COURTWATCH. County Attorney Sandra Filardo, presenting:
UPDATES
- Kelli Durow (aka Tamera Hoveland) – In custody on $12,000 bail. 12/08/2020 Hearing on Rule 20 return and 12/11/2020 Pretrial.
- Samuel Hasse – In custody/HWB. 11/23/2020 hearing on Felony possession of burglary tools, and 11/24/2020 hearing on 5th Degree Assault, theft, 4th Degree damage to property, tamper vehicles, disorderly conduct.
- Daniel Heacock – Did not appear for his 08/11/20 hearing for theft and check forgery in the 1st Precinct. He now has an active Bench Warrant. Heacock has been found incompetent in the past.
- Cody Horton – Presently in Mental Health Court on 27CR1877174 for Reckless Discharge of Firearm within a Municipality. Doing well in Mental Health Court and currently residing and supervised in Stearns County. No new cases. Review hearing 11/19/20.
- Christian Klockeman – Pled on 9/22/20 in Mental Health Court to Felony Threats of Violence-Reckless Disregard Risk. Sentenced to St. Cloud Correctional Facility for 24 months, all stayed for 3 years. No new cases and all accompanying misdemeanors cases were dismissed. Under court supervision; review hearing 11/09/2020.
- Joshua Poplawski – Released from Work House 10/30/2020. 11/30 arraignment for 10/20 5th Degree Assault. 11/30 first appearance for 10/26 GM trespass. 1/5/21 arraignment for 9/10/ trespass. 12/09/2020 first appearance for 12/22/19 GM trespass. 1/5/2021 arraignment for 3/2/20 trespass. 12/09/20 pretrial for 3/0/20 GM trespass.1/5/21 arraignment for 2/4/20 trespass. He has 40 city-wide contacts since 1995, 24 police contacts in the 2nd precinct since 2003, 17 prior convictions.
- Kirk Robledo – On bench warrant status for failure to appear at court hearing on 10/6/20. No updates or further cases.
- Michael Zaccardi – In custody, $40,000 bail. 11/16/20 pretrial for 7/13/20 felony 5th degree assault. 11/16/20 probation violation hearing; was using drugs in violation of his probation agreement. Probation officer was working to get the defendant placed in a chemical dependency program.
NO UPDATES
- Richard Breen – Attended his 9/30/20 out-of-custody pre-trial date in Restorative Court and the matters were continued until 11/18/20. He also has an arraignment date on 12/17/20 for a trespass he picked up downtown on 7/27/20.
- Tanner DeWitt – Released from Department of Corrections on 9/14/20 and under parole supervision until 2/21/21.
- Johnny Hall – Discharge from probation, 9/17/2020. No new cases.
- Daniel Heacock – Did not appear for his 08/11/20 hearing for theft and check forgery in the 1st Precinct. He now has an active Bench Warrant. Heacock has been found incompetent in the past.
- Paula Heile – remains on probation until 7/12/21. No further updates.
- Miles Shaw – Parole ended on 9/25/20. Defendant is no longer under Department of Corrections jurisdiction. No updates or new cases.
- Leslie Wade – On bench warrant status for failure to appear at 9/30/20 hearing on several open cases. No updates or new cases.
Emilie raised the question of how our current system for low level offenders is working. Looking at Joshua Poplawski, since his last release from custody, he has picked up many more citations and has court dates stretching out to 2021. Emilie pointed out that current procedures do not seem to be working well for Mr. Poplawski since he remains homeless and vulnerable on the streets, and she’s not sure it’s working out for the rest of us either.
Atty. Filardo responded that the law was not written by social workers or mental health workers. The law was written to protect a person’s Constitutional right for a fair trial, which means he must understand the procedure and be able to participate in his own defense.
