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Local couple featured in Hulu documentary
“We live here: The Midwest” on Hulu features five LGBTQIA+ families that choose to live in and love America’s heartland.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — In a new documentary called, “We Live Here: The Midwest,” Debb and Jenn Richmond are featured as one of five LGBTQIA+ families who live in and love the Midwest.
The West St. Paul couple said the filmmakers came out to shoot their story March of 2022. Debb, who is into professional photography, is usually behind the camera. So when the documentarians finally invited her and Jenn to the Hollywood premiere, she said she felt sheepish.
“Being out in Hollywood was not planned for me,” Debb said. “When we had this filmed in March of 2022, we quickly forgot about it, I mean it’s ok, yay, they took our pictures and stuff.”
With “We Live Here: The Midwest” streaming nationally starting Wednesday, the couple had to get comfortable with the idea that their story was out of their hands.
“There was always a concern that if you do a documentary like this and you hear tales out there of people with good intentions that take a documentary like that, and twist it around and have it play to the opposite side of the spectrum,” Jenn explained. “It was really nice once we did get a chance to watch it because it was spun in a very caring and loving way.”
Director Melinda Maerker and producer David Miller said the process to get the families to trust their process was a difficult one.
“Eventually when we did find our families, a few were very hesitant to participate and didn’t,” Maerker said. “They were afraid of recriminations in their communities, and at work.”
“It’s a real fear that these families have and still have today,” Miller added.
After 2016, the duo said they wanted to check in on families in the Midwest.
“We picked the Midwest specifically because it is the heartland and the heart of family values which have been co-opted by the right,” Maerker said.
And the key answer to that very question of why do families like the Richmonds live here? It’s part common sense, and part sensitive to the political climate.
“You know, I would love to be somewhere warm, where, like Debb said, we can ride our motorcycles and be in a warmer climate,” Jenn said. “But the political atmosphere is really good, we have protected rights under a lot of civil liberties like that. You don’t get in other parts of the country.”
“If I was a kid, if I had the guts in the first place to say, ‘Hey parents I’m not this, I’m that,’ I would want to be in a place where they can be supported if they chose to be,” Debb said. “And where they can get that support. And this is that place.”
That sentiment, echoing through streaming without state boundaries, the Richmonds have one message.
“I think there’s plenty of people out there who are on our side but they just don’t understand, or they don’t have a connection to the community, so they don’t take the effort to expound and go out and seek somebody that is LGBTQ identified,” Jenn said. “I think it’s important to have somebody in your corner.”
“I wouldn’t mind if people just saw me as just another weirdo, just like everybody else, we are just like everybody else,” Debb said. “And we belong here just a much as anybody else does. We’re not out to get someone, and I hope other people won’t be out to get us.”
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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 — A man is recovering in the hospital after being shot outside his home in a dispute with a neighbor on Grand Avenue South in Minneapolis on Oct. 23.
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 Maturi.
At the hospital, providers found a small puncture wound in the back of Maturi’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.
Maturi’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 Herbert Sawchak, 54, had “almost certainly” shot her husband.
In the previous week, Maturi’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 Maturi’s experienced since purchasing their house in September 2023.
Oct. 11, 2023: Maturi approached Sawchak to discuss the tree on their property line. Sawchak became irate, according to the criminal complaint, yelling at Maturi and using “racially charged language.” Sawchak told Maturi if he “touched” the tree, Sawchak would “take care of” him.
March 1, 2024: Sawchak approached Maturi while he was working outside his house on a ladder. While verbally harassing him, officials said Sawchak told Maturi that he would put him in the hospital.
April 5, 2024: Sawchak threw household items at Maturi from his 2nd-floor window.
May 28, 2024: Sawchak verbally threatened Maturi, 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 Maturi from his 2nd story window. Maturi saw Sawchak holding up a large knife in the window while threatening to kill Maturi and his wife.
Oct. 8, 2024: Sawchak verbally threatened and screamed racial slurs at Maturi from his 2nd-floor window. Sawchak also, once again, brandished a knife from his window while threatening to kill Maturi.
Oct. 14, 2024: Maturi saw Sawchak outside Maturi’s home with a firearm. Sawchak pointed the firearm at Maturi through the window.
On the evening of Oct. 23, Maturi’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, Maturi and his wife were able to access home security footage from their home cameras. The video shows Maturi 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 Maturi collapsed to the ground.
Maturi remains hospitalized with a fractured spine, two broken ribs, and a concussion. He talked to 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?” Maturi 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 Matsuri 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 showed anger and blame directed at the Minneapolis police department for allegedly failing to act on Maturi’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:
Police are investigating after three men were shot early on Saturday morning.
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police are investigating after three men were shot in the Ventura Village neighborhood early Saturday morning.
According to Minneapolis police, officers were called to the area around East 21st Street and South 15th Avenue around 5 a.m. Saturday.
Officers found three men had been shot. One of the men died and the two others were taken to the hospital with what police described as life-threatening injuries.
Officials said the shooting happened at a small homeless encampment.
Police have not announced any arrests as of Saturday morning.
KARE 11 will update this story as more information is made available.
This Halloween the chocolate shop is getting very festive.
MARINE ON SAINT CROIX, Minn. — A small sweet shop in a Minnesota river town has won some BIG awards for its chocolates.
St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on St. Croix has won national and international awards including Best of Show in this year’s America’s Division of the International Chocolate Awards.
Their chocolates are available at the St. Croix Chocolate Company kitchen or online.
This Halloween they are selling a Halloween Countdown Calendar that features 14 prize-winning recipes made into ghosts, bats, skulls and other spooky configurations. They also have a Boo Bag-handled tote that comes with their “best of” Halloween assortment.
Owner and Chocolatier, Robyn Dochterman, joined KARE 11 Saturday to share what St. Croix Chocolate Company has to offer.
Satellite images show damage from Israeli attack at 2 secretive Iranian military bases
JD Vance dismisses taking action against Russia for election interference
Transcript: “Face the Nation” excerpt of Norah O’Donnell interview with Vice President Kamala Harris
Satellite images show damage from Israeli attack at 2 secretive Iranian military bases
JD Vance dismisses taking action against Russia for election interference