Star Tribune
Plea deal allows former Viking Everson Griffen to avoid drunken driving conviction
Former Minnesota Viking Everson Griffen has struck a plea deal that allowed him to avoid a drunken driving conviction stemming from when he was pulled over last summer in Chanhassen.
Griffen, who played for the Vikings from 2010-19 and again in 2021, was placed on a year’s supervised probation and ordered to pay $1,090 in fines and fees after pleading guilty to misdemeanor careless driving.
In exchange for his plea, Judge Michael Wentzell dismissed the remaining drunken driving and speeding charges.
The 37-year-old Griffen wrote in the plea document filed in Carver County District Court that “I operated my motor vehicle carelessly. Specifically, I drove at a high rate of speed while weaving in and out of traffic, after consuming alcohol. I believe my driving conduct thus endangered myself and others.”
Griffen’s blood alcohol content was .09%, above the legal limit for driving in Minnesota, according to preliminary breath test results noted in the citation.
Wentzell directed Griffen to complete a chemical assessment and attend a victim impact panel. He also was ordered to not drive after license revocation, and commit no alcohol-related or careless driving offenses.
Griffen was stopped late in the morning on July 22 by a by a Carver County sheriff’s deputy after he was reported to be driving in a manner that “caused a person or vehicle to dodge” his car, the citation read. No further details were disclosed other than he was accused of driving 60 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone.
The former All-Pro defensive lineman was arrested near Powers Boulevard and Utica Lane, and detained for about an hour before his release, according to jail records.
In the months following the drunken driving allegation, Griffen crashed his car into a fence and gazebo in Mound on Oct. 28. He was cited and convicted of failure to drive with due care, a petty misdemeanor. On Dec. 7 in Shakopee, he was stopped by police for driving 55 mph in a 30 mph zone. He was convicted of a petty misdemeanor in that case as well.
In December 2021, following multiple troubling incidents, Griffen announced on social media that he has been living with bipolar disorder.
Griffen called 911 shortly after 3 a.m. from his Minnetrista home on Nov. 24, 2021, saying someone was with him, and he needed help from law enforcement. He also told the dispatcher he fired one round, but no one was wounded, police said. They added no intruder was found.
The same day, Griffen had posted, then deleted, a video on Instagram saying people were trying to kill him as he held a gun in his hand. He was alone inside the house, with police outside, until he emerged and agreed to be taken for treatment.
Griffen also spent four weeks undergoing mental health treatment in 2018 after two incidents that September — one at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, the other at his home — that prompted police involvement. He later revealed he lived in a sober house for the remainder of the 2018 season.
The fourth-round draft choice out of USC returned to play 17 of the Vikings’ 18 regular-season and postseason games in 2019. He spent 2020 with Dallas and Detroit before the Vikings brought him back for the 2021 season in a one-year deal.
Star Tribune
Volunteers keep Christmas alive in shuttered church with a Nativity scene with a live baby and carols in German
When Reeck first joined, he was uncertain whether people would donate to help keep the church standing. But they’ve raised more than $300,000 in the past three decades, which has helped the nonprofit refinish the pews, replace the stained glass windows in their original style, redo the roof, tuckpoint the bricks and install a ramp.
Most people on the nonprofit’s mailing list are connected to the church through relatives, but the connections seem to get looser every year. And some people just yearn for a nostalgic Christmas service, Jenniges said: “Every year, we get people from the outside who say, Oh my gosh — I can’t believe you still do this. You can’t let it be lost.”
Susan Lorenz uses a broom to hang tinsel on a 20-foot tree ahead of the Christmas service at Salem Historical Church in Paynesville. The church closed in 1968 but volunteers organize the holiday service each year. (Jenny Berg)
Star Tribune
The GOP stoked fears of noncitizens voting. Cases in Ohio show how rhetoric and reality diverge
Before the November presidential election, Ohio’s secretary of state and attorney general announced investigations into potential voter fraud that included people suspected of casting ballots even though they were not U.S. citizens.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Authorities in Ohio launched a homicide investigation after the bodies of three women were found Saturday inside a home in Columbus.
Officers were called to a home on the city’s south side just before 4 p.m. Saturday for what a 911 caller described as a medical event. Police found three women who were pronounced dead at the scene, according to police spokesman Sgt. James Fuqua.
He said the killings were considered homicides, but he did not have further details, including what led up to the killings.
”Unfortunately, this is a very complex scene with the amount of victims that we have,” he told reporters Saturday. “It’s going to take a little bit longer to make sure that we’re very careful in going through the scene meticulously so we do not miss any key piece of evidence.”
He said investigators were interviewing witnesses and looking for video evidence.
Fuqua said Saturday that no suspects had been taken into custody.
Columbus police did not immediately have an update on the homicides on Sunday.
