Star Tribune
Court upholds racial bias sentence for man who drove SUV into Cold Spring house
The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed the sentence of the Stearns County man who repeatedly harassed a Cold Spring family because of race and crashed an SUV into their home.
Benton L. Beyer, who lived in Cold Spring and Richmond during the months of harassment, was charged with 11 counts following the July 2021 incident. A jury found Beyer, who is white, guilty of seven of the counts in September 2022.
The jury also found the stalking and assault charges had aggravating factors because they were motivated by racial bias, which can increase the maximum sentence for the crimes. In November 2022, Stearns County Judge Andrew Pearson sentenced Beyer, now 35, to almost nine years in prison.
“You devastated a family,” Pearson said during the sentencing, at which three members of the family spoke about how the attack shattered their sense of safety and left them riddled with depression and anxiety.
Court documents state the family of Andrea Robinson was targeted by Beyer because her husband, Phil, and some of their children are Black. Documents say Beyer started targeting the family after his girlfriend admitted to cheating on him with a biracial coworker and later worked at a group home on the same block as the Robinson’s.
The Robinsons had no relationship to Beyer except that Beyer mistakenly believed his girlfriend cheated on him with an adult son of the family. Beginning in May 2021, the Robinsons started experiencing acts of vandalism at their home and security cameras showed Beyer driving by the home multiple times.
During one incident, Phil Robinson confronted Beyer and asked why he kept driving by, after which, Beyer called 911 and falsely accused Phil Robinson of threatening him with a large knife.
Then, after Beyer’s girlfriend moved to California, Beyer continued to harass her with text messages that included racial epithets. Documents state Beyer sent her a text that said, “I know what I’m thinking about doing” about 20 minutes before he left his apartment to steal an SUV and crash it into the Robinson’s house.
No one was injured but children were asleep on the couch a few feet away from where the car rammed into the front of the house.
“You robbed my family of everything we’ve ever had,” said Robinson’s daughter, Olivia Williams, at the sentencing. “I still replay the sound of the truck you drove crashing into my house every day.”
Beyer appealed the sentence in February, arguing the enhanced sentence must be reduced because the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the assaults were committed because of racial bias. A three-member panel of judges met in November and issued the opinion Monday, which was written by Judge Susan Segal, that affirms the district court’s sentence.
The opinion says the appeals court evaluated the sufficiency of the evidence by independently examining “the reasonableness of the inferences the jury could draw from those circumstances.” The panel found Beyer repeatedly displayed animus towards Black people, repeatedly made comments using racial epithets, and made multiple statements indicating he thought his girlfriend cheated on him with someone in the Robinson family.
The panel found the facts of the case “support the rational inference that Beyer committed the assaults ‘because of’ the family’s race or color. The only reason for Beyer’s mistaken belief that [Robinson’s] adult son was the male with whom [his girlfriend] ‘cheated’ is the son’s race.”
The opinion continues, “While we agree that merely making racist comments is not enough to satisfy the state’s burden of proof, the evidence here ties Beyer’s racialized comments directly to this family.”
Andrea Robinson said Tuesday the court’s affirmation of the sentence validates the impacts of what her family experienced: “We finally have a sense of closure, which is necessary in moving forward and continuing to heal.”
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.