Diamond Reynolds teared up during her sentencing hearing for misdemeanor-level assault Wednesday, saying afterward that she felt the conditions placed on her for a crime she maintains she didn’t commit were unfair.

Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby told the 28-year-old mother that she was going beyond the recommendations of probation for the fifth-degree assault charge a jury convicted Reynolds of following a trial in March.

In addition to being placed on one year of supervised probation, Ostby ordered Reynolds to take an anger management class, undergo a chemical health and diagnostic assessment and complete 80 hours of community service.

“I am concerned about the fact that you haven’t really taken responsibility for your actions,” Ostby told her during the hearing. “Obviously, the jury spoke.”

Despite finding her guilty of fifth-degree assault, jurors acquitted Reynolds of the two more serious charges facing her in the case, which involved allegations she attacked another woman with a hammer last February.

Reynolds came into the public eye in July of 2016 after her boyfriend, Philando 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 and two other women — Dyamond Richardson and Chnika Blair — were charged with assault last winter for allegedly attacking a woman that had been feuding with a friend of Reynolds in an unrelated incident that broke out outside a townhome on Jessamine Avenue the morning of Feb. 28, 2017.

Reynolds maintained that she had nothing to do with the altercation and that she was mistakenly identified as one of the attackers.

Both Richardson and Blair testified during Reynolds’ trial that she had been involved in the altercation.

They pleaded guilty to third-degree assault for their roles and were sentenced months ago.

Reynolds declined to make a statement during her sentencing Wednesday, as did the victim in the case.

Her attorneys, Karlowba Adams Powell and Michael Padden, asked the judge during the proceeding to allow Reynolds to be placed on administrative probation, rather than supervised, so that Reynolds could check in directly with the court rather than meet in person with a probation officer.

Reynolds wants to move to Atlanta to pursue various business interests, including work on a documentary and book about her life, as well as a nonprofit venture she’s recently launched called Black Love Twin Cities LLC.

The nonprofit aims to provide education and assistance to people, Reynolds said.

Administrative probation would make it easier for Reynolds to move to Atlanta sooner, Adams Powell argued.

Ostby was unswayed, saying it was in both Reynolds and the community’s “best interest” that she be placed on supervised probation.

She added later that Reynolds could transfer the supervised probation to another state if she was so inclined.

Ostby also gave Reynolds the opportunity to waive the $1,000 fine imposed for her conduct if she completes her GED.

“I know you want to better yourself and I want to give you the tools to do that,” Ostby told her. “You never got your high school degree, so let’s start there.”

“Yes ma’am,” Reynolds replied tearfully.

Afterward, she explained her emotional response.

“I just feel like it isn’t fair that my life is being constantly stripped of my rights,” she said.

She added that she’s hopeful the book and documentary will serve as her chance to let people know the real her, as well as what she’s gone through.

“That’s the main thing,” she said. “I feel like I’m misunderstood.”

A 4-year-old boy was hospitalized Monday after a motorist struck him and then fled the scene in St. Paul’s North End.

The child was crossing Klainert Street with an adult around 8:30 p.m. when a minivan started heading toward them, according to legal documents filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The adult, who later spoke to police, said she shouted at the driver several times to stop but he continued without slowing, court documents say.

The minivan ended up striking the child, prompting the driver to exit his vehicle briefly before climbing back in and fleeing the scene, according to the adult’s report to police.

Dennis Charles Blakey, 36, of St. Paul was charged Wednesday with two counts of criminal vehicular operation for his alleged involvement in the collision, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

One of the counts alleges Blakey was under the influence of alcohol at the time. The second accuses him of fleeing the scene.

When police responded to the crash in the 1400 block of Klainert Street, they arrived as the boy was being loaded into an ambulance. He was taken to Regions Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured left collarbone.

Police were led to Blakey after someone who witnessed the crash reported being at a Memorial Day party with Blakey at his residence. The witness noticed Blakey getting into his minivan, court documents say.

Then the witness heard the crash and ran down the street. The witness told police that Blakey briefly get out of his vehicle. When the person asked Blakey what had happened, Blakey said a “kid just ran out into the street,” the complaint said.

When interviewed by police, Blakey said he had been drinking for hours at a gathering with family and friends that day. He denied being involved in a pedestrian collision but said his vehicle had been briefly stolen during the party, legal documents say. He also refused to perform field sobriety tests.

Blakey reportedly had slurred speech and trouble keeping his balance during his initial contact with police, the complaint said.

His criminal record includes convictions for a DWI in 2015 as well as two convictions for refusing to submit to breath or chemical tests.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

A Ramsey County judge convicted of a DWI earlier this year has been publicly reprimanded for his conduct by the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards.

The board issued the reprimand Wednesday, finding  District Judge G. Tony Atwal’s conduct violated several provisions of the board’s code of judicial conduct when he was caught by police driving while intoxicated on New Year’s Day in downtown St. Paul.

His misconduct included failing to abide by state law, as well as failing to behave in a manner that promotes confidence in the judicial system, according to the board’s report. Board members also found that Atwal abused the prestige of his position when he told his arresting officer, “So, I live right there. I’m Judge Atwal from Ramsey County,” according to findings of fact the board issued on the incident.

Atwal also asked the officer three times to be let go, the board reported.

Atwal’s attorney, Richard Thomas, issued a statement about the board’s decision on Atwal’s behalf Wednesday afternoon.

“Judge Atwal accepts full responsibility for his actions,” Thomas said. “He deeply regrets they occurred and he continues to work on his recovery.”

Thomas went on to say that Atwal is undergoing outpatient treatment for alcohol addiction.

