Shortly after ramming her vehicle into the back of a squad car earlier this week, a Maplewood woman reached for the trooper’s gun and told him to shoot her, authorities say.

Andrea Elizabeth Perez, 47, now faces one count of first-degree assault against a peace officer, according to the criminal complaint filed against her Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

Perez also was charged via warrant with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and attempting to disarm a peace officer.

The incident took place at 3:35 p.m. Tuesday when a trooper pulled over on the right shoulder of Interstate 35E at Arlington Avenue suddenly had another vehicle slam into him, court documents say.

Startled and experiencing pain in his back, the trooper got out of his vehicle to check on the condition of the driver of the Hyundai Sonata that had just hit him.

He found Perez hunched over her steering wheel with her airbag deployed. He asked her if she was alright, according to the complaint.

That’s when Perez, in a monotone voice, instructed him to shoot her, authorities say. The encounter is captured on video and audio on the trooper’s dash camera.

“You’re going to have to shoot me because this isn’t going to end well,” the woman said, according to legal documents.

When the trooper responded that there was no reason for anybody to shoot anybody, Perez told him that she had struck him intentionally and that she planned to shoot him if he didn’t act first, the complaint said.

“You tried to hit me on purpose,” the trooper asked her.

“Yes. This is not going to end well. I’m telling you now,” the woman responded before directing the trooper to “grab (his) gun,” the complaint said.

That’s when authorities say she began to reach for the trooper’s holstered pistol.

Two men who pulled over to assist stepped in and helped the trooper take the woman to the ground, where she was placed in handcuffs.

A witness of the incident told investigators that Perez appeared to deliberately swerve to hit the officer, the complaint said.

Video and audio of the crash captured on the trooper’s squad camera corroborates that account, authorities say.

The trooper sustained minor injuries in the crash and was taken to United Hospital for evaluation. Perez, who was uninjured but suspected of being under the influence of drugs at the time, was also transported.

She remains hospitalized, authorities say.

West St. Paul firefighters encountered her about a half hour earlier that day, said West St. Paul Police Lt. Brian Sturgeon.

Firefighters heading to a call noticed a white vehicle parked in the middle of a driveway shared by the fire and police departments, and it remained there when they returned, Sturgeon said. They tried talking to the driver, who was alone in the car.

“She stared straight ahead,” Sturgeon said. “Our understanding is that she did not acknowledge the firefighters and, after about 20 seconds, she fled out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed.”

Police checked the area, but didn’t find the driver.

Perez’ criminal history includes a seat belt violation and parking citation.

Perez declined to talk to investigators after her arrest, authorities say.

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

After sending a St. Paul police officer to the hospital with a gushing head wound, Coni Lamark Shegog bragged that he taught the cop a lesson, authorities say.

“I (expletive) him up. Straight up … He ain’t gonna try that (expletive) no more next time. I guarantee that,” Shegog said after repeatedly striking an officer in the head with his fists and a set of keys, authorities say. A short time later, the 28-year-old St. Paul man spat in the face of another officer as he sat in the back of a squad car.

Shegog was charged Friday with six counts of fourth-degree assault against a peace officer, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

One of the counts alleges Shegog’s actions Wednesday caused “demonstrable bodily harm” to St. Paul Officer Dominic Dzik, who was taken to the hospital for treatment of a head-wound.

The other five charges accuse Shegog of unlawfully transferred bodily fluids onto police officers when he spat inside the squad car.

The incident began as a routine police call for Officer Dzik, who was called to an apartment building on Cook Avenue near Westminster Street in St. Paul about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A 22-year-old woman at the scene reported that a neighbor violated an order for protection she had against his girlfriend earlier in the day.

Dzik responded alone because the woman reported the neighbor was no longer there. As he talked to the woman in the parking lot, a vehicle pulled in, police said, and the person she had the protection order against was in the passenger seat.

When Dzik went to talk to the people in the car, the driver, Shegog, began yelling at the officer, telling him to move his “(expletive) squad,” before exiting the vehicle.

Shegog then started screaming and yelling at the officer as his girlfriend apparently recorded the incident on his cell phone. At some point, Dzik reached his hand up and put it on Shegog’s chest in an effort to “create distance between them,” the complaint said.

Shegog responded by swatting the officer’s arm away and yelling, “ ‘Don’t you (expletive) touch me,’” according to the criminal complaint.

The combative behavior continued, according to the complaint, prompting the officer to eventually pull out his mace.

Spotting the chemical irritant, Shegog declared, “It’s on,” according to the complaint.

The officer told Shegog he was under arrest and needed to turn around and place his hands behind his back.

When Shegog refused, the officer sprayed his face with the chemical irritant and grabbed him by the waist to try and bring him to the ground, the complaint said.

That’s when Shegog started swinging at Dzik, repeatedly striking him on the top of his head with his fists and a set of keys, according to the complaint.

Other officers eventually arrived at the scene who helped arrest Shegog, according to the complaint.

Dzik, who had difficulty seeing due to the amount of blood seeping from his head, was taken to Regions Hospital, where doctors had to staple his head wound shut, according to the complaint.

When questioned by officers at the scene, Shegog said he fought Dzik because the officer had maced him.

He later spit in another officer’s face after he was placed in the squad car, the complaint said. His saliva allegedly struck several other officers who were assisting in his arrest at the time.

Shegog was scheduled to appear on the charges Friday afternoon. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Shegog has no criminal record in Minnesota aside from two parking citations.

Shegog’s girlfriend, Erin Jeanetta Bohanon, also was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of fifth-degree assault and obstructing legal process.

The St. Paul City Attorney’s Office reviewed the case against her the following day but declined to charge her due to lack of sufficient evidence, according to an office spokeswoman.

She was an 18-year-old who hoped to study cosmetology and was excited to become a new mom, a relative recalled Monday.

But Eileen Viveros-Vargas was found shot Friday — and her unborn child died with her, police said.

Police arrested her boyfriend — Luis Isaac Chacon-Villeda — on suspicion of murder at his parents’ St. Paul home where the couple lived.

When officers were called to the home in the East Side’s Hayden Heights area on Friday at 5:45 p.m., they discovered Viveros-Vargas shot in the head, according to a criminal complaint.

Chacon-Villeda, 19, was performing CPR on her, but paramedics pronounced the young woman dead at the house on East Cottage Avenue, between Furness Parkway and Ruth Street.

In the bedroom where Viveros-Vargas was found, officers discovered several bags and jars of marijuana, a scale, more than $2,000 in cash and a handgun, according to the complaint.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Chacon-Villeda on Monday with fifth-degree drug possession.

Chacon-Villeda is being held in the Ramsey County jail and police continue to investigate Viveros-Vargas’ death.

People who knew Viveros-Vargas are left mourning her death.

“She lived her life to the fullest every day and she was a very positive person — even if she was going through a hard time, she never wanted to bring anyone down,” said Karla Alarcon, Viveros-Vargas’ cousin and friend. “At family gatherings, she would brighten the room when she came in.”

On Monday, a neighbor struggled to make sense of it.

Chacon-Villeda’s parents have owned the home where the shooting occurred for 15 years, and Kelly Braun said he watched Chacon-Villeda grow up.

Chacon-Villeda’s father sent Braun a text message on Sunday night, telling him, “It was all a tragic accident and we are so devastated.” He told him his son is not doing well and is depressed.

Braun said he can’t believe he would hurt his girlfriend.

