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Man accused of raping St. Paul woman while driving her in inmate van admits to 3 similar attacks

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A former private prisoner transport officer accused by a St. Paul woman of raping her as he drove her from Texas to the Ramsey County jail has admitted to similar attacks involving three other female inmates.

Marquet D. Johnson, 44, of West Memphis, Ark., pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M., to the assaults that occurred during long-distance transports over a four-month period in 2019.

“Every person has a basic right to dignity and respect,” U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez said in a statement following Johnson’s guilty plea. “And nobody, no matter the crime of which they are being accused, deserves to be raped. When jailers fail their duty to those in their charge, they will join them in custody.”

A lawsuit was filed in April against Ramsey County and its Sheriff’s Office, which contracted with Johnson’s employer, Inmate Services Corp., alleging that he raped a 38-year-old woman while driving her from Texas back to Minnesota in June 2019. Lawyers for both sides are due back in court on May 16 to discuss the possibility of settling that case without a trial.

Johnson has not been charged in connection with the St. Paul woman’s allegations, but the investigation in New Mexico alerted prosecutors “to more than a dozen other alleged victims of Mr. Johnson’s conduct” across the country while he was employed by the now-defunct Inmate Services in 2019 and 2020, according to a filing in March in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota:

During a stop in Oklahoma, Johnson allowed her to use the bathroom. He walked her into the truck stop bathroom while she was handcuffed and forced a sex act. While in Iowa just shy of the Minnesota border, Johnson took the woman into a rest stop bathroom and forced her to have intercourse.

The woman’s suit also names as defendants Johnson and Randy Cagle Jr., who owned Inmate Services Corp. It seeks $9 million in compensatory damages and another $4 million in punitive damages for what she contends was “cruel and unusual punishment” and other violations of her rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The first of the three rapes that Johnson admitted to in court this week occurred in July 2019. While driving a woman from Spencer, Ind., to San Marcos, Texas, he assaulted her in a bathroom at the headquarters of Inmate Services in West Memphis.

His next sexual assault occurred in August 2019 while driving an inmate from Baker County, Ore., to Warrensburg, Mo. While in Missouri, he assaulted the woman in the van parked outside a hotel.

The third assault happened in November 2019, while transporting an inmate from Santa Fe, N.M., to Delta County, Colo. Johnson pressed a gun against the woman’s head and raped her in the van.

Johnson and prosecutors have agreed that a sentence of 27 to 30 years in prison “is the appropriate disposition in this case,” the plea filing read. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

In July, a second former Inmate Services driver was sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a Washington inmate at a Missouri rest stop while driving her to a Minnesota jail.

The prosecution said Rogeric Hankins, 37, picked up a pretrial inmate from an Olympia, Wash., jail March 31, 2020. Three days later, he stopped the van at a gas station in Joplin, Mo., and brought the victim to the women’s bathroom. He then led her into the men’s bathroom, ordered her into the stall farthest from the door and raped her.



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How Minnesota is recruiting poll workers in a divisive presidential election

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“The basic rule in Minnesota is you cannot preemptively post law enforcement at a polling place,” he said. “A city can’t say, ‘Wow, Precinct Two, there’s a lot of intensity there, let’s just put a cop at the door.’”

Simon doesn’t go deep into the details on security, though. “I don’t want to give a total road map to the bad guys,” he said.

But testimony at the Capitol last year on behalf of the new law bolstering protections for election and polling place workers indicated there’s room for concern. One election worker was followed to her car by an angry voter; the head of elections in another county was called repeatedly on her home phone during off hours, and an official was lunged at by an aggrieved voter, forcing her to call the local sheriff.

Those who violate the law could now face civil damages and penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation.

The Brennan Center survey indicated more than four in 10 election leaders were concerned about recruiting enough poll workers due to threats of harassment and intimidation. This includes doxing — publishing a person’s personal information online in a threatening manner — and swatting, fake emergency calls that result in an armed response being sent to someone’s home.

“Election officials are working to prepare for everything right now,” said Liz Howard, director of partnership engagement at the Brennan Center. “More than 90% of election officials have made improvements to election security since 2020.”



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Daylight saving time ends next weekend. This is how to prepare for the potential health effects

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The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9 when we will again ”spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time.

That spring time change can be tougher on your body. Darker mornings and lighter evenings can knock your internal body clock out of whack, making it harder to fall asleep on time for weeks or longer. Studies have even found an uptick in heart attacks and strokes right after the March time change.

”Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too.

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.

Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do — mostly in Europe and North America — the date that clocks are changed varies.

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time.

Here’s what to know about the twice yearly ritual.



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Harris and Walz will visit all the battleground states in the campaign’s closing stretch

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WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will crisscross the United States to visit all seven battleground states in the coming days, part of a final blitz before the Nov. 5 election.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, will spend Sunday in Philadelphia, attending church services in the morning and visiting a barbershop. The vice president also plans to stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant and a youth basketball facility.

On Monday, Walz, the Minnesota’s governor who is Harris’ running mate, will campaign in Manitowoc and Waukesha, Wisconsin, before a joining Harris for a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the singer Maggie Rogers is scheduled to perform.

Harris will be in the nation’s capital on Tuesday to deliver what her campaign calls her ”closing argument” in a speech from the Ellipse, a grassy space adjacent to the National Mall. It’s the same place where then-President Donald Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, when the Republican called on his supporters to march on the Capitol.

Walz is scheduled to campaign Tuesday in Savannah and Columbus in Georgia.

Harris plans to visit North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Wednesday. The event in Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to feature musical performances by Mumford & Sons and others.

Walz willbe in Charlotte and Asheville, North Carolina, that day.

On Thursday, Harris will be in Nevada for rallies in Reno and Las Vegas, and in Phoenix. The band Maná will perform in Las Vegas and Los Tigres del Norte will perform in Phoenix.



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