The judge was pulled over at 12:45 a.m. Jan. 1 after a St. Paul police sergeant patrolling Kellogg Boulevard by John Ireland Boulevard saw a car that was traveling at least 40 mph in a 30-mph zone,

The sergeant pulled the car over and identified the driver as Atwal, who lives in downtown St. Paul. He saw Atwal’s “eyes were bloodshot and glassy and that his speech was slightly slurred,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him. He also “smelled a strong odor of alcohol” on Atwal’s breath, the complaint continued.

The sergeant asked Atwal if he had been drinking, and he reported he had two glasses of wine and a gin and tonic, the complaint said. When Atwal was given a breath test at 2:34 a.m., he registered a 0.17 blood-alcohol concentration. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.

The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards began investigating the incident after two complaints were lodged against Atwal. Atwal also self-reported his conduct to the board.

Atwal pleaded guilty to a gross-misdemeanor third-degree driving while impaired count on Jan. 2 and was immediately sentenced to a stayed prison term, plus two years of supervised probation with conditions.

The incident was the second drinking-and-driving related offense for the judge.

He pleaded guilty to a DWI in 2007 in Washington County, nine years before Gov. Mark Dayton appointed him to be a Ramsey County judge in May 2016.

His term on the bench expires in January. He will be up against at least two challengers when he seeks re-election — attorneys Pao P. Yang and Elliott Nickell — according to candidate filings to date.

The public reprimand issued Wednesday requires Atwal to remain law abiding, follow all conditions of his probation and schedule quarterly meetings with a member of the board for the next two years.

If Atwal fails to comply, further discipline could be imposed, according to the board.

Misconduct by judicial officers can result in anything from the issuance of a private letter addressing the issue by the board to removal from the bench, Thomas said.

Ramsey County Chief Judge John Guthmann could not be immediately reached for comment about the public reprimand.

Atwal was reassigned to hear juvenile cases following his conviction.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting into a crowded area in downtown Minneapolis last summer and wounding an innocent bystander.

Delorien Chatman, 29, was sentenced to roughly 13 years in prison in Hennepin County District Court on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of first- and second-degree assault as well as possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in early May, according to information released by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

“Mr. Chatman recklessly shot his gun in a crowded area of downtown and hit an innocent man. Thanks to the lifesaving efforts by the medical team at Hennepin County Medical Center, the victim is alive today,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a prepared statement. “We agree with the jury’s verdict and the sentence … We hope that Mr. Chatman will turn his life around, but if not, society will be protected from him for a good long while.”

Minneapolis police responded to a shooting at Sixth Street and Hennepin Avenue about 7 p.m. last Aug. 22 and found a man with a gunshot wound to his stomach.

Witnesses told officers that two men had been fighting with Chatman and Chatman was knocked to the ground. At that point, Chatman stood up, pulled out a gun, and fired a shot that wound up hitting the bystander, who was waiting for the bus, according to the county attorney’s office.

Chatman then fled the scene.

On a hot summer’s day in 1969, Heutmaker, then 14, and one of his peers were sexual abused by a priest from the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul.

Although the Rev. Jerome Kern’s conduct was reported to Catholic Church staff by his parents, it wasn’t until now, Heutmaker said, that he felt some measure of justice.

“It feels really good to be here today,” Heutmaker, now 62, said tearfully amid a crowd of survivors of clergy sexual abuse gathered in a downtown St. Paul law office Thursday afternoon. “Never in my life did I think it would come to this, 49 years later. … I am extremely grateful.”

Led by their attorneys, including Jeff Anderson, the group gathered to announce a historic $210 million settlement in the bankruptcy battle between 450 survivors of clergy sexual abuse and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The agreement comes after three years of legal wrangling in federal bankruptcy court. The two sides sought an agreement on how much the archdiocese should pay to survivors who endured both abuse at the hands of clergy and the subsequent cover-up of the conduct by archdiocesan staff, including former Archbishop John Nienstedt.

For survivors, such as Heutmaker, the fight began long before that and involved more than legal sparring.

He thanked his parents, friends, attorneys, fellow survivors and wife for standing by him as he battled years of anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.

“Without all of you I don’t think I would be standing here today,” Heutmaker said.

Anderson cried and hugged Heutmaker and other survivors as he discussed the resolution. The agreement was negotiated by attorneys for both sides as well as members of the creditors committee, a group composed of five abuse survivors.

“It really is a story of trauma and triumph,” Anderson said of the path to the settlement. It’s the largest ever reached by a Catholic archdiocese going through bankruptcy.

“I am almost at a loss for some words because there are some feelings that are overwhelming me at this moment,” Anderson continued. “Four hundred and fifty survivors have found their voice and expressed their voice and … as a result, we have reached a negotiated settlement that not only includes accountability and financial accountability, but it actually advances the (cause) of child protection in a way that has never really been done in this country.”

Officials with the archdiocese said the resolution effectively ends all litigation pending against the local church and its parishes and allows everyone involved to enter the next phase of healing.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda apologized to survivors at a news conference held outside the archdiocese’s St. Paul offices later Thursday.

“Without (your) courage and persistence, today would not have been possible,” said Hebda, who was named to lead the archdiocese after Nienstedt’s resignation three years ago. “I recognize that the abuse stole so much from you. … Your childhood, your innocence, your safety, your ability to trust … and in many ways, your faith.”

He noted that many lives were forever changed by the abuse.

“The church let you down,” Hebda said. “I am very sorry.”

Details of how the settlement will be allocated to survivors and how much will cover attorney fees are still being determined.

FUNDS WILL BE DISBURSED

In the coming days, officials on both sides will work out the details of the agreement, which still needs to be approved by a federal bankruptcy court judge.

Tom Abood, chair of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Reorganization Task Force, said the $210 million will be placed in a trust fund and disbursed to victims by an independent trustee hopefully beginning in the coming months.

