Kare11
A reporter’s story about St. Paul City Hall
Star Tribune reporter James Walsh tells the story about getting stuck in St. Paul City Hall back in January while covering a city council meeting.
ST PAUL, Minn. — After 30-plus years reporting news across Minnesota, James Walsh admits he covers less ground than he used to.
“I don’t go anywhere fast anymore,” he said. “I don’t do well on stairs anymore. This is about the extent of it for me now.”
After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014, he knew his body and mobility would deteriorate, so he focused on covering St Paul. And these days, even that would be nearly impossible without the use of his wheelchair.
“Your world shrinks, and I am an absolute witness to my world shrinking as this disease has progressed,” he said.
The latest example of that came after he covered a late St. Paul City Council meeting in January.
“I wrote my story and I was done about 8:30… and I get out of the door and everything is dark,” said Walsh. “And I go down to the skyway that I had come in earlier in the day and it was locked and blocked. I couldn’t get out.”
After taking the elevator to the first floor, he realized the nearest door was also locked.
“I rolled around and finally I went to the Kellogg Avenue entrance and there was a security desk there and there was a guard there, and I told him, ‘Hey, I need to get out,'” Walsh said.
He says the guard eventually found a janitor, who unlocked a door and helped him get outside where he thought he could make his way across the street to gain access through the city hall annex.
“And that was locked too,” he said. “So now I’m outside and I have to figure out a way, how to get back into the skyway system at 8:50 at night.”
Eventually, he said, he flagged down a woman in an apartment lobby down the block who let him through another locked door to access the skyway and make it to his car.
“If it would have been snowy or icy, it would have been not even an option for me,” Walsh said. “I might have been really stuck.”
That’s when this veteran reporter began asking questions — and realized the difference between ADA compliance and actual accessibility.
“They basically told me that that’s one of those situations where, technically, the building is accessible,” he said. “But I think the argument could be made that, without the skyway access, people in wheelchairs are probably less likely to go. And they’re less likely to participate in going to city council meetings, never mind someone like me who has to cover it.”
And that is why — with the encouragement of an editor — he is now covering his own story.
“If you don’t know that something is lacking, then you can’t fix it,” Walsh said. “So maybe the best that comes out of this is, this highlights the things that they need to do and it makes them easier for them to find the way to do it.”
And for the record, he believes the city’s response will soon go beyond saying sorry.
“They recognized there there things that need to be improved and I think they want to do that,” Walsh said. “I really didn’t know how difficult it was, until I found out how difficult it is.”
The City of St. Paul does have a new accessibility coordinator that started in December, and were among the officials that apologized to Walsh, adding that they are working with Mayor Melvin Carter and several departments on ADA updates.
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist:
BCA Special Agent Joe Swenson told jurors that Maddi Kingsbury’s remains were hidden by brush and logs 6 to 10 feet long and appeared to be there “on purpose.”
MANKATO, Minn. — BCA Special Agent Joe Swenson was the first witness called Monday morning, the 8th day of testimony in the 1st-degree murder trial of Adam Fravel for the death of Maddi Kingsbury, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children.
Swenson, based in Rochester, took the stand and testified about arriving at the scene where Maddi’s remains were found inside a culvert on June 7, 2023. He recalled that the remains were so hidden that he couldn’t tell where the Fillmore Co. Deputy was pointing until they started moving logs and brush.
The BCA agent described some of the logs in the ditch as being 6-10 feet long and “the size of older wooden powerlines, 6-inches across.”
“It certainly appeared the logs were placed there on purpose,” Swenson said.
Then prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz questioned Agent Swenson about discoveries made during an April 27, 2023, search of the Rochester home Fravel and Kingsbury shared. Jurors were shown photos inside the garage as Agent Swenson testified about finding a roll a roll of black Gorilla duct tape, which seemed to match the tape wrapped around Maddi’s body.
Swenson told the courtroom he also found Wyze-brand surveillance cameras in the garage, which had been taken down from inside the townhome and were not operational on the day investigators believe Maddi was killed.
Last week, prosecutors charged Mary Kay Bower, 42, of St. Paul, with rustling and livestock theft, which is a felony.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. — In a YouTube video titled “Rustling is still a thing,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker T. Hodges begins by saying “I’m going to talk to you about a crime that city dwellers don’t often have to talk about.”
Hodges is referring to a woman who was recently arrested and charged with stealing a sheep from a farm in Bloomington.
Last week, prosecutors charged Mary Kay Bower, 42, of St. Paul, with rustling and livestock theft, which is a felony.
On Saturday, Oct. 19, around 6:45 p.m., officers were called to Old Shakopee Road East on a report of a man and woman walking a dog and a sheep.
