Thursday, December 6, 2012
While in the Minnesota Correctional Facility—Faribault, John Stephen Woodward allegedly masterminded a plot to murder Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.
A Rice County jury is expected to begin considering the case today against an Inver Grove Heights man charged with plotting to murder Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom in 2010. John Stephen Woodward, 49, was originally charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder. Authorities say he made arrangements with another inmate at the state prison in Faribault to murder not just Backstrom, but Dakota County District Judge Rex Stacey, who presided over Woodward’s trial on felony drug charges. Woodward is also on trial on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault resulting in great bodily harm. Prosecutors say he intended to have someone use a baseball bat to break the arms and legs of a woman …
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Three county attorneys announced that all drugs previously tested by the St. Paul Crime Lab in pending drug cases will be retested.
Potential problems with drug testing in the St. Paul Police Department’s crime lab could lead to trial delays, and possibly reduced charges, in cases against Dakota County defendants awaiting prosecution on drug offenses. Chief prosecutors in Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties announced in a statement Wednesday that all drugs previously tested by the lab in pending cases will be retested. About 350 to 400 cases could be affected, according to an article from the Star Tribune. The Pioneer Press reports that more than 3,600 drug cases were filed in the past four years in Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties, and many used evidence analyzed in the St. Paul crime lab. The lab handled more than 16,000 cases and processed more than 200,000…
Monday, July 23, 2012
The office of Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom issued a statement on reports that the St. Paul Crime Lab may not be compliant with best practices.
Editor's note: Apple Valley-Rosemount Patch published a piece on July 18 with reporting from various other media sources that the St. Paul Crime Lab may not be compliant with best practices and that this noncompliance could have endangered the reliability of drug tests in criminal cases. Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom issued the following statement. ---- In response to the claims being made that the Dakota County Attorney’s Office had prior knowledge of the extent of the problems with the St. Paul Police Department Crime Laboratory, the following is the explanation of the events leading up to the hearings in eight consolidated drug cases in Dakota County conducted during the week of July 16, 2012: In February and March of 2012 the …
Sunday, July 22, 2012
In other news from around Dakota County, the developer of a new outlet mall and the city of Eagan agreed on a $14.73 million purchase price.
Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Get our newsletter | Blog for us Though you might live or work in Apple Valley or Rosemount, chances are you're curious about what's happening in your neighboring communities. Here are some of the stories posted on our neighboring Patch sites last week that could impact, help or be of interest to you. Read each story by clicking on the headline link. 2 Burnsville Residents Arrested in Connection with Major Heroin Ring Natashia Lashaye Daniels and Marquis Demon Bettis were arrested July 12. Power to the Pizza: Toppers Takes on Burnsville A local family is bringing a hot new pizzeria chain to Burnsville-Apple Valley, starting July 28, with four more Twin Cities stores to follow in the next few …
Thursday, July 12, 2012
An Apple Valley man, an Eagan man and one a minor allegedly sold and bought Adderall and Vicodin from each other at a Dakota County school in the spring.
Two students are charged with felony drug crimes after staff at a school in Dakota County reported that three students—one a minor—allegedly sold the prescription drugs Vicodin and Adderall to and bought them from one another. Patrick Jonathan O'Neill, 18, of Apple Valley, is charged with three felonies: third-degree sale of a controlled substance, and two counts of fifth-degree controlled substance possession. The sale charge could net a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while each possession charge holds a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Samuel Anthony Burt, 18, of Eagan, is charged with felony fourth-degree sale of a controlled substance, the maximum penalty for which is 15 years in …
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Police say Eagan day care provider Beverly Anne Greenagel was responsible for the death of 3-month-old Dane Ableidinger in August 2011.
Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Get our newsletter | Blog for us An Eagan day care provider has been charged with manslaughter, child neglect and endangerment and interfering with a body after a 3-month-old child for whom she was caring last summer died of apparent asphyxiation. Beverly Anne Greenagel, 64, was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter, each a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Greenagel is also charged with one count each of child neglect, child endangerment and interference with a body or death scene, each of which has a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. The charges stem from the Aug. 18 death of Dane Joseph …
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A Rosemount couple is charged with child neglect after police allegedly found that their child had been living in their home among stacks of clothing, trash, spoiled food, vermin and more.
A Rosemount couple is charged with child neglect after police say their elementary school-age child had been living in their home among stacks of clothing, trash, spoiled food, vermin and more. Michael Harry McGuigan, 56, and Toni Louise McGuigan, 55, each face one gross misdemeanor charge in Dakota County of neglect of a child. The maximum penalty for the charge is one year in prison and a $3,000 fine. According to the criminal complaint, police allegedly knew social services had been involved with the family from 2009 through September 2011 due to unhygienic conditions and hoarding, and that an elementary school-age child lived there. Police went to the residence on the afternoon of April 4, but received no answer when they knocked on …
Friday, June 15, 2012
Officer Tommie Booth used deadly force against Carl Anthony Tatum, age 48 of Apple Valley, while responding to a domestic disturbance report on April 29; a grand jury has concluded his actions were justified.
An Apple Valley police officer was legally justified when he fatally shot an Apple Valley man after responding to a domestic disturbance in April, a grand jury has concluded. Officer Tommie Booth used deadly force against Carl Anthony Tatum, age 48 of Apple Valley, while responding to the incident on April 29. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a press release that it's his office's policy to have a grand jury review all cases of officer-involved shootings resulting in death. Minnesota law authorizes law enforcement officers to use deadly force to prevent an act that exposes the law enforcement officer or another to death or great bodily harm, the press release says. It also says Minnesota law authorizes a law enforcement …
Monday, June 4, 2012
Apple Valley police reported incidents for which multiple people now face felony drug charges in Dakota County.
Brittany Ann Brophy, 22, of Apple Valley, and Jason Leonard Lage, 26, of Eagan, each are charged in Dakota County with a felony fifth-degree controlled substance crime and petty misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, after police say they found heroin and paraphernalia in an Apple Valley hotel room where the couple was staying. According to a criminal complaint, police were called to the hotel for a medical situation and found Brophy and Lage in a hotel room. Lage told police Brophy, his girlfriend, had done heroin and was "freaking out," and tried to jump to the floor below, the complaint says. Brophy and Lage both allegedly admitted to using heroin. Officers allegedly found syringes and spoons with residue, which both tested …
Monday, May 14, 2012
Volunteers with 'Final Exit', the nationwide assisted-suicide network, accused of helping an Apple Valley woman kill herself in 2007, have been charged with similar crimes in other states.
Doreen Dunn had been in “unbearable, excruciating, chronic pain” for more than a decade when she decided five years ago to take her own life. The 57-year-old Apple Valley woman sought help from the Final Exit Network, an organization that describes its mission as helping “mentally competent adults” who suffer from fatal or incurable illnesses or “intractable pain” die with dignity, according to its website. In May 2007, Dunn placed a device called a “helium hood”—a plastic bag attached to a helium tank—over her head to end her life. She allegedly was in the presence of at least two volunteers from the Final Exit Network at the time. The nonprofit Final Exit Network and four of its members were indicted Friday by a Dakota County grand jury…
Allison Wickler
9:13 pm on Sunday, June 17, 2012
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