Chacon-Villeda and Viveros-Vargas were together for about two years. She was five or six months pregnant, Alarcon said.

“She was planning to spend more time with her mom to guide her and be there for her pregnancy,” she said.

No one answered the door at the family’s home Monday and Chacon-Villeda’s father told Braun he didn’t want to speak with a reporter. There were no previous police calls to the address in the past year.

Chacon-Villeda, who has no criminal record, made his first court appearance on the drug charge on Monday and his next hearing was set for March 27.

The charge followed his confession to investigators that the drugs found inside the home belonged to him and that he sold marijuana in the neighborhood, according to the criminal complaint.

Becky Smith, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, said homicide — not medical complications or health issues — is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women in the United States.

Studies have shown more than 60 percent of women killed while pregnant were killed by a current or former intimate partner, Smith said.

Nicholas Barghini had a system. First, he instructed his young students to lie on their stomachs across chairs or a couch he set up for the private acting classes he taught at various St. Paul libraries last summer.

Next, after positioning himself at their feet and removing the students’ socks and shoes, he told them to start reading from a monologue.

Then, with their heads facing away from him, he unzipped his pants and masturbated.

Standing beside his attorney in an orange prison jumpsuit, Barghini, 31, admitted in a Ramsey County courtroom Monday morning to repeating that conduct six times last summer.

His victims ranged in age from 9 to 11.

In one case, he admitted to touching an 11-year-old girl’s foot with his genitalia while she read from a script inside a room at Merriam Park Library last July 15.

Barghini said little more than “That is correct,” and “True” during the brief hearing as Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Tanya Olympia O’Brien and his own attorney, Debbie Lang, asked him to take responsibility for the crimes alleged against him.

Parents of some of the victims listened on from the front row in the courtroom.

The first charges were filed against Barghini late last July after one of his 10-year-old students told her mother that he had done “weird stuff” to her during an acting class.

After getting an insufficient explanation from Barghini about it, the woman went to the library where the class was conducted and asked to see surveillance footage.

The video captured Barghini removing her daughter’s shoes and socks and burying his face in her feet while touching them and masturbating, court documents say.

The incident prompted police to investigate, and other victims to come forward.

Additional video discovered on Barghini’s cellphone and laptop showed him engaging in similar behavior with other young students.

All of the victims’ parents had responded to ads Barghini took out in newspapers and online for private acting classes he taught at Riverview and Merriam Park libraries in St. Paul, according to statements his attorney made in court Monday.

During their investigation, police also found a piece of paper in Barghini’s wallet outlining his “sex goals,” along with a desire to form a cult.

No. 5 on the list had rows of ages and columns listed underneath it. “Feet” and “other” were included on the list, and there were Xs marked in the pre-13 and 13-17 age categories, court documents say.

He entered guilty pleas to all the charges Monday and is expected to be sentenced April 23.

The father of the boy charged with threatening violence against fellow students at his school made a court appearance Tuesday on charges he possessed banned guns and failed to properly store other firearms.

Christopher Stowe, 41, appeared during a hearing Tuesday at the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center, where he was represented by attorney Bruce Rivers.

Stowe has not yet entered a plea. His next appearance is scheduled for April 12.

Stowe faces two counts of possession of a machine gun or short-barreled shotgun — both banned guns in Minnesota — as well as one of negligent storage of firearms.

He and his wife, Lisa Stowe, were charged after authorities executed a search warrant on March 2 at their Vadnais Heights home following an incident at their 13-year-old son’s school the previous day.

During the search, law enforcement found the illegal guns as well as several other firearms that were found “loaded and located out in the open,” legal documents say.

Authorities say their search was prompted by a report that the boy had threatened to kill a classmate at the Academy for Sciences & Agriculture in Vadnais Heights.

The boy faces one felony count of threats of violence. His mother was charged with one count of gross-misdemeanor-level negligent storage of a firearm.

More than a year since an Arden Hills collision killed two teens and severely injured another, investigators think the answer to its cause may be locked in a cellphone.

Since a Maple Grove woman’s SUV collided into the vehicle carrying three Mounds View High School students at an Arden Hills intersection, investigators are seeking access to her phone to determine if she was using it at the time of the crash.

The prosecution and defense in the case are stuck in a dispute over whether there are legal grounds to compel Rachel Kayl, 32, to unlock the device.

Kayl was charged last May in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, two counts of second-degree manslaughter and one count of criminal vehicular operation. The State Patrol says her Chevrolet Trailblazer was traveling between 77 and 85 mph before striking the teens’ vehicle.

Bridget Giere, 16, and Stephanie Carlson, 16, died in the crash. Samantha Redden, 17 at the time, was severely injured. The three were on their way to school at the time.

Prosecutors already know from Kayl’s cellular records that she wasn’t talking or texting on her phone at the time of the crash. But they don’t know if she was using the internet or an electronic application at the time.

That matters because prosecutors must prove that her conduct was either reckless or grossly negligent as they seek convictions when the case goes to trial in July.

Kayl’s defense attorney, Adam Johnson, maintains in court filings that the state’s request that the court order Kayl to unlock her phone is untimely. And, Johnson says, in violation of her Fifth Amendment rights prohibiting self-incrimination.

Further, he argues the case against Kayl should be dismissed, claiming it was the other driver’s conduct — not his client’s — that caused the crash.

PROSECUTION CONTENDS EXCESSIVE SPEED TO BLAME

The collision took place around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2016. At that time the three Mounds View High School juniors were turning left from westbound County Road 96 onto Old Highway 10 on their way to school when their Chevrolet Equinox was struck by Kayl’s eastbound SUV on County Road 96.

The posted speed limit on that section of County Road 96 is 50 mph.

Kayl’s “excessive speed” was the “primary contributing factor” in the crash, the State Patrol concluded.

CELLPHONE RECORDS COULD HELP PROVE NEGLIGENCE

Despite the prominence of Kayl’s vehicle’s speed in the case, prosecutors argue that her cellphone use at the time is also relevant as it could prove further negligence on her part, legal documents say.

Kayl’s defense attorney argues in a response that the court should deny the state’s motion, arguing such an act would be in violation of the Rules of Criminal Procedure as well as state and federal constitutions.

The response takes particular issue with the request’s bearing on the Fifth Amendment, which protects criminal defendants from having to potentially incriminate themselves through testimony.

Citing case law, the defense argues: “If the government may not resort to the cruel expedient of forcing evidence from a defendant’s lips, the government likewise cannot resort to the similar expedient whereby evidence is forced from a defendant’s thumbs.”

Prosecutors called the defense’s characterization of the issue “erroneous.”

“The state’s act of unlocking her cellphone, in the manner proposed by the state, will not cause her, expressly or implicitly, to be a witness against herself,” the prosecution’s motion said.

Rather, prosecutors are simply requesting Kayl perform “an act,” it goes on to say, pointing out that other acts, such as securing a blood sample from a defendant to be used as evidence in a case, are not protected by the Fifth Amendment.

The motion does acknowledge that the law governing the Fifth Amendment’s “applicability to digital devices protected by passcodes is in a state of evolution.”

DEFENSE CLAIMS CRASH WAS FAULT OF OTHER DRIVER

In separate legal filings addressing other aspects of the case, Kayl’s attorney has asked the judge to dismiss charges against his client, arguing they are based on “erroneous conclusions” made by the state’s crash reconstruction expert.

