Star Tribune
Teacher at a child care/education center in Maple Grove sexually touched girl, 9
A teacher at a child care and education center in Maple Grove groped a 9-year-old student, according to a criminal complaint.
Ryan Thomas Vaughan, 38, of Minnetonka, was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly touching the child in August at Tutor Time.
A warrant has been issued for Vaughan’s arrest. Several messages were left Friday for Vaughan seeking his response to the allegations. Court records do not list an attorney.
According to the complaint:
On Aug. 12, the girl’s parents told police they noticed her “behavior was off the past several weeks, with [her] displaying higher anxiety levels,” the charging document read.
The girl’s mother said something seemed amiss when she picked her up from Tutor Time that day. She told her mother that Vaughan had been grabbing her.
The girl shared the same account with CornerHouse, a Minneapolis nonprofit that collects from children evidence of abuse and trauma. She added that Vaughan told her not to tell anyone that he touched her sexually.
The center has been cited by the state for a range of violations in recent years, according to Department of Human Services records. They include background study shortcomings; lack of information about a child’s allergy; insufficient furnishings, equipment, materials or supplies; unclean program space; children and staff not properly washing hands; prohibited acts of discipline; and staff not supervising children at all times.
A 25-year-old Minneapolis man died following complications from a gunshot wound to the neck Wednesday, nearly three months after being shot in south Minneapolis.
Johnny Birzavi Sanchez Sanchez was struck by gunfire near 31st Street East and Clinton Avenue in the city’s Central neighborhood on July 25. Minneapolis police responded to the area around 1:30 a.m., where they rendered aid until paramedics arrived. Preliminary information indicated that shots were fired from a nearby vehicle at Sanchez, who was riding a motorcycle, striking him in the neck.
He was taken to HCMC and later transferred to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where he died Oct. 16.
No arrests have been made in the case, a police spokesman confirmed Friday.
There have been 59 homicides so far this year, compared to 50 at this point in 2023, according to a Star Tribune database.
“We do not have enough beds to house people,” she said. “We cannot arrest our way out of this issue… What are we going to do with individuals who have been declared incompetent, and we have nowhere to send them?”
Justin Lewandowski, organizing director of the Hamline Midway Coalition and a former Beacon staffer, acknowledged that many participants had specific concerns about Kimball Court. He said the coalition has scheduled another meeting from 6:30-8 p.m. Nov. 7 at Hamline University’s West Hall, room 240, to discuss the building.
Representatives from St. Paul Police, Beacon Interfaith and Jalali are expected to attend.
“We are angry. Who’s not angry? I would be worried if we weren’t upset about these things, but we have hope and we have strength in each other. Am I right?” Lewandowski asked.
Resident Teresa LePiane said all the other issues that the coalition touched on, including the desire for increasing vacant building fees, more affordable housing construction and public transit ridership, were legitimate neighborhood concerns. But she had expected a town hall about the most pressing problems of the neighborhood to have included the quality of life in and around Kimball Court.
“The quality of life in our neighborhood has gone downhill radically over the last couple years, since Beacon took over Kimball Court, and I hold them primarily responsible for the chaos, for the open drug use,” she said. “That’s a dereliction of their duty to us, and I feel like the City Council are not hearing us.”
Star Tribune
Two sentenced for distributing meth that led to two fatal overdoses in northern Minnesota
Two men found guilty of distributing methamphetamine — and tied to two fatal overdoses and a woman’s critical injuries — were sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.
Dylan Adrian Day, 34, of Minneapolis was sentenced to more than 14 years in federal prison; Bryan Joseph Hodapp, 37, of Gilbert, Minn., will serve just more than 13 years.
The two are connected to the deaths of Mitchell Dale Saltzman, 41, of Virginia, Minn., and Raymond John Lossing, 55, of Cook, Minn., who were found dead by family members in May 2022 in Biwabik Township in northern Minnesota. Two women were taken to a Duluth hospital where one was in life-threatening condition.
A Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force investigation found that Hodapp had arranged a drug deal between Saltzman, who traveled with one of the women, and Day in the Twin Cities area, according to a news release from St. Louis County.