On another topic, Atty. Filardo outlined the Rule of 20. If a person is not able to understand court proceedings or participate in their own defense, the hearing is not allowed to proceed and all those cases are put “On Pause”. If it’s decided that this person will never be able to understand proceedings, a civil commitment may be indicated. Civil commitment is when someone is institutionalized in a mental health facility. A civil commitment is a possibility when a person’s actions are a danger to themselves or to others. She emphatically stated that it’s very difficult to get someone off the streets using a civil commitment process. The case would first go to social services to see what else they can do to work for him.
The full statute can be read here: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/court_rules/cr/id/20/
STATE OF THE PRECINCT:
Inspector Loining joined us to share some of the work they’re doing. Most of the work right now is property crimes. Crime maps for the last two weeks suggest more robberies, burglaries, and thefts of motor vehicles and from vehicles, still centered in Dinkytown and along the University and Central Avenue corridors. There has also been a spate of theft in high rise apartment buildings, including from the garages. People use automatic garage door openers, drive in and look for a place to park. Often there is a delay before the door closes again, and that delay is enough time for someone to zip into the garage and look for things to steal from cars. Also, a lot of bicycles are being taken from underground garages, even the ones secured with kryptonite locks.
Inspector Loining and CPS Juarez and CPS Ali did a security inspection of a new apartment building in near NE, and got to suggest faster closing of the garage door, and to talk about security cameras, lighting and signage. Some of the high rises are willing to hire private security staff.
Auto theft is a rising concern but in the University area, mo-peds are very popular among students and theft is rising for them, as well. In the last week, the 2nd Precinct had 19 auto thefts, 13 of them in Marcy Holmes. and 6 of the 13 were taken with keys or left idling. Theft from motor vehicle: the Inspector related that 28 years ago when he started in a squad car in the 2nd Precinct, theft from motor vehicle was a constant problem; nothing’s changed, it still is.
Theft from apartments seems to happen in clusters when someone is having a party in a building, and people in the building leave their apartments unlocked because it’s in “their building”.
However, there is more activity moving into the residential areas in NE. Waite park had three garage burglaries in a small area, and all three were forced entry. Officers are rolling through more alleys looking for unlocked garages or other issues. If they see an open garage, they have a special placard to hang on it, reminding people to lock the garage doors, too.
Inspector Loining called attention to three robbery of persons in the last week and one very concerning car jacking at 1319 Marshall St. NE. There was also a robbery at 15th and 7th Street SE; the criminals fled in a car, and a witness got the license number. The problem was that it was a stolen car. One more robbery at 2813, 4th St. SE. Two of these were strong arm, no weapons involved and in the third, the victim was sprayed with Mace. There were also three aggravated assaults, meaning with a weapon that could inflict bodily harm (a part 1 crime). One at 2100 East Hennepin, a person was threatening with a knife and officers made an arrest. One at 1540 New Brighton Boulevard, was at Cub Foods and was between co-workers, not stranger on stranger. A third was at 620 Central, the Holiday Station. Someone walked up to a person and smashed him in the face with hot coffee!
One more: 1620 Central Ave. has had a number of thefts. CPS Ali has been working with management on increasing security in that building.
Then, a success story. UPS has had a number of thefts of packages; the total valuation was $15,000! The Precinct assisted with the investigation, and discovered a former employee had done the theft. Officers stopped him in his vehicle, and were able to recover much of the stolen material.
Inspector Loining closed with an affirmation that, despite all the news about people leaving the MPD, the officers of the Second Precinct remain a solid team, committed to keeping the Second Precinct the safest place in Minneapolis. Officers want to serve, they want to protect,
Last minute announcement: Check out Operation Safety Now. There is a website, https://www.safetynowmpls.com/ and they were covered in a KARE-ll story which is linked to the home page. Check them out. The website includes tabs at the top: Talking Points, Take Action, News and Updates.
Q: Has the MPD ever tried putting alerts or reports out on social media.
A: There was a small trial a few weeks ago, yve you
On a brighter note, with the advent of cold weather, bike thefts are way down.
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 