Abood led the final stretch of negotiations for the archdiocese, which he said took 18 days to reach.

The payout is about $50 million more than the last plan presented by the archdiocese, which both the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case and survivors maintained was insufficient.

The judge also rejected the plan submitted by survivors, which called for the archdiocese alone to contribute up to $80 million. The judge directed both sides back to the negotiating table in December.

Among the sticking points in the past was how much exposure the archdiocese and its parishes’ insurance companies should have in the settlement.

About $170 million of the payout will be covered by insurance carriers under the terms of the agreement, Abood said, with the other $40 million coming from the archdiocese and its parishes.

Where that money will come from inside those organizations wasn’t immediately clear.

Abood listed an archdiocesan medical benefits plan, cash the archdiocese has on hand, as well as profits from the sales of land and property as some sources.

Both the archdiocese and its parishes rely on donations.

While it’s a big financial hit, the archdiocese can endure it, Abood said.

“We will have to work hard … to make our budget work, but we will do it and Catholics in this community can be confident that we will be moving forward responsibly with our budget and that individual parishes will do the same.”

PROTECTIONS FOR CHILDREN

Far more important than the payout to survivors are the protections now in place for children within the archdiocese as well as the exposure of the priests and staff who either abused minors or covered up such conduct, Anderson and survivors said Thursday.

They pointed to the agreement reached between the Ramsey County attorney’s office and the archdiocese in 2015 as a key component to the creation of a safer environment for youth.

That settlement came about six months after the county attorney’s office filed six gross misdemeanor charges against the archdiocese for failing to adequately protect three children sexually abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.

Among the terms:

• That the archdiocese adopt new protocols for reporting and responding to allegations of clergy abuse.
• That archdiocesan officials regularly visit all of their parishes and schools.
• A requirement of background checks and child safety training for all staff and publish statements in the Catholic Spirit — the archdiocese’s newspaper — urging victims of sexual abuse to report conduct to police.

An audit conducted earlier this year found the archdiocese to so far be “substantially compliant” in those efforts.

Jim Keenan, chairman of the creditors committee and an abuse survivor, also touted the survivors’ courage to reject the archdiocese’s initial payout proposal as a critical turning point for victims.

“That hadn’t been done before. It was a first,” Keenan said. “It changed the playing field. They have to listen to victims now … and (that’s) worth more than the (settlement amount).”

Thursday’s announcement affirmed that the years of “emotional energy” he’s poured into this cause were worth it, Keenan added.

“I think it shows (that) if anyone out there wonders, ‘Do I have the legs to stand up … (for) my voice?’ You absolutely do,” Keenan said. “Speak your truth, because what happens is you may make change. I really do believe we have made the world safer in the (Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis).”

CHANGE TO STATE LAW PROMPTED LAWSUITS

The archdiocese faced numerous lawsuits after Minnesota lawmakers in 2013 created a three-year window for victims of past sexual abuse to file claims that otherwise would have been invalid due to the statute of limitations.

The onslaught compelled the archdiocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015, becoming the 12th U.S. diocese or archdiocese at the time to seek reorganization following numerous sex abuse claims.

The bankruptcy case proceeded slowly as attorneys argued over how much money the archdiocese should have to pay.

At least 15 dioceses or archdioceses across the country have filed for bankruptcy, including three in Minnesota, as they sought to protect themselves from growing claims of sexual abuse by clergy members. A fourth Minnesota diocese, St. Cloud, announced its intention to file in February.

According to the website BishopAccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse cases, this is the largest settlement among the archdioceses and dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection.

The largest payout of any kind came in 2007, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled clergy sex abuse cases with 508 victims for $660 million. Also that year, the Diocese of San Diego agreed to a settlement of nearly $200 million to be paid to 144 people who said they were sexually abused.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.

Dustin Hegner Royce was hurrying away from a “road-rage” altercation last fall when he ran a red light at the intersection of Grand Avenue and West Seventh in St. Paul.

That’s when he felt his vehicle “hit something,” the 29-year-old said from the witness stand inside a Ramsey County courtroom Monday morning.

“Did you know what you hit?” Hegner Royce’s attorney, Paul Baertschi, asked him during the plea hearing.

“At the time, I had a feeling,” Hegner Royce said, pausing. “I didn’t know, but I knew I hit something.”

Panicked, Hegner Royce said he didn’t stop to investigate what he struck. Instead he took off toward Keenan’s Bar, where he knew his mother was working.

“And … (you knew) it could have been a person,” Baertschi continued.

“Yes, sir,” Hegner Royce responded.

Hegner Royce learned from media reports in the days following the collision that he had, in fact, hit a person.

Jose Hernandez Solano was riding his bike home from his job as a dishwasher at Brasa Rotisserie during the early morning hours of Nov. 26 when he was struck by the Hyundai Santa Fe Hegner Royce was driving. The car belongs to his mother.

Officers who responded to the scene found the 52-year-old lying motionless in the intersection.

He died from his injuries about a week and a half later.

Hernandez Solano had been wearing a helmet and his bike was equipped with a light.

‘I JUST PANICKED’

Hegner Royce admitted to causing and fleeing from the deadly collision in court Monday, when he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide.

The courtroom was full of his family and friends, some of whom cried as he at times tearfully recounted his actions that night.

His mom, who is charged with aiding her son after the fact, listened from the back row. She kept her face buried in her hands as she waited for the proceedings to start.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Lee Odion Atakpu pushed Hegner Royce to explain why he didn’t get out to see if someone was hurt.

“Did you slow down or make any attempt to stop?” Atakpu asked.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce replied. “I just panicked. I was scared. I regret it. I really do wish I would have stopped … I have no idea why I didn’t … I just panicked.”