Citing a separate analysis by an expert hired by the defense, Johnson argues that Redden failed to yield to Kayl, who had a green light at the time, when she turned through the intersection that day, according to a legal memorandum he filed with the court.

The defense’s expert bases that assessment on video of the collision captured on a bus dash cam, testimony of a witness to the crash and statements Redden made to an investigator about what had happened.

In her interview with authorities from the hospital, Redden said the flashing yellow arrow had turned to green before she proceeded through the intersection to make her left turn, court documents say.

Further, she allegedly stated that she didn’t see any cars, including Kayl’s, before making the turn.

Kayl’s attorney contends that the evidence shows that Redden actually still had a flashing yellow arrow when she proceeded into the intersection — a fact the state doesn’t dispute — but that she never bothered to check for oncoming traffic.

“There were no circumstances, other than those of her own making, that excused (Redden) from seeing (Kayl’s) vehicle approaching,” the defense’s memo states. “Redden heedlessly turned into the intersection without looking for opposing traffic, and that is all there is to this situation.”

Given Redden’s failure to yield, Kayl’s speed at the time of the crash is largely irrelevant, the defense memo argues.

And regardless, it continues, speeding alone does not constitute gross or culpable negligence, and therefore the case lacks probable cause and should be dismissed, the memo asserts.

PROSECUTION PUSHES BACK

In its counterfiling, the prosecution contends that the defense is basing its analysis on the statements of a “traumatized child” shortly after the crash took place.

It adds that, despite her memory of what happened, the state’s crash reconstruction expert uncovered ample evidence at the scene to suggest that Redden was in fact lawfully yielding to oncoming traffic when she entered the intersection to turn and and was struck by Kayl’s speeding vehicle.

“Clearly (Redden) was looking. Redden was looking, and she saw (Kayl’s) vehicle approaching. The only thing (Redden) was not able to see was (Kayl’s) speedometer, which would have shown (her) traveling at tremendously excessive speeds,” the state’s response said.

Her decision to speed forfeited Kayl’s right-of-way at the intersection, the filing continued.

“(Kayl’s) speed was the sole cause of this horrific crash and she is both grossly and culpably negligent,” the counterfiling said.

A hearing on the motions will take place April 23 when both sides will present arguments before a judge.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office declined to comment on the status of the pending case.

Kayl’s attorney said his client is anxious to get to trial.

“She is looking forward to her day in court where she can tell her side,” Johnson said.

An employee at a Little Canada group home is accused of sexually assaulting a woman with severe mental and physical disabilities who lives at the residence.

Peter Daniel Hackman, 27, was charged via warrant with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Hackman raped the resident while he was caring for her at the home located in the 500 block of Allen Avenue the morning of March 7, authorities say.

Another staff member reported her concerns after she discovered the 27-year-old woman, who is dependent on a wheelchair and nonverbal, naked in the bathroom with what appeared to be semen on her leg, the criminal complaint said.

Only she and Hackman had been in contact with the resident since the previous evening.

A subsequent examination conducted on the resident at Regions Hospital revealed signs she was sexually assaulted, according to legal documents.

When interviewed by investigators, Hackman initially denied the conduct and said the substance found on her leg was likely some of the yogurt he gave her that morning to take her medication, the complaint said.

After he was admitted to the hospital the following day for attempting suicide, authorities say Hackman confessed.

He admitted to investigators that he had raped the woman and said his guilt over what he did led him to attempt suicide, the criminal complaint said.

He said the woman attempted to fight him off during the assault, according to the complaint.

The only convictions on Hackman’s criminal record are for minor traffic violations.

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

GROUP HOME OPERATOR ISSUES STATEMENT

The group home where the alleged assault took place is operated by Northeast Residence Inc. of White Bear Lake.

A spokesman for the company said the incident went against its work and mission.

“We are disappointed and saddened to learn of the alleged incident that occurred in one of our facilities, and we are sorry that it happened within our community,” company officials said in a statement issued Thursday.

It went on to say that staff reported the alleged abuse to authorities immediately and that Hackman has been terminated from the company.

“We do not tolerate abuse and we are committed to work to ensure the people we serve have a safe and protective environment every day,” the statement said.

The company has received past citations for instances involving staff and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults. It was also fined in 2016 for failing to report the maltreatment of a client cared for at a Little Canada facility.

HOW TO REPORT SUSPECTED ABUSE

Reports of suspected abuse or maltreatment of vulnerable adults in Minnesota can be made by calling the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center’s 24-hour hotline at 1-844-880-1574, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ website.

The Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a man in an SUV during a confrontation with law enforcement officers last spring in Vadnais Heights will not face criminal charges.

The county attorney’s office, after reviewing the case since January, announced Thursday that Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy Andre Rongitsch’s decision to shoot Darren Robert Jahnke on April 16 is legally justified.

The shooting took place after 47-year-old Jahnke struggled with officers inside an RV, disarming one of them, authorities say.

He later was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi — in a letter supporting the conclusion reached by the two assistant county attorneys who reviewed the case — wrote that Rongitsch was left with no other choice but to shoot Jahnke in response to the immediate threat he posed to officers.

“We do not say out loud or publicly recognize enough the impact that these use-of-force encounters have on the men and women who are involved in these dangerous situations,” Choi wrote. “I am saddened about the trauma that likely still endures for all of the deputies who were put in this dangerous situation and for the surviving family members of Darren Jahnke.”

Jenny Vance, Jahnke’s sister, said her family was “sickened” by the decision and that they hoped for a different outcome.

“I just thought that because it was taking so long that maybe we would see some charges filed,” Vance said. “I just feel like there is information missing about what really happened.”

CONFRONTATION, THEN A SHOT

Rongitsch and his colleague, deputy Sara Naglosky, were on patrol about 9:30 p.m. last spring near U.S. 61 and Interstate 694 when they came across a parked car and an RV they deemed suspicious.

The officers were investigating a reported sexual assault involving an RV that had taken place in nearby Little Canada at the time, according to a memorandum released by the county attorney’s office.

Naglosky and Rongitsch approached the car, and a woman inside it told them that a man, later identified as Jahnke, was in the RV.

As the deputies approached the RV from either side, deputies Doug Haider and Lisa Daly also arrived on the scene at 3250 Fanum Road.

The officers began to request information about Jahnke’s identity, which he repeatedly refused to provide despite their disclosure that they were investigating a sexual assault, the memo said. Deputies also noted that neither Jahnke nor the woman with him matched the descriptions of the vehicles’ owners.

After about 20 minutes, deputies told Jahnke he was under arrest for obstruction of justice and proceeded to enter the RV.

At that point, Jahnke grabbed a five-gallon bucket of fecal matter and ran into the vehicle’s “dimly lit and confined” interior, the memo said.

As he started to make threatening motions with the bucket, deputies ordered him to drop it, and Daly deployed her Taser to his leg, authorities say.

The stun-gun compelled him to drop the bucket. When he refused orders to turn around, Daly deployed the Taser a second time, to no avail, the memo said.

That’s when Jahnke tackled Daly to the floor and grabbed her loaded gun from her holster, the memo said.

Her fellow officers’ began ordering Jahnke to release Daly and drop the gun and show his hands, authorities say.

When he refused and another officer’s Taser failed to incapacitate him, Rongitsch fired a single shot at him, striking Jahnke in the back of his head, according to the memo.

The shot was fired after Daly repeatedly screamed, “He’s got my gun,” and “Please shoot him,”  the memo said.

