Widow Testifies, Murder Guilty Plea and Officer Injured During Fight: West Metro Police, Fire and Courts

This week's compilation includes 12 years of probation for groping girl, man charged for molestation, fryer fire, drug dog retires and thief caught in the act.

Editor’s Note: Every week we bring you a sampling of stories from Patch sites in the west metro: Eden Prairie, Edina, Fridley, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Lake Minnetonka, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Richfield, Shakopee, Southwest Minneapolis, St. Louis Park and St. Michael. Debra Larson: Timothy Huber Called Us 'Rich City People Who Need to Figure Things Out' At a Kandiyohi County court hearing Friday, Timothy Larson's widow and 10 others testified ahead of Timothy Huber's April murder trial. Leon Henry Anderson Pleads Guilty to Brutal Richfield Murder The horrific incident occurred on the 7300 block of Elliot Avenue on Feb. 28, 2012, leaving an elderly man dead and his wife injured. Officer Injured While Breaking Up Student Fight at …

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Murder Charge Filed in Death of Woman Found inside Car at Columbia Heights Impound Lot

Alberto Prece Palmer was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Brittany Clardy. Read the criminal complaint against him here.

Anoka County Attorney's Office filed a murder charge Friday in the death of Brittany Clardy, whose body was found at an impound lot in Columbia Heights last month. Click on the PDF thumbnail to read the criminal complaint in the window above. Prosecutors charged Alberto Prece Palmer, 23, with intentional second-degree murder in Clardy's death. Palmer was arrested Wednesday in Woodbury after investigators tracked cell phone and Internet records connected with Clardy, 18, who had been working as a prostitute, officials said at a Thursday press conference. Palmer was her last client. The cause of death was multiple blows to the back of her head from a hammer.  Clardy’s family reported her missing on Feb. 11. Police found her body Feb. 21 …

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Police: Murder Victim Worked as Prostitute; Woodbury Man to be Charged Friday

The teenager’s body was found in a car in a Columbia Heights impound lot last month. Alberto Prece Palmer, 23, was arrested in Woodbury on Wednesday night.

Update: 11:13 a.m., Friday, March 8 Palmer has been charged with intentional second-degree murder. See: Report: Murder Charges Filed Against Man Arrested in Woodbury Update: 4:18 p.m., Thursday, March 7 It was Brittany Clardy’s work as a prostitute that led to her murder in Brooklyn Park and discovery of her body in Columbia Heights, authorities said at a Thursday press conference. The arrest of suspect Alberto Prece Palmer at his Woodbury home followed an investigation into ads Clardy placed in Backpage.com, along with information from several cell phones found in the car in which her body was discovered. Her body was found in a vehicle towed to Columbia Heights impound lot in February. Police arrested Palmer, 23, at about 7 p.m. …

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Kris Janisch

8:05 am on Friday, March 8, 2013

We asked that question specifically at the press conference but didn't get a good answer.   more ›

Body Found in Towed Car Subject of Murder Investigation

The Anoka County Sheriff confirmed the ID of an 18-year-old St. Paul woman found dead in a vehicle in a Columbia Heights impound lot.

The person found dead in a car towed to a Columbia Heights impound lot eight days earlier is the subject of a murder investigation, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Wednesday. The sheriff's office also confirmed the identity of the victim, an 18-year-old woman from St. Paul. Here is the full text of the sheriff's office statement: The case of a found body in a Columbia Heights impound yard on February 21st is now confirmed as a murder investigation. The decedent in the case has been positively identified as: Brittany Charise Clardy DOB: 06-29-1994 St. Paul, MN We will not release any details about the cause of death and will not be taking questions to provide further details. The case is still under investigation by …

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When Is a Death Considered ‘Murder?’

Two recent cases have emphasized the breadth of the legal definition. Patch wants to know what the word means to you.

“Murder” and “homicide” are loaded words that conjure images of malice and deliberate violence. This month, though, the west metro has been reminded that that’s not always the case. At the beginning of February, prosecutors charged Jonathan Markle with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the drowning of his 9-month-old daughter. Prosecutors say Markle's blood alcohol level was .13 when his vehicle broke through the ice Jan. 18 after he tried to drive underneath the Halstead Bay Bridge on Lake Minnetonka. Hennepin County Mike Freeman acknowledged that the legal system has "no penalty that can approach the grief and agony this man might feel by the death of his daughter at his own hand." But Freeman went on to say he wants this …

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Rachel Powell

7:47 pm on Thursday, February 21, 2013

not quite sure how they all got away without being charged with war crimes   more ›

Fridley Resident Helping Raise Funds for Child of Manya Twite Johnson

Silent-auction items for March 16 fundraiser and other donations sought to help young son left without a mother. Steven Johnson is charged with murdering his wife Jan. 6.

