Minnesota

Missing couple is accused of collecting welfare while living large; $60K allegedly went for massages

A missing couple has been charged in Minnesota with collecting welfare benefits even as they purchased a yacht and lived in a $1.6 million home. Andrea and Colin Chisholm are accused of collecting $167,000 in medical and food-stamp benefits from Minnesota, using about $60,000 of the money to pay for…

Mar 28, 2014 3:31 PM CDT

School to pay $70K to teen pressured to provide passwords after Facebook post critiqued staff member

A Minnesota girl has won a $70,000 settlement in a federal civil rights case. Riley Stratton, now 15, contended her First Amendment right to free speech was violated when she was given detention for criticizing a hall monitor on Facebook outside of school and allegedly pressured by school officials and…

Mar 25, 2014 7:45 PM CDT

Top county prosecutor tackles fleeing defendant

As an “amped up” defendant was being sentenced in Thursday to 86 months for violating his probation in a drug-possession case, prosecutor Philip Miller stepped out of the courtroom to look for another bailiff. Then he saw the defendant, Dontae Marcus Frazier, running towards him down the hallway of the…

Mar 14, 2014 5:55 PM CDT

Did judge take oath on time? Refused a recusal, divorce litigant gets issue to state’s top court

What John Myser originally wanted was a recusal from the judge hearing his Minnesota divorce case. But when Scott County District Judge Caroline Lennon refused to step down, he began researching rules that applied to jurists. He discovered that judges are supposed to take—and file with the secretary of state—an…

Mar 4, 2014 5:00 PM CST

3 practice leaders exit Dorsey & Whitney

The leader of the labor and employment practice group at Dorsey & Whitney has left the firm to join the Minneapolis office of Littler Mendelson, a San Francisco-based firm known for its national labor and employment practice. The departure of litigator Doug Christensen follows last month’s exit of two other…

Feb 13, 2014 9:05 PM CST

Activist law prof files suit claiming he was wrongly barred from campus because of PTSD

An activist law professor who spent three weeks in a Rwandan jail has filed a lawsuit claiming he was wrongly barred from campus because of his post-traumatic stress disorder. Peter Erlinder’s suit against William Mitchell College of Law was removed to federal court in Minnesota on Friday, according to Pacer…

Feb 13, 2014 3:18 PM CST

Judge spots familiar face in court; man accused of threats to kill state and federal judges is held

Concerned about safety after he was told a convicted felon wanted for probation violation had threatened to kill him, a Minnesota judge pulled and studied the man’s mug shots and gave them to family members. So when Peter Okezie Kalu walked into the 13th-floor courtoom of Ramsey County District Judge…

Feb 12, 2014 6:50 PM CST

Eye-in-the-sky surveillance a new tool for US cities; is spying via camera while flying too prying?

Alerted to a burglary in progress, police in Dayton, Ohio, turned to new technology—a plane flying miles overhead with a camera mounted to its wing. It spotted a white truck. By the time the driver got home, with the swag still in the vehicle, police were waiting for him, the…

Feb 5, 2014 10:45 PM CST

Will bank suits against Target in $1B-plus customer data breach help spur security enhancements?

It isn’t just individuals who are taking legal action over a massive data breach in November and December that reportedly involved at least 40 million and perhaps as many as 110 million Target Corp. customer accounts. Contending that banks may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of Target’s…

Feb 3, 2014 11:20 PM CST

Dykema plans to hire more lawyers in growing Minneapolis office

A year ago, when Dykema opened an office in Minneapolis, it had two attorneys there. Now there are 10, and the 400-lawyer Detroit-based firm is planning more hiring, reports the Star Tribune. The firm expects to have an attorney roster of 25 in Minneapolis by the end of this year…

Jan 13, 2014 9:45 PM CST

Should woman lose license for driving drunk to flee abuser? Top state court must decide

A Minnesota woman drove less than a mile when she got in the car after drinking in a rural area of the state to avoid her husband’s physical abuse, according to her attorney. But that was enough to cost Jennifer Axelberg her driver’s license for six months. Convicted of careless…

Dec 13, 2013 6:20 PM CST

Man who flung cash into crowd at Mall of America is cited for disorderly conduct

A Minnesota man who flung $1,000 in dollar bills into a crowd at Mall of America on Friday has been cited for disorderly conduct. Serge Vorobyov, 29, of Apple Valley threw the money from an upper-floor railing into the crowd below while singers performed “Let It Snow,” report the Minneapolis…

Dec 2, 2013 1:53 PM CST

Law grad with gun is shot and killed by police outside home of slain physician

Police shot and killed a law grad with a gun outside the home of a slain Minnesota physician on Friday. The former law student was identified as 30-year-old Ted Hoffstrom, a 2009 University of St. Thomas law grad, report the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and KSTP.com.…

Nov 18, 2013 1:01 PM CST

Dewitt Ross to merge with 26-attorney Minn. law firm, establishing its first out-of-state office

A Wisconsin law firm has announced that it will merge soon with a 26-attorney legal shop in Minnesota, creating a combined law firm of well over 100 lawyers. Dewitt Ross & Stevens says its combination with Mackall Crounse & Moore will take place on Nov. 16. The Dewitt firm’s management…

Nov 11, 2013 6:20 PM CST

Former adjunct law prof suspended for 90 days after taking plea in law-student harassment case

A 70-year-old Minnesota sports law attorney has had his law license suspended for at least 90 days for sexual harassment after taking a plea in a criminal case in which he was accused of exposing himself to a female law student. Clark Calvin Griffith was an adjunct professor at William…

Nov 7, 2013 9:00 PM CST