DEFENDANT SOUGHT MOM AFTER STRIKING CYCLIST

After the collision, Hegner Royce admitted that he fled to Keenan’s bar for help, where his mom was bartending.

Authorities say Abbey Rose Hegner left her shift immediately, telling her boss his son’s girlfriend was suicidal.

She followed her son in another vehicle to his workplace in South St. Paul, Hegner Royce said Monday. Then he left his car there and drove away with his mom, Hegner Royce continued.

“Did you have anything to do with what happened to the car afterward?” his attorney, Baertschi, asked him.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce said.

Police have been unable to locate the vehicle, Atakpu said Monday. He added that the Hyundai Santa Fe seems to have “disappeared.”

INVESTIGATION TOOK MONTHS

Authorities spent months investigating the hit-and-run before Hegner Royce and his mom were charged this past March.
They were initially arrested in December but both were released shortly thereafter.

Hegner denied any involvement in the incident at the time and told officers she sold her Hyundai Santa Fe four days before the crash to an “unknown Mexican or Somali male,” court documents say.

She was also reportedly overheard in a recorded jailhouse phone conversation telling someone that the police didn’t have any evidence in the case, particularly the suspect’s vehicle.

Previously, Hegner Royce told officers he had no memory of being at a Holiday near the crime scene that night, despite video footage placing him at the gas station, nor could he recall picking up his mother.

He admitted Monday that he lied. He said he stopped at the gas station en route to a bar that night for a few drinks after getting in a fight with his girlfriend. He needed a lighter to light a cigarette, he said. There, he ran into a man who’d recently been involved in a robbery at his aunt’s house, prompting Hegner Royce to hop back in his car and speed away so the man couldn’t follow him, he said.

A few minutes later, he got into an altercation with another vehicle that was fueled by “road rage,” Hegner Royce said.

He was fleeing that situation when he ran the red light and struck Hernandez Solano, he told the court.

He added that he had only one drink at his girlfriend’s house before the crash and was not intoxicated at the time.

“You don’t have any dispute that what happened to Mr. Hernandez was because of you (though),” Atakpu asked him during the hearing.

“No, sir,” Hegner Royce answered.

FACES UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON

For his plea, the state agreed to dismiss a second count of criminal vehicular homicide previously facing Hegner Royce. Prosecutors also agreed to not ask the judge to sentence him to a longer prison term than is recommended by Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines.

With that in mind, the longest Hegner Royce would be sentenced to is about five years, according to Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr, the judicial officer presiding over the case.

Hegner Royce’s defense attorney plans to call witnesses to the sentencing hearing in hopes of convincing Starr that his client deserves a shorter sentence.

He also tried to convince Starr to release Hegner Royce from custody Monday as he awaits his sentencing hearing in mid-August, arguing that his client was no longer a flight risk because he’d pleaded guilty to the crime. He added that he had a child and two stepkids to support at home.

The prosecution pushed back, pointing to the concealment of the involved vehicle as indication of the lengths Hegner Royce might go to to avoid prison.

“The defendant knew or had reason to to know that law enforcement was looking for the vehicle,” Atakpu said. “He knew what was going on, or knew people were attempting to hide it … that suggests there are ongoing attempts to conceal what really happened here.”

Starr sided with the state and ordered Hegner Royce to remain in custody until his sentencing Aug. 15.

The next hearing in the case pending against his mother is scheduled for later this week. Abbey Hegner faces two counts of aiding an offender.

VICTIM WAS FATHER, AVID CYCLIST
Hernandez Solano was a father of three and one of 13 children. His three children all reside in Mexico near the city of Leon.

He came to Minnesota about 20 years ago for work.

Three of his colleagues were in the courtroom Monday wearing their Brasa shirts. His family, none of whom live locally, weren’t able to make it in time for the hearing, Atakpu said.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for his role in the murder of a father last spring.

Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Mulrooney sentenced Edward Lamonte Williams Friday to nearly 12 years in prison for his involvement in the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Brock Cecil Larson on May 9, 2017.

The sentencing came several months after Williams, 21, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder in the case.

He and three co-conspirators planned to rob Larson last spring under the guise that they wanted to buy marijuana from him.

One of Williams’ accomplices, Ryan Steven Fore, wound up shooting Larson multiple times during the robbery. The incident took place near 333 Burgess Avenue in St. Paul.

Fore pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April and is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Gabriel Kimbrough and Paris Sjostrand both pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder.

Kimbrough was sentenced to about 13 years in prison for the conviction last month. Sjostrand is also expected to be sentenced in July.

At Kimbrough’s sentencing, Larson’s family described him as a man with a range of talents and interests, including building houses, cutting hair and cooking. Larson was most passionate about being a good father to his two-year-old daughter, they said, as well as an uncle, son and friend.

A Minneapolis man admitted to urinating in the water bottle of a Perkins restaurant co-worker who had rejected his romantic advances.

Conrrado Cruz Perez, 47, made the admission in Ramsey County District Court Monday when he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of adulteration by bodily fluid.

Terms of the plea deal include placing Cruz Perez on probation for one year and requiring he follow any mental health recommendations outlined in his pre-sentence investigation, according to Melissa Loonan, the prosecutor for the city of Vadnais Heights who handled the case.

The state also agreed to drop the gross-misdemeanor count facing him in the case.

Perez’s defense attorney, Adriel Benjamin Villarreal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During his plea hearing, Cruz Perez admitted to urinating in a co-workers’ water bottle that he knew was intended for human consumption.

He said he did so because he needed to use the restroom, Loonan said.