Deanna Casale of Fridley is collecting silent-auction items and helping spread the word about a fundraiser for the child of a St. Paul woman who prosecutors say died in domestic assault early this month. Prosecutors in Ramsey County have charged Steven Roger Johnson, 34, with the Jan. 6 murder of his wife, Manya Twite Johnson, 32, at their home in St. Paul, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The victim's son, Oliver, was 17 months old at the time of his mother's death, the newspaper reported. "It’s just heartbreaking," Casale said Friday. Casale said by email that she has two daughters who knew Manya Twite Johnson through their jobs: one worked with Johnson at Target and the other works at Oliver's daycare. All three are part of a …

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Fridley Man, 58, Arrested for Murder After Giving Woman Prescription Drugs

The man is expected to be released Tuesday as authorities investigate the case.

A 58-year-old Fridley man was arrested and placed in Anoka County Jail Sunday on suspicion of third-degree murder after he allegedly gave an opium-based prescription drug to a Coon Rapids acquaintance, ABC Newspapers is reporting. A 33-year-old woman was found dead Sunday morning in her Coon Rapids apartment by the Fridley man who told police he had met her at a bar Saturday evening and only knew her first name, according to ABC Newspapers. The man said they went back to her apartment because she wasn’t feeling well. The Fridley man can only be held until noon Tuesday without being charged, and Cmdr. Paul Sommer of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office told the Pioneer Press that he would likely be released while the investigation into the …

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Unity Hospital Firings 'Harsh but Justified' Says Star Tribune

Young patients stand to suffer in community standing from data breach, the editorial noted.

The 32 workers Allina fired on May 6 for peeking at patients' electronic medical records—including 28 at Unity Hospital—deserved to lose their jobs, says the Star Tribune in an editorial column published Saturday: Allina's move was swift and appropriately harsh—especially given that these staffers had undergone training and were well-aware that they were violating the nation's health privacy law. Allina said all 32 had no valid patient-care reason to look at the records, which  related to a March 17 mass-overdose in Blaine. A 19-year-old man died at Unity Hospital after overdosing on a drug, 2C-E, that sent almost a dozen others to hospitals from the party. A 21-year-old man faces a third-degree murder charge in the case. The Star Tribune'…

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Unity Hospital Fires 28 for Patient-data Peeks after Mass-ODs

Allina also fired four others at Mercy Hospital.

Twenty-eight employees lost their jobs at Unity Hospital in Fridley Thursday for looking at patient data related to a recent mass-overdose incident. Allina Hospitals and Clinics also fired four workers at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids for violating a policy that bars employees from accessing electronic patient records without a legitimate patient-care reason. According to spokesman David Kanihan, all 32 employees had accessed records from the March 17 mass-overdose at a Blaine house party that left one man dead and another charged with murder. The employees accessed the patient data shortly after the overdose incident, Kanihan said. Allina "has no reason to believe" that the employees did so for any reason other than to satisfy their own …

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Chris Steller

3:24 am on Saturday, May 7, 2011

Thanks for the comment, s. To quote the March 21 criminal complaint attached to the March 22 Fridley Patch article that is linked above: "The substance found in the bottle from the defendant's pocket was tested by the Minnesota BCA. The substance was determined to be 8.9 grams of "2C-E" rather than the believed "2C-I." I am sorry for the error and will make the correction to this post.   more ›

County Attorney Files 3rd-Degree Murder Charge in Overdose Death

The criminal complaint alleges that Timothy Richard Lamere supplied the drug that led to the death of Trevor Vance Robinson-Davis at Unity Hospital.

The Anoka County Attorney's Office has charged Timothy Richard Lamere, 21, of Blaine, with third-degree murder in the March 17 drug-overdose death of Trevor Vance Robinson-Davis (see PDF).  Robinson-Davis, who turned 19 four days earlier, died at Unity Hospital in Fridley at 2 p.m., about 14 hours after Blaine police responded to a 911 call from a house party in the 9500 block of Monroe Street NE. By the time police arrived, people from the party had already taken Robinson-Davis to Unity Hospital, about 2.5 miles south. A Fridley police officer gave Robinson-Davis CPR at the hospital, according to Capt. Bob Rewitzer: On March 17th at 00:49 one of our officers responded to Unity Hospital, 550 Osborne Road NE, on report that a person that …

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