Star Tribune
Blaine woman charged with sexual assault of youth hockey teammates in Roseville
Prosecutors say a Blaine woman sexually assaulted two teenage boys from Colorado who were in Roseville last month to play in a hockey tournament.
Allison Schardin, 38, was arrested Thursday on charges of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and remains in custody at the Ramsey County jail. She allegedly assaulted two 15-year-olds on a Colorado youth hockey team who were in town for a tournament. A third teen witnessed the alleged assaults.
According to the charges:
While in a hot tub with the teens at the hotel on the evening of Jan. 14, Schardin told them she had marital problems. One of the teens cited in the charges said Schardin’s husband came to the pool area and yelled something like, “If you don’t come upstairs, our relationship is over.”
The boys went to their rooms, where one received a snapchat from Schardin stating that she and her husband had gotten into an argument and asking if she could come over to the teen’s room.
Two of the teammates did not want her there, but one reportedly allowed her in because she said she needed help. Those two teammates left when Schardin arrived, leaving her with the three boys cited in the charges.
She told the teens that she was afraid of her husband, and eventually started talking about “sex and stuff.” She got into bed with two of the boys while the third one was in another bed, asking them how sexually active they were. They told her their ages when she asked, mentioning that they played for a 16-and-under team.
She then began sexual acts with two of the teens and asked them to perform sexual acts on her. One of the boys said they felt uncomfortable and that he didn’t want to have sex with her, despite her insistence. He eventually told Schardin he had to sleep because of a game the next day, and she left.
The teens said Schardin showed up at their game the next day. “[Victim 1] said they all started getting nervous and he was shaking on the bench at one point because he wanted to leave what happened the night before in the past and she was trying to follow them,” according to the charges.
Schardin reportedly asked victim 1 not to report what happened to the police once they returned to Colorado. He agreed and blocked her, but she messaged the second boy to apologize for attending their game.
After she was arrested Thursday, Schardin told investigators that her husband and two children went to the hotel that weekend for a staycation and that she had made casual conversation with the boys around the pool. She said she enjoyed the boys’ attention when they asked for a picture and information.
Schardin said she accepted their invitation to go to their room in order to get away from her husband, and admitted to kissing some of the boys. She said they asked her to take er clothes off and that she initially said no. She admitted to sexual contact with two of the boys and asking them for a condom, but “claimed she wasn’t going to go through with ‘it.’ “
Schardin’s first hearing is scheduled for Monday in Ramsey County District Court.
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.