Testing conducted later by BCA officials located Jahnke’s fingerprints on Daly’s gun, authorities say. The deputy also reportedly had injuries consistent with being wrestled to the ground.

The deputies immediately administered first aid and called for an ambulance, according to the BCA. Jahnke was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital.

All four deputies were placed on standard administrative leave as the BCA investigated the shooting but have since been returned to active duty, according to a spokeswoman with the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

With the conclusion of the charging decision, the sheriff’s office will begin conducting an internal review of the incident, the spokeswoman reported.

FAMILY DEMANDS ANSWERS

Last month, Jahnke’s family held a press conference demanding that the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office release his body without conditions and that the investigation results be released.

They also urged that the officers involved be prosecuted.

The medical examiner’s office has since released Jahnke’s body, and his sister said Thursday that the family will make plans to bury him after an independent autopsy they are having conducted on his remains is completed.

Jahnke, who was divorced and had three stepchildren, worked as a baker and a carpenter, Vance said.

“He was a brilliant person,” Vance said. “He could solve any problem … was very compassionate, empathetic … and he loved to create.”

Vance, their younger brother and their mother have waited too long to lay him to rest as the investigation dragged on, Vance said.

“At least this will close one chapter and I guess open a new chapter of this whole journey,” she said. “It has been a lot of work to get this far.”

The family plans to wait for the results of its independent autopsy as well as the medical examiner’s findings before deciding whether to pursue a civil suit in the case.

A St. Paul police officer admitted in court to driving drunk this past November and crashing into several vehicles with his pickup, authorities say.

Cory James Kochendorfer, 38, of Woodbury pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree driving while intoxicated at a plea hearing Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

A second drinking and driving charge previously facing Kochendorfer was dropped as part of a plea deal.

Kochendorfer’s attorney, Charles Clas, could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.

A state trooper responded to the scene of a crash near Fairview and Hague avenues in St. Paul last Nov. 13 to find six damaged cars and one drunk driving suspect — the St. Paul police officer, according to court documents.

The trooper noticed “the faint odor of an alcoholic beverage and other signs of intoxication about the driver,” the complaint said.

Kochendorfer initially admitted to drinking only one beer, but after failing the standard field sobriety tests, he confessed to drinking five, according to legal documents.

He still had a 0.24 blood alcohol concentration 2 hours and 23 minutes after the accident. The legal limit for driving in Minnesota is 0.08.

Kochendorfer has been a St. Paul police officer since 2005 and was working in the department’s narcotics unit at the time of his arrest.

He has since been reassigned to its Property Crimes Unit, according to a police spokesman.

After entering his guilty plea Monday, a Ramsey County District judge ordered him to serve 30 days in jail. The rest of his 365 day sentence was stayed for four years provided Kochendorfer complies with the terms of his probation.

He could not be immediately reached for comment.

A St. Paul man is accused of assaulting his girlfriend’s 9-month old son, causing severe injuries to the child.

Eric Mercado Magana, 21, was charged over the weekend with third-degree assault and malicious punishment of a child, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

Medical staff discovered the child’s injuries when his mother brought the infant to his nine-month check-up on March 8, court documents say.

During his examination, doctors discovered the child had several fractured ribs as well as a skull fracture and other injuries, the complaint said. The injuries necessitated surgery to alleviate fluid that had built up around his brain.

The boy’s mother told officers that she had noticed swelling on the boy’s head two days earlier but thought it had gone down. She eventually admitted that her child had been alone with her boyfriend, Magana, the evening before she saw the swelling, according to the complaint.

Magana had been ordered by county child-protection workers not to have contact with the child after the infant sustained facial trauma while Magana was watching him last December, the complaint said.

At that time, Magana told doctors that the child got hurt falling off a couch, but medical staff determined that the explanation didn’t add up, legal documents say.

After additional injuries and bruises were found at his nine-month check-up, the boy’s mother admitted that Magana had been abusive toward her in the past and that she worried that he might have been to her son as well.

In an interview with investigators, Magana admitted to once punching the child’s mother but initially denied having any knowledge of the infant’s injuries, the complaint said.

He later said he had “dropped the kid” March 5 in the basement of the St. Paul home where he was living with the woman and her baby, legal documents say.

Magana reportedly said he turned around to grab some clothes while the boy was on a changing table, and the boy ended up falling off and hitting his head on the basement floor.

No attorney was listed for Magana in court records. He was expected to make his first court appearance on the charges Monday afternoon.

Magana was convicted of first-degree aggravated robbery in 2016.

A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed against Regions Hospital after staff accidentally discarded a family’s stillborn baby in the St. Paul hospital’s dirty laundry after promising to cremate the remains.

An attorney representing the hospital wrote a letter to the judge hearing the case last month informing him the matter was settled, according to a legal document filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The document contained no details about the payout amount for Esmeralda Hernandez, the child’s mother who filed the suit against the hospital last fall along with several of her family members.

Reached Tuesday, Rebecca Moos, the attorney representing Regions, declined to comment.

Hernandez’s attorney, Chris Messerly, also declined to comment.

The suit has since been dismissed, court documents say.

SUIT FILED LAST FALL, YEARS AFTER INCIDENT

The civil suit filed last November accused Regions of reckless interference with a dead body and sought damages “far in excess of $50,000” for their ongoing pain related to the incident.

In a statement released at the time, Regions Hospital apologized for what happened in 2013.

“We want to say again that we are truly sorry for our mistake,” the statement read. “We immediately reached out to the family in 2013 to apologize and to try and help ease their loss. We have continued to work with their lawyer — always open to a reasonable resolution.”

Hernandez went into early labor in April of 2013 when her son was just 22 weeks in utero, the suit said. At 3:09 p.m. April 3, she delivered her stillborn baby at Regions Hospital and named him “Jose.”

Devastated, she kept him in her room overnight as she and her family mourned his death.

Hernandez declined an autopsy and accepted hospital staff’s offer when they said they could cremate her baby boy in “a respectful and dignified manner,” according to the suit.

Nearly two weeks later, on April 16 an anonymous tipster informed Red Wing police that workers at Crothall Laundry Services had found the body of a baby inside a dirty laundry bag from Regions.

Laundry workers proceeded to “gawk at Baby Jose, took photos of him, and sent pictures into cyberspace,” the lawsuit said.

MEDIA PICKS UP ON STORY

The story was reported by the media and eventually reached the Hernandez family, who “hoped and prayed that the discarded baby was not their Baby Jose,” according to the lawsuit.

Regions Hospital was notified about what had happened from Crothall Laundry staff, who later relayed to police that the hospital had instructed them to reach out to the hospital directly when “something like this shows up in the linens,” the suit said.

When the baby was found, Regions reportedly sent two staff members to retrieve his body. They did not inform police, the lawsuit said.

While hospital staff “knew that the baby was Baby Jose, (they) decided not to tell Baby Jose’s family about what they had done,” according to the complaint.

Regions staff only admitted to the conduct after the family inquired whether the remains found belonged to Baby Jose, legal documents say.

A second newborn’s remains were also discarded in Regions’ dirty laundry around the same time. That baby was born April 7, 2013. His remains were never found.

Regions staff reported at the time that they suspected the child was sent to Crothall Laundry Services in the same linen container as Baby Jose’s remains.

Nothing like it has happened since, the hospital reported in its statement.

“We … took immediate steps to ensure this would not happen again,” the statement read.

