembled … a really great prosecution team in Rick Dusterhoft, Jeff Paulsen and Clayton Robinson to actually handle the case — they have years and years of jury trial experience — and then I was updated along the way.

THE BCA INTERVIEW

you have heard criticism about your team’s decision to wait to introduce Yanez’s initial statement to BCA investigators until he was on the stand. The move ended up backfiring when the judge and the jury never got to hear that audio from Yanez. In retrospect, was that a mistake by the prosecution?

Well, I think you have to keep in perspective that the people who might be criticizing it weren’t really involved in trying cases and they probably weren’t in the courtroom. We did the best that we could. With respect to the audio of the BCA interview, based upon past practice of how things work in Ramsey County, that was a statement of the defendant, a party opponent, and the rules say you can introduce it at any particular time. We also believed with 99.9 percent certainty that Officer Yanez was going to take the stand based on conversations with the defense and other factors, so we made the strategic decision to introduce this interview through him. We wanted to make him listen to what he said on the stand and impeach him on the (discrepancies) that we thought were critical. Like how he never actually mentioned the word gun or seeing a gun (in his BCA interview), which was vastly different from what he testified in court.

So based upon past practice and what the rules allow, we didn’t think it was going to be an issue at all to introduce that evidence through Yanez … so of course we were surprised when the judge said we couldn’t and that took us off our game a little bit.

But I think the public needs to understand that what Officer Yanez said in that interview was still available to the jurors. Rick Dusterhoft just had to present it the old-fashioned way, which was to read what Yanez said while he cross-examined Yanez.

GOOD THINGS CAME FROM THE CASE, HE SAYS

Were you surprised by the verdict?

But … that is what the jury decided, and I am a big believer — and I have an obligation — to support that process. And I asked the public to accept the verdict, too, and I got criticized by some for that, but that is the process.

And I think some good things happened as a result of this case, and because the state was willing to bring forward charges. And there is so much to learn from it. How we train officers in the future, implicit-bias training for police as well as everybody in the executive and judicial branches of government, (what are appropriate) use-of-force policies.

Also the fact that Officer Yanez is no longer working as a police officer, because of the actions that St. Anthony took there, because that is about accountability. When people are reviewing officers’ use-of-force, especially deadly force, we have to hold people accountable, and the public needs to know that that won’t always mean in the context of a criminal charges. In fact, those will continue to be rare, as they should be.

What kind of feedback did you get from law enforcement?

To this day, nobody has come up to me and said, “You blew it. You hurt us. You did something horrible.” But … I have friends in law enforcement who tell me that there are a lot of police officers around the state that are very upset. They think that the charges were not appropriate, that this was a tragic accident, not a crime. I can live with that because I believe I did the right thing.

But in September I had a lot of meetings that involved police agencies … and I got a lot of positive feedback from people in the police community then, (but) they whispered (it) in my ear.

A lot of those people were probably at the rank of sergeant or above, … and if they are a sergeant they are probably going somewhere in their career, meaning they had the capacity to see the bigger picture and could process things in a different way.

Let’s shift gears and talk about your counterpart across the river, Mike Freeman. He has a big decision coming up in whether to file charges in the officer-involved fatal shooting of Justine Ruszcyk Damond. People are anxiously waiting for him to say what he is going to do. What advice do you have for him? Have you been in communication with him? 

Well, I don’t know all of what he is weighing … he is not telling me anything about his particular cases. But my advice would be to the public, that they give him all the space that he needs. Mike is grounded in fairness, in making the right decision, and he is going to do that, whatever it might be. … I would ask the public to be supportive of the hard work he … and his team (are) doing to try and get this right, because it’s about … getting to the truth, and then determining whether or not you can make charges.

You’re planning on running for county attorney again, right? Why do you want the job?

Yes, I will make an announcement at some point after the New Year. I have so many tell me, “Boy, you have the toughest job. I feel so sorry for you.” … But I feel very blessed and honored and humbled that I am in this position. I believe in the concept of vocation, and so I believe this is what I am supposed to do.

A St. Catherine University security guard who falsely reported to police that he was shot by a black man will not have to serve any immediate jail time and could avoid it altogether.

During his sentencing Monday, Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr ordered Brent Patrick Ahlers to pay about $4,500 in restitution for the expense incurred by law enforcement who spent hours hunting for the fictitious assailant. But Starr gave him an opportunity to avoid jail if he meets other requirements imposed by the court.

Those requirements include attending six sessions of a group led by Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson for men whose lives have intersected with the criminal justice system.

Most of those in the group are African-American, Starr told him.

After the six sessions, Ahlers will have to report back to Starr on what he learned about the impact his actions had on the African-American community.

“I’ll expect you’ll have something to say that’s a little bit more than ‘I’m sorry,’” Starr said.

Starr also prohibited Ahlers from possessing or owning a firearm during his one-year probation.

If Ahlers doesn’t meet the conditions, Starr said she will send him to jail for 60 days.

She told Ahlers that his “boondoggle” created fear for many who believed an armed shooter was on the run in their neighborhood.

Ahlers, who wore a gray suit and a black shirt to the hearing, addressed the court before being sentenced.

“I am sorry for the event in general and the fear and pain I caused,” Ahlers said.

The 35-year-old 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.

Ahlers told authorities the shooter was a black male with “a short Afro,” according to police scanner traffic posted by MN Police Clips at the time.

His concocted story included telling officers that his assailant fired after Ahlers busted him smoking marijuana on the campus, according to an account provided to the court by his attorney Monday.

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

The next day, after being treated at Regions Hospital, Ahlers confessed he made the story 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.

He was charged with one count of falsely reporting a crime, a misdemeanor. Ahlers pleaded guilty in October.

The incident angered some, who said Ahlers’ choice to implicate a black man perpetuated a long history of African-Americans being wrongfully accused of crimes.

They also said it put black men in jeopardy while police searched for a suspect.

The university fired Ahlers after the incident and he has moved out of state to escape the backlash, his attorney Eric Rice said Monday.

His client didn’t mean to have his gun on him when he went to work that day, but he mistakenly left it in his backpack, Rice told the judge. He was walking in the woods when he accidentally dropped it. The firearm went off when he was attempting to clean it off on his shirt, Rice said.

Rice asked the judge to consider Ahlers’ voluntarily confession when deciding his appropriate punishment.

“He did the right thing, the hard thing … He knew he made a grave error,” Rice said.

St. Paul City Attorney Tamara Larsen argued that Ahlers should spend 60 days in jail given the serious repercussions that followed from Ahlers’ lie.

Not only did it cost law enforcement thousands of dollars in lost manpower, it caused several young black men in the area to be targeted by police, Larsen said.

She added that Ahlers continued to lie about what had really happened for nearly 24 hours after the event.

“Even now he doesn’t seem to fully understand how serious this was,” Larsen said.

Tyrone Terrill, president of the African American Leadership Council, attended the sentencing and said afterward that the judge went too easy on Ahlers.

“He should have gotten the maximum on everything,” Terrill said. “When you say you have an active shooter in the community … it’s only by the grace of God that nobody got hurt.”

The maximum penalty for misdemeanor offenses in Minnesota is 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Terrill said he attends Stephenson’s men’s group and said he plans to ask Ahlers tough questions when he shows up for his first session.

“It’s not going to change him … But I think he will feel the wrath of our community,” Terrill said.