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Judge orders 2 defendants in jury bribe case to remain in jail
Magistrate Judge Tony Leung said “no condition” of release would ensure safety to community and targeted juror.
MINNEAPOLIS — After posing a number of skeptical questions to defense attorneys for brothers Said and Abdulkarim Farah, Magistrate Judge Tony Leung ordered the defendants to be jailed until they face trial on charges that they attempted to bribe a juror during the recent Feeding our Future meal fraud trial.
The Farah brothers both pleaded not guilty Wednesday prior to the detention hearing.
“It’s very concerning — the brazenness and shocking nature of this threat to our justice system,” Judge Leung said, pointing out that he needs to consider not just safety to the community but also to “Juror 52,” the young woman targeted with the attempted bribe.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson shared new details about how the juror reacted to the bribe and how she is doing now.
“Juror 52 is terrified. She was crying on body camera video I viewed from that night. She’s still terrified. The FBI had to check her car for a tracking device. She’s reassured now that the defendants are in custody,” Thompson said.
Said and Abdulkarim Farah are charged, along with their brother Abdiaziz Farah, Abdimajid Nur, and Ladan Ali with conspiring to corrupt a jury.
Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, and Nur were all defendants in the first Feeding our Future meal fraud trial when Thompson said they hatched the scheme to target a juror.
Thompson said Said Farah “raised” $200,000 for the juror bribe. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has not commented on the origin of the bribe money or what became of the $80,000 that was not delivered to Juror 52. FBI agents seized about $26,000 from Abdulkarim Farah’s home, according to a search warrant.
Abdulkarim Farah was more hands-on with the delivery of the money, which was by design, Thompson said. The juror wouldn’t recognize him since he wasn’t on trial. Thompson said he followed her to her car at the Haaf Parking Ramp, then provided a photo of her car and map of the ramp to Ali, who had flown in from Seattle.
Ali is accused of following the juror home and surveilling her over the next few days.
Then on June 2, Abdulkarim Farah is accused of buying a screwdriver at Target to remove Ali’s license plate, then driving with her to the juror’s home in Spring Lake Park.
Thompson said Abdulkarim Farah videotaped Ali handing the money to Juror 52’s relative that answered the door, for two reasons.
“Number one, to ensure the bribe money was actually given to Juror 52, and second — and more chillingly — to ensure if she accepted the bribe that she would follow through. Essentially to extort her if she didn’t follow through with the not guilty verdict,” Thompson said.
RELATED: FBI raids Feeding our Future defendant’s home a second time as juror bribe investigation continues
Last week, Ali was allowed to walk free from the courthouse as federal prosecutors did not seek detention prior to trial.
But in this case, Judge Leung — with an incredulous tone — questioned the defense arguments that the defendants did not pose a threat if released.
“The allegations of an attempt to bribe Juror 52 in such a sophisticated, precalculated, and executed manner threatened the heart of the system of jurors and rule of law,” Leung said.
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The crash happened when a Suburban pulling a trailer failed to stop at a stop sign, Minnesota State Patrol said.
WAUKENABO, Minn. — Two people from Minnetonka died in a crash Friday in Aitkin County while others, including children, were hurt.
According to Minnesota State Patrol, it happened at the intersection of Highway 169 and Grove Street/County Road 3 in Waukenabo Township at approximately 5:15 p.m.
A Suburban pulling a trailer was driving east on County Road 3 but did not stop at the stop sign at Highway 169, authorities said. The vehicle was struck by a northbound GMC Yukon. Two other vehicles were struck in the crash, but the people in those two cars were not injured.
In the Suburban, the driver sustained life-threatening injuries, according to State Patrol. Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, of Minnetonka, and Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, of Minnetonka, both died. Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old from Minnetonka, has life-threatening injuries.
There were six people in the Yukon when the crash occurred. The 44-year-old driver, as well as passengers ages 18, 14, and 11, sustained what officials described as life-threatening injuries. The other two passengers have non-life-threatening injuries.
Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, but officials said Elizabeth Jane Baldwin had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Among those at the start line this year will be Alex Vigil.
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Pixar’s second installment of the movie features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
MINNEAPOLIS — Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” universe plays out inside the mind of the movie’s adolescent protagonist, Riley.
She plays a kid from Minnesota whose family uproots her life by moving to San Francisco. But did you know that what plays out in Riley’s mind actually comes from the mind of a real-life Minnesotan?
“You are one of us!” said Breaking the News anchor Jana Shortal.
“Yes, I am!” said Burnsville native and the movie’s creator and director, Kelsey Mann.
Mann was chosen for the role by ANOTHER Minnesotan — Pete Docter, the man behind the original movie, “Inside Out.”
“I don’t know if Pete asked me to do this movie because I was from Minnesota and he was from Minnesota … I just think it worked out that way,” Mann said.
How two guys from the south metro made a pair of Pixar movies that would change the game is a hell of a story that began with Docter in 2015.
“He [Docter] was just trying to tell a fun story — an emotional, fun story — and didn’t realize how much it would help give kids a vocabulary to talk about things they were feeling because they are feeling those emotions, but they’re really hard to talk about,” Mann said.
Some parents, counselors and teachers might even tell you it did more good for kids than just entertain them. It unlocked their emotions and begged for what Mann set out to create at the beginning of 2020.
“That part was fun, particularly fun,” he said. “I think the daunting part was following up a film that everyone really loved.”
But Mann knew what he wanted to do with the movie’s follow-up, “Inside Out 2.”
“Diving into Riley’s adolescence … that was just fun,” he said.
This time around, Riley is 13, hitting puberty and facing all of what, and who, comes with it. The franchise’s second installment features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
“I think that’s what’s fun about the ‘Inside Out’ world: You can take something we all know and give it a face,” Mann said. “We can give anxiety a name and a face.”
The film follows Riley’s emotions fighting it out for control of her life. Joy wants Riley to stay young and hold on only to joy, while anxiety is hell-bent on taking over Riley over at the age of 13 because as a lot of us know, that’s when anxiety often moves in.
“I always pitched it as a takeover movie, like an emotional takeover,” Mann said. “Anxiety can kind of feel like that; it can take over and kind of shove your other emotions to the side and repress them.”
For a kids’ movie, it’s hard to watch this animation play out, even when an adult has the keys to decide.
“I’m making a movie about anxiety and I still have to remind myself to have my anxiety take a seat,” Mann said.
All of our individual anxieties have a place in this world.
“The whole movie honestly is about acceptance. Both acceptance of anxiety being there and also of your own flaws,” said Mann.
Even for our kids, we have to remember that this is life.
Anxiety will come for them; it does for us all.
The “Inside Out” world just shows them it’s so.