Perez was arrested last March after his 42-year-old co-worker at a Perkins Restaurant and Bakery in Vadnais Heights reported to police that she was being harassed by a baker.

She told investigators that she noticed several occasions over the past few months when the water bottle she keeps at work tasted like urine, according to the criminal complaint filed against Cruz Perez.

She said the incidents started after she told Cruz Perez, her co-worker, that she only wanted to be friends after he expressed a romantic interest in her.

Cruz Perez initially denied tampering with the woman’s water bottle, but later admitted to once urinating in the container after investigators suggested they might conduct DNA testing on the bottle, the complaint said.

He said he had to go to the bathroom when the incident occurred but that the restaurant was too busy for him to use the facilities, authorities say.

A manager at Perkins said Cruz Perez worked as a baker at the restaurant but was fired following the allegations.

He is expected to be sentenced in late July.

A St. Paul man was sentenced Tuesday for following a woman off a light-trail train and sexually assaulting her in a parking lot.

Tibesso Hamine Tufa, 36, received about four years in prison on one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in February.

Tufa sat down next to a 22-year-old woman on a light-rail train shortly after 10 p.m. on May 24, 2018.

The woman had just left work in Minneapolis. She told police she doesn’t like to sit next to anyone, but a man — later identified as Tufa — maneuvered into the window seat next to her.

When she tried to get away, he threatened to kill her, the woman told officers.

She exited the train at Western Avenue in St. Paul in an attempt to get away from the situation, but Tufa followed, according to court documents.

She called 911 shortly before Tufa attacked her in a parking lot.

He grabbed her phone before threatening to kill her if she screamed, legal documents say. Then he sexually assaulted her.

Tufa’s attorney, David Dellus Patton, could not be reached for comment on the case.

A St. Paul man faces criminal charges after threatening to kill a store clerk who told him he wasn’t allowed to smoke inside a mini-market on Payne Avenue.

Norman Richard Strong, 38, was charged Tuesday with making felony-level threats of violence in the June 3 incident, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

The charging document states that Norman Strong walked into the Quick Stop Market at 664 Payne Avenue around 8:30 p.m. last Sunday while smoking a cigarette.

When a store employee told him smoking wasn’t allowed inside the retailer and that he’d have to leave, Norman Strong reportedly retaliated by threatening the clerk’s life.

“I have a bullet with your name on it. I’m going to kill you,” Strong told the employee, according to court documents.

Norman Strong was arrested shortly thereafter.

The store employee later told police that Norman Strong’s sister had been fatally shot inside the store a few months prior and that Strong blamed the clerk for her death.

Lynnae Strong, 37, was fatally shot last Jan. 29 inside the convenience store by a store employee who told police that Lynnae Strong had tried to stab him.

Her family told media after her death that the employee’s account of what happened didn’t match Lynnae Strong’s character.

No charges have been filed in the case.

While en route to jail this past Sunday, Norman Strong reportedly told a police officer that he knew how to build bombs and would find out where the officer lived.

His public defender, Adrianne McMahon, declined to comment Wednesday about the latest charges facing her client.

His next court appearance is scheduled for June 19.

The wife of a man fatally shot by St. Paul police two years ago faces criminal charges after authorities say she threatened to shoot officers in retaliation.

Kay Maureen Smith, 42, was charged Thursday with one count of threats of violence for the incident, which took place shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to the criminal complaint filed against her in Ramsey County District Court.

Smith’s husband, Jaffort Smith, was fatally shot by four St. Paul police officers in the spring of 2016 after they observed him shoot a female companion in the face before starting to fire at officers, according to legal documents.

A grand jury subsequently determined that the officers’ use of deadly force was justified.

Upset about the circumstances of his death, Smith called a non-emergency telephone number for Ramsey County dispatch just before 12:30 am. Wednesday and asked to speak to a supervisor, the complaint said.

She went on to warn the dispatcher that she knew where the four officers involved in her husband’s shooting lived and warned that their lives were in “jeopardy.”

“Watch how this turns out for the cops because I’m going to turn it back on them,” Smith told the dispatcher, according to the criminal complaint. “Tell the people who killed my husband to watch their lives, they deserved to die (because) they are not free.”

“Tell all four of them their lives are in jeopardy,” she allegedly continued. “They killed my husband and I want them to acknowledge it before I shoot all four of them.

Shortly thereafter, dispatch received a 911 call from someone who said she was Smith’s friend. The woman told the dispatcher that Smith was in “a bad place” as well as “suicidal” and relayed where officers could find her.

Smith was arrested by New Brighton police at her place of business, the complaint said.

En route to jail, Smith proceeded to threaten her arresting officers and was also self-injurious, according to the complaint.

In a later interview, she told investigators she’d been drinking the night before and was “upset about her husband being shot by police,” the complaint said

She also reportedly revealed that she’s been diagnosed with mental health conditions following her husband’s death and was also suicidal.

She denied knowing where the officers who shot him live and said she does not own a gun, the complaint said.

She also referred to her actions as a “mistake.”

Smith is banned from owning a firearm due to a domestic-assault related conviction in Montana in 2009, legal documents say.

She is scheduled to make her first court appearance on her latest charge Thursday afternoon.

No attorney was listed for her in court records.

Corydon Nilsson — founder of The New North, a police-accountability watchdog group that focuses on victims with mental illnesses — has known Smith for about two years and said he was sad to hear the news. He met Smith when she came to protests outside the Governor’s Residence after Philando Castile was fatally shot by a St. Anthony police officer.

“She’s always been a loving person in my interactions with her and I would have to think that grieving played a large factor in her decision to allegedly make threats,” Nilsson said Thursday.

An armed man walked into a Mounds View drugstore in March with a black mask covering the lower part of his face.