Bower originally told the officers she had purchased the sheep, according to court documents. However, the man with Bower told officers she “had stepped over the fence to a farm, put a leash on the sheep, and then pulled the sheep through the fence. The male said {Bower} pulled so hard that the sheep was choking.”
Officers said they confirmed with the nearby farm’s owner that the sheep was stolen. The farm’s owner said the “sheep is a breeding hair ram worth approximately $500.”
Chief Booker ended his video by saying the ram was in good condition and Bower’s dog and a “bunny rabbit” that she also had in her possession had been returned to her after she was released from the Hennepin County Jail.
John Sawchak faces four felony charges after officials said he shot his neighbor on Grand Avenue South while trimming a tree on their shared property line.
MINNEAPOLIS — Charges have been filed against a south Minneapolis man accused of shooting his neighbor after a long-simmering rift.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment against 54-year-old John Herbert Sawchak after alleged racial comments escalated to threats, then culminated in that neighbor being shot while pruning a tree on the line between their two properties.
According to a criminal complaint, Minneapolis police responded to a hospital for a report of a gunshot victim on Wednesday night. The injured man had been transported from his home on Grand Avenue South for an unknown medical condition that caused him to collapse. The man was found in the fetal position by his wife when she got home from work that evening.
Officials later identified the victim as Davis Moturi.
At the hospital, providers found a small puncture wound in the back of Moturi’s neck that led to the discovery of a bullet lodged near his spine. When he arrived at the hospital, he couldn’t recall what led up to him being shot, according to the criminal complaint.
Moturi’s wife told officials that he had been outside earlier in the day pruning a tree near their property line with a chainsaw. She said their neighbor, John Sawchak, had “almost certainly” shot her husband.
In the previous week, Moturi’s wife said Sawchak told her husband “Touch my tree again and I’ll kill you.”
The criminal complaint goes on to detail numerous complaints of harassment the Moturi’s experienced since purchasing their house in September 2023.
- Oct. 11, 2023: Moturi approached Sawchak to discuss the tree on their property line. Sawchak became irate, according to the criminal complaint, yelling at Moturi and using “racially charged language.” Sawchak told Moturi if he “touched” the tree, Sawchak would “take care of” him.
- March 1, 2024: Sawchak approached Moturi while he was working outside his house on a ladder. While verbally harassing him, officials said Sawchak told Moturi that he would put him in the hospital.
- April 5, 2024: Sawchak threw household items at Moturi from his 2nd-floor window.
- May 28, 2024: Sawchak verbally threatened Moturi, calling him “a Black bastard,” and telling him “I’m going to kill you if you call the police again. All you people do is lie and commit crimes.”
- Aug. 7, 2024: Sawchak verbally threatened Moturi from his 2nd story window. Moturi saw Sawchak holding up a large knife in the window while threatening to kill Moturi and his wife.
- Oct. 8, 2024: Sawchak verbally threatened and screamed racial slurs at Moturi from his 2nd-floor window. Sawchak also, once again, brandished a knife from his window while threatening to kill Moturi.
- Oct. 14, 2024: Moturi saw Sawchak outside Moturi’s home with a firearm. Sawchak pointed the firearm at Moturi through the window.
On the evening of Oct. 23, Moturi’s wife went home to pack some things and leave for the night, officials said. Sawchak verbally harassed her and shone a stone light on her as she left her home, the criminal complaint read. The next day, Moturi and his wife were able to access home security footage from their home cameras. The video shows Moturi working outside near the tree at the property line with his back to Sawchak’s home. A faint “crack” or “pop” can be heard, then Moturi collapsed to the ground.
Moturi remains hospitalized with a fractured spine, two broken ribs, and a concussion. He spoke with KARE 11 from his hospital bed and said he feels the police failed to protect his family by not arresting Sawchak during one of the various other incidents.
“If you’re saying you’re scared, what does that do to me?” Moturi said. “You have this body armor, you have professional training… when I call for assistance, when I called for having a knife pointed at me, I had to wait hours and hours and hours.”
As of Sunday morning, Sawchak is not in police custody. According to the criminal complaint, Sawchak has at least three active warrants associated with prior threats or acts of violence against Moturi and other neighbors. Sawchak has “actively evaded” police during their prior attempts to contact or arrest him.
A letter from ranking members of the Minneapolis City Council to Mayor Jacob Frey reflected anger and blame directed at the Minneapolis police department for allegedly failing to act on Moturi’s numerous complaints against Sawchak before the shooting, and failing to arrest him immediately after the shooting.
“MPD still has not arrested the suspect despite charges from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for Attempted Murder, 1st Degree Assault, Stalking, and Harassment and a request from the HCAO for a warrant with $1 million bail. MPD told the HCAO they do not intend to execute the warrant ‘for reasons of officer safety,’” said the letter from the Minneapolis City Council.
Watch Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s response below:
