>>Mangione Pleads Not Guilty to State Charges in Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO
(New York, NY) — Luigi Mangione is pleading not guilty to state charges in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare C-E-O Brian Thompson of Maple Grove in New York City. The 11-count indictment charges Mangione with three murder counts, including murder as an act of terrorism. His attorney said at the hearing that Mangione may not be able to get a fair trial in Manhattan. He’s also charged in a four-count federal indictment but has not entered a plea. A conviction on the state charges carries a maximum life prison sentence.
>>Minnesota Sextortion Cases
(St. Paul, MN) — In Minnesota, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) says it has received more than 11,000 tips this year of sextortion cases and the non-consensual spread of explicit photos on the internet. Washington lawmakers like Senator Amy Klobuchar are trying to pass legislation to make this a federal crime. Drew Evans from the BCA says this law would help them go after these offenders. “We want to hold individuals accountable for the crimes they’re doing, the extortion, the victimization, and the violation of trust they do by disseminating these intimate non-consensual images and when the law applies, but in particular, we also want the ability to bring those images down immediately so we can prevent their dissemination as quickly as they took to go up.” Klobuchar’s bill, the Take It Down Act, has passed the Senate. She hopes the House will take up the bill soon.
>>Minnesota House Shake Up
(St. Paul, MN) — A judge’s ruling that the D-F-L representative-elect was ineligible to run in House District 40-B is expected to complicate negotiations at the State Capitol. Hamline University Professor David Schultz says both parties were prepared for a 50-50 split.
“Because what you have right now in the House is that they’ve reached agreements for joint power where they’ve assigned an allocation of committee chairs. They hadn’t come up with any decision on the Speaker of the House.” Curtis Johnson is appealing the court ruling that he didn’t meet the six-month residency requirement and shouldn’t be seated in office on January 14th. That would give Republicans a one-vote majority.
>>Sartell Woman Pleads Guilty to Federal Wire Fraud
(Minneapolis, MN) — A woman from the St. Cloud area is pleading guilty to federal wire fraud charges. The U-S Attorney’s Office says 40-year-old Adelle Starin of Sartell obtained nine million dollars in financing from two lenders through her fraud scheme. Starin owned Baby’s on Broadway stores, which sold baby products and toys. Court records show Starin also created a fake company called Sunshine Medical L-L-C to offset losses and submitted false invoices to Liquid Capital Enterprises Corp. and Slope Tech. Inc. Her sentencing hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
>>Home Fire in Pine Island Causes Thousands in Damages
(Pine Island, MN) — Fire officials in Pine Island are looking into the cause of a chimney fire that caused an estimated 100-thousand dollars in damages to a home Sunday morning. The fire broke out shortly after midnight. The occupants of the home smelled the smoke and were able to escape. The cause is believed to be linked to debris in the fireplace.
>>19-Year-Old Charged with Stewartville Man’s Murder
(Brooklyn Park, MN) — A Coon Rapids man is charged with the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Ramone Blue of Stewartville. On December 7th, police responded to reports of a shooting in a business parking lot in Brooklyn Park around 2 p.m., finding two victims with gunshot wounds. Both were brought to North Memorial Health Hospital, where Blue was pronounced dead. Last Friday, 19-year-old Marquan Tucker was arrested following multiple warrants related to the shooting. Tucker faces three counts of second-degree murder and one count of a drive-by shooting.