In January, a judge granted a motion by Regions to dismiss plaintiffs named in the suit aside from Esmeralda, finding that as the child’s mother, she was the only one “entitled to bring a claim for tortious interference with a dead body.”

Hernandez now lives in Texas. She was living in St. Paul when she delivered her baby.

Six men were arrested after authorities say they tried to engage in prostitution with a minor during a sex-trafficking sting conducted in St. Paul this winter.

The men were charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

Each responded to an ad posted by law enforcement on Backpage.com’s dating section Dec. 18 under the heading “Minneapolis/St. Paul Women Seeking Men” that contained a photograph of “a very young looking female in a provocative pose,” charges say.

While the website requires all advertisements be posted by people 18 or older, authorities say it is well known that people younger than that can be behind the ad, the criminal complaint said.

After inquiring about rates and services, each was asked via text message by the undercover officers operating the sting if he was OK having sex with someone who was actually only 15, according to the charges.

When the men showed up to meet with who they believed to be a minor at the agreed upon location in St. Paul, they discovered law enforcement officers waiting for them instead and were arrested, the complaints said.

When later questioned by investigators, some of the men said they had never intended to engage in sex with a minor. Some also declined to be interviewed.

Those charged include Marcos Antonio Cardenas, 48, of St. Paul; Keith Thomas Resvick, 56, of Burnsville; Dmitriy Nikolayevich Glushko, 35, of Lakeville; Chue Lee, 33, of St. Paul; Yan Zheng, 34, of Apple Valley; and John Russell Brown Jr., 45, of Waterville, Minn.

Each faces one count of attempting to engage in prostitution with someone believed to be between 13 and 16 years old.

Resvik also faces one count of attempting to solicit a child to engage in sexual conduct through electronic communications.

Attorneys were not listed for the six in court records as of Tuesday.

St. Paul police conducted the sting along with help from several other agencies, including the Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Oakdale, Woodbury and Bloomington police departments as well as the Hennepin County sheriff’s office.

UPDATE: Student charged after loaded handgun found in his waistband in St. Paul high school 

St. Paul police arrested a student at Como Park Senior High School after finding him with a loaded gun in his waistband on Wednesday.

Investigators are looking into where the 16-year-old student obtained the gun and why he brought it to school.

“According to the information we have, no threats were made,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. “… The school is safe and operating normally.”

Just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, a Como Park High School staff member told Como’s school resource officer that a student may have a gun, Linders said. The officer called for back-up, and he and a school resource officer from another school went to the student’s classroom. School started at 7:30 a.m.

“They took him out of class with minimal disruption and found a loaded 9mm handgun in his waistband,” Linders said.

Police arrested the teen on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a minor and possession of a firearm in a school.

Como was not locked down and students were not evacuated, said Toya Stewart Downey, St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman. Stewart Downey said police indicated “(t)here were no threats directed at students or staff” and “there are no active threats at the school.”

Como High School Principal Theresa Neal notified families with automated phone calls and emails.

“We will not tolerate any behavior that puts our school at risk,” Neal wrote. “There are consequences for students in situations like this and we will follow our standard discipline procedures.”

St. Paul district policy instructs school principals to refer students to the school board for possible expulsion if they bring a gun to school. By state statute, school boards are expected to expel such students but can take some other action on a case-by-case basis.

BB GUN AT COMO ELEMENTARY LAST WEEK

Tabitha Haines, whose son attends Como High School, said she was “somewhat in shock” when she received Neal’s message.

Haines said her 8-year-old daughter faced a scary situation at Como Park Elementary School on March 12 — another student showed her what appeared to be a gun in his backpack. She initially thought the principal’s message Wednesday was about what happened at her daughter’s elementary school.

“When I realized it wasn’t, I felt ill,” she said. “A parent’s worst nightmare is what we see on TV after all these mass school shootings.”

In the case from Como Park Elementary, police went to the home of the 9-year-old boy on March 12, whose mother handed over a realistic-looking BB gun, according to a police spokesman. The boy said he didn’t notice the gun before he went to school and didn’t know who put it in his backpack.

Haines posted on Facebook about the case Tuesday, saying she was angry Como Park Elementary didn’t notify parents about it.

“If there is a case of lice in school they send out an email,” she wrote. “If a child has strep they send out a letter. If there is some kind of school news or program going on the(y) send out a flipping flyer but a kid bringing a weapon to school doesn’t warrant anything??”

Como Park Elementary Principal Christine Vang sent an email and letter to parents on Wednesday, indicating that the BB gun found at the student’s home was unloaded and no threats were made. She said the school contacted families of students who saw the BB gun and the student who was involved.

“Because this was an isolated incident, I made the decision to contain our communications to that small group,” Vang wrote. “However, I realize that I should have shared news of this incident more broadly. I apologize for not communicating to the school community sooner.”

Vang also asked parents to check their children’s backpacks daily because school staff has “noticed that more students have been bringing inappropriate items to school,” including students seen playing with a toy gun at recess this week, she wrote.

HIGH ALERT AROUND THE COUNTRY

Schools and police around the country have been on high alert since last month’s school shooting in Florida killed 17 students and staff. In Maryland on Tuesday, a teenager shot and wounded two students; the shooter was killed when a school resource officer confronted him.

The case at Como High School on Wednesday “shows the important role that (school resource officers) play in our schools,” Linders said. “They’re part of the community, they’re mentors, advisers and they are also guardians of students and staff.”

The St. Paul district reported 129 weapons incidents last school year, according to a report to the state education department. The Minneapolis district reported 131. Those incidents most often involved knives.

Between 2012 and 2016, Minnesota averaged nine handgun incidents in schools per year, according annual reports to lawmakers.

A teacher who alerted authorities about a possible gun at Como Park Senior High Wednesday overheard a student telling friends he planned to “bust (another teen’s) head off,” authorities say.

She also reportedly heard him mention a gun.

The tip led police to pull 16-year-old Darrion Isaiah Gresham from his classroom Wednesday morning. As they patted him down, a loaded, black handgun was found tucked in his waistband, legal documents say.

The teen was charged Thursday with two felony counts of being a minor in possession of a firearm for the incident, according to the juvenile petition filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

The state filed a motion Thursday to certify the teen as an adult in the case.

Gresham’s family could not be immediately reached for comment and no attorney was listed for him in court records.

A school resource officer at the high school recalled that Gresham was involved in an altercation on school property about three weeks earlier with another person who was not a student at the school, the petition said.

He was particularly upset about the incident because he ended up getting suspended for it, authorities say.

He was arrested with “minimal disruption” Wednesday after the 9mm handgun was found on him, police said.

Police later determined that the gun was loaded with “hollow-point” bullets, which are known to have a higher degree of lethality, the petition said.

When interviewed by police, Gresham said he found the gun in an alley but refused to give any other information, authorities say.

Como was not locked down and students were not evacuated during the incident, said Toya Stewart Downey, St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman. Stewart Downey said police indicated “(t)here were no threats directed at students or staff” and “there are no active threats at the school.”

Como High School Principal Theresa Neal notified families about what had happened with automated phone calls and emails.

“We will not tolerate any behavior that puts our school at risk,” Neal wrote. “There are consequences for students in situations like this and we will follow our standard discipline procedures.”

St. Paul district policy instructs school principals to refer students to the school board for possible expulsion if they bring a gun to school. By state statute, school boards are expected to expel such students but can take some other action on a case-by-case basis.

