WEST ST PAUL, Minn. — A man was killed in a crash early Sunday morning after fleeing police in West St. Paul.

Officials said a woman called to report a 35-year-old man threatening people and damaging property inside a home after consuming a “large amount” of alcohol and using drugs. The emergency dispatcher said they could hear a male yelling in the home and what sounded like items being thrown.

In a press release, police later said they saw the man’s vehicle headed west on Moreland Avenue in West St. Paul and tried to stop the vehicle and arrest the driver for Domestic Assault and other charges. The driver fled, police said.

A few blocks after police tried to stop the driver, he crossed Robert Street and lost control, striking a power pole and two unoccupied vehicles in a driveway near Moreland Avenue and Kruse Street.

The man was thrown from the vehicle. Medics were called, but police said the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mendota Heights police and the Minnesota State Patrol are investigating the crash.

KARE 11 will update this story as more details are made available. 

PONTIAC, Mich. — A suburban Detroit judge is no longer handling cases after a court official turned over recordings of her making anti-gay insults and referring to Black people as lazy.

Oakland County Probate Judge Kathleen Ryan was removed from her docket on Aug. 27 for unspecified misconduct. Now the court’s administrator has stepped forward to say he blew the whistle on her, secretly recording their phone calls.

“I just want to make it right. … I want to keep my job and do it in peace,” Edward Hutton told WXYZ-TV. “And I want the people in Oakland County that come to court to get a fair shake, to have their day in court, to have an unbiased trier of fact.”

The judge didn’t talk to the TV station, but her attorneys, Gerald Gleeson and Thomas Cranmer, said: “We look forward to vindicating Judge Ryan in the appropriate forum.”

Probate judges in Michigan handle wills and estates, guardianships and cases that involve the state’s mental health laws.

In the phone recordings, Ryan uses an anti-gay slur against David Coulter, the county’s highest elected official, who is gay. She also referred to Blacks in the U.S. as lazy.

“I’m not systemically racist. I’m a new racist,” said Ryan, who was first elected in 2010.

It is legal to record phone calls in Michigan if one party consents. In this matter, it was Hutton, who said Ryan had called him at work and after-hours for years.

Hutton said he sent the recordings in August to Coulter, the chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark then suspended her, with pay, while she’s investigated by a judiciary watchdog, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.

Her father, James Ryan, was a state and federal judge. A brother, Daniel Ryan, was also a judge.

RICHFIELD, Minn — Richfield police said a post circulating about a missing 3-year-old girl found alone walking behind a home is false. 

The picture, seen on Ring Neighborhood in Richfield, said a child named “Mila” was found walking behind a home in Richfield and taken to the police station by “Deputy Sara Thomas.” 

KARE 11 contacted the law enforcement agencies mentioned in the post, but both the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and Richfield dispatch said they did not respond to a call about a missing child. 

Richfield police said a similar post had circulated through the community’s social media pages several weeks ago. Posts like this have also been shared across the country, including this one from KARE 11’s sister station in North Carolina.

It’s easy to get caught by scammers, especially with a subject as emotionally charged as a missing child. Before you share a post about a missing child, an easy way to check if it is true or not is to visit the social media pages of the police departments mentioned. 

You can also take a look at the profile that first shared the post. If the account has few to no friends or was created recently, that’s a sign the post could be fake.