Star Tribune
Prison for 2 who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Park Nicollet clinic
Two Twin Cities men are going to prison for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Park Nicollet clinic where they worked.
In U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Gregory C. Koch, 59, of Minneapolis, was sentenced to a term of just shy of 3 1⁄2 years and Jerome D. Kangas, 59, of Blaine, received a 2 1⁄2-year term.
The men’s sentence also includes two years’ supervised release upon leaving prison and an order to jointly pay restitution of more than $367,000, well short of the amount that prosecutors alleged was stolen.
Jurors convicted Koch and Kangas in late September of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud in a scheme that spanned several years while they worked for the Park Nicollet CPAP clinic in St. Louis Park. Kangas also was convicted of currency transaction fraud.
According to prosecutors:
Kangas was hired in June 2013 as a clinician in the CPAP clinic, where Koch was the supervisor and later the manager. CPAP machines treat sleep apnea.
Although Kangas worked only after-hours and weekends responding to patient calls, Koch entered more than 8,500 weekday hours on behalf of Kangas for work he did not perform. On most of the days while being paid, Kangas was either working for another employer or out of town.
Between June 2013 and June 2018, Koch and Kangas defrauded Park Nicollet of more than $505,000 in pay. The scheme was discovered when Koch was laid off in 2018 because of the acquisition of Park Nicollet by HealthPartners.
The currency transaction fraud Kangas committed occurred in 2017 when Kangas made six withdrawals between $5,000 and $5,500 from four Wells Fargo Bank branches within 12 days, for a total of $30,500.
Federal law requires banks to report currency transactions above $10,000, as a means of detecting financial crimes. Four days after the last $5,500 withdrawal by Kangas, Koch made a $29,300 cash deposit into his own US Bank account.
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
Star Tribune
Duluth man involved in chaotic aftermath of fatal stabbing turns himself in 6 months later
DULUTH – On the mid-April night that Chantel Moose was fatally stabbed outside a downtown bar, Trayvon Joseph Walters fired at least two shots toward the fleeing suspect and a man who was pistol-whipping the accused. Then Walters took off for six months.
Walters, 27, traveled back from Colorado and turned himself in to local law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning, according to his attorney, assistant public defender Aaron Haddorff. He faces charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — along with unrelated charges of second-degree assault from 2020 — and appeared before Judge Eric Hylden in the afternoon at the St. Louis County Courthouse. His bail is set at $250,000.
Kimonte Travion Cadge, 26, who was taken to a hospital for the gunshot wound Walters allegedly inflicted, was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He was extradited from Cook County Jail in Chicago and was booked in St. Louis County Jail in September.
According to the criminal complaint: Moose and Plummer, who is friends with Moose’s ex-boyfriend, got into an argument after bar close on April 12 outside Spurs on 1st Street. A bouncer intervened, and Plummer reached over him to take a swipe at Moose with a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade. Moose backed up and walked away before she dropped to the sidewalk.
When Plummer saw her fall, he took off running.
Cadge chased him, pistol-whipped him, then fired his gun at him. Walters, according to the criminal complaint, fired at least two shots toward both men, then left in a vehicle. Cadge retreated to a nearby apartment before he was transported to the hospital.
Moose was pronounced dead at a hospital, with a stab wound to the right side of her chest.
Meanwhile, dollars have been flowing to state, local and tribal governments from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. And Minnesota lawmakers approved $200 million last year to address substance abuse over the following four years, according to Gov. Tim Walz’s administration.
The state launched a portal last year for groups to access free naloxone, and according to the Department of Health it gave out 124,000 kits between last September and this July. But DeLaquil said funding ran out and people can no longer order kits through the portal. Many other organizations, like Steve Rummler HOPE Network, continue to distribute the medicine.
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