Martavis Shawn-Demar James, 37, of Champlin pointed his handgun at a CVS employee around 9 p.m. March 29 and demanded the woman take him to the store’s safe, legal documents say.

With a gun pressed into her back, the store employee complied. She led James into the manager’s office, where the safe is located, and both she and the store manager emptied its contents — about $2,500 — into his red duffel bag.

Then James made the two lie on the floor, and fled.

That’s the account outlined in a Ramsey County District Court criminal complaint filed Thursday charging James via warrant with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery.

James was arrested about two months later after he robbed the store at 2800 Mounds View Blvd. a second time, authorities say.

In that instance, James ordered the same female employee along with one of her colleagues to empty the store’s safe just before 10 p.m. May 16, according to the complaint.

That time authorities believe James made off with about $3,500.

While the store’s surveillance system was down during the first robbery, it was working the night of the second. The store employee who had been present during both was able to verify for police that the man shown in the May 16 footage was the same one who robbed the store in late March, the complaint said.

James was arrested June 1 at a CVS in Eden Prairie as he attempted to rob the pharmacy, authorities say. He was reportedly wearing a black face mask and gloves and had a red duffel bag as well as a black Airsoft pellet gun in his vehicle, according to the charges.

He told police he only planned to shoplift from that location and denied being involved with any robberies, the complaint said.

James faces six other aggravated robbery charges in Hennepin County for allegedly robbing six pharmacies there between March and June.

His criminal records includes several convictions for theft as well as receiving stolen property, fleeing police in a motor vehicle and violating the terms of a predatory offender registration.

No attorney was listed for James in court records as of Thursday afternoon, nor was a date set for his first court appearance on the Ramsey County charges.

A teen put a gun to the forehead of a woman carrying a baby in St. Paul early Wednesday and demanded that she hand over either money or her child, authorities say.

After searching the woman’s pockets, he and two accomplices ran off with the woman’s credit card and identification, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.

Authorities charged one of the three teens, 18-year-old Xavion Tyrece Bell, with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery.

The other two suspects, including the alleged gunman, are juveniles. One — a 15-year-old — was charged via juvenile petition Friday with first-degree aggravated robbery, according to a spokeswoman with the Ramsey County attorney’s office. The office is still reviewing the case against the third suspect.

Police responded to the 60th block of West Hyacinth Avenue in the city’s North End around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday and spoke to a Spanish-speaking woman through a neighbor who interpreted, the complaint said.

The woman reported that she’d been followed into a parking lot by an SUV.

When she got out of her vehicle, she picked up her baby and was getting things from her front seat when three teens climbed out of the SUV and ran toward her, court records say.

One of the teens pulled out a pistol, racked it and pressed the tip of it to the woman’s forehead before ordering that she give up money or the child, the woman told officers, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, around the same time, police responded to a report of another armed robbery in the 1300 block of Park Street.

A man there told police three teens jumped out of an SUV and robbed him of his wallet at gunpoint.

The two robberies occurred blocks from each other, and investigating officers suspected Bell and his associates might be involved, the complaint said.

They found Bell and two teens outside Bell’s home in the 100 block of Maryland Avenue. The male victim identified Bell and one of the juveniles as among the group that robbed them, court documents say.

Using a search warrant, authorities say, police discovered these items in Bell’s bedroom: 15 cellphones, a shotgun, handgun and three BB guns, as well as credit cards, bank cards and IDs belonging to victims of past burglaries, robberies or break-ins.

Police also recovered a stolen 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe nearby.

When questioned by officers, Bell admitted to being present at the robbery on Park Street but responded “I don’t know” to other questions, the complaint said.

He denied having any knowledge of the credit cards and other stolen items located in his bedroom and said the guns did not belong to him.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

A St. Paul man faces charges after setting a police squad car on fire Friday, authorities say.

Brian Lee Liston, 45, is accused of dousing the rear end of a St. Paul police car parked near his housing complex in the 700 block of Front Avenue with gasoline around 5 a.m. June 8 and then torching it, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

Liston is charged with second-degree arson and first-degree criminal damage to property.

The back of the squad was “significantly burned” and may be a total loss, the complaint said. If it can be repaired, its damages are expected to well exceed $1,000, authorities say.

Liston was arrested after surveillance footage from his building’s security system showed him exiting and entering the complex around the time of the fire and heading toward the vehicle’s location, legal documents say.

While searching his apartment, police found the backpack he was seen wearing on camera. Inside the backpack was a gas can, the complaint said.

Liston is scheduled to make his first court appearances on the charges Monday afternoon. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

A St. Paul man is accused of robbing a man he met on Snapchat at gunpoint last weekend.

Kemaludin Nuredin Mohammed, 20, faces one count of first-degree aggravated robbery and a second count of theft of a motor vehicle, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

A 24-year-old man told police he arranged to meet Mohammed around 11 p.m. last Sunday near Charles Avenue and Mackubin Street in St. Paul.

He said he knew Mohammed from the social networking site, Snapchat, and that they met in person for the first time about two weeks prior.

When he pulled up in his 2013 Hyundai Sonata, both Mohammed and another man were waiting for him, the man told officers, the complaint said.

Mohammed’s accomplice proceeded to pull out a handgun and ordered the victim to exit his vehicle, according to the complaint.

Then he and Mohammed jumped inside it and took off with the victim’s wallet and cell phone, according to the complaint.

Police located the vehicle the following day as it was pulling into a gas station. Mohammed, the driver, was the lone occupant, authorities say.

Officers reportedly found several cell phones as well as a black BB gun inside the vehicle.

When interviewed by police, Mohammed said he and his friend had been in the area of the robbery to meet someone to buy marijuana, according to the complaint.