The St. Paul district reported 129 weapons incidents last school year, according to a report to the state education department. The Minneapolis district reported 131. Those incidents most often involved knives.

Between 2012 and 2016, Minnesota averaged nine handgun incidents in schools per year, according to annual reports to lawmakers.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to three years in jail for firing a gun at the father of his girlfriend’s child.

Brion Quantrial Overton, 23, received the sentence in Ramsey County District Court Thursday, about two months after he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

An attempted murder charge against him was dismissed.

A 24-year-old man was driving by the home of his child’s mother in St. Paul last August when he told police he saw Overton walk toward him with a gun after exiting a white sedan, court documents say.

About a half-hour later, the man was driving on Fourth Street East near Mendota Street when he reportedly spotted the white sedan again. He told officers he saw Overton climb out of the vehicle’s passenger side and walk toward him, again wielding a gun. This time, he said he fired, the complaint said.

Both of the victim’s front driver and passenger side windows shattered as he fled the scene. The man was injured by the flying glass shards, but was not hit by a bullet.

In an interview with police, Overton recalled the shooting but said it was the passenger in the other car that fired at him, not the other way around, court documents say. He also denied possessing a gun.

He was convicted of unlawfully possessing a gun in 2015. He was acquitted of murder charges in Hennepin County the same year, authorities say.

Minnesota’s Guardian ad Litem program — which appoints adults to serve as advocates for abused and neglected children in the legal system — is in need of serious attention, according to a state report.

The evaluation, conducted by the state’s Office of the Legislative Auditor, found that hundreds of cases that require guardian ad litem appointments were left unassigned last year, leaving children without adult advocates. It also pointed to an array of problems with the Guardian ad Litem Board’s oversight of the program’s operations, according to a report released Friday.

Representatives from the program and its board say a lack of resources makes it hard to adequately meet the needs of children navigating the legal system but said staff and board members are aware of the challenges and are working hard to address them.

The report is the first comprehensive review of the program since it shifted out of the jurisdiction of the state’s court system in 2010.

Its key findings were summarized Friday for the Legislative Audit Commission by a member of the evaluation team.

STAFF STRUGGLES TO KEEP UP WITH DEMAND

Jodi Munson Rodriguez told commission members the guardian ad litem program saw a 25 percent increase in the number of cases related to child abuse and neglect coming into the system between 2015 and 2017, adding that the program has been unable to keep up with the rising demand.

As evidence, she pointed out that no guardian ad litems were assigned in at least 520 cases where state law requires legal advocates for children, as of the end of the last fiscal year.

Ramsey County has 109 unassigned cases — which are federally mandated to have guardian ad litems — because of resource constraints, according to program staff. About 700 cases in the county do have guardians working on behalf of children.

Further, evaluators found broad discrepancies between how frequently guardian ad litems made contact with children assigned to their caseloads as well as in how they conducted investigations and wrote reports.

The report also pointed out critical holes in oversight of the program, finding among other concerns that its board does not set measurable goals for the program, regularly monitor its performance, or provide adequate financial oversight.

ADMINISTRATOR: PROPOSED FIXES UNDERWAY

To correct the course, evaluators recommended that the board adopt clear standards for guardian ad litems’ work, develop caseload guidelines, regularly review the program’s performance and take a more active role in overseeing its financial health, according to the report.

That work is already underway, according to the Guardian ad Litem’s program administrator, Kristen Trebil-Halbersma, who has held the post for just shy of a year.

“I don’t think any of the recommendations were a surprise to me. They are all areas that we had previously identified as areas we needed to put additional resources and energy toward improving and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Trebil-Halbersma said.

It’s become increasingly difficult to meet the demands on the program as more cases have flooded into the system, Trebil-Halbersma said, adding that the program needs additional resources if it wants to keep up.

Some $3.6 million included in Gov. Mark Dayton’s supplemental budget would help bring down caseloads, which can be as high as 60 for some workers, and allow the program’s staff and volunteers to ensure that all cases that require advocates for children get assigned guardian ad-litems, Trebil-Halbersma said.

She added that the funding would also help bring on additional supervisory staff to help monitor the program’s performance.

The Guardian ad Litem program also recently contracted with Minnesota Management and Budget Consultants to help its board set clearer policies, goals and ways of evaluating the program’s effectiveness, Trebil-Halbersma said.

CHALLENGES OF A NEW PROGRAM

Some of the board’s challenges arise from its young age and the obstacles that come with trying to create uniformity across the state’s 10 different judicial districts, Trebil-Halbersma said.

“I think the board has put in place a number of policies that have been helpful to the program and the children we serve, but a lot of its focus has had to be on how to maintain, given the lack of resources,” Trebil-Halbersma said. “So I don’t feel the board has fallen down on the job. I feel there is additional work to be done … but it’s a fairly new board that is still in the development process.”

Both she and board chair Crysta Parkin told commission members Friday that a combination of new screening criteria adopted in recent years for child-protection cases, plus an increase in the number of parents struggling with drug abuse and mental health problems, has driven the increase in caseloads straining the system.

They estimated the ad litem program has seen cases jump 55 percent between 2013 and 2017.

The result has inadvertently hurt children, Trebil-Halbersma said.

Parkin put it more bluntly in her remarks to commission members.

“Our vulnerable children deserve better,” she said.

READ THE REPORT

Two years ago, Natalie Pollard was sentenced to spend the next decade of her life in prison.

It meant the St. Paul woman would miss the early years of the son she gave birth to in jail after her conviction on charges that she unintentionally murdered her boyfriend in July 2015.

But now Pollard gets to watch her son grow up.

This past fall, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed her murder conviction, opening the door for Pollard’s recent guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter.

The plea deal with prosecutors means Pollard isn’t expected to serve any additional prison time when she’s sentenced for her new conviction in May, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

In other words, she’s free.

It’s all still sinking in, Pollard said recently in a St. Paul coffee shop.

“Being able to enjoy my kids and watch them grow up and know that their mother is there, that’s all I want,” said Pollard, 36, who has five other children. “I was far away, but now I’m here. … Now I just want to get a solid future planned for them and set an example for my children as a woman.”

The turn of events was not as welcome for her deceased boyfriend’s father, who called the Ramsey County attorney’s office’s plea offer an “injustice” that did not reflect the truth of what happened to his son.

His concern is not that Pollard has been released from prison, but that she no longer has to take responsibility for what he maintains was murder.

“It’s not right,” Silas Nwankpa said. “When somebody kills somebody … to then let them (plead) to something lesser is an injustice … I don’t understand why they would do that.”

RULING FROM HIGHER COURT

Pollard was released from prison in October after the higher court reversed and remanded her second-degree unintentional-murder conviction in the death of Obinna Nwankpa, 30, on the grounds that the Ramsey County District Court erred in the instructions it gave jurors in her case.

The ruling meant the Ramsey County attorney’s office had to retry her if it wanted the murder conviction to stand.

This month, the prosecution offered Pollard the chance to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter instead. It’s a significantly less serious offense than murder.

The decision came after the county attorney’s office re-evaluated the case in preparation for her new trial, said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Gerhardstein said his office had been in contact with Nwankpa’s family about the development.

“We came to the conclusion that the state’s interest in holding the defendant accountable for the death of the victim would be satisfied with a lesser conviction of second-degree manslaughter and prison time already served,” Gerhardstein said in a prepared statement.

