Star Tribune
Sickly thief avoids more prison time after stealing Judy Garland’s slippers
DULUTH — Terry J. Martin, described by his attorney as an “aging thief,” will not serve more time in prison for stealing a pair the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” a judge ruled Monday morning at the federal courthouse here.
Martin, who faced Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz from a wheelchair and while receiving oxygen, struck a plea deal with the federal government for time served. Aside from alcohol-related infractions, Martin has lived a crime-free life in rural Grand Rapids, Minn. for more than a decade.
He is now on home hospice care and hefty mix of prescription drugs that sometimes, by the afternoon hours, make reality hard for him to discern. His doctors don’t expect him to live much longer than a few more months, according to his court-appointed attorney Dane DeKrey.
Martin will be on supervised probation for a year and has been ordered to make restitution payments of $300 per month to the Judy Garland Museum.
After the sentencing, DeKrey pushed his client’s wheelchair to a minivan driven by Martin’s partner Manuela Abraham. Martin settled into the front seat and DeKrey leaned in the passenger side window and reportedly said “I’m glad you get to go home.”
The sentence, which was a departure from guidelines agreed upon by both the defense and prosecution, was not a sure-thing.
“It’s easy to feel like the cake was baked, but it didn’t feel baked this morning,” said DeKrey.
Martin pleaded guilty in October to stealing the slippers. In short, direct sentences spoken in a raspy voice, Martin revealed a few key points to the 18-year-old Minnesota mystery. The theft was a late-night smash-and-grab from the museum that involved little more than taking a sledge hammer to plexiglass.
He believed at the time that he was stealing real ruby slippers — not a mix of glass and sequins. Martin walked away from the shoes within 48 hours of stealing them, after he learned they weren’t covered in real gems.
“It wasn’t an act meant to set off the international intrigue that it did,” DeKrey wrote in his sentencing document. “It was an aging thief committing a crime that he’s lived to deeply regret.”
Martin, whose early life was filled with tragedies including the death of his young mother, a cruel stepmother and the loss of his infant twins in a fatal car crash with a train, spent years in prison. Among his areas of knowledge: stealing. Long after he had settled into a crime-free life in Grand Rapids, he got a call from an old friend from his crime circles about the ruby slippers.
Martin was lured by the rush of “one last score,” according to DeKrey.
At the time of the theft, the slippers were on loan to the museum in the town where Garland was born. They were one of several pairs she wore in the 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz.” It was the fourth time the shoes had been displayed at the museum and were a popular draw. An exhibition held during the film’s 50th anniversary had pulled 30,000 visitors to the small town museum, according to its former director John Kelsch.
The slippers were recovered by the FBI during a sting operation in 2018. At the time, officials shared few details. There had been a recent scheme to defraud and extort the insurance company that owns the slippers and agents had carried out search warrants in Minnesota and Florida in the recovery process.
No one beyond Martin has ever been charged in the case.
Investigators tied Martin to slippers because he was in extensive phone contact with another suspect, special assistant U.S. attorney Matthew Greenley said in court. The former thief’s past and his proximity to the crime scene added to his level of intrigue. In the process of investigating Martin, agents noted that his partner Abraham was in the United States illegally. They were able to execute a search warrant at his residence.
Martin revealed to authorities that he stole the slippers, but offered no details incriminating anyone else — adhering, according to his attorney, to a personal code. Abraham was not prosecuted and is en route to legal status as part of the plea deal.
On Monday, Kelsch still seemed surprised that the man who stole the slippers lived just 5 miles from his own house. He rued the lost years of displaying the slippers, but was glad for a bit of closure offered by Martin’s admission. For a while, Kelsch was a suspect.
“He could’ve carried this to his grave,” Kelsch said.
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.
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
Snow and rain on Halloween
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town