Star Tribune
Judge temporarily blocks limits on disability pensions for police officers, firefighters
Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Mulrooney has issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of a measure, passed this spring by the Legislature, that could reduce the size of disability pensions for some former law enforcement officers and firefighters.
Under that provision, former public safety workers receiving disability pensions could see a portion of their pensions reduced if their income from another job, combined with their pension, exceeded what they would be earning if they had continued in law enforcement.
The Minnesota Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), which initiated the legislation and is being sued by an association representing disabled former public safety workers, “is currently evaluating all its legal options in response to this order,” said John Stiles, a spokesman for Attorney General Keith Ellison, in an emailed statement.
A hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit is slated for Jan. 31.
The primary aim of the legislation is to provide state-reimbursed treatment of public safety workers, mainly police, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A surge in PTSD claims since 2020 — largely in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, but also across the state — has stressed the state’s public safety disability pension funds, PERA officials told state lawmakers.
It also has had a major impact on local police departments who have seen their numbers drop as officers go on permanent disability.
The legislation requires public safety workers diagnosed with PTSD to undergo 24 to 32 weeks of therapy, paid for by the state, in hopes that many of them will be able to return to work. Most of the law, including that provision, remains in force and is not affected by the temporary injunction issued Monday.
However, the legislation also specifies that public safety workers already receiving disability payments could see those payments reduced, under a complicated formula that depends on how much they earn in non-public safety jobs after they leave their departments.
The Minnesota Duty Disabled Association, sued PERA and sought the temporary injunction. The new association claims 200 members, but Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick said that more than 1,000 individuals already on disability could face income reductions under the formula.
“Under the new provisions, there would be a significant reduction in their benefits,” Tanick said. “People have had these benefits for a long time. They are vested and they should have reasonable expectations that the benefits will continue.
“Our position is that they improperly moved the goal posts while the game is in progress.”
In his memorandum, Mulrooney wrote that denying a temporary injunction would result in loss of household income needed by disabled public safety workers to meet living expenses. The judge said the lawsuit meets the criteria for an injunction, including the “meaningful likelihood of success on the merits” for the plaintiff.
PERA Executive Director Doug Anderson said Tuesday that the legislation has the “potential over a period of time” to affect more than 1,000 retirees, “but not all of them will have significant reemployment earnings.”
In court papers, Assistant Attorney General Frank Langan argued that the legislation “does not establish an irreparable injury” and that its provisions “are designed to promote the long-term health” of the pension fund.
Mulrooney denied a motion by Tanick for a temporary injunction on another legislative provision requiring public safety workers who apply for disability pensions, based on a psychological condition, to show they cannot perform their work duties.
He also denied an injunction to suspend a requirement that disabled public safety workers must annually reapply for their disability pension and provide evidence of disability for the first five years they are disabled and every three years thereafter.
CBRE, which marketed the property, declined to comment on the sale.
Adam Duininck, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said while the low sales prices might sound alarming, there are bright spots. Homeowners in the city are facing a few tough years of property tax increases as commercial values drop, he acknowledged. But the lower prices have also enabled new players to buy downtown properties, paving the way for fresh ideas to transform the urban core.
“Hopefully, they come into the market with a certain kind of energy and optimism that helps drive the market back up,” he said, adding public safety improvements have also fueled recent momentum.
Take the Kickernick Building, which recently opened an art gallery. Earlier this year, Twin Cities-based United Properties sold the historic former warehouse on the edge of the CBD for $3.79 million. In 2017, United paid $19.5 million for the building.
Just a couple blocks away, Tom McCarver and Steve Boynton bought a mixed-use, nearly 31,000-square-foot building at the corner of Seventh Street and Hennepin Avenue that most recently housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. Last month, they paid about $4.3 million, slightly more than half of what it sold for in November 2017.
Tom McCarver, CEO of Hennepin Real Estate Partners LLC, poses Tuesday on the rooftop of the Stimson Building in Minneapolis that formerly housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
After the restaurant closed during the pandemic, the building went into receivership and up for auction. McCarver and Boynton, executives at a company that owns billboards across the metro, were among nearly a dozen bidders. They won the auction in March, but because of “legal hurdles,” the sale didn’t close until last month.
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.
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