He said the decision was not influenced by calls to the county attorney’s office from community supporters of Pollard. They had started a social-media campaign to raise awareness about a case they said unfairly blamed a domestic-abuse victim for standing her ground.

Gerhardstein declined to comment further before the sentencing.

A CLAIM OF SELF-DEFENSE

Pollard maintained her innocence during her trial in the winter of 2016.

She said she swung a knife at her boyfriend, who she said had abused her previously, in self-defense on July 2, 2015.

Pollard told investigators that Nwankpa showed up drunk to the townhouse she lived in with her children that day and she told him to leave. But he returned, broke in through a window, and began trying to fight her.

She followed him to the basement, grabbing a knife along the way for protection, she said.

Pollard was arrested shortly after calling police to report the boyfriend’s break-in. She didn’t initially tell dispatchers that she had stabbed him and, instead, offered differing versions of what happened, legal documents say.

Officers found Nwankpa, 30, unconscious and bloody at the bottom of her basement stairs. He died a short time later from a stab wound to his chest.

When police told her he died, “she cried and said ‘I’m sorry, God.’”

‘I WISH IT DIDN’T HAPPEN THAT WAY’

Looking back, Pollard says Nwankpa’s actions that day compelled her response.

Still, she said she wishes she would have made a different choice in the moment, and wishes even more that she could have found the strength to leave the relationship sooner.

“It was like a nightmare, and things happened so fast,” Pollard said. “I didn’t even know until after the fact that he was wounded … I still think about that a lot … I wish I could tell him that I am sorry. When I go to church I pray that he is resting easy and that he forgives me, because even though I was defending myself, I still wish it didn’t happen that way. I am not a person to kill.”

His death at her hands — the father of her son — is hard to bear, she added.

“I look at my son and I see his father,” Pollard continued. “I might not be incarcerated anymore but I still will always carry around the fact that there is a person that is not here anymore because of me, and I’ll have to explain that to my son.”

She opted to plead guilty of manslaughter despite her belief in her innocence because she said she didn’t want to endure another trial.

Pleading guilty to a crime she doesn’t think she committed still left her feeling somewhat defeated, she added, even though it helped guarantee her freedom.

“I am not sure how things would have turned out,” she said of a possible second trial. “I think there would have been a better chance that I could have been acquitted, but I am not a gambler and I don’t like to gamble with my life.”

Pollard’s defense attorney, Edith Brown, declined to comment about her case until after her sentencing this spring. Her other attorney, A.L. Brown, didn’t return a call for comment.

Nwankpa’s father said a jury would have found Pollard guilty again, saying her story of what happened that night has never added up.

He called her assertions that his son was abusive toward her “lies,” just like the lies he said she continues to tell about the night of the stabbing.

In particular, he said there was no evidence to back up Pollard’s assertion that the two had been locked in a physical altercation before she stabbed him.

“She was defending nothing,” Silas Nwankpa said. “I know my son. He was a kind man … somebody who helps people. Now my son is dead, and he is not coming back.”

In addition to his parents and several other relatives in the United States and Nigeria, Nwankpa also left behind his son with Pollard and a daughter.

‘WHAT MAY SEEM CRIMINAL MAY QUALIFY AS SELF-DEFENSE’

The activists who have rallied behind Pollard have called out the Ramsey County attorney’s office for criminalizing what they say were the innocent actions of a domestic abuse victim defending her family.

They point to the fact that Nwankpa was twice convicted of domestic violence-related crimes involving other women.

In contrast, Pollard’s criminal history includes traffic violations and a disorderly-conduct conviction in 2004, which was dismissed when she met conditions in the case.

Her supporters have circulated her story on social media sites — namely Facebook — asking that people call Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and urge him to reconsider her case.

Gerhardstein said the office received “a few calls” before reaching a plea deal with Pollard.

Supporters have also set up an online fundraising effort aimed at helping Pollard — who lost her home, job and vehicle — get back on her feet.

Pollard also lost custody of her children after her conviction. Her parents have been raising them, she said.

So far, the online campaign has raised a little more than $1,000 of its $20,000 goal.

Among those helping to spread word of the campaign has been the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.

Liz Richards, the organization’s executive director, said the community needs more education about how the legal system responds to instances in which domestic-abuse victims step into potentially criminal territory.

“A lot of people generally think battered women are always the victim and that they never fall on the other side of the equation, but we know that is not always the case,” Richards said. “Looking across a spectrum of cases, the actions domestic-violence victims will take to protect themselves and their families … oftentimes will end up being seen as criminal behavior or it might actually be criminal behavior.”

When that happens, Richards said, it’s important for those in the legal system to take the broader context into account.

“Those are issues we are very concerned about that we’re trying to have more discussions about with (those in the legal system),” Richards said. “Because if you don’t understand all the history and the context … then what may seem on the surface as criminal activity may well qualify as self-defense.”

She added that it’s also important to take that context into account when thinking about how best to charge and subsequently sentence battered partners who commit crimes against their abusers.

Richards would not comment on whether she thought Choi’s office made the wrong move in Pollard’s case. But she did note that Pollard, a mother, is left to figure out how to support six children with a violent felony on her record.

“She is experiencing some of the collateral consequences (of her conviction) in terms of her ability now to secure adequate and safe housing and get a job so (she) can move forward and support her family.”

‘LIKE CLEAN LINEN AND FRESH AIR’

Since her release, Pollard has worked odd jobs — mainly as a custodian — through a local organization that helps connect convicts with employment.

She still has no vehicle and continues to look for her own housing.

She vividly recalls the pain of having to surrender her baby 36 hours after giving birth to him while she was in custody awaiting trial.

It was her love and connection with him and the rest of her children that Pollard said kept her motivated and hopeful while in prison in Shakopee.

She smiles as she recalls smelling her children’s necks when her parents would bring them to visit her twice a month.

“They smelled like clean linen and fresh air,” Pollard recalled. “I loved that smell. It reminded me that one day I am going to be free and be back with them and smell that smell all the time.”

It was hard every time they left, though. It’s still hard that she can visit them only on the weekends as she has been unable to regain custody.

But it’s better than it was when she was imprisoned, especially when it comes to time with her youngest, Chancellor.

“It’s just fun getting to know him and learning more about his likes and dislikes and getting him dressed. Now we are on to potty training,” Pollard said. “I am just overjoyed looking at him and knowing that I am here for him.”

Raising her children is her ultimate purpose, Pollard said. She also wants to help raise awareness about domestic violence and the early signs of abuse.

“This experience has changed me, because I learned to appreciate all of the things I have in my life,” Pollard said. “And when I start to feel like I’m in trouble or I feel down or I feel sad, I just turn to God. … I know that he will never put more on me than I can bear.”

The boyfriend of an 18-year-old pregnant woman fatally shot in St. Paul earlier this month admitted to police he pulled the trigger, but said it was an accident, authorities say.

Luis Isaac Chacon-Villeda called 911 after his girlfriend, Eileen Viveros-Vargas, was shot in the head inside a bedroom at his parents’ house on March 9, according to one of several search warrants filed in Ramsey County District Court related to the case.

“Who shot her,” Chacon-Villeda was asked during the emergency call, according to one of the search warrants. “Me,” the 19-year-old responded.

Chacon-Villeda was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and later released from custody after the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged him with fifth-degree drug possession. He has not been charged in connection with Viveros-Vargas’ death, which remains under investigation.

Officers responded to the scene at 5:45 p.m. They located the couple in an upstairs bedroom in the residence on the 1900 block of East Cottage Avenue. They found Chacon-Villeda attempting to render aid to his girlfriend, the search warrant said.

Three other people also were reportedly in the house at the time.

A black and silver .22 semi-automatic handgun was on a shelf near the bedroom door. A law enforcement officer who investigated the scene said he observed the gun without a magazine, noting that the weapon “appeared to have malfunctioned,” according to a search warrant.

When interviewed about what happened back at police headquarters, authorities say Chacon-Villeda initially told them Viveros-Vargas shot herself while he was across the room.

He later admitting that he had shot his pregnant girlfriend, but said it was accidental, according to a search warrant.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate Viveros-Vargas death was a homicide.

Investigators say they have learned that she and Chacon-Villeda had a “volatile relationship” and may have had previous domestic incidents.

Police filed a search warrant to analyze the couple’s cell phones to help “prove or disprove Chacon-Villeda’s story to police,” one search warrant said.

An officer who responded to the scene noted a strong smell of marijuana inside the bedroom where Viveros-Vargas was shot, according to authorities, and also discovered a glass jar containing what appeared to be marijuana as well as digital scales and plastic baggies with smaller amounts of the green, leafy substance.

Chacon-Villeda told investigators the drugs were his and that he sold marijuana in the neighborhood, authorities say.

His confession prompted the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office to charge with him fifth-degree drug possession. He was released from custody after he posted bail March 13.

The attorney representing him on that case, F. Clayton Tyler, declined to comment on the allegations made in the search warrants related to Viveros-Vargas’ death.

“I haven’t heard any of the tape-recorded statements yet so I don’t know what is accurate and what’s not accurate at this point,” he said. “I will withhold my comments until I see all the discovery.”

The 19-year-old has no criminal record.

Viveros-Vargas’ relatives could not be reached for comment on the search warrants.

Viveros-Vargas and Chacon-Villeda had been together about two years, according to a family member. She said her cousin, who planned to study cosmetology, was about five or six months pregnant when she died.

Jacinda Dunlap recalled for a jury two women jumping out of their car to attack her after she parked outside her St. Paul home late last winter.

They started punching her and pulling her hair, said Dunlap, 25, during her testimony in Ramsey County District Court this week. One of them hit her head with a sledgehammer, she said.

According to Dunlap, the woman with the sledgehammer was Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile.

Reynolds, 28, came into the public eye in July of 2016 after Castile was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights by a St. Anthony police officer. Officer Jeronimo Yanez was subsequently charged with manslaughter but acquitted by a jury last summer.

Reynolds was charged with second and third-degree assault for allegedly attacking Dunlap along with two other women in an unrelated incident that broke out outside Dunlap’s townhome on Jessamine Avenue around 6 a.m. on Feb. 28 2017.

“How certain are you that Ms. Reynolds hit you with that hammer,” Washington County prosecutor Siv Yurichuk asked Dunlap on the opening day of Reynolds’ assault trial this week.

“Very certain,” Dunlap responded.

Reynolds’ attorney Michael Padden asserts that Dunlap is pointing the finger at the wrong person. While Padden told jurors during opening statements he didn’t dispute that the other two women charged in the altercation — Dyamond Richardson and Chnika Blair — were involved, he said his client was not the third attacker.

Not only does he intend to prove that Reynolds wasn’t there, Padden told jurors, but he said he plans to offer evidence indicating Dunlap was never actually attacked by a sledgehammer and that she exaggerated her injuries.

The head injury she was hospitalized for following the attack was nothing more than a one centimeter laceration, Padden said. He claimed that the cut was caused by Blair’s fingernail when the woman pulled out Dunlap’s weave during the fight.

Dunlap described the attack as much more traumatic when she took the stand Tuesday. She described being knocked to the ground by the force of the sledgehammer and blood running down her face as she waited for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

The assault took place in retaliation for an incident earlier that month on Feb. 7 at a Family Dollar store in St. Paul, according to Dunlap. In that incident, Dunlap said she and another woman got into a physical altercation with Dyamond Richardson, a store employee.

Dunlap was subsequently charged with fifth-degree assault for the encounter but the charges were dismissed.

Richardson, according to Dunlap, is a good friend of Reynolds, which is what prompted Reynolds to attack a woman she didn’t know, Dunlap told the jury.

Dunlap said she knew it was Reynolds because she recognized her from media coverage surrounding the shooting of Castile.

It was Reynolds and Chnika who followed her home from her mother’s house early Feb. 28 and jumped out of their car to attack her when she parked at her home, Dunlap testified.

While the assault was underway, she claims Richardson arrived in a different vehicle and got out and sprayed her with bear mace before all three attackers took off.

Dunlap also testified that Reynolds and Richardson showed up at her house to threaten her in the days following the Feb. 7 incident and said Reynolds also sent her what appeared to be a threatening message on Facebook.

Both Richardson and Blair pleaded guilty to third-degree assault for their actions in the case. They were given credit for the handful of days they served following their arrests and were placed on probation.

Padden spent much of his cross-examination of Dunlap attempting to point out inconsistencies between her testimony and what she told investigators.

Devontre Vann told a court Wednesday that every day he thinks about the pain he caused two young women when he and three acquaintances under the influence of tequila and Xanax took turns raping them on Harriet Island last summer.

“I want to apologize to the victims and their families,” Vann said to Ramsey County District Judge Mark Ireland when it was his turn to speak at his sentencing hearing. “I regret what happened. That’s something I think about every night.”

Vann, 20, was the second of the four defendants charged in the case to be sentenced.

He entered an Alford plea in late January, which his attorney, public defender Patricia Hughes, said was because Vann doesn’t remember his actions that evening because he was so high and drunk at the time.

He was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years in prison on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of aiding and abetting aggravated robbery.

He and the other defendants — Vershone Jaquay Hodges, 20, Deandray Artez Easley, 19, and Choncey Milan Stewart, 17 — are accused of holding up the 18-year-old girls and their two male friends around 11 p.m. last June 5, eventually forcing the two males to strip and lie face-down as three of the four took turns raping the young women.

When they were finished, the defendants took off with the victims’ cellphones and other belongings, according to court documents.

While the two women were present during Vann’s sentencing Wednesday, neither spoke.

When it was her turn to address the court, Ramsey County Assistant Attorney Kelly Olmstead said what they and their two male friends endured that night is “what nightmares are made of.”

“We need the defendant to understand how extraordinarily traumatic … this was,” Olmstead said. “It was horrific. It was life-shattering. I can’t put to words how horrible it was and continues to be … And that pain doesn’t go away with this sentencing.”

Still, she said the state appreciated the remorse Vann showed.

Hughes said the young man grew up in a good home with both his parents, his grandmother and siblings present in his life. Shortly before the sexual assault took place, he signed up to join the U.S. Navy.

Unlike the other three defendants charged alongside him, Hughes said Vann was not a gang member. He only really knew one of the other young men who went to Harriet Island that night to make a music video.

Deciding to go was his first mistake, Hughes said, adding that his second was drinking tequila and popping two Xanax pills.

One of Vann’s family members left the courtroom shaking and crying when his sentence was handed down.

Hodges was sentenced in January to 25 years in prison. Easley is scheduled to be sentenced in May after a jury convicted him of the charges filed against him last year. Stewart’s case is pending.