Star Tribune
Critics say Duluth judicial candidate fought improvements to domestic violence work as city attorney
Johnson said this week he felt a victim advocate position was important, but needed to “ask the hard questions” first.
“You have to be careful of what you take on,” he said, when potentially adding employees, considering potential future budget cuts. “I explore all options before jumping into something and that’s what we did with that position.”
After Holtberg’s phone call with Johnson, she said she sought advice from others and brought the opportunity and Johnson’s initial response to former Mayor Emily Larson. Larson confirmed this week that she then directed Johnson to apply for the grant. Funding was awarded to the city, and the position remains grant-funded today. Johnson said he doesn’t think Larson told him to apply, but said her administration was part of the discussion.
“We got it done, and we got it done in a way that’s stuck with the city,” he said. “Just because you ask hard questions doesn’t mean that it’s bad … that’s what I do, and as judge I’ll ask hard questions.”
Retired city prosecutor Mary Asmus said recently that Johnson told her at the time that if that position was added, he would probably need to dismiss someone from the office’s criminal division. This was at a time when criminal caseloads were high, she said. Johnson said he doesn’t recall saying that, but noted that grant funding isn’t guaranteed to last, inevitably affecting budgets and staffing.
“I don’t think he understood the importance of a victim services coordinator to the prosecution of a domestic violence case,” Asmus said, and “he was the first Duluth City Attorney in four decades who had never prosecuted criminal cases for our office.”
“The personnel changes resulted in having no trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming employees on the planning team,” she said. “This process (was) led by the cis gender team and the REIB department, and people weren’t comfortable with that at all.”
A spokesperson for the city, Jess Olstad, said in an email that the summit will be rescheduled in the next few months as the city works with community leaders to “ensure it is a meaningful, productive and inclusive experience for attendees.”
“The decision to postpone the meeting was a product of significant outreach from LGBTQ+ organizations from across the region and productive discussions with internal and external stakeholders,” Olstad said. “The event is designed for trans and gender non-conforming community members, and we are committed to centering those voices in the event planning and production in the 10th Trans Equity Summit.”
The letter from advocacy groups urged the city to continue to invest in work to support the LGBTQ+ community, specifically trans communities, “who are under policy, rhetorical, and physical attack in our present moment.”
The letter was signed by OutFront Minnesota, Transforming Families Minnesota, QUEERSPACE collective, RECLAIM, Twin Cities Pride, PFund Foundation, Twin Cities Quorum, Gender Justice, Family Tree Clinic and MN POC Pride.
Jenkins had helped planned the summit for the past decade, but has taken a step back now that the city has a REIB department. She said it’s frustrating to have the event postponed because it was supposed to be the 10th annual event, but last year it was postponed, too.
A driver who hit and killed a man who ran into a busy Minneapolis street has been spared prison and was sentenced on the lesser of two charges.
Camoreay L. Prowell, 38, of St. Paul, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in Hennepin County District Court to failing to stop for a traffic collision in connection with the death of Wilson G. Chinchilla, 26, of Minneapolis, on Oct. 19, 2022, on West Broadway near N. Logan Avenue.
Judge Hilary Caligiuri set aside a 13-month term and placed Prowell on probation for three years. He has about 3½ weeks left to serve in jail. As called for in the plea agreement, the more serious charge of criminal vehicular homicide was dismissed.
When asked about dropping the higher charge, the County Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “This office weighs the specific facts of each case to determine the appropriate resolution. In this instance, the charge for which Mr. Prowell was sentenced [Thursday] is correct and appropriate.”
The complaint said that Prowell was driving at the time after his license had been canceled. Court records in Minnesota revealed he’s been convicted three times for drunken driving and at least twice for driving after his license had been revoked.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police found Chinchilla’s body in the left lane of westbound West Broadway. Video surveillance showed that he ran out of a nearby home moments earlier toward the street.
Witnesses told police that a speeding SUV hit Chinchilla, slowed briefly as it continued west, then made a U-turn and returned to the scene of the crash. Prowell stopped, looked at the body and left.
Mychel Stowers was released on parole from prison about seven months ago after he pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in 2008 for fatally shooting a man in a drug deal gone wrong. According to charging documents, Stowers was living at a halfway house and granted a pass to visit his ex-wife at her North End apartment on the same day that she was killed.
Mychel Stowers’ description also matched the man witnesses saw fleeing Damara Stowers’ apartment moments after the shooting. One witness said they heard no fights or arguments before four gunshots rang. They heard another gunshot five seconds later, and another witness reported seeing a heavyset man with a white shirt and blue shorts run south afterwards.
The apartment’s owner said they were preparing to evict Damara Stowers, adding that her ex-boyfriend, a stocky man in his 30′s or 40′s, was living with her.
Police heard reports of a carjacking minutes later, finding a man shot in his leg on 99 Acker Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by authorities show someone approach that man and point something at him before a flash appeared. The man fell and the shooter ran away, but returned moments later to take the man’s vehicle and leave. That man was treated at Regions Hospital for a broken femur from a gunshot wound.
Authorities believe the gun used to carjack that man on Acker Street was the same used to kill Damara Stowers in her apartment.
There have been 25 homicides in St. Paul so far this year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database. There were 28 by this time last year.