He said he was standing outside the dealer’s car when an unknown assailant walked up and ordered all three of them to hand over their belongings, according to the complaint.

Scared, Mohammed said he jumped into the dealer’s car and fled, according to the complaint.

He claimed he called 911 from his cell phone to report the incident.

Police inquired with Ramsey County dispatch and determined that no emergency call was placed to the center from Mohammed’s phone, the complaint said.

Mohammed has no criminal record in Minnesota.

He was scheduled to make his first appearance on the robbery and theft charges Tuesday afternoon.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Without St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao’s help the Hmong woman he faces criminal charges for assisting inside a voting booth last fall couldn’t have cast a ballot, according to Thao’s lawyer.

As such, the charges facing him in the case are in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act that protects voters’ constitutional right to vote and should be dismissed, according to arguments defense attorney Joseph Dixon laid out in a motion filed recently in Ramsey County District Court.

The motion also asks the judge overseeing the case to acquit Thao of the charges should she choose not drop them.

The legal documents provide a window into Thao’s legal strategy as he continues to fight the charges filed against him stemming from his alleged conduct in last November’s election.

CHARGES EXPLAINED

Authorities charged Thao with unlawfully marking a ballot, misconduct in or near polling places and unlawful assistance of a voter — all misdemeanor-level offenses — after he drove a Hmong woman he encouraged to vote to the Martin Luther King Recreation Center last Nov. 6 and helped her mark her ballot.

The 63-year-old woman did not speak English and had vision problems, Thao said previously. Without any Hmong interpreters made available to help her from election judges, Thao, who was a candidate for St. Paul mayor at the time, accompanied her into the voting booth himself, his attorney wrote in the motion.

The woman later told authorities that while Thao read her the candidates’ names in the various races and helped her mark her ballot, he did not tell her who she should vote for, nor that he was a candidate running for mayor.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter wound up winning the race with 51 percent of the vote. Pat Harris came in second, garnering about 25 percent. Thao came in third place with 12 percent.

WILL VOTING RIGHTS ACT FACTOR IN CASE?

The federal Voting Rights Act allows any voter in need of aid due to “blindness, disability, or inability to read or write be given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice,” according to Thao’s motion for dismissal of the charges.

The only exceptions in the federal law are the voter’s “employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union,” all of whom are barred from assisting citizens as they might try to influence or manipulate the voters’ selections, the motion states.

What it does not expressly state, according to the legal filing, is that elected officials are among those barred from providing such help, a distinction that is made in Minnesota law.

“Minnesota is attempting to restrict conduct expressly allowed by the Voting Rights Act. Such a constraint on federal law cannot be tolerated,” the memo argues. It continues that banning Thao Thao from helping the woman would have denied her “a meaningful opportunity to vote due to her inability to read English and her poor vision.”

The Voting Rights Act is aimed at preventing discrimination in the electoral process, particularly against “citizens of language minorities,” the motion states.

Such a concern is “very real” for Hmong voters in St. Paul, where about 28 percent of the voting age population identified as speaking English “not well” or “not at all,” according to a 2015 estimate provided by the Census Bureau, Dixon argues.

ATTORNEY LAYS OUT CASE

In addition to violating the Voting Rights Act, Thao’s attorney argues that local election judges at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center failed in their official capacity to enforce election laws when they witnessed Thao unknowingly break state law by accompanying the voter into the polling booth.

Thao and the voter worked closely with election judges to register her to vote and were observed by several entering the polling booth together as well, Dixon added.

“Some (of the election judges) recognized Mr. Thao as a mayoral candidate. Yet none … made any effort to inform (him) that he could not assist a voter, even though election judges are affirmatively charged with doing so.”

Further, he said a campaign manual distributed to candidates underscored that individuals can help voters without making any mention of exclusions for candidates, Dixon stated.

As such, Thao thought he was acting within the bounds of the law, according to his motion, further bolstering the soundness of his argument that the case should be dismissed.

The motion also states that the state’s case violates Thao’s First Amendment right to free speech.

PROSECUTOR’S COUNTER MOTIONS TO COME

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office filed the charges against Thao in February after Ramsey County conflicted it out.

At the time, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said the intention behind Thao’s actions were moot when determining their legality.

“Under the law … if you are a candidate for office, you can’t assist another voter in voting, and that’s what occurred here,” Backstrom said.

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Thao’s assertions in his dismissal motion.

It has until July 9 to file a response in court.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for mid August.

Chi Nu Xiong put four of his boys in his car Friday afternoon, instructed the children to “say goodbye” to their mother in a video he texted her, and then warned his wife that she was soon going to “cry blood,” authorities say.

Xiong started texting his wife the distressing video after the two had fought while on their way to a friend’s house in St. Paul Friday afternoon, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

Xiong faces charges of second-degree assault and four counts of terrorist threats.

His wife told officers that she was in the vehicle with Xiong and their 12-year-old daughter when Xiong, who had smoked methamphetamines earlier in the day, started “acting crazy” and said he wanted to kill her, authorities say.

At some point, he took out a scissors and tried to stab her in the chest, the woman reported, according to legal documents.

Scared, the woman and her daughter fled the vehicle and Xiong took off, charges say.

Shortly thereafter, Xiong started sending his wife videos of himself along with their four young sons who range in age from 6 to 9, according to the charges

One of the videos was taken from inside Xiong’s vehicle. Another was shot from a wooded area, according to authorities.

In the footage, Xiong tells his children to “say goodbye” to their mother and before warning her that the couple has reached the “end of their marriage” and that she will soon “cry blood,” legal documents say.

“I want you to miss me and your sons,” Xiong is overheard saying at one point, according to authorities. “You’re going to miss me for the rest of your life.”

The incident prompted authorities to issue an Amber Alert Friday evening out of fear for the children’s safety.

Xiong and his sons were located sometime later after law enforcement was able to “ping” his phone at a trailer park in Inver Grove Heights.

Police discovered his vehicle there as well as the four children, who were playing near the front of a trailer, legal documents say.

The boys were not injured or distressed and told police that their father had not harmed them, the complaint said.

Officers found two pairs of scissors in Xiong’s van, authorities say.

When interviewed by police, Xiong reportedly said he didn’t know why he was under arrest.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” he told officers, according to the complaint.

Xiong was also charged with two counts of terroristic threats June 5, authorities say. That case is still pending.

He was also convicted of second-degree drug possession in 2016.

Xiong made his first court appearance on the new charges Monday afternoon. During the hearing, a Ramsey County District Court judge ordered a mental health evaluation for Xiong and appointed him a public defender.

His public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His next hearing is scheduled to take place in late July.

A St. Paul woman admitted to her involvement in a months-long theft spree that targeted elderly women at grocery stores, according to court records.

Zetta Listice Mallett, 54, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court last Friday to one count of aiding and abetting financial transaction card fraud.

Nine other theft and fraud-related crimes previously facing her in the case are expected to be dismissed when Mallett is sentenced in August.

A 95-year-old woman was among those targeted in the scheme, which took place last summer.

The elderly woman was grocery shopping at a Cub Foods in White Bear Township last June when either Mallett or her accomplice struck up a conversation with her.

While one distracted the victim, the other stole her wallet, which had been sitting in her shopping cart.

The duo employed a similar tactic to steal wallets from several others, authorities say.

They used the stolen credit cards to make more than $12,000 in fraudulent purchases.

Mallett, whose criminal history includes several convictions for credit card theft, as well as identity fraud and assault, will be sentenced Aug. 15.

A Minneapolis woman seriously injured one of her friends over the weekend when she drove off in the man’s Hummer while he was hanging on to its roof-rack, authorities say.

Panhia Vang “floored it” shortly after her friend had given her a sober ride to a residence in White Bear Township on Sunday morning, according to the criminal complaint in the case.

The man told officers he saw the speedometer reach 80 mph as he hung on for his life.

At some point, his grip slipped. The man later regained consciousness while lying next to a guard rail on the side of the road, the complaint said.

He was taken to St. John’s Hospital by a friend who had been tailing Vang in another vehicle. He was treated for multiple broken bones.

Vang was charged Tuesday with theft of a motor vehicle and two counts of criminal vehicular operation resulting in substantial bodily harm, according to the complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The counts allege Vang was both grossly negligent in her conduct and under the influence of alcohol.

The incident took place after the man dropped Vang and another passenger off at a home on the 1600 block of Park Avenue around 3 a.m. Sunday.

He drove the two in his 2006 Hummer HU2 while another sober driver followed the group in Vang’s 2016 Toyota RAV4, the complaint said.

After he pulled up to the residence, Vang asked the man if he would marry her, according to his account to law enforcement. He declined, got out of the vehicle and told her to do the same.

Instead, Vang slid into the driver’s seat and took off, the complaint said. The owner of the Hummer followed her in her RAV4 along with another acquaintance. Vang eventually pulled over on Otter Lake Road near Whitaker Street.

The owner of the Hummer approached his vehicle, pounded on the windows, and demanded Vang get out, the complaint said.

Just as he placed his hands on the Hummer’s roof rack, she “floored it,” the complaint said.

The man told officers he felt like he was going to die as she sped down the road.

Vang was arrested later Sunday after she showed up at the hospital to visit the man.

She told police that she only had three drinks the previous evening and that she did not recall being told not to drive the Hummer nor that the owner of the vehicle was clinging to it.

No attorney was listed for her in court records.

Just as a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy was about to hand over a ticket to a Shoreview woman pulled over for speeding, the driver rolled up her window and took off.

When she was arrested two miles up the road, she started swearing and told the officer she wanted her mother.

That’s the account outlined in a Ramsey County criminal complaint charging Jennifer Jo Krohn, 33, with one felony-level count of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle.

Krohn was charged with the crime via warrant Tuesday.

She could not be reached for comment and no attorney was listed for her in court records.

The incident took place in December after a deputy observed a vehicle speeding 61 mph in a 40-mph zone on Highway 96 in White Bear Township, the complaint said.

During the traffic stop, Krohn reportedly told the deputy she didn’t know why she’d been pulled over since she’d been traveling the speed limit. When the deputy revealed her actual speed as more than 20 mph over the limit, Krohn reportedly admitted to traveling that fast for maybe “three seconds,” the complaint said.

She also reportedly said she had just purchased the vehicle and didn’t have her insurance paperwork yet.

The deputy was handing over her citation when Krohn rolled up her window and took off westbound down the highway, authorities say.

She finally pulled into a turn lane at Highway 96 and Rice Street after the deputy tailed her for two miles.

The deputy stopped his vehicle at an angle in front of hers and proceeded to walk toward her sedan, the complaint said. Krohn allegedly drove slowly at the deputy until he took out his gun.

During her arrest, Krohn swore, screamed and repeatedly told deputies that she wanted her mother, the complaint said.

“I am not a criminal. … Do I look like a criminal to you?” Krohn asked while en route to jail, the complaint said.

She later admitted to driving away from the officer during the traffic stop, saying she had been “scared and confused” at the time, the complaint said.

Krohn has a history of speeding. She pleaded guilty to driving 89 mph in a 70-mph zone in 2004; 80 mph in a 70-mph zone in both 2004 and 2005; and 70 mph in a 60-mph zone in 2016.

After a Tuesday afternoon appearance, her next court date is scheduled for mid-July.